With the wind at our back and clear skies, we ride for a good portion of the day before Cassandra comes to a stop. Her face drawn into a solemn expression, she mutters something under her breath.

"Everything alright, Cassandra?" I ask, coming to a halt next to her. She turns her head to look at me.

"We should have intersected with the Imperial Highway half an hour ago." She frowns. "By now, we should have been riding alongside Lake Calenhad." She looks around her. "With the path buried from the storm, maybe we went the wrong way?"

Pointing off into the distance, we see a plume of smoke rising through the trees. "Perhaps somebody over there can give us some idea where we are." I offer.

"I see no other option." She frowns. "We should exercise caution. I've seen reports about bandits wandering around the Frostbacks."

Setting off at a canter, the others follow suit behind me. We slow down as we approach the small makeshift camp. The two men who stand near the fire to stay warm go quiet as one notices us and nudges his companion.

"Excuse us!" Cassandra calls to them. She's cut off as they rise from their seats, turning to face us. We come to a stop a few feet away and Cassandra and I exchange a wary glance. These men were far too well armed to be simple merchants or travelers stopped for the night.

One of the men, heavyset with a patchy beard, sneers. "Fuck off! We've already claimed this area."

His companion – a tall, slender man with a bushy mustache and large puckered scar on his left cheek— eyes me before raising a hand. "Now, now, Richart." He says. "That's no way to greet our guests."

"But Jack—"

The man breaks his gaze for a moment to look at his companion. otioning for the others to be on their guard, I turn back in time for the creep to look at me once more.

"Now, where were we?" He grins. His eyes travel along my form, making me as anxious to get away/ "You're high born, aren't ya?"

Keeping my expression neutral, I raise a brow. "What makes you say that?"

He sweeps a dirty hand over his chin, motioning to his face. "I've seen and fucked many women but none like you."

"I imagine most of those women were sheep?" Dorian says from behind me. "Common mistake where you're from, yes?" I try to keep a straight face as he shoots Dorian a glare before returning his gaze to me. His grin returns and he takes a step forward causing my horse stepping back.

"Good eye." I nod, making his grin widen. "Now tell me something…"

"Jack. Jack Shepard."

"Jack," I nod. "You seem pretty observant."

"Aye."

"Good." I grin. "Now, do you see my companions with me?"

He glances behind me and nods, shifting to his other foot and hooks his fingers in his belt. "What about them?"

"I imagine you notice that they, as well as myself, are armed and one is a mage." He frowns and looks at them once more and scoffs.

"Not much of a threat. I could easily take them out."

Blackwall snorts and Cassandra rolls her eyes. "Let's go, Lena." Cassandra urges, keeping her gaze trained on the one who inches closer to me. "These men will not tell us anything useful."

"Jack." I say, deciding to try once more.

"Mm?" He smirks. "My, I do love to watch those pouty lips as they say my name." He moves closer, his hand grabbing my knee. My hand draws closer to my belt and rests on the handle of my dagger which lies concealed from view by my cloak. "I would love to see what those lips look like around my cock while those beautiful eyes look up at me." I try not to grimace as he reaches down to rub himself with his other hand before Nevan shifts behind me.

"Step away from her." He growls.

Jack's hand remains on my leg as he steps sideways to look at him before letting out a sharp, mocking laugh. "Would you look at that, Richart! They've got a fucking knife-ear with them!"

"Don't call him that." I snap.

"Quiet." He snaps. He grips my leg tighter as he looks at Nevan. "Don't worry, boy. You can watch as I fuck your highborn bitch." He grins at me as he draws his sword and points the tip under my chin. "Come on. Off your high horse, sweetheart. It's time you rode a real man's cock."

From behind me, I hear the sound of an arrow being nocked. "Leave. Her. Alone."

With an irritated sigh, Jack turns to look at Nevan once more. "What boy? You really think you—"

Before he can finish, Jack's eyes widen, a gurgling noise coming from his throa. Blood from the arrow now lodged through his throat begins bubbling up and spills over his lips. His sword slips from his hand and falls to the snow as his hand on my leg loosens. Jack falls to the ground, coughing up blood as he reaches for his throat.

My eyes widen and I'm about to turn to look back at him when there's a whizzing sound and a sharp cry from Richart. My companions look over right as the big man falls straight into the fire, an arrow lodged deep into his eye socket.

"Are you alright?" Nevan asks, meekly. I turn around to gape at him and his cheeks redden.

"Yes." I breath. "Thank you." The smell of burning flesh and leather brings me out of my brief daze. I swing out of my saddle and stride over to the large burning dead body of Richart.

"Lena, what are you—" Cassandra begins to say, dismounting.

"We need to get him out of the fire." I call to her, eyeing the fire as it licks at the giant mass.

"Would there be a point?" Dorian calls from his horse. "The guy is already dead."

Cassandra helps me push the man off the fire and I pick up snow and try to douse the small flames. Picking up handfulls of snow, I try not to look at the gory mess that is his punctured eye and blistered flesh. Once free of flames, we rise and Cassandra grimaces, covering her nose. "Ugh. We should get going before anybody finds the bodies."

Wiping some hair from my face, I smudge some soot from the man's clothes on my cheek as I look at her. "Where? We still have no idea where we are or whether we're going the right way."

She shrugs. "We'll just have to keep going and hope we come across a caravan or something."

Glancing around at the pathetic camp, I get an idea. "You should scout ahead."

Her brows furrow as she narrows her eyes at me. "I'm not going to leave you—"

"I won't be staying alone. Dorian and Nevan can stay with me and Blackwall can go with you." I explain, bracing for her other objections. "Both Dorian and Nevan have shown they can protect me and I want to see what these bandits have. Maybe we can find some wares to sell or even some coin. You know as well as I that we are low on funds and will need it once our food runs out."

She frowns as I see her thinking about it. Finally, she sighs. "Fine. We'll try to get back as soon as we can. If possible, I still want to try to make it to Gherlen's Pass before night fall.

"Commander!"

With an aggravated sigh, Cullen turns to face the soldier. "What is it?"

The past three times this same soldier had come to him was to complain about Sera. If only Lena and Cassandra were here. He thought to himself. They're better at keeping her under control.

"It's the builders." The soldier frowns. "We've lost another one, Ser."

Cullen sets the report he was looking at down on the makeshift table. This is the second builder they've lost since Josephine ordered for the repairs to be completed. They had no idea that it was weak enough to where the stone would crumble beneath the builders as they worked. "Very well." He sighs. "Where did they fall?"

The soldier points at the ground, indicating the canyon surrounding the fortress. "He fell from the battements, Ser."

Cullen swallowed the lump forming in his throat but managed to keep his composure. "Have the body get retrieved and speak with Josephine about contacting their family. They'll want to know."

With a brisk nod, the soldier leaves him. He looks in the direction of the builders working on the bridge between the keep and battlements.

His thoughts turn to Lena and his promise to her. His heart begins to pound as he thinks about when they talked in the war room. Her anger towards him for their interrupted night prior was strangely arousing. Even as he asked her to wait for when she returned from the Coast, he had to fight the urge to bend her across the war table. The only thing that stopped him was the nervousness that always stopped him from going all the way.

Regardless of him being a young and attractive man, it's been at least a decade since he was last with a woman. For the longest time, since the circle incident, the thought of touching another woman seemed daunting.

Now he was staring off in the distance thinking about Lena's pert breasts from their time in the tower like some lust-struck teenager. In his mind, he imagined Lena slowly undressing for him. The stream of sunlight illuminates those beautiful breasts and erect dark pink nipples.

Lost in thought, he shifted as his growing arousal pushed against the fabric of his trousers. As imaginary Lena was about to wiggle out of her breeches, he straightens as a cold blast hits the back of his neck. His eyes widen ands dances around in attempt to remove the snowball that was beginning to melt and slide down the back of his shirt. In the distance, he heard a cackle and looked around for the mischievous elf but found no sign of her.

Face burning from half anger and half embarrassment from his impure thoughts, he stomps over to a nearby soldier. As he approached, she salutes him. "Commander?"

"I need you to find Sera and bring her to me." He fumes. A thought comes to him and he shakes his head. "Actually, lock her in a cell in the dungeon."

The soldier's brows furrow. "Ser? The magister is being kept down there. Is that wise?"

"Yes" Cullen fumes. "She can annoy him for a couple hours or at least until she settles down." He frowns at her reluctance. "It's temporary. Like a time out."

She nods and heads off to find Sera while Cullen lets out a sigh before heading back to his reports. I should get back to work before any other thoughts cross my mind. He thinks to himself with a sigh. This is going to be a long month.

As Cassandra and Blackwall set off, Dorian slips down from his saddle and pulls his horse alongside Nevan. He shoots him a curious glance.

"Care to explain?" I say, a smirk playing on my lips as the two men tie our horses up on low hanging branch nearby.

"I second that." Dorian says, crossing his arms over his chest. "Never took you for somebody who is quick to kill people."

Nevan's cheeks redden more than they already are from the cold. He shrugs. "He was threatening you." He says, frowning. "I'm sorry."

I stride toward him with a smile. "There's no need to apologize. I was ready to stab him with my dagger and was waiting for the opportune moment but you…" I chuckle. "You're fast."

He nods. "In my clan, we were taught to strike quickly and true so that the game we hunt doesn't suffer."

"Maybe it was the angle I was watching from," Dorian scoffs. "But I doubt the arrow through the throat had no suffering involved."

Nevan shoots him a glare. "Like I said, he was threatening her so I had to act quickly."

Stepping between them, I offer Nevan a smile. "And you did. Aside from you killing him before he could make a move, we now have an idea of your abilities." Turning away from him, I walk over to Jack's corpse and kneel beside him and search his body while I talk. "Given I have no idea what we'll face on the Coast, it's good that we have at least one archer who has fast reflexes."

"I wonder how he'll do whenever we encounter another rift." Dorian muses. "It's been a while since we've seen one but I have no doubt that we'll encounter a few on the Coast."

Looking between us, Nevan's brows draw together. "Rift?"

I open my mouth to answer but Dorian beats me to it. "Giant, floating green crystal that shits out demons from the fade."

Nevan's eyes widen as he looks at me. "Truly?"

My expression grave, I nod. "Remember that blast I told you about that I supposedly stepped out of?" He nods. "They're caused by that and can show up anywhere." I hold out my hand as it ignites. "When encountered, we need to kill the demons and then I will seal it with my mark."

He watches my hand curiously before I extinguish it. His gaze meets mine with a nod. "I will help however I can."

Once we finish relieving the bandits camp of all useful items and coin, we pack them away on our horses. While we wait, we sit around the fire which Dorian kindly reignited. As talk to pass the time, I keep glancing uneasily at the partially burnt corpse lying close to me. I draw my cloak closer.

"Bothering you?" Dorian frowns.

"A bit." I mutter, resisting the urge to look at it again.

"Perhaps we should bury them?" Nevan offers. "Isn't that how humans deal with the death?"

"Sometimes." I smile.

"Or we can move them." Dorian says, looking at the flames.

I scoff. "Yeah, I'm not picking them up. I'm sure they're heavy alive. I'd hate to attempt picking up their deadweight."

Glancing across the flames from me, Dorian smirks. "If you want to be primal about it. I, however, have a better option."

Before I can ask what he means, he casually raises a hand as a dark purple and black orb emerges. Within moments, we hear groans as Richart's corpse slowly rises up and stands on his feet once more. He stands there and Nevan falls off his seat on the log beside me as both our eyes widen in horror. I begin reaching for my sword when Dorian frowns.

"There's no need for that." He says. Motioning towards the forest beyond. "They won't hurt you."

Sure enough, we watch as both men's bodies shuffle away through the trees, away from the camp. Once a good distance off, Dorian closes his hands and the bodies drop into the snow and are still once more.

As I turn to look at Dorian, I notice Nevan's bow aimed at Dorian who looks up at him with a bored expression.

"Nevan!" I exclaim. "What are you doing?"

"He's a necromancer." Nevan says, his eyes never leaving Dorian. "He's a blood mage!"

Dorian rolls his eyes and I come to stand between him and Nevan's arrow. "Nevan…" I say softly. "Put the bow down. Let's talk about this before anybody does anything rash."

"Also, if you're going to shoot me, I advise that you kill me immediately." Dorian sneers. "Otherwise, I'll attack in self-defense." I shoot him an annoyed look before returning my gaze to Nevan.

"Please Nevan?" Seeing my pleading expression, he frowns and lowers his bow. As I step forward, I gently take the bow from him. "Let's just sit and talk first, okay?"

He remains stony faced as I convince him to sit beside me on the log once more. Gripping the bow, I turn my attention to Dorian.

"Explain."

"I think you'd know by now that I'm not a blood mage." Dorian says, shooting a glare at Nevan. "Necromancy is not a form of blood magic. It's a perfectly normal school of magic." He shrugs. "Unlike in Tevinter, it's just frowned upon here."

I glance off in the distance at the two bodies once more and see that they still haven't moved. "Are they—"

Dorian nods. "They're still dead. I simply used magic to have them moved out of sight." He spreads his hands out ahead of him. "No heavy lifting for any of us. You're welcome."

The sun was already on its downward descent in the sky and I look off in the direction the other two rode went. Noticing two dots heading towards us, I rise to my feet and walk forward in attempt to get a better view. Reaching for my sword, my eyes narrow to see who it is. To my relief, one of them wave their hand and I smile.

"Guys, ready the horses." I call to Dorian and Nevan, my eyes never leaving the others who slowly come into view.

Cassandra is the first person I can make out when she gallops up to me, pulling her horse to a halt a few feet away.

"Well?" I ask. "Any luck?"

She nods "I was right. We were riding too far west instead of east." She leads forward. "Up ahead is Ravensden which isn't far from Gherlen's Pass. From here, we just need to ride north east and we should intersect the highway." She grins. "We should make it to the pass by nightfall."

Blackwall remains on his horse while Dorian douses the fire and the rest of us mount. Once ready, Cassandra takes the lead and the rest of us follow.

As Cassandra predicted, we were able to intersect with the Imperial Highway. After a while, we rode under the metal arches, signifying that we were finally close to the Pass. Following the path lined with the occasional flaming stone basin, we arrived at the place.

Nevan nudges me, and I follow his finger. He point to the large stone dwarven sentinels standing on the peaks on either side of the entrance to the Pass.

"We're here." Cassandra announces. We turn into the bridge leading into the small valley lined with assorted tents of what I presume to be pilgrims, travelers and merchants. Dwarfs and humans alike eye us curiously as we ride pass. Dorian points out a small open area beside a young and older dwarf.

"Evening!" The man greets us with a huge grin.

"Hello." I nod, offering him a smile. "You don't mind if we settle beside you, do you?"

"Not at all! My boy and I are happy to have some company." He turns to the boy. "Aren't we?"

The boy smiles up at me, his bright blue eyes shining in the moonlight overhead. He remains silent as his father turns to face us once more. "Name's Bodahn. Bodahn Feddric." He says, thrusting a hand out to me, which I take. As he shakes my hand, he motions to his son. "This here is my boy, Sandal." He glances at him. "Say hello to the nice woman, Sandal."

He looks at me for a moment before letting out a small sigh. "Hello."

"It's nice to meet you both." I say, motioning for the others to start unloading our camp equipment. I glance behind him at the small cart. "Are you a merchant?"

"We are!" He beams, hugging his son to his side. "My boy here are heading up to the Frostbacks to Skyhold."

"Skyhold?" Cassandra asks, eavesdropping from behind. She hands the canvas to Blackwall and walks over to where we're standing. "Did you get the summons from Josephine?"

"I did!" He nods. "I'm guessing you know Miss Montilyet?"

"We do." I nod. "We just left there a couple days ago."

"Is that so?" He asks. "Well, we received a letter from Miss Montilyet a while back, asking us to come to Haven."

My smile falls. "Haven's gone. It was destroyed in an avalanche." I frown.

Mimicking my expression, he nods. "So we've heard. We were on our way to Haven from Highever when we got the tragic news. We were about to turn back around and head back to Highever when a bard at one of the inns we stayed in told us about Skyhold."

"Word travels fast." Cassandra mutters from beside me.

"Are you part of the Inquisition?" He asks.

I nod. "We are."

Leaning forward slightly, his eyes widen. "Have you met the Inquisitor then? I've heard stories of him."

Cassandra and I exchange a glance before I raise a brow at him. "Him?"

"Yes! I've heard he was last in South Reach when he got into a bit of a scuffle with a nobleman over a lost bet."

"Oh?" I smirk. Cassandra is about to butt in to tell him who I am when I hold up a hand to stop her. "That's unfortunate. I hope he's okay." I look back at the others before turning to Cassandra. "We should go help them so we can eat and rest for the night." She nods, turns away and waits for me. I smile at Bodahn. "Once we get settled, feel free to join us. We can talk and get to know one another."

As we walk back to our respective camps, Cassandra looks back at Bodahn before lowering her voice. "Why didn't you say anything?" She hisses. "There's an imposter out there posing to be you. If he continues to get into fights, word could spread and ruin our chance at gaining any new alliances!" She frowns. "It could even wreck our chances with..."

"Iron Bull." I finish. "I'm not worried about it scaring him away. He's a Qunari mercenary. I doubt he'll be scared off by some gossip." I motion to Bodahn. "Plus, he'll find out the truth once he gets to Skyhold." I shrug, offering her a smirk. "I would love to get the other's reactions to his stories about the fake Inquisitor getting into fist fights."

She rolls her eyes at me but I notice the hint of a grin before we begin helping set up camp.

That night, we sit around the campfire, talking and drinking with Bodahn while Sandal casually watches. As the valley begins to grow darker as people turned in for the night, we shortly followed suit. After wishing our new friends goodnight, my companions head to their tents.

Sitting on my bedroll, I begin taking off my hauberk. I glance over at Nevan who is artfully arranging the furs around his little area. "Maker willing, we should be in Edgemont by tomorrow evening." I comment.

"Where's that?" Nevan asks, sitting back on his heels to examine his handiwork.

"It's along the Imperial Highway." I reply, placing my armor and sword belt beside me. "About halfway between here and Calenhad Docks." I pause for a moment, frowning as I watch him. "It'll be a while until we reach the Coast."

Sitting down on his bedroll, he looks over at me. "I know."

I frown. "We'll have to see about getting you a thicker cloak of your own. The Coast is known for its bad weather so I'll need mine back." My lips turn up into a smile. "Traveling is never much fun to begin with without the added annoyance of being cold and wet."

He nods in agreement and we say goodnight to each other and lie down.

Hearing the flap of my tent open, my eyes snap open. I steal a quick glance over at Nevan as my hand tightens on the hidden nearby. Confirming that it's not him, I spring up into an upright position. I grab my dagger, only halting as I see Sandal's eyes widen in the glowing green light from my mark. Putting my dagger down, I look down at my hand curiously. So far, the only reason it usually ignites on its own is when a rift is near. The thought makes my stomach knot up before I turn my attention to the boy who is now looking at my handle.

"Sandal." I whisper, trying not to wake my sleeping companion at the other side of the tent. "What are you doing here? Where's your father?"

His glance slides up to meet mine as he smiles. "Pretty." He says, pointing to my hand.

I nod, closing my hand to extinguish it. His smile falls and he looks at me sadly.

"What are you doing here?" I whisper again.

He blinks at me and I wait patiently for a moment before he points to my hauberk beside me. I follow where he points but see nothing out of the ordinary. "Enchantment!" He says quietly.

My brows furrow and I sigh. "I see…" I nod. I reach over for my sword belt and motion to the flaps with my chin. "Come on, Sandal. I'm sure your father is worried about you."

We both rise to our feet and I follow him out while I tie my sword belt around me. Once out, I place a hand on the boy's shoulder and lead him back to his camp. Sure enough, a panicked Bodahn is looking around, whispering his son's name so he doesn't wake the rest of the valley. As he sees us, he lets out a relieved sigh and runs up to him.

"Oh, you found him!" He breathes, hugging his son to him. "Maker bless you! Where was he?"

"He wandered into our little camp." I say. "I figured you'd be looking for him so I walked him back over myself."

"Thank you so much! I'm so sorry for him disturbing you."

Smiling, I shake my head. "It's nothing to worry about. I'm just happy he wandered toward us instead of elsewhere."

He nods and turns to the boy. "Thank the nice woman for bringing you back, Sandal."

His bright blue eyes look up at me. "Thank you."

"Anytime." I smile.

"If there's anything you wish from my stock, name it and it is yours."

I rub my hand with the mark absently, thinking about its random inviting. "That's very kind of you. Perhaps if you aren't living right away in the morning, I can take a look."

He nods. "Sounds good to me. Thank you again."

As he leads his son back into their small tent, I turn to face the center where a raised platform and well sit. I frown, glancing around the subtly moonlit area for any signs of a rift. With my hand on my sword hilt, I walk around the area, glancing down at my hand every so often to look for even a minor flicker. Finding no sign of a rift, I head back to mine and Nevan's tent and lie back down on my bedroll.