My goodness this took a while for me to finish, and I actually cut this chapter in half just to torture you guys. I hardly have any me time now since my daughter was born in September. She requires all my attention, which I happily give. We're almost done with this story though! It will either end next chapter or have one more after that if I feel it necessary. With Inquisition out I had a lot of inspiration to finish up this chapter and the next. Enjoy!

Larryeneno: I'm back again! Sorry this chapter took so long to get up. Next chapter won't take long to be put up (since it's already written but I'm going to give it a few days.)

DalishMage: Yes I'm back. :)

Fireplay: Alive but exhausted. A baby does that to you. And thank you! I struggled so much writing the previous chapter.

Plantopiamagica: Thank you! I intend to continue the entire story arc through Inquisition, but it will take a loooong time.

RufioZuko: I'm not very good at the updating soon thing am I…

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

With Teagan's aide, and his men assembled, Fergus stormed the Avvarian's headquarters in Highever the following evening. None of the assassins were expecting it so they were easy to subdue. Most realized it was futile to fight and surrendered, while others fought to the death. The guard kept an eye on the assassins while Teagan and Fergus searched the rooms, looking for documents that could hopefully lead them to the true kidnapper's identity. They went through all the rooms twice, and found nothing.

"There has to be something here," Fergus said, "Maybe it's in a secret compartment."

"The only way you'd find that is if one of them gave it up," Teagan said, motioning with his head to the assassins sitting in the corner.

Fergus sighed, "I doubt they will just tell us."

"Never hurts to ask."

As much as he doubted they would talk, Fergus went ahead and addressed the assassins.

"Was there ever a documentation of your contracts?" Fergus asked, "A ledger of sorts? And if so is it here?"

The assassins turned their faces away, ignoring his questions. After a few moments of silence Fergus figured that was all he was going to get from them and was about to turn away when a young female elf addressed him.

"If we tell you, will you let us go?"

"Alorah!" a male elf chastised, his golden eyes smoldering behind his glare.

The female elf, Alorah, shot back a glare of her own before turning her gaze back to the Teyrn.

"So there is one?" Fergus asked.

"Alorah," the male elf said warningly again.

"Shut up Tathar!" Alorah snapped, her short brown hair falling over her green eyes as she whipped her head around, "I know what I'm doing."

Tathar growled and stared at the floor. He knew better than to argue with a woman.

"Will you let us go?" Alorah asked Fergus again.

Fergus knew he couldn't exactly just "let them go", they would probably just resume their lifestyle, but would that be worth finding the information he needed? He looked over to Teagan for some input, but he just shrugged. This was Fergus's decision.

"You know I can't just knowingly let assassins loose," Fergus said.

"How badly do you want this information?" Alorah rebutted.

Fergus took in a deep breath. Maker help him, he didn't know what to do.

"And just what would you do if I let you go?"

"Well I guess that's up to us individually," Alorah replied, "When you only know how to do one thing, it's hard to change. Personally, I'd leave."

Again, she wasn't making this any easier of a decision for Fergus. He was starting to get a headache.

"We'll leave Ferelden," Tathar said, "If you are worried we'd become a problem to you personally."

"You were already my problem," Fergus said, "Or at least someone close to me."

Tathar and Alorah shared an intimate glance for a moment before Tathar addressed the Teyrn again, "So if we gave our word to leave, would you let us go?"

"How do I know you'll keep your word?"

Tathar laughed. It was a laugh that sent chills down Fergus's spine, "My Lord, we are assassins. Keeping our word is part of who we are. We'd be out of a job otherwise. What do you think contracts are?"

The elf made a point. Fergus had to think it over for a moment though. It wasn't like there were hundreds of others like them roaming about freely, and even if he decided to have them executed they would only be replaced. Was finding those documented contracts worth letting these people go?

"Very well," Fergus said, "Tell me what I want to know, and you will be escorted outside the city where you will be free to go, but only after I have what I want. You have my word."

"The room at the end of the hall," Alorah said, "There is a hidden drawer in the desk, you will have to turn the square carving on the right side to the left twice for it to open."

Not wasting another second Fergus headed into the room, went over to the desk and found the carving on the front to find that it would indeed twist around. Turning it as he was instructed a large drawer popped out slightly below it, just enough to grab the lip and pull it out. Inside were large stacks of leather bound books. Pulling one out Fergus briefly opened it, to find it filled with contract information: what was to be carried out, dates, and names. Getting a few of his guard to collect all the books Fergus then returned to the main hall.

"Take them outside the city and let them go," Fergus said, "If they try anything though, you have permission to deal with them."

The head guard nodded, and had his men escort the assassins out. Fergus turned to Teagan, "Let's return to the castle and look these over."

"I'm almost afraid to look through these," Fergus confessed as he and Teagan sat in the study once the guards transporting the ledgers had left.

"Afraid of what you'll find pertaining to the kidnapping or…whose names could be in those ledgers?" Teagan asked.

"The latter," Fergus replied, "I'm terrified I'm going to see my father's name in there."

Teagan scoffed, "You have no worry of that Fergus. Your father was better than that."

Fergus nodded, "You're right…alright, let's get this over with. Where do we start?"

Looking over the piles of books, of which there had to be near two dozen, Teagan grabbed the one nearest to him, "I guess just start looking through and try to organize these by date to find which one we want."

There really was no other way to go about it so Fergus just grabbed one and started scanning through. After the first few pages, he paused before flipping to the end, then grabbed another one and looked inside, "Not all these originated from Highever. These two are from Gwaren and West Hills and their surrounding areas."

"This one is also from Gwaren," Teagan said, and after a few moments of studying the pages continued, "It appears these are copies. The ink would be much more faded if they were written on the dates in the book. They must have made them to make sure they saved their records to use as blackmail if needed."

"Due to the Blight?"

"Most likely. These people are a lot more clever than I gave them credit for," Teagan muttered.

"Then we should be able to narrow down the search among these by searching by city," Fergus said, "Question is, which should we be looking for?"

"To rule myself out we should look for one under Redcliffe since Rainesfere is included in it's Arling," Teagan said, "Because if my name isn't there, it didn't originate from me."

"Then we should also look for others from Highever and Denerim," Fergus suggested.

"You still suspect your brother," Teagan stated rather than asked.

"Not only that, but everyone travels to Denerim, it's the capitol."

Teagan nodded in agreement and the two resumed their search. It went a lot faster narrowing down what exactly they were looking for. During the search Fergus came across records from Amaranthine, of which he was not surprised seeing how often Howe's name was in there. It made his blood boil, seeing his name due to the memories it brought back. Doing his best to push those thoughts aside he continued with the task at hand. Before long, he and Teagan had all the books separated in their designated piles and the stack of books that originated from Denerim being much larger than the Highever and Redcliffe stacks combined.

"I'll take Denerim if you want," Teagan offered after nearly a minute of silence as the two just stared at the books.

"It's all yours," Fergus replied.

Fergus didn't expect their search to take too much longer, since they only had to find the most recent one among each and then look through the names around the time Dianna had been kidnapped. Of course, that was assuming the contract had been made at that time and not in advance to be carried out at a later date. If that were the case, they would be scouring through the books for days.

Scanning through the latest Highever ledger, Fergus was starting to zone out when he was jolted out of his stupor by Teagan's angry cry, "Unbelievable!"

"What is it?" Fergus asked.

Teagan stood abruptly, causing his chair to teeter precariously and nearly fall over, "Eamon. I can't believe—I need to talk to him."

As Teagan stormed out of the study, Fergus slid the ledger Teagan had been going through to see what he was talking about. It didn't take long for him to spot it, Eamon's signature and seal next to the assigned contract to be carried out against Olyvia Hamilton. So Eamon had hired assassins under the Avvarian for that. Fergus didn't realize Teagan didn't know what his brother had done before the Landsmeet. The fact that Teagan came across this was pure happenstance, since the date of the contract was over a year ago.

Fergus knew it was none of his business, but he couldn't help but get up and follow after Teagan to see what would transpire between the two brothers. Teagan had left so fast though, Fergus had no idea which direction he went. It wasn't long before the sound of raised voices led him to the two brothers in another room, where Fergus stood outside the door to wait and listen.

"I can't understand how you could do this!" Teagan was shouting, "And don't even try telling me it was because she kept Alistair from taking the throne or from what she did to you in the past because she did nothing to you. How could you stoop so low, sully your name, our family name, to fulfill your own personal vendetta."

"I was thinking of the future of Ferelden," Eamon retorted, "Sacrifices must be made for the benefit of our country."

"Sacrifices are a personal choice Eamon! Where was Olyvia's choice in that? That wasn't sacrifice, it was attempted murder. You're no better than Aedan."

Fergus flinched. Ouch, that was harsh, but he couldn't help but slightly agree. Eamon had lost who he was after Isolde's death.

"How dare you compare me to that madman," Eamon growled.

"Maybe you should have thought of that before you chose to go down this path," Teagan said, "And now you've lost any trust I had in you. So tell me Eamon, was it worth it?"

There was no reply from Eamon and after a few seconds of silence Teagan spoke again, "I didn't think so. I have to go now. I can't be around you."

Fergus didn't bother trying to hide as Teagan left, who paused at the door as it swung closed behind him when he saw him there, "I assume we were rather loud."

"I'm sorry Teagan," Fergus said, "And I hope you won't be angry with me, but…I had known what Eamon had done. I had only assumed you knew too."

Teagan sighed, "Eamon wouldn't tell me he committed an act this heinous, but I hold no grudge against you for not telling me of this. You have far more things to occupy your mind than my brother."

"Do you want me to ask him to leave?"

Teagan shook his head, "No, I'm sure he'll leave on his own accord."

"So you're staying?"

"Yes," Teagan replied, "I still want to be here to help you. Besides, I have…other reasons for staying."

Now this piqued Fergus's curiosity, "Oh, and just what is that?"

Teagan's face flushed a light shade of pink, "We still haven't finished going through those ledgers, we should probably get back to that."

Fergus watched in amusement as his friend speedily made his way down the hall. Well that didn't seem suspicious at all. He wasn't going to press the issue though, Teagan wanted to keep whatever it was secret.

Returning to the ledgers, Fergus found nothing in the Highever or Redcliffe documents around the time of the kidnapping. It was Teagan again who found something.

"I found it," he said with a heavy sigh.

Fergus furrowed his brow, "You don't sound happy about it."

"Because this leads us nowhere," Teagan replied, handing Fergus the ledger, "We're at a dead end."

Fergus looked over the ledger and found what Teagan was talking about. The contract for Dianna's kidnapping, signed and sealed by Teagan Guerrin. Grabbing the actual contract, Fergus compared the seals and they were indeed the same, the old seal that Teagan lost. To Fergus, this didn't mean it was a dead end.

"Not quite," Fergus said, "You weren't in Denerim during this time, correct."

"No…I thought you believed—."

"I do believe you had nothing to do with it," Fergus interrupted, "Just hear me out. Now who is in Denerim that would like to separate Dianna and I?"

"Aedan."

"And you lost your seal when?"

"When I was in Highever, during which time Aedan was here."

"I had suspected him, but I couldn't accuse him without being sure. Even with what we have it's just conjecture, no solid evidence, but I know it's him."

"So what are you going to do?" Teagan asked.

Fergus was silent for a few moments before replying, "I'm just going to go about my life as normal, still keeping an eye out for any of his other plots of course, and if he tries anything else, I will kill him."

Life pretty much returned to normal after determining Aedan was behind the kidnapping. Since Fergus didn't expect Aedan to make a move so soon he felt more comfortable with Dianna being out and about on her own. Her father wasn't, but that was a different story. From having a lot of downtime Dianna spent a good majority of it keeping up on her archery practice and she had gotten quite good at it. Her next visit with Fergus she showed him her progress.

"You have improved a lot," Fergus said, "I'm impressed."

"I've been imagining the targets as Aedan's head," Dianna said, "It's helped."

"The real question is though, were it ever to come to having to shoot someone would you be able to do it?" Fergus asked.

Dianna pursed her lips as she thought over that for a moment before replying, "I'm sure that if I felt like I was in danger I would, but I guess we'll never know until that moment."

"For your sake I hope that never happens."

"Knowing your brother, it's bound to happen."

"Unfortunately," Fergus said with a sigh, "I hate knowing he's trying to take the one thing that makes me happy away from me."

Dianna wrapped her arms around Fergus's waist, "You don't have to worry he'll never succeed. You won't lose me."

Fergus returned the hug, turning his face into her hair and taking a deep breath of its scent. He never wanted to be away from Dianna, not just because of recent events, but because he was deeply and hopelessly in love with her. Even with her visiting it never seemed enough. He needed to fix that.

Dianna was using Rosemary's window seat in order to read with the light coming through the grey winter clouds because her own wasn't letting in as much light. Rosemary didn't mind since she hardly ever used it. Rosemary was currently working on sewing herself a dress. She really missed having a sewing machine, but she was making do with sewing by hand. In fact she had gotten rather good at it, not having to take nearly as long to sew things than she did at first.

"How is it looking so far?" Rosemary asked, holding up the bodice.

Dianna wasn't getting much in the way of reading done being in her sister's room. Looking up from the pages, yet again, she examined the lavender bodice. It looked to be completely done, just needing sleeves and the skirt to be attached.

"It looks nice," Dianna said.

"That's what you said the last four times," Rosemary grumbled.

"That's because it looked nice the four times before," Dianna said, "You're going to be adding more to it though so it's not just the solid purple?"

"It's Lavender," Rosemary corrected, earning a "whatever" from her sister, "And yes, I'll be adding white lace to it later."

Rosemary went back to her sewing, whatever was left to sew on the bodice, and Dianna was going to go back to reading when she caught movement in her peripheral vision out the window. Turning her head she found it was Maggie heading to her front door, arm in arm with Bann Teagan. Slamming her book shut she threw open the window, shouting, "Aha! I knew it!"

"Knew what?" Rosemary questioned.

Down below Maggie nearly jumped out of her skin.

"I thought you two had been acting awfully squirrely," Dianna said, "Well, congrats you guys. I'm happy for you two, you're cute together."

"Who?" Rosemary asked, coming to the window, "Oh…"

"Uh…thanks," Teagan replied.

"I uh…I need to go now Teagan," Dianna barely heard Maggie say, "I need to go kill a certain someone, or at least maim."

Dianna grimaced, "I'm not in trouble am I Maggie?"

Maggie shot her a glare, "Why don't you wait until I get up there?"

Dianna sunk down in the seat and Rosemary backed away.

"I'll see you later then," Teagan said, lifting Maggie's hand to his lips to give it a kiss.

"Aweeee, so cute!"

"Dianna! I'm going to hurt you!" Maggie said as she ran to the front door.

It was time for Dianna to start running.

"How dare you embarrass me like that!" Maggie berated Dianna as she whacked her arm with a pillow.

"Embarrass? How were you embarrassed? You're embarrassed by being seen with Teagan? Now that is just sad," Dianna rebutted, taking the beating in stride. Maggie wasn't hitting her hard with the pillow anyway.

"No!" Maggie shouted, "I mean…maybe a little…my mom doesn't even know."

Dianna grabbed the pillow, a look of shock on her face, "No way. You haven't told your mom?"

"I knew she'd make a huge deal over it, which would be even more embarrassing," Maggie explained, "And Teagan agrees. He understands how my mother can be. You told him the story of dinner with Arl Eamon."

"Teagan didn't take it very well," Dianna muttered.

"Yeah. Neither one of us want my overzealous mother trying to rush our relationship."

"Understandable," Dianna said, "but you weren't comfortable telling me either? I would have stayed quiet."

"Sorry, it's not that I don't trust you it's just…I guess I wanted to keep it to myself for a little. I'm new to this whole courting thing."

"Now that I understand," Dianna said with a chuckle.

"So yeah…how are things with you and the Teyrn?" Maggie asked in order to change subject.

"Fine," Dianna replied, "And don't think you can change the subject. Are things going well with you and Teagan?"

Maggie smiled, "Very. He's so sweet and kind. I never thought I'd meet anyone as nice as him. Heck, I never thought I'd meet anyone I'd like and get along with. I've never felt so happy before."

"I'm glad you're happy," Dianna said, "Though I see one downside to this."

Maggie looked at her curiously, "What do you mean?"

"He lives in Rainesfere," Dianna began, "If you two get married, he'd take you away from me."

"I think it's too early to be talking about marriage," Maggie said, her face turning bright red, "But if it does happen, I'll be sure to write often. Speaking of marriage, what about you and the Teyrn?"

"Are you trying to change the subject again?"

"Are you trying to avoid the question?"

Dianna sighed, "I really don't know Maggie. I…I don't think that's on Fergus's mind. I feel like I'm ready for that next step, but I doubt he is. It's only been…two years now since his wife was murdered. I'm sure it takes longer to get over losing someone like that."

"We'll see," Maggie said.

Dianna looked at Maggie suspiciously, "You know something don't you? Teagan must have told you something."

"No, I'm just saying, the Teyrn loves you a lot," Maggie defended, "and you've been together for a while. Why would he waste more time?"

"Because…he's not…ready?" Dianna replied uncertainly.

"We'll see."

"Where are you taking me?" Dianna asked as she and Fergus got their horses saddled. Fergus surprised her by showing up at her house after lunch, wanting to go out on a ride together.

"I thought we'd go down to the beach," Fergus replied, "It's actually a really nice day for the winter. That's not a problem is it?"

Dianna shook her head, "No, just curious where this came from. You've been so busy with other things it's been quite a while since we've spent time together to just enjoy each other's company."

"It has, and I'm sorry for having been so preoccupied with other things, but you know why."

Dianna nodded. Fergus had more than just her safety to worry about, but he still had spent so much time making sure nothing else would happen to her. Unfortunately Aedan was still alive and well and there was no telling what he intended to do next, or even when so she still wasn't exactly safe.

Mounting their horses they followed the trail down to the beach. It was windy as usual, but Dianna was wearing a coat so the chilled wind didn't bother her much except for her face. Riding side by side, they talked idly, Dianna mentioning Maggie and Teagan to Fergus who didn't know that they had been seeing each other. They had gone further down the beach than usual when Fergus stopped.

"Do you recognize where we are?" he asked.

Brow furrowed, Dianna looked around. It looked like any other part of the beach to her. Then she noticed a cave in the cliff face.

"This is where I first ran into you," Dianna said with a small smile, "Almost literally."

"I am grateful Brogan did not club you in the head," Fergus said, "I never did ask you this, but did you and your sister make it far into the cave?"

"No. We didn't have a lantern," Dianna replied, "We wanted to see how far we could go in before freaking out due to the dark. Or slimy things touching our ankles. Why do you ask?"

"I would actually come here when I was younger," Fergus replied as he dismounted, "A place of my own that I could go to have peace and quiet. Aedan would pester me to no end when I'd return home after being gone for hours, wondering where I had gone. I never did tell him about the place, for which I am grateful, I still have something untainted by his greed. I wanted to show you what was inside. It's no normal cave."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better about going in?" Dianna teased as she dismounted as well.

"I brought a lantern, you don't have to worry," Fergus said, "I'll protect you from the dark."

Tying the horses to a piece of driftwood the couple made their way into the cave, Fergus taking the lead. With the light Dianna could see that it was very damp inside, the walls glistening from the moisture. The passage was rather narrow, but not too narrow that they couldn't pass through comfortably. It got colder as they went further in, but at least there wasn't the chilling wind biting at them anymore. Dianna was grateful she wore trousers rather than a dress, it made it that much easier to maneuver through the passageway. Minutes passed, and Dianna was beginning to wonder just how far in the cave went. Eventually they came to a stop at a small underground lake. It was almost impossible to see the water, being completely calm and just as black as the rock. Dianna only knew it was there because it reflected the light better than the rocky walls, and was smooth as glass. It was probably a hundred feet across, with no visible way around it to the other side. Then it suddenly went dark. Dianna reflexively wrapped her arms around Fergus's waist, latching onto him tight. Fergus chuckled.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine," Fergus said.

"You said you'd protect me from the dark."

"And I will, just wait a moment."

Fergus slipped out of Dianna's grasp and she heard the sound of stones clacking against each other before the room suddenly lit up a magnificent light blue from the lake. As it started to dim Fergus threw a rock, skipping it across the surface making four more spots light up.

"Wow, I didn't realize…it's beautiful, Fergus," Dianna said breathlessly, "No ordinary cave for sure."

"I thought you would like it," Fergus said, handing her a rock to toss in herself before throwing in another.

"I'm flattered that you would share your secret spot with me," Dianna said as she tossed in the rock.

"I wanted to share it with you, because you are special to me Dianna," Fergus said, turning her to face him and pulling her close, "I…never thought it possible for me to find love again after Orianna, I was so hurt by the loss. I never…I never showed her this place. I never showed anyone. I guess somewhere in my mind I was saving it for the right person. Saving it…for you."

Dianna was grateful the lighting wasn't that great because she didn't want Fergus seeing how red her face was. His words were so sweet, but she couldn't help but blush at the flattery. She was certain he could feel her heart hammering away in her chest. Fergus tossed one last rock into the lake that he had in his hand. Taking a step back, Fergus took a hold of Dianna's hands.

"You are truly a remarkable woman Dianna, and I wish to have you at my side always," Fergus said as he reached into a pocket, drawing a ring from it, "Lady Dianna Hamilton, will you marry me?"