Once again - I'm using Italian here but I'm well aware that my Italian is.. well, bloody awful to be blunt. So if my translations are completely ridiculous please tell me.

Getting comfortable was becoming increasingly difficult. Each position he moved into set the cage to swinging. There wasn't enough space for him to stretch out and sleep, so he was cramped in a corner trying to balance the back of his head against a bar. He dare not risk freeing his hands until Francesca regained consciousness - there was a chance, however small, that the old blood mage would return to check on his charges before morning. Avernus had kindly left them a single lamp, giving just enough light to make the room extremely creepy. He envied Francesca her unconsciousness.

At least, he did until she woke up. "Soffio di dio," she groaned, turning to face him. Her eyes were bloodshot and her usually tanned skin was sickly and pale. She saw him, took in the cage and his bracers (she wore none) and her eyes narrowed. "Guidata," she said. "Che cosa hai fatto?"

"I didn't do anything," Anders said, but he kept his tone gentle. "We're the guests of someone else I'm afraid."

"Who?"

He gave her a long look, weighing what to tell her. If he told her the truth there was a chance she'd panic. If he lied to her and she found out on her own.. again, panic.

She's a warden, he reminded himself.

"A blood mage," he said finally. She drew back - almost gasping, but he had judged correctly. Her body language screamed fear, but she kept control, swallowing heavily as she shifted into a sitting position and wrapped her arms around her legs.

"What does he want with us?"

Anders rubbed his face in his bound hands. "He's taken blood from both of us," he said. "Apparently he's researching ways to... improve us."

"Incantevole," she muttered. Anders grinned. "So, what do we do, guidata?"

"Well, you have the lucky chance of being imprisoned with someone very used to escaping," he said. "How do you feel? Do you think you can stand or fight?"

She touched her face, then ran her hand through her hair. The hand was shaking. "Mi dispiace..." she said.

He shook his head. "Don't worry, we'll soon have you right again." He reached up into his hair and pulled out the pins there. He wedged one in his mouth and manipulated the other one with long fingered hands, carefully picking the lock on the bracers. Once they were gone he breathed a sigh of relief - his connection to the fade restored. While he waited for his mana to replenish he reached out with his senses to see exactly how Francesca was faring.

Not well, it turned out. "Maker's breath," he breathed. "What did he do to you?"

"I don't remember," she said shakily. "I feel.. sbagliato..."

He was worried. Avernus had spent much more time with Francesca than with him - he'd not just taken her blood - there was definitely something else going on apart from simple blood loss. The problem was Anders couldn't pin down exactly what it was.

He settled for a combination of rejuvenation and healing. As he released the magic her head tipped back in relief and she breathed a sigh. "Grazie," she said.

Anders was already at work on the lock of his cage. "Don't mention it," he said. The cage lock was more simple than he had anticipated and Anders wondered whether any of Avernus' previous residents had attempted escape at all. If he had been conducting his experiments with the blessing of the Warden Commander, maybe they hadn't bothered to try.

He lowered himself down to the ground carefully, trying not to set the cage to swinging too much, then got to work on Francesca's. She looked a lot better, but his senses told him there was still something going on that he didn't understand. It worried him - he'd rarely come across an illness or a poison he couldn't at least identify and treat to some extent. This was different.

He helped Francesca down from the cage. She stood for a moment, blinking, before the mask of competence settled on her face again.

"Buono," she said firmly. "I shall look for armour and weapons."

"There are a few chests," Anders said. "I'd like to look at his notes, if we get the chance."

"What if he returns?"

Anders smiled and set a paralysis trap at both the doors. "Let's see how he likes it," he said.

Francesca moved off to investigate the room while Anders examined the worktable. Usual potion making ingredients - deep mushroom, elfroot, even blood lotus. Flasks, mortar and pestle, and a burner. A large, stained tome which Anders fully intended to take with them when they left.

There was only one of the flasks of blood left. Avernus had used one in whatever concoction he had created while Anders was muted.

Anders was a good herbalist. His poultices and potions were excellent - but he had no idea what Avernus was attempting with the ingredients he had here.

He had started flicking through the tome when Francesca returned. She was dressed in her own armour and carried two sets of robes and, he was vastly relieved to see, his staff. He gave a little whoop of joy and ran to her, taking the staff and running his hands over it lovingly.

"Sciocco," she said, although the word had no sting in it. "People would think you were in love with it."

He grinned at her. "Oh, but I am," he said. "Spellfury cost me a lot of money. If I'd lost it I'd be very upset. Not to mention poor with nothing to show for it."

"Did not your commander issue you with a warden staff?"

"Pish," Anders said, shrugging out of the rags Avernus had given him and pulling the first set of robes over his head. They weren't his own - but they were heavily enchanted and in good condition. Anders wondered where Avernus had got them - why he wasn't wearing them himself. Perhaps he had just gotten past the point in his life where clothes were important.

Or perhaps he was too crazy to care.

When he was dressed he looked up to see Francesca had turned her back. "I could not find our packs," she said, without turning her head. "I assume they are somewhere in the fortress. We will need them for supplies."

He came up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. She jumped. "Best deal with Avernus first," he said gently. He was surprised (and slightly pleased) to see she was blushing. For a moment. Until his healing sense tingled again with that... wrongness. "How are you feeling?" he asked her.

She shrugged. "I have felt better," she said. He wanted to ask more, but she shrugged off his hand and started towards the doors. "Where is this man? Why did he leave his prisoners alone?"

"He left a few hours ago," Anders said. "Presumably even blood mages have to sleep sometimes."

"Do we wait for him - confront him when he returns? Or do we try to leave now?"

She was looking to him for decisions - decisions she would never have trusted him with a day ago and he realised then just how afraid she was. His instinct was to run - that was always his instinct, but he wasn't sure what defenses Avernus had put into place and he didn't want to risk tripping any more of his traps.

"We should stay here and wait for him," Anders said. "He won't be back until morning - even blood mages have to sleep. We can take turns watching."

She nodded. Anders gathered some mana for a warmth spell - it was still ridiculously cold, and set up a corner of the room for Francesca to sleep in.

"I should take first watch," she said, but he shook his head.

"You feel like you've been asleep," he said, "but you haven't - you've just been unconscious. You lost a lot of blood. Trust me when I say you need sleep more than I do." And food. And possibly reassurance. Although I could do with a healthy dose of that as well...

She nodded, and moved to the corner to sleep - not much fun in full armour, he was sure, but she said she was used to it and there was no way she wanted to risk taking it off. Once she was asleep Anders took the opportunity to check her vitals more thoroughly and if possible he was even more puzzled by her condition. He could detect the taint - far more advanced than his own - but there was something more beyond that...

They waited. Francesca took a watch and Anders managed some sleep, although the cold and his own sense of dread made his sleep fraught with nightmares. When dawn light filtered through the windows he was relieved, both that they'd gotten through the night without incident and that the chances of a confrontation with the old blood mage had just increased.

Sure enough, Avernus returned shortly after dawn was fully established. One of the doors opened and he stepped directly into Anders' paralysis trap, a comic expression of surprise on his ancient features.

Francesca snorted. "This man is a fool," she said. Anders doubted that he was - just unused to having to control his charges. Mages didn't usually know how to pick locks, and non-mages didn't know how to do paralysis traps. The combination of the two... well after two hundred or so years he figured Avernus could be forgiven for being a little sloppy.

They cuffed him with his own anti-magic bracers - although they wouldn't help against blood magic the man could hardly use his blood for mana with his hands bound - and sat him in a chair in the workroom once the paralysis had worn off. He didn't speak, simply glared at the two of them while they worked to restrain him. Once Anders was certain he was secure, he sat in a chair opposite to study him. Francesca kept him covered with one of her swords, her entire body tight with repressed fear and fury.

"Right," Anders said. "You're going to tell me exactly what you've been doing here. Starting with what you've done to my friend."

Avernus raised one eyebrow and snorted. "And what will I get in return?" he asked.

"Your life," he said.

Francesca swore in Antivan behind him and Anders looked up at her.

"He is a blood mage, guidata," she said.

"And?"

"Egli merita di morire," she muttered.

Anders cocked an eyebrow and Avernus laughed. "Your pretty friend is no doubt correct," he said. "I do deserve death. I even welcome it. But my work is not finished."

"Your work has been to kill my brothers and sisters," Francesca said harshly.

"You know nothing of my work. Tell me, warden, what do you feel now?" Francesca shifted from foot to foot as the old man looked up at her. Her face was clouded.

"I feel wrong," she said finally. "You have done something to me... something unnatural..."

"Of course it is unnatural," Avernus spat. "You are infected with the taint. The taint does not come from nature. All I have done is unlock its potential. Coursing through your veins is power."

"Coursing through her veins is poison," Anders said. "What have you done to her?"

"Poison kills," Avernus said. "What I have done... she will be unstoppable."

"She's already pretty unstoppable," Anders said. "And whatever you've done... it's not right."

"Right? Are you wardens? Or are you simply soldiers? You were made to fight the darkspawn. I have made her better at that."

"How do we reverse it?" Anders demanded.

Avernus fixed him with a cold stare. "You cannot," he said simply.

Francesca's mouth set in a hard line and she lifted her sword as though to part the mage from his head. "No!" Anders lunged forward and caught her arm. The strength of her swing was such that he nearly buckled from the impact, but he managed to stop her from slaughtering the man. She glared at him as he held her, and he could feel her shaking. "We should take him with us," he said. "Maybe the Commander can talk some sense into him."

Avernus laughed. "How naive of you," he said, "to think that sense in this world has any value. By all means, take me back with you. Your Commander will find my research as invaluable as his predecessor did."

Anders glared at the old man in anger. Aedan had let the man live and offered up wardens to continue his research. The former Commander sanctioned his methods. He had to resist an urge to spit at the taste it left in his mouth.

"We'll take you back with us," Anders said again, and Francesca sighed.

"Come si desidera," she said. Anders released her arm and patted her shoulder in reassurance. Nathaniel would convince the man to undo whatever he had done to her.

He had to.