Author's Note: Sorry this one took so long, and isn't even terribly long. Work's been hard, and at this rate I'll be back in the hospital pretty soon unless I find a new job that doesn't destroy my body this way.

And sorry for the dip in quality as of late. If I'm being perfectly honest, I can't help but shake the feeling that this story has kind of run it's course, even though the plot's not over. We're definitely past the best parts. So, sorry. But, enjoy anyway.

Merrill gasped in awe.

Her plan had worked. She and Varricnow stood in the fade.

Cantis had been well enough to travel with them through the Eluvian and into the crossroads. A place beyond the Fade, an impossibility of magic. She would have been fascinated at any other point, but had a single minded determination to rescue the love of her life. Hawke was here. She had to be. Surely she did. Unless the eluvians were wrong, unless-

No. No. Those thoughts were poisonous. They would lead her to ruin.

She had used a thick, ruggedrag with Hawke's blood to track through the crossroads, a fragment of her trademark crimson house robe after she had been run through with a blade during the Qunari invasion. After finding it,Cantis had ripped them a hole straight to the Fade using his Mark.

"Andraste's balls." Varric cursed under his breath. "It looks just like they said it did. I… never thought I would see this place."

"Come on. Ignore anything of Hawke you might see unless I say so. There's surely Desire Demons here, and they'll know exactly what we want." Merrill motioned and began to walk. They stood in front of a massive, towering fortress that eerily resembled Vinnmark Prison. She used Blood Magic to follow the stain of blood on the rag. She could feelHawke's life force, strong, domineering and commanding, and followed it close.

A pair of demons approached. Sloth, slithering towards them like hunter snakes. They began to speak, and were cut down in a moment by a wave of magic let loose by Merrill's staff, never slowing her pace. There was nothing to care about, no sympathy to feel for them. Not here, not now.

Hawke was counting on her.

"How are you doing today, my love?"

Cantis awoke to the loving voice ringing in his ears, and looked up with a smile to find Josephine, hisJosephine, standing in the doorway with breakfast in hand. The short trip into the Fade and back had exhausted him more than he had expected, even though he had only walked a short distance.

"Fine." It hurt to talk,his voice groggy and distant, as if he hadn't used it in days. "Exhausted."

"I'll bet." She smiled wide, her beautiful, perfect lips shining where the light struck them. "Not many people can go into the Fade like that, let alone still have any strength left after it." She laid it down for him, a lovingly prepared breakfast and tea. "If you feel strong enough to eat. If not, I'm sure the cooks can keep it warm until you do."

"I'll have it now." He smiled, and kissed her on the cheek. "Thank you, so much Josie. For… everything."

"Of course." Josephine sat down next to him, smiling as he began to eat. "You're only like this because of me, after all."

"I think I'm only here because I'm a poor duellist." Cantis chuckled. The food was burned, and the tea bitter, but she had made it, so it was perfect.

"You're silly." She shook her head, smiling even wider. "And I love you."

"I love you too, Josephine. What do you say we go sit in the gardens later? Have some dinner in the patio, some wine and conversation?"

"Good reading?"

Leliana didn't look up from the note, even when she heard and registered the sultry tone in Mara's voice come from behind her. "Leli?" She asked, voice serious now as she sat on the bed beside her. "Everything okay?"

"I don't know." Leliana shook her head slowly, and Mara knew something was wrong. Badly wrong. She looked, and felt… scared, terrified, but… intrigued at the same time. She was shaking, tiny little bumps on her skin, which Mara rubbed comfortingly.

"What is it?" She asked in a soft, honey sweet voice. Something was wrong, and Mara knew that her wife needed this right now. She could feel, smell the atmosphere of tension, of the dread resting deep inside of the love of her life.

Leliana shook her head very slowly, very softly, rereading the note for the thousandth time. Her mouth was dry, her mind racing as she thought through every last possibility, pouring over every last letter and the meaning it could mean for her life.

"I… they're considering me for becoming the next Divine."

"What?" Mara asked as the words registered, cocking her head to look at Leliana's fearful looking expression. "They are?"

Leliana nodded slowly, looking over to lock her eyes with Mara's piercing blue orbs. "Yes. Me and Cassandra. And, in their preliminary votes, I… lead, with three quarters of the votes."

"Leli," A smile broke out across Mara's face, cupping Leliana's cheeks in her palms. "That's wonderful!" How amazing would that be, to have Leliana as the Divine? The single most amazing, kind, sweet young woman in the entire world. Mara had married her for a reason, and to have her in such a position of power, able to help so many people…

"Is it?" Leliana asked, biting her lip as if to cry. "I… can I really be Divine?" She knew that Mara believed in her, believed she could do anything, but… she was suited for helping, being a figure in the shadows. How could she lead the Andrastian world? "What… what if I fail? Do something wrong? I…. would have so much power."

Mara smiled sweetly at her wife. Always the worrier, always anxious and calculating. "Darling," She murmurer, putting a kiss to her forehead. "I believe you could move the sun and stars if you willed it. If you don't want to do this, if you're tired of politics and death, then tell them to go to hell. But if you want to keep helping, continue on what Justinia wanted… then I'll stand there with you."

Leliana looked away, clenching her firsts as she thought desperately. This was so… unexpected, so sudden. She had never thought this in a thousand years. "I… don't know." She shook her head slowly. "Would they even let me? Would I be accepted? No divine has ever been in a relationship before, at least not a public one. Let alone me being married to another woman, a mage, and having a daughter. The Divine is… is supposed to be a lone, stoic figure sitting alone on a throne above the masses."

"Change that, then." Mara shrugged a little. She could see Leliana's reluctance, but she shouldn't worry of what the masses thought of her, of if she could be accepted. But rather if she could make a difference, and if this was what she wanted. "People don't identify with their Divine, don't see them as human. Change it. Don't make yourself some stoic, marble clad figure who is supposed to be better than the common man. Make the Chantry a friendly, more relatable place. Make it a place for families, of any shape and size. Encourage people to have families like ours, to be as happy as us."

Leliana looked up to see Mara's honest, determined face that was smiling at her. "Do you think I could?"

"Of course." Mara kissed her again, gentle and sweet. "My love. Encourage the people of the Chantry to adopt children, to be generous in their daily lives, to find love wherever it might appear. Allow people of different genders to join the Chantry, to permit love to flourish between any couples that it would. You could do so much progressiveness in the world."

Leliana nodded slowly, realizing just how right Mara was. Of how much good the two of them could do, especially for people like them. What if a Dwarf could join the Chantry? Two women in love who publicly celebrated their love? Allowed their priests and cloistered followers to find partners instead of forcibly remaining abstinent?

"Would you come with me?" She asked quietly. "Join me in being Divine? Be the woman behind the throne as it were?"

"Of course." Mara soothed, rubbing her wife's shoulders to alleviate the tension. "I promised you my hand in marriage until the day we died. So long as you'll have me in your life, I will stand by your side. No matter what."

Leliana smiled, and looked over her shoulder to kiss Mara gently.

"Well, now all we can do is hope that I win."

"Daisy, are you okay?"

Merrill barely heard Varric speak through the haze of rage and desperation she found herself in. Now they had made their wayVinnmark Prison, or it's eerily similar counterpart in the Fade that had every detail that she could remember. Likely an exact copy. Varric washaving trouble following behind her desperate, almost hysterical search for Hawke. Whatever had brought her here wasn't coincidence. There were Red Templars and demons all over.

Something was wrong.

"Daisy!"

"What?!" She whipped around, shouting, and then saw the fear and hurt in his eyes, making her falter.

"D-daisy..." He sighed, feeling hurt and scared. "Look. You've been acting strange since we showed up."

"Varric." She hissed under her breath. She was scared. Hawke was missing, probably dead. Her wife, the love of her life. If Hawke wasn't here… she would have failed at everything. Lost everything she ever cared about, ever loved.

"Just listen to me, Daisy." "He turned her around, his eyes locked to hers. "It's all going to be okay. But I need you to calm down. You're scaring me, you have since the moment we got back to Skyhold. Whatever happens, Hawke wouldn't have wanted this."

He put a hand on either of her shoulders, and Merrill, seeing the honest sincerity in his eyes, fell to her knees, dropping her staff and clutching to him as she sobbed into his coat. "I'm sorry." She sobbed. "I'm so sorry. This is my fault. I should have gone with her. I killed her. I love her." She was hysterical now, the façade of uncaring and emotionlessnessthat she had kept for so long, that had kept her from despairing. "I love her more than anything."

"It's okay, Daisy." He whispered, laying his chin on her head and holding her close. "It's okay. Look, we keep going. We follow your magic, okay? And if we don't find her… we move on, we keep living. Just like she would have wanted."

"You would be wise to listen to him." A rough, low voice called, echoing again and again throughout the walls of the fortress. It was as if several different demons were speaking all at once.

The two of them whipped around, and fell into a stunned, horrified silence, dread knotting in their chests.

Standing before them was Corypheus.

"What the hell?" Varric breathed, standing up and slipping his hand upwards towards Bianca. "I thought we killed that asshole."

"So," His voice echoed eerily, stepping towards them, rough and powerful like sandpaper. "The Inquisition comes at last. I had wondered how long it would take your to cross my path."

Merrill's blood ran cold as she picked her staff from the floor. Mythal. Was this what had happened to Hawke? Surely not, it couldn't be. This was an illusion, some sort of demon. Nightmare, or fear. Despair. This couldn't be Corypheus. The real Vinnmark prison was in Kirkwall, nothing more than a pile of rubble and dust. And the real Corypheus was dead, the battle that had finished him having turned the fortress into said rubble.

She clutched her staff, and gritted her teeth, painfully grinding them against one anotheras she readied herself. "Step aside." She commanded. She was a powerful mage, a blood mage that had seen extensive training from both a Keeper and her Champion. The only magic to be respected or feared here was her own. "We're not here for you."

"And what then, pray tell, would you be here for? Corypheus drawled, fixing them with a cold stare that drove shivers down their backs. "I am older than this world, and the only thing that threatens your Inquisition in the slightest. Don't think you can fool me, rattus." He made a single gesture, and the two of them fell in a moment, overwhelmed by a wave of overpowering, chaotic magic. Then he strode over, taking Merrill by the neck and choking her.

"Go to your Inquisitor." He hissed. "Tell him to tremble before the exalting might of Corypheus. Tell him that if he and his Inquisition lay down their arms before the Red Templars, that we might stay our blades as a new world rises from the ashes of yours."

"A-ar… ar t-tu na'lin emma mi." Merrill gasped, swearing at him in Elvish. She tried to last out with magic, something, anything, but it was of no use. Something in his magic had silenced her in turn, and she was helpless.

A blur of black came from the shadows behind him, and Corypheus jumped back, shouting in pain and dropping Merrill as a white blade cut through his arm.

"Remember me, you son of a bitch?!" Merrill was dizzied and her vision was blurring, but she would know that voice anywhere.

Hawke. The love of her life.

Corypheus began shouting in a language they couldn't understand, but it didn't matter. Hawke kept slashing at him, batting him away with her blade before creating a massive wall of fire with her magic, keeping him at bay. He hissed like an animal, but it was too late. She picked Merrill and Varric up, tossing the elven woman over her shoulder and Varric by the collar before sprinting as fast as she could in the opposite direction.

"Ma Vhenan!" Merrill gasped, still trying hard to breath. "You… you came for us."

"Merrill." Hawke breathed, running as fast as her feet would carry her. "Wait until we're save." She took a deep breath and nodded, letting Hawke carry the both of them. "Please tell me you have a way out of here."

Merrill nodded again, and gave directions from where they were, and soon they were back at the Crossroads. Hawke managed to get them through to the other side, and then collapsed, utterly exhausted.

Beaten, battered, and bloody, Hawke had returned.

Hours later, she awoke laying in what seemed to be her and Merrill's bed from Kirkwall. Large, ungodly soft, and filled with red silk and velvet.

If this was the afterlife, then she had definitely gotten to paradise. Though it looked nothing like the Maker's bosom.

"Ma Vhenan?" Merrill gasped, sitting up from the chair where she had sat opposite her wife, praying hard every moment that Hawke would awaken.

"H-hey." Hawke croaked, smiling up at the wonderful sight of her love. This was better than any paradise, if Merrill were here.

Merrill blinked, ensuring that what she saw was real, staring a moment before her lips curled into a wondrous smile, lighting her whole face with a wonderful happiness, a joy that moved. Then she ran forward, jumping down and onto her lover, burying her head into Hawke's neck. "Hawke." She sobbed, her voice breaking as she whispered the word in enraptured awe.

"Hey." Hawke repeated, slowly moving her arms around her wife, holding her. "Merrill?" She whispered worriedly. "W-what's wrong? Why are you crying?"

Merrill gave her head a little shake, turning her head to kiss Hawke's neck, a shining trail of wetness running from her eyes. "You're… you're really here." She gasped, crying hard. "You're alive."

Hawke smiled a little, kissing Merrill back. "Of course I am. You didn't think a little demon could take down me, did you?"

"Of course not." Merrill was breathing hard and fast now, crying tears of streaming bliss. "I… just..."

"I know." Hawke nodded, tightening her embrace. "I know, sweetie. It's okay. I'm here. I'm not leaving you. I'll always be here for you."

Merrill wiped her tears, but kept holding close to her Hawke. So many things had to be said, had to be asked, but she couldn't find it in her to ask them. Only to hold Hawke close, and ensure that the world never took her again. Hawke held her back, whispering soothing, comforting words until the shaking turned to shivers, then soon became stillness, and then sleep. Merrill hadn't slept in days, and Hawke could tell just from looking at her. It was a special bond, the kind that only two people as closely intertwined as them could share. Anything wrong was immediately clear, even if not from the outside.

She had to tell Merrill, and the Inquisition many things. But perhaps they could wait until tomorrow.