"Ah…a proper bed. I almost thought beds and pillows don't exist" Tabris said as he buried his head on the pillow. It felt good not sleeping on the cold hard ground, for once. He's almost sure his back was realigned, somehow. For the night, the bann graciously gave them the guest rooms in the castle to rest in. As he should, when they spent all night destroying the walking corpses attacking the village. With all the wardens and many mages present, they have at last not lost a single defender to the nightly siege.

"Brr, yer soft, sleepin on somethin like this," Brosca said as he pressed a hand on the pillow in his own bed. The impression sprung back and he shuddered. "It looks alive."

"Well, you can hack it to pieces and sleep on the floor. I'm sure the bann won't mind." He turned onto his back and stared at the ceiling. "So we survived this far. We were really lucky we have Thorin leading us," He said idly, then he saw Brosca scowl at him. "What?"

"Ye think ye know him, eh?"

Tabris sat up, suddenly intrigued. "What do you mean?"

Brosca threw away his pillow and prepared himself for bed. "Folks like him, they think they own everything. They keep lookin down their noses fer people like me."

"People like you?"

"Casteless." He pointed at his tattoo. "See this brand? This means I ain't good folk to hang around with. This means people like him gives them right to kick me out the way if they see me." He threw the pillow away."Him talkin about honor and glory and all of ye fawning all over him. "He makes me sick, actin like he done nothin wrong. Is because of him and his folk my mother got no job and is drinkin herself to death and my sister became a noble-hunter so we ain't thrown on out our house and inda street."

"Noble-hunter?"

Brosca looked him in the eye. "Whore. So she can get a brat from a noble and we can have something to eat and stop living like shit."

"I'm sorry, Brosca. I don't know what to say." After a moment, he added "I can't believe Thorin would do something…like that. I can't really imagine him acting that way."

"Oh, he's actin like his shit don't stink but I ain't lettin him forget it."

At that, Neria came running in with her pillow, yelling "Pillow Fight! Pillow Fight!" and hit Tabris with one on the face. Brosca laughed and said "who let a runt like ye in here?." Neria just struck the pillow on his face.

"Sweet Andraste, Neria! You can't just come in our rooms like that," Tabris said, sitting up.

"Why not?" she asks, holding up a pillow.

Tabris and Brosca exchanged a glance, unsure whether to tell her it wasn't proper for her to be in men's rooms, then Tabris threw his own pillow at her face. "Because we do that, that's why!"

The pillowfight was in earnest when Amadeus walked by the corridor and a stray pillow hit him. He turned and glared at the three.

"Oh come on, it's just a pillow. Lighten up, we're having fun," Tabris said.

"Aye, with ye scowling like that, you gonna turn up a right old prune."

"I think he looks better that way," Neria said and giggled.

An hour later, the others arrived to rest.

"Tommorrow, we'll be doing the ritual. So here's what we're going to-why is there statues in the corridor?" Thorin asked to the others as he stopped in his tracks. The others craned their neck forwards to see what's stopping him.

Sure enough there were three statues in the middle of the corridor. Tabris was grinning, Neria was frozen in a half-scream and Brosca has his mouth open stupidly, like he was pleading.

They peeked in the open room nearest the statues. Amadeus was reading leisurely in a chair, his staff across his lap.

"Alright, why is Tabris like that?" Thorin asked the mage.

"Paralysis."

"And Brosca?"

"Force Field."

"Can somebody tell me what's going on?" Thorin shouted.

"We were having fun," Amadeus said, as he laid another glyph on Tabris' feet.

Thorin yelled at him to release them as they're blocking the corridor and some people need to rest too. Amadeus said they will just have to wait for the spells to wear off.

Sure enough, the statues unfroze. Neria was about to hurl a fireball at the other mage but Tabris tackled her and they went down, his hand on her mouth. "We said we're sorry," he shouted at Amadeus.

"You are, now." Amadeus stood up and walked out of the room.

Thorin stayed until both got a nice distance between them, then he turned back the way he came.

"Where are you going?" Elissa called out to him.

"I need a sodding drink!"

The next morning, the Warden company assembled in one of the rooms to plan. However, the planning was left unfinished, as a great secret was revealed to them. Alistair is the bastard son of King Maric, making him Cailan's half-brother and heir by blood.

"What?! Now that I'm getting used to you being a buckethead, you just have to be royal too?" Neria scowled at the templar, when Alistair revealed his parentage at Elissa's urging.

"And I feel much better already," he replied merrily laughing at her discomfort as well as his own. After Alistair finished explaining about Arl Eamon, the arlessa and him, Amadeus whispered to Tabris at his side. "Now that he said it, I kind of see his resemblance to the king."

"The looks?"

"No, the stupidity."

"I heard that."

Brosca leaned back frowning, his arms folded. So they've got three nobles. And they're all broke.

"So anymore who wanna say they born noble? Anyone?" Brosca asked. The rest wasn't sure what to make of that but he was staring at Thorin, who was silent.

"Well, if yer not gonna say it, I'll say it for ye, Lord Thorin Aeducan."

"Aeducan? The Aeducans? The current ruling house in Orzammar?" Elissa asked, eyes wide as she looked at Thorin.

"What? So you are what a king?" asked Tabris, just as shocked as Elissa.

"A soddin prince, that's what!"

"Not anymore," Thorin said bitterly. "My past isn't going to help so why did you need to tell it?" he asked Brosca, his brows drawn.

"Just lettin all out. Just so we know the boss ain't keepin secrets from us."

Tabris shot out of his spot. "Sweet Andraste, don't do this to me or I'll seriously believe nobles sprout from the ground!"

"Hmm, now that you said it, I kind of imagining that like potatoes," Alistair said.

"Well, Thorin looks like a potato. He's also colored like one," Neria commented.

"And also coming from the ground. Lead on, Commander Potato." Tabris finished.

"So what happened? How does a dwarf prince end up on the surface?" Tabris asked the dwarf.

"Long story."

"We've got all night" Tabris said.

"You're on watch. You should sleep."

"Right. The others can tell me in the morning. So what happened? How does a dwarf prince end up on the surface?"

Thorin sighed. Then he told about himself, his brothers, Bhelen's betrayal and his exile. The others fell silent when he finished.

Then Elissa spoke. "Can't you go back? Clear your name?"

Thorin explained that it would take a lot of time to repeal the Assembly's decision, time they don't have at the moment.

"So you accept that without protest? That is unexpected," Morrigan said coldly.

"There's no point in appealing, because I've been on the surface."

"What's that got to do with it?" Neria asked him. He explained that when a dwarf goes to the surface, he loses his Stone sense. That is, he became someone not dwarf.

"What? You still look like a dwarf to me. Or what I expect dwarves to be. Is unsurfaced dwarves different?" Tabris asked.

"It's not about appearances. It's being on the surface. It's...tradition," Thorin answered. It would take a lot of time to explain to them the intricacies of dwarven society, time that they should spent restoring their strength.

"That sounds stupid," Neria frowned.

"Well, without it, we're just…short people with beards, I suppose."

The others fell silent, because they couldn't really grasp that idea. It's not like surface dwarves they encountered are talkative about the past they left behind.

Neria and Amadeus were curious to see the apostate spy. And so they went to the dungeons, with Tabris and Brosca.

Amadeus took one look at the prisoner and laughed, madly, while Neria cried "Jowan!" and she almost hugged him through the bars.

"What did they do to you?" she asked.

"What they do to all traitors and would be assassins. I wouldn't be surprised if they sent you to finish me off," the mage replied, with sorrow.

"No one's going to finish you off," she promised, while Amadeus was still laughing. Tabris looked puzzled at them both and asked if he was their friend.

"Ah yes. The besotted fool. Nice disappearing act you got back there, leaving your friends to…..hang," Amadeus replied which made Neria glare at him.

Jowan looked up at them with pleading eyes. "Please, you can do anything to me after but I need to ask something. What became of Lily? They didn't hurt her, did they? The thought that she might have paid for my crime…"

"She's in a cell, just like you. Only it's in Aonar and she'll never get out. Should have thought carefully before you went all bloodmage on us," Amadeus answered bluntly.

Jowan flinched as did Tabris, who immediately backed away from the cell and its prisoner.

"What do you think will Gregoire do to her? Shower her with kisses? Hug her 'til she squeals? If there's a standard for stupidity, it'd be you."

"She was your friend too and you let them take her away!" Neria screamed at him.

"She deserves it, for being stupid enough to love one such as him. And she is not my friend."

"Oh, my poor Lily. What have I done? She must hate me now, if she lives," Jowan sobbed.

"Oh, don't you have a thought for poor Neria? After all, she helped you, even if she was only a friend," Amadeus sneered.

Jowan's head jerked up, then he turned to Neria. "What happened to you?"

"She nearly got Tranquil, thanks to you. Now, she's sentenced to fight darkspawn til the day she dies," Amadeus answered before Neria opened her mouth.

"That was that Tinhead Gregoire's doing!" she shouted at him.

"That is also his doing!"He shot back, pointing at Jowan.

Tabris intervened. "Amadeus, that's cruel. What's your problem with him?"

Amadeus turned to him, his face dark with rage and pointed at Jowan. "I got doomed to die by insanity just by getting close to him! We've only met once, but he ruined me," he said, pitilessly, at the figure slumped in the corner of the cell. "So what did you do this time?" he said, in a calmer voice, as Tabris and Brosca restrained Neria from hitting him with a fireball.

"Please, I know how it seems. Poisoning the arl was a terrible thing. But I'm not behind everything else that happened, I swear."

"Is that so? Because the crazy lady upstairs insisted that you were behind all this."

"I know it looks suspicious but I'm not responsible for the creatures and killings in the castle. I was already imprisoned when it began." He told them that after he was uncovered and captured, the arlessa came back here with knights to accuse him of the attacks in retribution to his incarceration and demanded that he undid what he had done. When he still protested of his innocence, they tortured him, then left him here.

"See, he didn't mean to do it to Connor," Neria said to them, who stayed silent.

"But still, if it weren't for his meddling, this would not have happened," Amadeus replied.

"You don't know that."

"Why did you poison the arl?" Tabris asked the prisoner.

He replied that he made a deal with Loghain, who thought the arl was a threat to Ferelden and wanted him gone. In exchange, Loghain would settle matters with the Circle. "All I wanted was to be able to return. But he abandoned me, didn't he? I never-"

"Oh he did hold up the end of the bargain, don't you worry. Because of him, Uldred went power-mad and became an abomination, taking templars and mages with him." Amadeus told Jowan what happened to Kinloch Hold, the madness, the hysteria and the horrors all of those in it endured. "And you thought they would welcome you back when you outed yourself as a bloodmage?," he asked Jowan. He finished that if he did want to return, he will have a very frosty reception from the surviving mages.

"Amadeus, if you just want to torture people, go away!" Tabris had finally had enough.

"He had to know what happened! You think I will let him get away with what he had started?"

"Yeah, but can't you do it without being mean?"

"Truth is always mean."

The prisoner started sobbing again. "Oh, Maker. I've made so many mistakes. I wish I could go back and fix this. I want to make everything right again."

"Don't. You've done enough. You want to make things right? You wanted to come back to the Circle and look what happened. Your wanting something only makes matters worse for other people. If you had only enjoyed your freedom and not come meddling in deals you know nothing about."

"Amadeus, shut up or I will make you," Neria shouted, fire creeping up her arms.

"Do try. I'm sick of you pandering to a pathetic fool like him."

Tabris and Brosca restrained the two from blowing each other to bits, while the prisoner continued sobbing. When they were more or less composed, Jowan said "I'm sick of running away and hiding from what I've done. I'm going to fix it, anyway I can." He looked at Neria. "We were friends once. I know I don't deserve to be called that, after what I did. If it ever meant anything, please….help me fix this."

"You had the gall to ask for help when all of this was your fault. You not only doomed your friend, doomed your lover and now you had doomed us all, by poisoning the one man who can help us stop the Blight!" Amadeus shouted at him.

"I know you hate me. I'm nothing to you."

"I don't hate you. Not nearly enough. I'm actually glad it was you, for all the people Loghain could have chosen to poison the arl, he chose you, who is too incompetent to finish the job!" At that he turned on his heel and stormed out the dungeons.

When he was gone, Neria clasped Jowan's hands and said "I'm not going to let you die, Jowan. I won't let them," while Tabris and Brosca looked nervously at each other.

Someone must have something to love, even if it would only end in their destruction.

Irving found Amadeus at the common room alone. Even outside the tower, the boy was still continuing his studies.

"What?" Amadeus snarled, when he finally sensed he was there. Irving was a little shocked to see that the boy has become so rude since he went out. He usually greet him with the greatest deference as an apprentice, and it's jarring to see him now not even have a civil greeting for him. However, he did not become the first enchanter without knowing how to deal with young, sassy mages. And his behavior is expected, he supposed, after the fiasco at the tower.

"If you are not occupied with other matters, I suppose we could talk for a moment?" Irving asked him.

"If you want to talk about the treaty, talk to Thorin. Otherwise, we have nothing to talk about." He closed his book and stood up to move away.

It seems any explanations would have to be short.

"Here." He held out the letter before the boy moved completely out the room. Amadeus looked at him dubiously and took it. "What's this?" he asked, opening the note.

"A letter, from Kirkwall." He watched as the face became still, taking in the contents. "Gregiore doesn't want you to have it, but I think you should know, after all these years." in a much softer tone, he said "I am sorry, for your-"

"Get out."

At any other time, Irving would have been angered by such a demand. However, looking at the unnatural stillness and the toneless voice, he knew that anything he has to say would not be heard. It would be a mercy, then to do as he wished.

It was several minutes after Irving was gone that his strength failed and he staggered to the chair, and sat unmoving. It was in this condition that the others found him when they walked in a long time later.

The others stopped talking when they saw him, sensing that something was incredibly wrong. Neria however, had no natural inhibitions and, as she still resent him for the scene at the dungeons, she could not stop but ask him spitefully what was wrong.

"Did you stub your toe again?"

Neria. He looked at her, the Circle robes, the staff, the faint shimmer around her which can never be anything other than what she is.

He hated her. Hate everything she stands for. If not for that, he wouldn't have been sent away to live without his family.

"My mother's dead" he croaked, standing up and shuffling forward to Neria. "I've got a letter, from Irving, a letter a few years past, telling me, that my mother, my father, everyone important to me, were dead. Dead. Dead, for years. Dead, while I play the obedient, meek mage in that tower. Dead, while I had to let myself be treated like a slave, just so I could see them again. Dead…while I helped you…and your little bloodmage friend," he said, taking hold of her shoulders and shaking her, violently.

He got what he wanted when a scream of fury and singing heat threw him to his back. There was a lot of yelling and screaming and someone was saying "Are ye daft? She woulda killed ye" while he felt hands patting down the flames.

Typical. It seems he could only live or die as they wished.