The most formidable attribute of temptation is its increasing power, its accelerating ratio of velocity. Every act of repetition increases power, diminishes resistance. It is like the letting out of waters-where a drop can go, a river can go. Whoever yields to temptation, subjects himself to the law of falling bodies. ~ Horace Mann

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"From what I gather," Melori said, sitting across from Leliana at the table in the Rookery. "The Gray Wardens are after one of their own, as we thought before; however, I think I have a good guess as to who, and it doesn't make sense."

"What does not make sense?" Leliana asked, looking over the papers Melori had given to her.

"Well, I know you were with the Hero of Ferelden during the Blight. I remember reading about you, and you were at the Circle Tower, though I only saw you briefly. I ...It really seems like they're looking for one of the Wardens, if not both of them, who fought with you then."

"But the Hero of Ferelden is not in ..." Leliana paused, "Alistair."

"Right." Melori nodded, folding her hands in her lap. "It makes no sense, so far. But the portion of the documents regarding the manhunt seem to indicate that he is the target."

"But why?" Leliana asked, "And how do we find him? Alistair knows how to survive. Even if we wanted to, it would be impossible to find him with everything else we are doing."

"I don't know. I don't even know for certain that I'm correct, except for this: the Warden they want is definitely male and he's from Ferelden, and there are warnings telling the searchers to be wary of him. All my research says that there are few, if any new wardens from Ferelden, and the only one who would require a warning would be, I would think, the one who killed an Archdemon." Melori sat back in her chair, "I remember him very clearly from those few days in the Circle Tower. He looked like a Templar, but he didn't behave like one."

"No, he never did that," Leliana agreed, smiling a little. "And now, he is … different. The last time I saw him, he was harder, sharper. A true Grey Warden, as in the songs and tales."

"I have a lot left to decipher." Melori worried at the cuff on her sleeve. "Are you sure you want me to stay up here more often?"

"Yes," Leliana said, giving her a reproachful look. "You spend too much time alone in that little room. I do not think it can be good for you."

"But I do so much work when I'm alone," the elf protested, feeling her ears turning red. She didn't mention that it also let her hide how she was missing a particular Templar.

"You do good work!" Leliana answered, smiling. "Perhaps we simply miss the sight of you."

"Would it be rude of me to say I don't entirely trust you?" Melori said, her smile wry.

"Perhaps a little," Leliana laughed. "Dorian said he needed someone to help him find certain books, and the other librarians find him frustrating."

"You couldn't have sent me to help Solas instead?" Melori asked, sighing. "Dorian is frustrating."

"I find him quite charming!" Leliana laughed. "And I think you will, too. Give him a chance, Melori."

Melori shoved her desk into the space opposite Dorian on the far side of the library. In order to speak with her, he would have to walk around past all the other mages, scholars, and messengers who used the library for research, which, she decided, would be worth it even if it inconvenienced him only a little. Sadly, he was atheletic enough to not mind the distance, social enough to be annoying, and parked himself beside her desk almost immediately.

"You know, you would love me if only you would just talk to me," He said, leaning against the bookshelf next to her while she searched for a volume on the History of the Third Blight. "I always have the best gossip."

"I'm working, Ser Pavus," She said, pulling a volume from the shelf and paging through it. She wasn't really even considering which book it was, she just wanted him to take the hint and go away. It was a faint hope at this point. "Please."

He placed a beringed finger on the top of the book and tilted it down so he could look her in the eye, "My name is Dorian, Lady Librarian, and I can't imagine what you would want with ..." he closed his other fingers on the volume and drew it away. "The Compiled Randy Dowager Quarterly?" He lifted an elegantly sculpted brow at her, "I had no idea! Well," He tossed the book on a nearby table, "If you want to discuss smut, I'm your man."

Her ears were on fire, she was certain of it. "Ser Pavus ..."

"Dorian."

"Ser Dorian," she turned, her chin lifting as she spoke. "I am not interested. At this point, I cannot even guess what you hope to get out of this, unless you find it entertaining to drive me out of my mind!" Little sparks zipped along her fingers and she hugged herself, tucking her hands against her sides.

"I do admit, I am enjoying myself," he said, leaning forward and speaking quietly. "And I do have an ulterior motive."

"I knew it."

"Lady Leliana told me something of your situation," he said, sotto voce, "And, as I am a gentleman and a mage, I said I would do what I could."

"My situation?" Melori's brow furrowed. "I have no situation. I work for the Inquisition and I do not think I have given anyone reason to complain. Have I?"

"I think it is only a matter of time," he said, voice shifting as he grew more serious. "You are a mage ... no, do not deny what is obvious to anyone with a spark of intelligence ... but you do not practice. You do not utilize your skills. While your control is admirable, this," he reached quickly for one of her hands and pulled it between them, the thrum of her anxiety obvious to both of them in the little flickers of energy running across her skin. "... is how we fall."

"But ..."

"Shall we make an agreement?"

She frowned, glancing around to see if anyone was watching them, but it seemed they had gone unnoticed. "If we must."

"I will help you find a way to use your magic, if you will find it in your heart to trust me, just a little."

Melori's shoulders curved and she removed her hand from his, tucking it back against her side. "I don't want to be a mage where everyone ... knows. They will bring the Circles back, and then they will force us into them. I don't want to go back. I cannot go back."

"Then we will find a way to hide your power, though...," he glanced at her hair, "with your affinity for storms that might prove difficult."

"Oh gods, is it standing all on end?" she gasped.

Melori's room was above the garden, a small nook just below the Inquisitor's tower with a good view of the flowers and trees blow. When he was at Skyhold, Hugh bunked nearer to Cullen's tower with the other Templars. It had seemed odd after spending so long sharing space, but Lady Vivienne had insisted it was the proper way of things and that the Inquisition had a reputation to uphold. Melori avoided Senior Enchanter Vivienne with more determination than she did the Templars, but they'd had little choice in this particular matter. And it was a nice room now that the hole in the roof had been mended.

Still, it was late and, while she had managed to extricate herself from a disastrous game of Wicked Grace before Bull won more than the chance to see her hair down, she was still buzzy enough to have to navigate carefully. In the Great Hall she turned right and began climbing the stairs, but she paused at the door to the library, thinking of books and birds and work yet to do. It was so different from what had been on her mind a moment before, she looked around wondering if someone had suggested it, but there was no one nearby.

"I must be worse off than I thought," she told herself, opening the door and turning left instead of the right that would lead toward her room.

Once inside, she made her way to where Dorian had placed his lovely, tufted chair, and took a seat on it. She crossed her leg over one knee as she had seen him do, a grin upon her face, thinking that if he was going to nose his way into her life, she was going to sit on his chair whenever he wasn't around - just so she would know she had. It might not be an equal exchange, but it made her feel better. There was a book on Tevinter history nearby and she picked it up, paging through till she found something interesting to read, kicking her shoes off and pulling her feet up underneath her for comfort.

It was an interesting narration, and she read for a while, only stopping when a sound caught her attention and drew her eyes along the stacks. "Aneth'ara?" she whispered, then frowned remembering that Solas was gone with the Inquisitor and it could not be him. Carefully, she left the confines of Dorian's chair and walked in stocking feet in what her tenuously sober self considered a straight path to whoever was lingering among the books.

"I ..." She began, stopping in her tracks when she found an unexpected shape leaning against a shelf, reading by the light of one of the hanging braziers. "Oh," She said intelligently. "Sorry, Commander."

"Enara," Cullen said, and she stopped, placing a hand against the wall to keep from walking into it. Her balance was at that weird stage of drunk where you feel fine until you try to move. "I didn't know you were there."

"Oh ... well," she pushed her hair out of her eyes and wrinkled her nose. "I am a librarian."

His lips curved into a smile that left her feeling a little more drunk than she had a moment earlier. "When you're not wielding a sword or keeping watch through the night?"

"Those are just the side jobs," she said, nodding sagely as she turned to put her back firmly against the nearest bookshelf in the interest of balance. "Among other accomplishments, I am also completely rubbish at games of chance."

"I would not have guessed that about you," he chuckled.

"Well, it's something I learned just tonight," She admitted ruefully. "I rather suspected they were cheating, but it was more likely my own stupidity."

"Did you lose very much?"

Melori grinned and shook her head, her hair swinging around her face in a long, curling mess. "Bull took my hair clips and ribbons. I guess I should be lucky he didn't take my clothes, too."

"You'd ... er you look very different like that," he paused, his cheeks flushing, and cleared his throat, saying quickly, "I'm not used to seeing you dressed in a robe."

She looked down at herself and the black and red garment she'd purchased off one of the castle merchants, flushing a little. "Oh ... well, it's warmer than the leathers. And I do still have all my gear in my room, though I'm starting to think I'll never leave Skyhold again to use them. Too much to do."

"Don't I know it!" he rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "I came looking for one thing and became distracted by another ..."

"Maybe I could find it for you?"

"I …" he looked at her. "I don't think I need it anymore."

"Oh, well, that's good then," she yawned a little and pushed away from the bookshelf, "I should probably go to bed."

"Wait ..." he caught her arm and she stopped half-turning to look at him. "Enara, I …"

"What is it?" She noticed that he looked very pale and worn, and she thought of all the possible nightmares he had seen in the waking world, some of which she had witnessed herself. "Are you all right?"

He sighed and let her go. "Better now. Thank you. I needed to see a friendly face tonight."

"There are plenty of those here, Commander," she smiled. "But if you ever want to talk, I loiter round here like a ghost."

"I'll remember that," he said, bowing. "Good night.

"Dirath Shiral, Commander." She said, making her way around the curve of the library and onto the balcony where Lady Vivienne usually sat. She was halfway across when someone grabbed her wrist and she turned to find a tall, pale boy with a very large hat staring at her with unsettling eyes.

"Ah! Let me go!"

"You like him but you do not go closer. I thought you would," he said. "He likes you."

"What? Who are you?" She asked, trying to pull her arm away. "I like a lot of people."

"Oh, I see. You like someone else. Someone like the Commander, but far away. You miss him. You miss the safety and the warmth, the way he looks at you when he thinks you're not looking … But you helped tonight. I couldn't help, but you did."

She stared at him, her brows coming together in concern. "What are you?"

"I'm Cole," he said, simply. "But you won't remember."

And when Melori awoke a few hours later, she didn't remember him at all.

"I'm going to kill him," the Lady Seeker hissed, her strikes coming at Melori so hard and fast it was all she could do to just stand in front of the warrior and take the hits on her blade. It was either that or scramble away, neither being a particularly good option under the circumstances. Normally, when she sparred with Cassandra it was a very light version of what happened between the Seeker and the Templars – Melori didn't carry a shield and she wasn't exactly an accomplished swordswoman. But today Cassandra had marched into the practice ring with heat waves visible over her head and death in her eyes. Without Hugh to step in and take the Seeker's fury and none of the other Templars willing to risk their own necks, it had fallen to Melori to act as a training dummy.

Unfortunately, she'd seen the remnants of Cassandra's practices and she was starting to wonder if she might join them. It was all she could do to just stand there and take the blows raining down on her blade, and she could feel her arm going progressively more and more numb. The problem was, if she moved, Cassandra would move, and Cassandra was far faster than Melori ever hoped to be.

"Kill … who …?" Melori panted, feeling her feet slipping through the straw and sand. She swallowed and shifted, trying to catch the descending blade at a better angle, and winced when Cassandra gave her an angry shove, staggering her back across the practice ring.

"That dwarf," Cassandra growled. "He lied to me!"

"Oh," Melori shied away as the Seeker thrust a wee bit close to her ear.

"He knew where Hawke was the entire time!" The Seeker's next strike was followed by a boot to the leg. Melori collapsed to one knee, seeing stars. Creator help her. That had been her bad leg … "He told me had no idea!"

"I …" but she was too busy trying to stagger to her feet as Cassandra broke away, stalking around the ring. Melori limped back several steps, trying to find a guard position she thought she could maintain. She should have begged to become an archer, she thought wrily. The Inquisitor could have taught her, instead of the bloody right hand of the Divine. The Inquisitor was nice. She had pretty hair and dressed well, and she had a thing for Gray Wardens … Cassandra was a demon … maybe an Arche Demon. She was certainly scary enough.

"I see," Melori gasped when she thought she'd found the ground again.

"Do you?" Cassandra asked, and while Melori knew that the rage was not directed at her, she quailed. This was going to hurt. More. It was going to hurt more.

But Cassandra seemed to realize that the wobbling elf in front of her was not actually a sparring dummy and came forward, holding out her hand. "I am sorry, Melori. I did not mean to take my frustrations out on you."

"That's … okay," Melori took the offered hand and let the Seeker pull her more properly to her feet with a groan. Her leg was spasming. "Just … need a minute, I think."

"Should I get a healer? Solas might be able to do something … "

"I don't think I'm going to be climbing the stairs right yet," Melori wobbled over to a bale of hay next to the fence and dropped down, her sword across her good leg, the left stretched out. Cassandra sat beside her and handed her a healing potion she'd taken from her belt.

"Here," she said, her expression one of contrition. "You are doing better and then I nearly pummel you to death."

Melori drank the potion down and tried to catch her breath. "The Venatori would do worse. They'd just kill me. If you don't beat the tar out of me, how am I supposed to stand up to them if I have to?"

The look Cassandra gave her was worried, "You are correct about that. I worry about sending you back into the field, though Leliana said she must. You know about the Gray Wardens – their history, their movements, and now their ciphers. You've met them."

"Well, two of them. I was fifteen at the time. And I've met Blackwall."

"It makes you a valuable tool for Leliana," Cassandra said, giving her a sideways glance. "I will do what I can to help you survive."

"Thank you for that. I know you're only doing this because Hugh asked you to," Melori said, sitting up as the pain her leg began to ease with the potion's help. "I'm grateful for the help, all the same."

"I may have started because he asked, but you are proving to be an interesting student," Cassandra smiled and Melori felt an unfamiliar flush of pride sting her cheeks. "A long way to go yet, but very interesting." The Seeker stood to her feet and stretched, her sword flashing in the air. "Now I am going to go yell at that dwarf."

The elf winced, "Good luck?"

"Thank you, but I do not need it."

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NOTE: Thank you for your patience, those of you eager to see other characters. You should be pleased with the chapter 15.