Rowena was everywhere, and yet nowhere. She had a glorious sensation as though she was expanding beyond her body; she was flying, soaring towards whatever lay in store for her...

But then, something odd happened. She started to retract into herself; something ice-cold was trickling down her throat; she was on fire; she was emerging from the water; she was alive...

With an immense gasp for breath, Rowena snapped back into the world of the living, mind overwhelmed with sensory overload. Hacking for breath, she squinted through her dazed vision and was slowly able to make out Wynne's relieved face.

"There, there," Wynne cooed, gently stroking her hair. "You're all right now."

"C-Celene," Rowena panted, looking around. "W-where is she?"

"Sh," Wynne hummed. "She's right here; not, of course, that that did you any good."

Someone tutted from behind; Rowena looked over Wynne's shoulder to see the empress staring down at them coldly, vivid vermillion blood stains in stark contrast with the pink of her dress.

"Oh, no," Wynne snapped, rising to her feet. Guillame du Jader's bottle of antidote fell to the ground beside her. "I know that tut. You aren't allowed to do that, of all people. How dare you act like that after all we've done for you!"

"Wynne, please," Rowena began hastily; the mage, however, waved her off.

"You've done enough fighting for today, dear," she beamed. Turning back to the empress, Wynne's face became decidedly less pleasant. "You are the most ungrateful, the most arrogant, and the most odious woman that I have ever had the misfortune of meeting! Not only do you insult our sweet Rowena beyond imagination, but you practically let her die next to you after she saves your life! Maker forbid you turn away from your little revenge game to save her from the poison taking over her body! Why, there would have been two corpses here tonight if you had had your way! Sweet Andraste—my Rowena, who wouldn't hurt a fly?"

Rowena thought that was a bit of a stretch; after all, there was a bleeding corpse lying a few feet away from her, and it wasn't as if Celene had done all the work. However, she had to admit, it was rather fun to see someone else rail on Celene for a while.

Without them trying to kill her, of course.

Wynne marched towards the empress, stewing. "I swear by the Maker himself, Celene, that if I hadn't just risked my life to save you, I'd…"

She made a waving movement with her hand; knowing the warning signs when she saw them, Rowena bolstered her strength and rose to her feet.

"Wynne," she said, grabbing the mage's arm. "Wynne, where are the others?"

Wynne looked over in slight distraction, a scowl still lingering on her face. "They're fine, dear," she murmured, gently pushing her aside. "I'm sure they are…now, if you'd just let me…"

Rowena stepped in front of her in alarm, blocking her snarl to Celene. "What do you mean, 'you're sure'?" she gasped. "You don't know?"

"Yes, I do," Wynne said quickly. "Well, for the most part. Leliana hasn't shown up yet, but you know her, odds are she's picking flowers somewhere. No need to be worried; so, naturally, Eruestan's a wreck. That's nothing, though, to the way Alistair's acting; blundering through the forest looking for you, I swear he's going to attract all the Crows in a five mile radius."

Rowena swore. "Why didn't you tell me sooner!" she cried, breaking off for the trees. "They're all in danger!"

"They'll be fine," Wynne replied, running forward. "You know as well as I do that all three of them are perfectly capable of handling whatever's out there; what you need to do is rest."

"I'm feeling great!" Rowena protested.

Wynne raised an eyebrow.

"Well, maybe great's pushing it," she admitted. "But I have to do something!"

"You've done enough," Wynne replied. "It'd be irresponsible of me to let you go in your condition…but at the same time, we should tell everyone you're all right…" She bit her lip. "I suppose I could go, if you're sure you're all right…"

"Trust me, I'm fine," Rowena promised. "It's me—I can handle it." She lowered her voice. "I guess this is better, actually—I'd like to have a few words with her."

Wynne grinned. "Give her hell from me," she whispered. With one final death-glare at the empress, the mage squared her shoulders and disappeared once more into the night.

Rowena instantly became aware of the blaring silence in the clearing. Celene was scrubbing her sleeve like a madwoman, trying to remove the bloodstains upon it. Finally, with a sigh she gave up and said, "You Fereldans certainly like to speak your minds, don't you?"

Rowena smiled faintly. "It's a bit like the national pastime, to be honest."

Celene gave a slight smile as well. "Well, I know for a fact that you do not like to mince words; what is that expression you have? Frankness is your middle name?"

"It's Elizabeth, actually," Rowena said sardonically. "But yes, that is true."

The empress gave her a weary look. "So I can trust you to tell me with complete and total honesty why you saved my life this night?"

Rowena looked down. "You're the one who killed du Jader, Celene," she said. "You saved your own life."

"Oh, bah!" the empress huffed. "Do not play the fool with me. What I did was insignificant. Ce bâtarde" (she spat on his corpse) "merely forgot as so many have before him that I was not always empress of Orlais. If honesty is Ferelden's pastime, then intrigue is Orlais's—many have died by my word, and others by my hand." She smoothed her gown primly, as if such talk was inappropriate even under the current circumstances. "But the fact of the matter is, if you had not arrived when you did, I would be the one lying bloody on the ground. And now I ask you quite plainly why you came. There is no love lost between us, after all."

"W-well, you know, p-politically—," Rowena stammered, caught off guard.

Celene waved her hand impatiently. "A team of soldiers would have fulfilled your political obligations; there was no need for you to come out here."

Rowena took a deep breath. "Alistair," she said, eyes closed.

There was a loud snort; Rowena looked up to see the empress staring at her incredulously. "Your husband made you come out here after what I said to you? No, wait—your husband made you do anything?"

"No, he didn't make me," Rowena said, annoyed. "It's just…I think…something's changed in him since last night. He's been acting odd." She ran a hand through her hair. "I don't know—I just feel like, maybe he feels that he made a mistake." She shivered. "If I let you die out here, I'd never know what he'd have done if you had lived…"

Celene sniffed. "Well, you must have suffered a slight bit of brain damage from that poison."

Rowena froze. "Beg pardon?"

The empress snorted. "Chère Andraste, vous êtes sérieuse." She shook her head in disbelief. "Incroyable. Do you really think that your husband doubts for a moment his marriage to you?s ever done?"

She frowned. "You said it yourself. I'm practically useless as a queen."

"I said that in order to seduce your husband," Celene scoffed. "Which, I assure you, failed miserably. Can you really not see that you mean more to that man than anything else in the world? Lesser men would have fallen at my feet in an instant—I have seen it happen with my own eye. But him? Never. He is far too much in love with you." The empress sighed deeply; it was such an uncharacteristically exhausted sound that Rowena looked up in surprise. "Do not be fooled by my words from this night, Rowena. Despite all that I have said, you are the fortunate one. You are young, beautiful, loved by all who know you…things that I cannot pretend to any longer." She gave a harsh laugh. "This world is demanding indeed, when a woman is past her prime at age thirty…Not very many men would take me at my age, especially after my looks have faded."

"And so you wanted Alistair," Rowena said softly.

The empress looked up sharply. "Yes, yes I did," she replied. "Once for his kingdom, of course, and again for himself. Theirin men, as I'm sure you know, are some of the best one can find. Thrice I have worked for one, and thrice I have been denied." Her voice cracked slightly. "Yes, it is a lonely place, this throne of mine…" Her voice trailed off as she looked into the night.

Rowena stared at the woman before her, a strange feeling welling in her heart. Unbelievably, she began to pity her. Celene had spoken true—at thirty years, having a healthy child was as unlikely as Rowena having one herself. At the very least, she would have Alistair throughout the years to come; Celene didn't even have that luxury. She couldn't imagine what that would feel like; hell, if she were that conceited and that desperate, she'd try to do what Celene did, too. Deeply moved, she got the sudden impulse to embrace her. However, as she moved forward, there was a slight rustling from the bushes behind her. Blade flashing through the air, she whirled around to see Leliana standing silently at the end of the steel.

"Leli!" she gasped, dropping the weapon. "You're all right!"

Her friend nodded; she seemed somewhat distracted. "Yes, I'm fine," she mumbled. Rowena noticed that her eyes were glimmering rather oddly.

"Well, are you hurt?" Rowena asked, peering at her. "Did you run into any of the Crows?"

Leli blushed furiously at those words and began coughing. "Yes," she admitted finally. "But…I made sure they wouldn't come back."

Confused, Rowena began to open her mouth when someone crashed through the trees beside her yet again and crushed her in a mesh of armor.

Alistair and Rowena embraced tightly for a good minute, and then pulled apart to scrutinize each other's appearance. "Are you all right?" she asked hurriedly, searching his face. "That cut on your forehead, has someone looked at that?"

"Never mind about me," he said anxiously. "What about you? Wynne didn't really have time to explain what happened…"

She smiled tiredly at him. "Oh, nothing too serious. I nearly asphyxiated to death from a paralysis poison, but other than that I'm fine."

He gave a half-laugh, half-sob, and hugged her closer. "Any other person and I'd think you were joking," he chuckled, squeezing her ever more tightly against his ribcage.

"I saved her from suffocation once, Alistair Theirin, let's not test our luck," Wynne quipped as she walked into the clearing. Behind her, Eruestan gave a shout of joy and crashed into Leliana, who looked extremely happy to see him, even if still a bit diverted.

Alistair slowly pulled apart from Rowena and turned towards the empress, who had been standing slightly muted to the side. "Celene," he said murderously. "I understand you nearly let Rowena die right next to you?"

Rowena's eyes widened. "No!" she said quickly, stepping in front of him. "Really, she didn't, I promise."

He looked down at her in shock. "Are you…defending her?"

She locked eyes with him. "Alistair, Celene saved my life."

Alistair stared incredulously at her for a long moment, then flushed with embarrassment and looked back at Celene. "Well, uh, that changes…things…" He cleared his throat and strided over to her, awkwardly bowing on one knee. "In that case, I owe you the deepest of debts."

Celene shook her head. "We both know that is not true, Your Majesty."

"Yeah, you're right," he said, grinning. "But, you know, chivalry and all that."

Eruestan cleared his throat. "We need to head back," he said firmly, an arm wrapped protectively around Leliana. "People will worry if we're gone for too long."

Alistair nodded. "Yes, we wouldn't want people running around looting Denerim without our having done them the grace of dying first…"

"Oh, I don't know," Rowena teased. "That would certainly be interesting."

He chuckled, slowly walking towards the trees, letting the others pass before him. "You know, this probably goes without saying, but did I mention how ecstatic I am that you weren't killed?"

She smiled and lovingly entwined her fingers with his. "Same here, love, same here…"

And with that, they disappeared into the trees, paving a path before them with their love.