"So… her brother was a Warden and her sister was in the tower," the Seeker murmurs.

"Not what you're thinking," the dwarf sighs.

"But it would make so much sense!"

"What about this story makes you think that 'sense' has anything to do with what happened?" The Seeker remains silent. "Thought so. Now, let's see. Well, Bethany was trapped in the Tower, Carver survived the Joining, Hawke moved up in the world to Hightown. Now, the Qunari were-"

"Wait, what are you doing?"

"Telling you a story?"

"You can't just skip over two or three years!"

"Why not? It's not like anything really important happened during them."

"I'll be the judge of that."

"Look, I can't sit down and tell you a full ten year's worth. We'd be here forever!"

"Then I suppose you'd better start talking, dwarf."

"…I'll tell you one day from each year. Seriously, nothing all that important happened, though."


Sundermont, Gallows, and Hightown – 9:32

Moving Forward


"Okay, which day do I tell…" the dwarf murmurs.

"You could just-"

"I'm just telling one. You're already throwing me off."

"…"

"Ah, I know now. Let's begin."


"See? Now, all you have to do is ask the magic to move."

"Like this?"

"Yep. Keep your mind steady, though."

"Before it will backfire in my face if I don't."

"Yes. Magic is like an animal you befriend. You never really tame it, but by keeping yourself under control, you can get it to listen to you."

"Right. Thanks! This makes far more sense now."

"It only works because you've got the same instincts as I do. I'm a hopeless teacher."

"Well, I think you're amazing."

"Thank, Feynriel."

A couple Dalish wandered past, trying not to even look at us. I did my best to ignore them. Many of the Dalish weren't exactly happy about Feynriel, and were less happy about me coming up every once in a while to check up on him. It started more as an obligation for me, but now it was fun. Feynriel always greeted me with a smile, which was better than more than half of Kirkwall, and was really glad that someone could help him with magic other than Marethari. Marethari was a good teacher, but she seemed to have difficulties addressing the differences between Dalish culture and… well, everyone else's cultures.

"Normally, we have multiple da'len with magic training together," Marethari commented, as if summoned by my thoughts. Feynriel smiled at her before returning to practicing the spell. "It helps them learn. However, we've not had a child with magic for quite some time."

"Not since Merrill?" I asked.

"Merrill was not born in the Sabrae Clan. She was sent to live here as my First, when it was discovered she was the third in her clan to bear the gift of magic." So, she was… she was taken from her parents because of magic? How was that different from the Circle, really? "I do have a question for you, though."

"Yes?" I poked Feynriel's hands gently and smiled when he didn't falter. One of the biggest lessons all mages learned was ignoring distractions.

"There is an air of Spirits about you…"

"Spirit Healing," I explained, immediately knowing what she was talking about. Merrill had mentioned it a few days ago. "Anders taught me."

"For what purpose?"

"Mostly if I need a wider ranged healing. The only healing spells Circle Mages know outside of Spirit Healing are single target." I turned to look at her. "We got into some bad trouble in the Deep Roads. I'd like to not be in such a bad situation again."

"It is not advised to make deals with spirits."

"Then I suppose I should have faith in my father's teachings."

"I… see…" Why did she sound uncomfortable? "And… how is Merrill doing?"

That was a subject change. "Well, she gets lost a lot." A lot, a lot. "She somehow ended up in the Viscount's bathroom. We're still trying to figure that one out."

"Has she fallen into water? I kept telling her to learn how to swim, since she'd fall into just about everything. Lyna had to save her many, many times."

"She fell into the harbor a couple of days about. Isabela got her out quickly, though."

"And what about-?"

"KEEPER!" The shouting of a hunter shattered the calm over the camp. "KEEPER!"

Marethari immediately raced for them as the camp started yelling. Feynriel gripped my arm as everything suddenly stirred into a frenzy. "W-what happened?" he murmured. "I've never seen them like this."

I noticed the glares being leveled at us. "Why don't you get some tea or something ready for Marethari?" I suggested. He nodded quickly and ran off. I, however, went to the nearest hunter, an elf I knew as Fenarel, and tapped his shoulder. "What happened?"

"Some shem'len templars came looking for Feyrniel," he spat. I had a feeling that if I weren't vouched for by Marethari herself, I'd be attacked just for being human. That was not a "Now we might be uncomfortable around him still, but he's one of us and all of us will protect him. Even the da'len. So they tried torture. By fire. On one of our da'len hunters."

They… what? "…May I see him?"

"What?"

"The da'len. May I see him?"

"I… yes, this way." I was probably only getting away with this because I'd startled him, but he led me very quickly through the crowd of concerned Dalish. In the center, there was the child. Marethari was trying to tend to him on one side. His mother weeped on the other. Angry words flew all over the place over the attack, nearly overpowering the soothing words they were all trying to say to the child to get him to calm down. Not that I could blame the child for freaking out. The templars had gone beyond the realm of decency. I could see bone in some places. Bone and muscle and skin so charred it flaked off with every sob. The arms, the neck… even the face.

All the child could say was "Mamae".

"I will need more herbs," Marethari muttered. "Can someone tell Feynriel too-" Herbs wouldn't fix this. Only magic could. And if she didn't have the strength, then maybe…

Silently, I gently pushed Marethari back from the child and went to work. A simple healing spell was enough for this. At least with my power, and I spared nothing when it came to healing. "Give it a couple of days, and I think you'll adjust to the new skin," I murmured as the child stopped crying to stare at the pink skin that had replaced the black. "I'm not sure if they fade to scars, though. I hope not, but… well, healing isn't exactly my specialty."

"But what you lack in that, you can make up with power," Marethari murmured, smiling at me. "Ma serannes, Hawke."

"Happy to help." I smiled back and slipped out of the crowd. There were no more angry whispers now. Just soothing ones. That was how it should be. Anger just led to fighting. Hadn't there been enough fighting?

"You healed him?" That was Fenarel. Why was he…?

"Yeah, was that a problem?" I replied.

"No, just startled."

Why? Was it because I hadn't used magic before? "Say, do you have a description of the templars?"

"Shouldn't take too long to get one. We all saw them. Why?"

"Because I intend to make a ruckus, that's what. It's easier with a description."

"Over a Dalish?"

"Over a child. Children… children deserve to be protected."

He stared at me a moment, like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "…Yeah, we can get that quickly."

"Thank you."


Oh, I hated the Gallows. Well, I hated them before, but I hated them even more now, knowing that Bethany was somewhere trapped within. I avoided ever going near it on most days, but today wasn't most days. Unfortunately. Thankfully, Hugh was in the courtyard so, all I had to do was request, calmly, that I be allowed to talk to the Knight-Captain and off he went. I wasn't kept waiting long.

"What brings you here, Serah Hawke," the Knight-Captain asked as he appeared in the courtyard. I hadn't seen him since the day he took Bethany away.

"I've a complaint about some of your templars," I answered, handing over the pictures the Dalish hunters had made. "A group of your templars went hunting for an apostate. All well and good, I understand that it's their job, but they also apparently thought torturing a child, with fire, to the point that you could see muscle and bone beneath the charred flesh, was also in their job description." Oh, I should've been more polite, but I was still livid. "Not only that, but it nearly caused the Dalish to come and attack the innocent civilians of Kirkwall in retaliation."

"…How… how badly hurt was the child?" He sounded shaken. "I know what you said, but how, exactly?"

"Well, their Keeper managed to reverse most of the damage, thank the Maker, but what I saw was blackened bone, burned muscle, and charred flesh, black as night and breaking off. The child was in so much pain that he could barely get out the word 'mother' and was bawling. The fire had hit arms, legs, neck, torso, and face. The hunters caught them before it could hit the eye, but it was a close thing."

"And these drawings are the templars who did it?"

"Based of the collaborative effort of the hunters to remember, yes."

He glanced through them. "Yes, I think I know the group. They just came back from a patrol, wounded." He nodded decisively. "I'll have them suspended immediately, pending investigation." Wait, that quickly? "Do you mind serving as a witness? I don't think the Dalish would take kindly to a templar walking up and… well, I highly doubt the courts will take their testimony seriously."

"If I didn't intend to get involved, I wouldn't have shown up here." As much as I hated the Gallows…

"I'm glad. You'll make a good impression, particularly since you've extensively helped us in the past. Plus…" He shrugged. "In the case of some templars thinking of revenge, I believe you can handle yourself."

Yeah, no kidding. "Well, Knight-Captain, what do you need me to do?"

Well, this was going to be a much longer day than I thought it would be. Oh well. It would be worth it. I hoped.


"I'm home," I called as I walked through the door.

"Welcome home, serah!" Bodahn greeted me, racing up to take my things. He had decided the best way to 'repay' me was to pledge his service, and Sandal's, to my family. I was more than a little flustered by the concept, but Mother took great delight in their company, so… yeah. Of course, she was getting on me about hiring more people, because that was 'proper' or something. I was thinking on focusing on Fereldans and elves, since not too many people around would hire either. Mother didn't seem to mind when I brought it up to her. "You're back later than expected."

"Yeah, I got caught up in an investigation of templars torturing children." I sighed and stretched as I walked into the house. "No blood this time, though. That's an improvement, yes?"

"I'm grateful for that. I just finished cleaning."

I laughed at that. Bodhan's gentle sarcasm had been a source of great entertainment for me as we made the move from Uncle Gamlen's to the estate. We finished only a month or so ago. The place was entirely too big for only a handful of people, though. I'd offered Uncle Gamlen a room, because he was family, but he refused. He'd let off some grumpy rambling, but I caught the underlying meaning that he didn't want the bad memories.

"Hello!" The greeting was paired with a tight hug. This was how Sandal always greeted me if he was still awake when I was home. He wasn't so good at the 'typical' servant things, but his enthusiasm was endearing, and he'd made quite the business doing enchanting, something Bodhan insisted I take a cut of, since I didn't really have a 'regular' job.

"Hey, Sandal," I murmured, returning the hug. "Did you have fun today?"

"Enchantment!" I was taking that as a 'yes'. He certainly sounded happy about it, at least.

"Good. Now, how about you help Bodhan?"

"Okay!"

"Althea!" And as Sandal ran off to help his dad, my own mother decided to tackle me with a hug. She'd been much happier since we got the estate. I wasn't sure if it was because of the estate itself or because it meant I would never, ever, have to something so risky again. "You were out late."

"Yeah, sorry," I mumbled, leaning into the hug. Ah, I was feeling better now. "Got caught up in things."

"Well, next time you go visit him, let me get you a basket of cookies or something."

"Will do. Anything for me?"

"A couple of bills, darling. Nothing important."

"I should still get those taken care of." Sighing, I broke out of the hug and walked over to my writing desk, where Bodhan put all my letters. They had a bad habit of showing up when I wasn't in residence. There were a couple of recently open letters on it. "Letters from old friends?"

"Oh, no, that one is from Bethany." Mother giggled in delight. "She's a teacher now. Her students absolutely love her."

"Well, of course, they do," I replied absently, ignoring the bills to reread through the letter from Carver. It was basically just him confirming he'd survived. There was enough of his trademark sourness, though, to reassure me that he was okay. I read it often. I… I missed him terribly. Him and Bethany both.

"And the Knight-Commander holds her in high regard because she's so skilled."

"Father taught her well." I glanced up at her. She had that 'plotting' look on her face. "Why bring this up?"

"Well, she misses you, and you know how we can get visits every month…"

"I can't see her." The failure was too raw. Too raw, too painful.

"It's not your fault, Althea." She stepped up and hugged me. I think she knew that some days, her hugs were the only things that got me through the fights and investigations I did in my 'free time'. Things were getting so… so hectic lately. It was focusing on the qunari, who still refused to leave, and… and I was feeling stretched out. "Absolutely nothing that happened was your fault."

"It's kind of you to say that." But it wasn't true. I'd failed both of my siblings. I'd just had to do my best to not fail my mother too.


Author's note: well, not exactly Act 2. So, I decided to add to the story a bit and showcase some days in the "in between" time that we don't see in game. The encounter with the templars does occur in game, though you don't actually see the child. Or get to arrange a trial. Er… okay, it's only loosely based. Whoops?

Yes, not long and… not all THAT great. Sorry. I kinda got tired of staring at it. ...Okay, more than kinda.

Next Chapter – a day in the next year. Yay. (wait, enthusiasm, uh...) YAY!