Author's note - as always, thank you to those of you who take the time to review, it is always appreciated. Loghain's words are direct from the Joining ritual in game. The quote from the Dissonant Canticles is my own and was inspired by the hymn "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go."

They did not, in the end, meet in Muirnara's chamber. Both Kristoff and Avernus pointed out that even if one was attempting to end a culture of secrecy that had lasted for millennia, it still did not mean that one should demonstrate everything to an audience with no need or wish to know - and they also pointed out that Muirnara's apartments were a hive of activity with servants coming in and out and messengers from the Queen appearing at all hours. Not to mention numerous people including Arl Eamon who seemed to consider that they had an automatic right of entry and often would not even bother with the most basic of courtesies such as a knock on the door. Muirnara had been too well taught by Teyrna Eleanor to even consider just barring the door. Her mother had read her the lecture many times on gossip and how to avoid it, and first on a very long list of snippets of advice was "Do nothing in your own chamber with a locked door. Whether true or not, everyone will always assume One Thing."

Admittedly whether anyone was likely to assume One Thing of a Warden Commander still firmly on the sick list and who had only regained consciousness that morning... Still, she could see the argument. Various other possible venues were discussed. The quarters of any of the other Wardens were vetoed on the same grounds. They considered one of the more deserted gardens and dismissed the idea simply because of how cold everywhere still was, even with the black filth gone from the sky and the world reverting to a more normal late winter-early spring pattern.

So when Alistair suggested the stables, it didn't get the hoots of derision that might have been heard in more peaceful times. The castle stables had the advantage at present of being empty, since the horses brought in by Alistair's cavalry had been sent west again before the spawn hit, and even in peace time few horses had been kept there. They were quiet and secluded, set on the far side of the small dirt paddock used by the Ash Warriors to exercise the Mabari, and at present nobody had any reason to want to go so, Avernus laid wards on both doors to the building. Muirnara was dubious about this. Avernus looked at her with amusement. "They are but sleep glyphs, Warden Commander. Anyone entering uninvited will merely enjoy an hour's unexpected refreshing slumber, and wake with no knowledge of how they got there. I will not activate them until we are all in the building anyway."

There was another advantage that was purely prosaic. Kristoff had studied the stables, chosen the largest box which was probably used for foaling broodmares in time of peace, and had shaken several bales of straw out in it. Then he had instructed Zevran and Oghren to return in shirts and trousers and without their armour. Muirnara had initially been puzzled. Kristoff seemed curious. "Those who survive the Joining, Warden Commander, are likely to fall straight over backwards - surely in Ferelden you do not insist they fall in full armour and onto stone?" She merely smiled and did not inform him that this was exactly what had happened at her Joining, and at Loghain's. Judging from Alistair's wince, his Joining had not been much different. She remembered coming round at Ostagar with a bump on her head that had prevented her wearing a helm for the Tower of Ishal assault, she had to admit that the Orlesian's precautions made infinite sense.

And so they all stood in the middle of a stable, in a solemn circle, ankle deep in straw, and it should have been funny if any of them had had the heart to laugh. Zevran was smiling, but it was the deaths-head grin he had worn back in the Mabari kennels. Oghren just looked...well, like Oghren, it was very hard to ever see a facial expression on that dwarf. Felsi stood with her back against the wall, outside the stable, fists clenched. Wynne had an arm round her shoulders. All the old party members had insisted on being present. Kristoff had taken one look at Muirnara's face and if he had had any intention of objecting, he said nothing.

Loghain as the newest Warden brought the chalice to Muirnara, and she stood looking at the elf and the dwarf. She had also considered altering the words of the Joining and had decided against it - like many things they would have to be looked at, but for now, what was important was the continuity of new and old. One creates a new world with great care, a birth is a very delicate time.

She nodded to Loghain and he stepped back. His eyes met first those of Oghren, then Zevran, then he spoke the words of the Joining ritual quietly and with none of his usual irony.

"Join us brothers.

Join us in the shadows where we stand vigilant.

Join us as we carry the duty that can not be forsworn.

And should you perish, know that your sacrifice will not be forgotten.

And that one day we shall join you."

Muirnara swallowed against a dry throat. "Zevran, step forward"

The elf took a pace to face her. She gazed at him for a moment. "Zevran, you are called upon to submit yourself to the Taint, for the greater good."

She offered him the chalice, his hands closed over hers, but instead of taking the cup from her he trapped her hands and then kissed her, long and full on the lips. When he broke the kiss, there was indeed genuine laughter in his eyes. "Mia cara, I was not going to die without having done that. Loghain, should I survive this, you may exact your retribution later."

Loghain indeed appeared angry but there was a hint of a smile in his eyes. "Elf, is there anything in the whole world you would not make a jest of?"

"Of course not. Why should there be?"

Then he took the chalice and saluted Muirnara with it. He murmured something in Antivan and swallowed a draught from the cup, grimacing as he forced the foul brew down. Muirnara retrieved the chalice a second before his knees buckled and he collapsed into the straw. Kristoff was immediately at the elf's side, peeling back an eyelid and then feeling for the pulse under the jaw. "He lives." He lifted Zevran as if the elf weighed no more than a child and laid him on his side in the straw at the back of the box.

"What was that he said before he took the cup?" Loghain seemed curious. "I do not speak Antivan."

It was Wynne who answered. "It is from the Chant of Light, one of the Dissonant Verses from the Canticle of Andraste that we do not use here, but that are still included in the Chant in Antiva and the Free Marches. It translates as something like this:

"That life which I have owed thee since thy gift of it to me, I freely return to thy hand, the debt of love is paid."

She paused. "They were supposed to be Andraste's last words before ascending the pyre, and it was never certain who they were addressed to. The Chantry considers them a prayer to the Maker, but some scholars think the words were actually addressed to Maferath, and that was why those verses were dropped. Who knows what the truth actually was?"

Muirnara drew a deep breath. "Oghren, step forward."

The dwarf turned to her. "Don't expect flowery poetry off me, Warden. Said it all at Denerim's gates. Let's just get this over with."

She nodded and handed him the chalice. "Oghren, you are called upon to submit yourself to the Taint, for the greater good." Her voice was shaky, to her irritation.

He took the chalice, and looked into it. "What's this, the sampler size? Are you trying to say something about my height?" Then he looked into Muirnara's face and winked. "Oh, come on, Warden, you didn't expect me to go down without a bad joke did you?"

She found herself blinking away tears and laughing at the same time. "No Oghren, I didn't."

He grinned, then threw his head back and drained the chalice in a single gulp. He let out a huge belch. "Not bad. Had lichen ales that tasted far worse than this." Then his eyes rolled up in his head and he too went over backwards like a felled oak.

Kristoff checked him. "He lives. Maker help us all, for a moment I thought he wasn't even going to go down - that dwarven resistance to the Taint clearly applies to the Joining as well." He took some blankets that Wynne handed to him and dropped one over each of the recumbent figures. "And now we just wait."

Felsi and Wynne had gone into the stable and the other party members followed them, the Wardens drew slightly away from them and sat down on straw bales near the door that led out to the paddock. Alistair picked up the wineskin that Oghren had brought in with him and sniffed at it. "Amazingly enough, I think this is indeed wine, and not one of his usual foul brews." He took an gulp from it and passed it on to Kristoff. "I've another recruit for you, Muirnara, but it won't be for a month or two. One of the Dalish archers, Mahariel. He told me after the battle was over that he wanted to Join, but he has to return to his clan first to get the permission of his Keeper - he assured me that said permission had never been refused, but there were certain formalities to go through. He'll return to Denerim before the spring."

She nodded, claiming the wineskin herself and drinking from it with a grimace. "I swear this is the wine that the healers keep for washing out wounds with. Halfway to vinegar and with that unmistakable of tang of old iron pots." She took a second gulp.

"I note that it doesn't seem to be stopping you drinking it," Loghain teased as he took the skin.

"Yes, well, after all the events of the last two hours, I needed a drink."

"I think we all did, my sister." Kristoff commented. "Mostly when we conduct a Joining back home in Jader, a lot of Wardens get very drunk afterwards. Here at least we are only drinking to celebrate two new brothers in the family and not for any sadder reason."

There was a scuffling noise in the paddock outside. Loghain sprang to his feet just as a large chestnut Mabari hound bounded through the door. It appeared totally unaffected by the wards but the Ash Warrior pursuing it was not so lucky - there was a flash of green light and a thump as the man hit the floor unconscious. Loghain sighed and sat down again. "Avernus, can you do something for him?"

Avernus tutted. "I had warned the warriors not to come in here - did they think I was telling them just for my own amusement?" But he got up and went over to the recumbent man and the others turned their attention to the dog. It was Hazel, carrying the protesting form of her puppy in her mouth.

Seen in the relatively light stable building rather than in the darkness of her kennel, the Mabari's emaciation was plain and scars of half healed burns and slashes crossed her quarters. She seemed to tremble with weakness as she stood, only an indomitable spirit holding her on her feet. Then her eyes fixed on Loghain and she stalked over to him. She firmly deposited the puppy in his lap and then turned to Muirnara and sat down facing her. Their eyes met. A clear message passed from mabari to woman.

You are not the man I loved and I mourn for. I am not the hound you weep for still. But perhaps we can be something to each other rather than two grieving apart.

"I didn't want another hound," Muirnara protested softly, but her hand had already gone out to fondle Hazel's head.

Loghain's voice was equally soft. "I said that for the better part of forty years, Muirnara. But I don't think that either of us is going to win this argument."

She looked at him, the puppy had snuggled into a fold of his shirt and had closed its eyes. He gave her a wry smile. "One of the reasons I made you feed this pup earlier was that the Ash Warriors had warned me that I couldn't keep doing it. I had fed it all week while you were still unconscious. They told me I risked the pup imprinting on me, and I had already told them I didn't want it. But it appears both the pup and his mother have their own ideas on the subject, and no sane man argues with a Mabari. You never win."

Alistair picked up an old sack, folded it and offered it to Loghain. "You might need this." There was some amusement in his voice.

Loghain's eyebrows rose as he looked at the younger man. "Why?"

"Because if we've all got to sit here until Zevran and Oghren return to the land of the living, I doubt the Ash Warriors have a clean pair of trousers in your size."

"You have a point."