"What do you think?" I asked Alistair as we unloaded the wagons outside an inn on the North Road, fortress looming in the distance.

"Seems odd it would just be abandoned," he said. "Yes, it belongs, or belonged, to the Wardens, but once they were expelled wouldn't it have gone to the crown or the Arl of Amaranthine or something? Wouldn't someone take over?"

"No idea," I said. "I was thinking the same thing, though. Like, something must be very wrong if no one has been interested in the place. It's massive." I sat next to him by the fire. "You think what he said is true? Ghosts?"

"Maybe?" Alistair said. "It's hard to get to, we'll have to go through tunnels."

"But it's not like people can't see it," I countered. "Someone determined could have found a way over the last two centuries." Tossing my bag over my shoulder I glanced around to make sure we hadn't left anything in the wagons. "I don't like it."

"Me neither," he agreed.

The others echoed our feelings as we sat down to dinner. "That seems a highly defensible location," Zevran said between mouthfuls of soup. "I do not understand why some noble hasn't moved in."

"It looks very sturdy from here," Wynne agreed. "Carved right out of the mountains."

"If no one has moved in, I suspect we will find a very good reason," Morrigan said.

"Well, whatever it is we'll know tomorrow," I said.

Everyone began to slowly trickle to their rooms. Wynne was among the last. She had been, of all things, laughing over a pint with Oghren. She stopped at our table before leaving. "Any injuries?" We had encountered a particularly tenacious group of darkspawn that morning. Bad enough I'd resorted to blood magic after Zevran, Morrigan, and Leliana were knocked out. Wynne had been so focused on healing them I was mostly ignored. She may have known what I was doing, or maybe she bought that 'secret Warden magic' nonsense. In either case, she had to realize we were in a rough spot, and it wasn't the time to argue when I found a way to end the fight.

"No," I said.

"Liar," Zevran said. "Your arm."

I glared at him. "That's nothing, just a small cut."

She sighed and looked at me, gesturing for my arm. "Small or not, you don't want it getting infected," she said, healing me. "You've been cut there before. Maybe we should get you some armor."

"Maybe," I said, not wanting to explain why I got cut there so frequently. With a nod she went upstairs. "Are you mad?" I said to Zevran. "You know where that cut came from!"

"She doesn't, though," he said. "And although I hate to agree with the schoolmarm, in this case she was correct: it is better not to leave an open wound, however small."

"All right," I gave in.

"Are you tired?" he asked, finishing up his ale.

"Not really," I admitted. Not walking everywhere left me with an excess of energy most evenings, I'd found.

"Good," Zevran replied, giving me a devilish grin before standing up. "Let's go to bed."

I woke the next morning to the sound of leather creaking. Zevran was sitting near the foot of the bed polishing his armor with wax. It wasn't quite dawn and he had lit a single candle. "Good morning!" he said brightly, smiling at me as I began to sit up. Zevran was a morning person, I'd figured that out very quickly.

"Morning," I replied.

"You seem cheerful today," he observed.

I climbed out of bed, heating the cooled unused water from last night that was still in the tub. "Do I?" Climbing in, I leaned back and sighed. "I guess it's always nice to know I survived another day. No darkspawn come to chop off my head or anything."

"And here I thought it was my evening's labors that put the smile on your face."

I laughed, washing my hair. "Well, that too," I said. "But I figured it went without saying."

"Hm," was all he said, setting his armor aside and hopping off the bed to his feet. Walking towards the small bathtub Zevran pulled off his shirt, tossing it back on the bed. "You're naked," he observed.

"It makes it easier to take a bath."

"Indeed," he agreed. "I find it very difficult to focus on polishing my armor while you're naked."

"Do you now?" I said, smirking as I leaned back to rinse my hair, arching my back far more than necessary.

"I do," he repeated. "You do realize if I don't polish my armor it will become rotted, especially in this horrid climate. I could end up very hurt without proper armor." He stood at the side of the tub wearing only his smalls, arms folded as he attempted to glare down at me. The overall effect wasn't as intimidating as he might have liked; the lack of proper clothing left very little about his actual mood to the imagination.

I looked up at him and smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry," I said, running soapy hands across my breasts.

"More lies!" he said, kneeling near the tub. "You are not!"

Giggling I shook my head. "I'm not," I agreed.

Grabbing my wet hair he pulled me towards him. While we kissed Zevran slipped his other hand into the warm water and between my legs. I sighed into his mouth.

"Not sorry at all," he said quietly, chuckling as I grabbed at his shoulders, all but pulling him into the water with me. "I'm not undressed yet. You want me to spend the day in damp smalls?"

"So get undressed!" I said.

"Yes, ma'am!" he said, jumping to his feet and dropping the last of his clothing. I quickly shifted to my knees and grabbed him by the hips with both hands. I winked up at him before opening my mouth. "Creatore…" he moaned, grabbing my hair with both hands. I didn't exactly need a translation for that.

When he suddenly shouted I coughed with surprise. "Little warning next time?" I asked, half-kidding.

"I was as surprised as you," he replied. "You're a woman of many talents."

"But even I know enough not to brag about that one in mixed company," I laughed.

Zevran sat on the floor next to the tub and took a breath, shaking his head. "Of course, now I feel bad for finishing so soon before you."

I grinned and leaned towards him, kissing his neck and reaching between his folded legs. "It's fine," I said, lips against the skin of his neck.

Zevran gasped. "I may need a bit more time," he managed to say. He didn't hear me whispering the words of a spell. "What…?" he muttered as blue light flowed from my hand before laughing. "Many talents, indeed."

"The benefits of being a mage," I said, grinning.

"So it seems!" He grabbed me by the arm, hauling me from the cooling water. I stepped from the tub and let him push me towards the bed.

"I'm all wet!" I protested.

"Perfect!" he announced, shoving me down on top of the blankets.

Legs hooked around his thighs, we moved together on the bed until we were both gasping and sweaty. My nails dug into his shoulders as he thrust, gasping his name.

"So," he said as we caught our breath. "Is there a limit on how many times you can use that spell?"

I looked over at him, Zevran was smiling, running a fingertip back and forth along my collarbone. I couldn't help but smile back at him. Raising my hand, I released another brief surge of magic. "Mmmm…." he muttered, pulling me on top of him. "You will ruin me normal women, I swear it."

"Good," I gasped as my hips bucked against him. He moaned below me, hands running across my skin. I cried out his name as I shuddered and tensed. Fingers digging into my hips, he kept me moving as I went limp above him. Zevran said my name, accompanied by several unfamiliar words in Antivan, before groaning and releasing his hold on me. I fell forward , face buried between his neck and shoulder. Wrapping his arms around me, I could hear him sigh with contentment as he ran his hand across my back.

We crawled back under the blankets, silently watching the sun come up. Eventually Zevran rolled to his side and grinned at me. "Again?"

"You spoil me," I said with a laugh.

"All part of my plan," he said. "This way I won't have to worry about your attention straying elsewhere and I know I'll always be kept warm at night."

"This from the man who said I was a block of ice?"

"Ah, only your feet," he said with a smile. "The rest is rather pleasant. Some parts are, of course, warmer than others." Zevran ran a hand up my inner thigh, smirking. "I admit, those are some of my favorite spots."

I laughed as he tickled my leg, squirming away. Chuckling at my reaction Zevran released his grip on my thigh, twining his fingers with mine and drawing my hand to his mouth. He kissed my palm as we grinned at each other, face to face on the pillows.

Someone knocked on our door. "Come on, lovebirds," Alistair called from the hallway. "Time to get moving!"

I'm pretty sure I blushed at Alistair's moniker for us. It looked like Zevran did the same. We both stared at each other for a moment in silence before Zevran sat up. "Sweet, innocent Alistair," he said with a grin. "I think he has been listening to too many of Leliana's stories."

"He just doesn't want to think of us as hopeless sinners, I suppose." I hopped out of bed and quickly cleaned up, not bothering to reheat the water. "If it's like one of Leliana's tales it isn't as scandalous."

"Oh yes," Zevran said as I pulled on my robes. "That must be it. I'm a professional assassin and you're a maleficar, but it's the sin of fornication that puts our souls at risk!" He raised an eyebrow as he buckled his armor. "Frankly, I don't see why we should consider it a sin at all. The Maker gave us these parts for a reason. Surely He would not want them to go unused. Especially not when he made using them so very, very much fun."

"You are my new favorite theologian," I told him.

"And there we have a sentence I never expected to hear in my life." Laughing, we walked out the door and down the stairs to the common room where the others were waiting for breakfast.

"I ordered for you both," Leliana said as we sat. "Something Alistair assured me was appropriately bland and Fereldan for Maggie, and sweet cake for Zevran."

"Fantastic!" he said with a grin.

Once we had eaten and settled the bill our group set out. "You made quite the face back there," Alistair said to me as we left. I fished my purse out from under my belts and untied it, handing it over to Alistair. "Oh Maker," he groaned, looking inside. "That's all?"

"That's all," I said. "Right now I don't even know how we'll get to Denerim."

"We could try and limit spending," he suggested.

"I don't see how," I said. "The inns we can afford have such tiny rooms I'm amazed we can even fit two in each. I don't know how Leliana and Wynne shared a room, Zevran and I wouldn't have fit in the bed at the same time if he wasn't an elf and we didn't sleep close together." I sighed. "Thank the Maker Morrigan doesn't mind sleeping in animal form to save us money."

"It drives Wynne mad," Alistair said. "She seems to think that, because the spells aren't approved by the Chantry that means they're forbidden. Said it's wrong she has to sleep feet away from 'a maleficar practicing her forbidden magic'." I raised an eyebrow. "Oh, I know," he said. "She actually said you and Morrigan should share a room, and Zevran with Oghren."

Oghren had been rooming alone, since Alistair and Sten weren't particularly fond of his evening binges. "I don't see why that would make a difference," I said. "Same number of rooms we need now, and I still have Dane to worry about. Morrigan likes sleeping in her animal forms and he gets funny around her when she's like that."

"And that's what I told her," Alistair said. "Plus, that none of us want to deal with watching you and Zevran make puppy dog eyes at each other and giving you a room together let you get most of that out of your systems."

"Puppy dog eyes?"

"Don't even deny it."

"You're insane."

"Of course I am," he said. "Why else would I be friends with a lunatic like you? But this? I'm totally right." He stuck his tongue out at me and I couldn't help but laugh. "I think Wynne won't bring up you and Morrigan rooming together again, though."

"Oh?"

He cleared his throat dramatically. "You know, Maggie might actually like the idea, Wynne. She's been trying to get more time to spend with Morrigan so she could learn her spells!"

"Ooh, you're good!"

"I know," Alistair said with a smug grin. "Now she feels like letting you and Zevran continue on your indecent path is actually saving your soul from the damnation that is forbidden magic." He said the last two words in a dramatic voice, waving his fingers in the air.

"Indecent!" I said. Something about the word just seemed wrong.

"Well, perhaps you were screaming at him to… well, no, I can't fathom what you were ordering him to do harder and faster if it wasn't the obvious. Even I'm not that innocent." He laughed at the expression on my face. "Funny, I only ever hear you curse like that when I'm stuck with the room next to the two of you."

I coughed involuntarily. I really needed to keep my voice down in the future. Maybe there was a spell for that… it wasn't as though I set out to make noise or anything. It just… happened.

"Ha!" Alistair elbowed me. "I can't believe it. Is… is that a blush? Maker's breath, what's happened to you?" He glanced around. "Quick, where's Oghren. Let's see if his jokes still make you laugh!"

"Wha?" Oghren stumbled over, eyes bleary.

"Tell Maggie a joke!" Alistair demanded.

"Huh," he said. "You want me to tell a joke?"

"The dirtier the better," Alistair said. "Trying to see if we can get Maggie to blush."

Oghren laughed. "All right. So, fellow walks into a tavern, gets himself a drink, and tries talking to a few ladies. One by one they turn him down. He's sitting there, drinking his drink and feeling sorry for himself when in walks the ugliest guy he'd ever seen. We're talking 'uglier than the messy end of the bronto' ugly here." Oghren pauses, laughing. "So not an hour later the ugly man leaves with a gorgeous lady on each arm. Fellow turns to the bartender and says 'what just happened there?' Bartender shakes his head and goes 'damned if I know how, but he does it every night. Walks in, orders a drink, and sits there licking his own eyebrows until they come to him.'" Oghren paused and looked up at us. Just before I doubled over laughing I saw a baffled expression on Alistair's face.

"Hey Zev," I shouted. He walked over from where he'd been loading things into the wagon. I told him the joke and he leaned against me, laughing as hard as I had.

"I wonder," he mused, sticking his tongue out. "Oh well," he said after several attempts to reach his eyebrows while I laughed even more. "Fortunately I think I am quite successful with what the Maker has given me, despite my inability to reach my own eyebrows with it."

"That would explain her screeching," Oghren said. I only gave him a satisfied smirk in response.

After we all stopped laughing Alistair looked at me and shrugged. "I don't get it."

Zevran snickered and Oghren actually slammed his hand to his forehead. "Boy, how do you ever expect to keep a woman?"

"Now I don't know if I want to get the joke," he said. "No offense, Oghren, but you're not on the list of people I'd take advice from in that area. Didn't your wife leave you?"

"Aye," Oghren said. "For a woman. Which, if you ask me, is all the more reason for you to listen! And maybe grow a nice beard. Tickles the ladies just right."

"Actually, with this, he is right," Zevran said. "Except, perhaps, on the beard. I can honestly say that is never something I have missed. Come with me, my friend. It's time you were educated! Your wife will thank me someday."

Alistair gave me a panicked glance. "Hey, you started all this," I said with a shrug.

Oghren and Zevran dragged him off a few feet. I could see a flurry of obscene gestures, Alistair turning redder by the second. "Please tell me that was a lie," he said, stumbling back over to me. "They're having me on, right? Like the tattoo massage?"

"Well I don't know what they told you," I said. "How would I know if they're having you on?"

He sighed. "You're all in on this to make fun of me."

"Hey, if they told you the truth that could be some solid gold advice," I said. "Believe me: Zev knows what he's doing."

"It involved, um, mouths," he managed to stutter out.

I wondered if it was possible for someone to be embarrassed to death. "Well, unless he said to bite, I suspect it was the Maker's honest truth."

He made a face. "Ew."

"Oh, stop it."

"No, that is kind of… wrong," he argued. "I mean, no offense but…"

"You'll see."

He raised an eyebrow. "You're not normal, though."

"I'm not," I agreed. I'd figured that much out already, it was pointless to argue otherwise. "But this isn't why. Half the fun is making whoever you're with happy."

"Why Maggie," he laughed. "That sounds almost… romantic."

"You kidding me? You have no idea what an ego boost it is to have reduce an adult to an incoherent mess that can't do anything but moan your name. I wish I could bottle that feeling for whenever I don't like how my hair looks or something."

"Annnnd there's the Maggie we all know and love," he laughed. "Thanks for that. Really. I'm going to have nightmares now, I hope you're happy."

"I'm always happy," I replied with a smirk. "Didn't you listen to Zevran?"

"Aaaarrrggghh!" he shouted, covering his face. "Mental image! Mental image! Make it stop!"

"Darkspawn!" I shouted.

He dropped his hands, reaching to his shield on his back and the sword at his hip. "Where?"

I shrugged. "Who knows. They're around somewhere, though. Lothering?"

"Then why did you just shout darkspawn?"

"Because it is impossible to think about sex and darkspawn at the same time. Believe me, if anyone could it would be me, and nope, can't be done."

He looked thoughtful. "You know, you're right. Now all I can think of are genlocks."

"See!" I grinned.

Once we set out the fortress began to grow larger. I had thought it was massive last night, but in the bright light of morning it was even bigger looking still. When we were perhaps two miles away Levi pulled back on the reins. "We have to travel by foot from here," he said. "It's all underground tunnels

Hopping down, I signaled to the Feddics. When their oxcart rolled to a stop Alistair was the first out. "Well, no darkspawn here," he said. "But…"

"The veil," I said quietly.

He nodded. Morrigan and I had been exchanging uneasy glances the closer we drew to our destination. "Wynne noticed it, too," he said.

"This will be fun," I said, rolling my eyes. No wonder Levi hadn't dared to get any closer. Even a normal person who didn't have the skills of a mage or training of a templar would probably feel their hair stand on end.

"No point putting it off," he sighed. "I'd feel bad leaving it like this anyways, now that we know." I nodded, understanding what he meant. Skipping the trip would have been one thing when it was just inconvenient. Now that we knew the building could prove a danger, well, it would be fairly irresponsible of us to just stomp off into the sunset.

Following him through the tunnels, I walked in front, Morrigan towards the middle of the group, and Wynne in the rear, each of us keeping a steady stream of magic to light the way. "Stop," I called to the group. Everyone gathered around me. "How are we on torches?"

"I've got half a dozen," Oghren spoke up.

"As do I," Zevran provided.

"Let's switch to those, then," I said. "I don't want all three mages to get there already worn out. That should be enough to make it the rest of the way while our mana replenishes."

"A wise decision," Morrigan said. Wynne had been nodding until she spoke, after that she just looked conflicted. Didn't like the idea of agreeing with Morrigan, I suppose. We all knew it had gotten progressively worse the closer we came to our destination, though. It seemed unlikely we would be able to get through this without any fighting.

I could finally see daylight once again. Jogging ahead, I winced. The damage to the veil was even more obvious from here. No doubt the source of the problem was very close. "Maggie?" I heard Morrigan call.

"I know," I said. "I noticed. On your guard, everyone." I heard the sound of blades being removed from sheaths.

"In my experience it is rarely a good thing when mages become this nervous," Zevran said from behind me.

"That would be everyone's experience," Alistair said before sucking in a breath. "Soldier's Peak," he gasped. "Would you look at that! It's huge!" He walked forward, standing near me. "Seen better days, though. Better centuries more like."

Morrigan chuckled. I looked back in shock, wondering why she was laughing at one of Alistair's jokes. She winked. "Once the Wardens flourished, their ranks full, their caliber certain. Now they even accept people like you, Alistair." Ah, no wonder she was amused.

"Hey!" he said, glancing back.

"What do you think?" I asked him, not wanting the two to start arguing again.

"It's huge."

"We may end up living there, when all this is done."

He nodded. "Maybe. It would need a lot of work, though. It's been abandoned for centuries."

"Yeah, but once it's fixed up… imagine how many people we could fit there! Tons and tons of Grey Wardens!"

He looked thoughtful at that, glancing from one tower to the next just as I had been doing. I suspected that he, like me, was picturing blue pennants and banners sailing high on every tower, white griffins on each. Any thoughts of the future were shattered when we came to the portcullis; we walked headlong right into the past.

"Starve them out!" someone shouted. I looked around at the shadowy figures. The closest two were complaining about how difficult fighting had been, admitting their failure and suggesting waiting until the Wardens were too weak to go on. I made a face at the idea, it struck me as cowardly.

"Did… did you see that, too?" Levi asked, shuddering. "Am I going mad?"

"No, we all saw it," I said.

"But… how?"

"The Veil is thin here," I said.

"Veil?"

He sounded nervous. So, like an idiot, I told him what the veil was. Levi paled when I explained that the only barrier between our world and the demons of the fade was weaker than anywhere else. Probably would have been better off keeping that information to myself.

I could see evidence of a fight, but it had clearly been long ago. Bones littered the ground, remains of blue tunics on some, red and gold on others. Wardens and the king's army, then. Left where they had fallen, not cremated or even buried. How bad was this battle that the dead were neglected by both sides?

I walked forward, looking around. "By the Maker!" I heard someone gasp behind me. Spinning, I saw Wynne standing face to face with a Grey Warden. That wouldn't have been so bad, but Alistair and I were several yards away, and the Grey Warden currently unsheathing an enormous broadsword had been dead since the Storm Age.

"Oh good," Morrigan said, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "These things again." With that complaint registered she unleashed a wave of energy that knocked several of them to the ground.

"One!" Zevran shouted, decapitating a skeleton with both blades.

"Three!" Alistair laughed, sending a head flying.

"Can we focus!" Wynne shouted.

"Competition breeds camaraderie!" Zevran said to her, before adding "Two and three!"

I could hear her mutter 'children' under her breath before I shouted "one, two, three, four, five and six!"

"Area spells are cheating!" Alistair said.

"Are not!" I laughed before yelping in shock. Two had snuck up behind me, I was too close to get my staff between me and the monsters.

Both fell to the ground with a clatter, severed in half at waist height. "Got your back," Oghren announced as their collapse revealed him.

"You know," Zevran said as we looked around to make sure everything was dead. "Perhaps we should give you some basic training on a blade. Something small, for when an enemy gets too close."

"Maybe," I mused. "I suspect I'd be completely hopeless at something like that, though. I'm not very strong."

"You do yourself a disservice," he said as we walked up the stairs to the giant main doors. I only sighed as we wrestled the door open. Since he had to move me aside and open it for me there wasn't much I could say; I'd proven my point without even intending it.

We entered the Peak and, without warning, bumped right into a group of Grey Wardens. Dane whimpered, hiding behind my legs. Animals must be sensitive to the Fade. He always seemed nervous whenever we encountered damage to the veil. Frozen, our small party watched a slightly transparent woman in impressive armor giving a speech to an equally spectral group. If anything, it was concrete proof of what Duncan had told me about the egalitarian nature of the Grey Wardens. The spectral images were of humans, elves and dwarves. I saw men and women, people in armor and mage robes. Among the Wardens at Ostagar I'd been the only woman, and there was only one elf. The rest were human men.

"Maker's breath," Alistair gasped next to me.

"That's her!" Levi said. "That's Sophia Dryden, my great-great-grandmother!" He looked awed, not that I could blame him. It wasn't every day someone bumped into a relative that died centuries before they had been born. Jaw open, I watched her pace the room, slamming her armored fist into the opposite hand.

"We are Wardens!" she shouted at them. "Darkspawn flee when they hear our call, archdemons die when they taste our blades!"

"Wow," Alistair muttered again. I nodded. I suspect we were bit awed, too.

As the group faded Alistair and I looked at each other. "Can you believe that?" he said. "It's like an old legend come to life." He paused and shook his head in wonder. "No, it is an old legend come to life. And did you hear her? What a speech!"

"I feel like I could take on King Arland myself right now!" Several sheets of vellum were tacked to a wall. We were able to make out the faded writing… it was a list of the Wardens who had stood against the king's army.

"About a hundred," Alistair said. "Against the army? How did they hold out for so long?"

I shook my head. "I can't believe it. You know what this tells me?"

"That the army they faced was pathetic?" Sten provided.

Alistair and I both looked at him, shocked. "No," Alistair said. "That isn't what I was thinking at all."

"Me neither," I said. "To me, this just confirms it. Grey Wardens are awesome."

"Exactly!" Alistair said, clapping his armored hand on my back.

Sten and Oghren both made noises of disbelief. Zevran laughed, though, and looked over at them. "Personally, I'll be very happy believing that is the case," he said. "After all, we're facing both Teyrn Loghain's army and the darkspawn horde, and we have only two of the fabled Grey Wardens among us. Let us hope that some legends are true for all our sakes."

"And now I'm scared," Alistair said. Hearing Zevran put it like that… well, he wasn't the only one.

Happy New Year, everyone!