Coming home to two children hugging him was an odd feeling. Caleb dragged him to a chair so he could listen to the latest melody, while Salla excitedly showed him how she could turn a teacup full of water to ice. It briefly occurred to him that he could likely have asked the king to take both children back to Ferelden. And yet... somehow, the idea didn't seem to have any merit to it.

When had Kirkwall started to feel like home?

#

Merrill giggled.

Fenris glared at her. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You're in love!"

"I am not."

"You keep looking at Hawke with sad puppy eyes every time his back is turned."

"There are no puppy eyes."

"It's all right, you know. Even you can be happy once in a while. It won't kill you. But your face might crack if you smile, so be careful."

Gabriel fought very hard to keep a straight face. He was about to order a round of drinks when one of the barmaids tapped him on the shoulder. "Someone in the back rooms wants to see you, love. Seemed a bit insistent. Sorry, the louts over there need more ale."

He shook his head, and headed in. Fenris fell into step behind him.

#

Two templars were waiting. He'd have been worried, but if they had intended trouble, they'd have sent far more than two. "The barmaid sent me. What do templars want with me?"

"Hawke." The man bowed. "Your speech against First Enchanter Orsino was stirring."

The woman smiled. "We hope you can aid us more directly."

Templars were asking for his help again. Clandestine, no less. This should be interesting. "You seem capable enough of capturing apostates and blood mages."

"A lone apostate or blood mage is of little consequence. But a group of them have become organized." The man gestured. "And many wretches in the city lend them a hand."

The woman's voice tried to be soothing. "The commoners are merely misguided, Ser Mettin."

Ser Mettin shook his head. "Regardless, these mages are proving difficult to track down."

He still wasn't sure he liked templars, but he knew he didn't like blood mages. "Depending on what you need, I could be of assistance."

"This hive of blood mages and their supporters know us. If we get close to them, they'll scatter like cockroaches." Ser Mettin nodded at him. "But you could take them unawares."

"Ser Mettin, we cannot dally. If the blood mages see us with Hawke..."

"Here are the details." Ser Mettin handed him a piece of parchment. "Eliminate these threats to Kirkwall. We'll send any future communications by letter." They left.

He glanced at the parchment, and then looked at Fenris. "So, apparently, not only did I join the city guard when I wasn't looking, I'm also a templar."

"I did advise you to keep your head low."

Gabriel leaned forward and kissed him. "So, want to go hunt some blood mages later?"

"But what shall we do with the rest of the evening?"

#

Merrill was pacing back and forth in front of the mirror. "Lethallin, I need to ask you for a favor." She sighed. "I thought the arulin'holm would be the last thing I needed, but the eluvian still won't work. I think..." She hesitated. "I think I have to go back to the..." She looked away. "Spirit that helped me at the start of all this."

Spirit. She still prevaricated. "Why do you think this demon will help?"

"He knows about the mirror. I don't know how much. He wouldn't tell me everything, and it's dangerous to trust..." She looked down at her hands. "He said he witnessed its forging. He told me how to cleanse it of its corruption. He must know how to make it work."

He gestured for her to sit, then took the chair across from her. "What do you mean it doesn't work?" He still wasn't sure what it was supposed to do.

"Well..." She gestured. "Look at it. Do you think it's supposed to just sit there and show nothing at all? I can feel the power in it, but it's..." She shrugged. "Like it's asleep. I can't seem to wake it."

"Nothing bad ever comes from summoning demons." He shook his head at her.

"That's why..." She took a deep breath. "Why I need you to come with me. I've called to the spirit, but he doesn't seem to hear. He was sealed in an artifact on Sundermount. I have to look for him there. But..." She inhaled. "If things go wrong..." She looked up at him. "If he possesses me, I need you to strike me down."

He stared at her. "You want to summon a demon that may possess you, and then have me kill you?" He slammed his fist into the table. "How is that a plan?"

She put both of her hands over his fist. "Please do this for me." She shook her head. "There's no one else here I trust." When he tried to look away she moved to keep eye contact. "Lethallin, please... come with me. I don't want..." She sighed. "Anything bad to happen."

Carver was going to kill him. And if he didn't go with her, she'd just end up going by herself and then... "If you're determined to do this, then I'll come with you to make sure nothing goes wrong."

She hugged him. "Ma serannas. You've no idea what a relief that is. The demon is sealed in a cave on Sundermount. The sooner we get this over with, the better."

#

"You seem troubled." Fenris opened the wine bottle.

"My brother's girlfriend may have just asked me to kill her."

Fenris blinked. "Merrill?"

"She wants to go to Sundermount to communicate with her demon. And she wants me to come along to deal with the matter if something goes wrong."

"That's..." Fenris filled the glass. "A very unfair thing to ask of you."

"And if I say no, and she goes alone?" Gabriel shook his head. "Then not only is she still going to end up dead, but she may take a lot of people with her."

"I'll come," Fenris said quietly.

"Fenris..."

"And, if necessarily, I'll do what needs to be done." He met Gabriel's eyes. "She's like a sister to you. I don't understand it, but I acknowledge it."

"I can't ask this of you."

"You aren't." Fenris leaned forward and began setting up the board. They played in silence for several minutes before Fenris spoke again. "Orana... has asked if I am moving in."

"You are welcome to, you know."

"It is strange, being in a house with people. Servants. Children."

Gabriel shook his head and laughed softly. "Tell me about it."

#

Varric spent most of the walk to the Sundermount trying to talk Merrill out of her plans. "Does anybody else get the feeling that this is going to end badly? Just me huh?"

"It's not all bad Varric." Merrill tried to give him a cheerful smile. "Think of the stories you'll be able to tell later.

"No offense Daisy, but I could live without telling anyone that we murdered you on some mountain side, it's little hard to made that one sound good."

Gabriel sighed. He'd hoped the dwarf's considerable powers of persuasion would succeed where his own had failed. There was one thing left to try. He walked towards the Keeper.

She smiled when she saw Merrill. "Welcome home, da'len."

Merrill shook her head. "This isn't a homecoming, Keeper. Why is the clan even here? You should have moved on ages ago."

"The clan still has business here, da'len. We will leave when it is time."

"It was time three years ago." Merrill gestured. "You can't stay here. Eventually, the humans will force you to leave."

"There are plenty of hiding places in these mountains. We will stay until my business is done." The Keeper clasped her hands behind her back. "If you are not returning to us, what has brought you back?"

He took a deep breath. "If one of the Dalish becomes an abomination, what do you do?"

"If you are hoping the Dalish hold miracles, child, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. Even if the demon is driven out, the soul is left scarred. It can never recover. Not truly. Like a wounded animal, it will fall prey to scavengers. The only cure is death."

How cheerful. "How can Merrill fix the eluvian?"

"I wouldn't restore that cursed thing, even if I could." The Keeper shook her head angrily. "It has stolen lives, brave young souls who were well loved by this clan. And if awakened, it will do far worse."

"No one is pained more by their loss than I, but the mirror wasn't responsible."

"You must come to your senses, Merrill. This evil cannot be allowed in our world."

"It is part of our world. It has been in our world for centuries." Merrill put on her stubborn face. "But I'm wasting my time. You'd rather fear the past than reclaim it. This is pointless, Hawke. Let's go."

All of this would be so much easier if he knew why the mirror was such an issue. If it had been cleansed of the corruption, what was the threat? This appeared to be getting them nowhere. Right now, short of this Mahariel himself coming over the mountain and telling her not to do it, he saw no way to convince Merrill. For a moment, he considered trying to convince Merrill to come back to Kirkwall so he could send a letter to the Wardens. But she was already on her way up the mountain. With a sigh, he followed.

#

As expected, the statue was ugly. And creepy. Merrill was shaking her head. "Something is wrong. This is where the spirit was bound. But now, it feels... empty."

Oh. Good. They could all go home and put this behind them. Preferably never to be spoken of again. "Who bound this demon here and why?"

"There was a war, long ago. Between my people and the Tevinter Imperium. After the magisters sunk Arlathan, my people made a last stand here, fighting on the graves of our elders. I don't know if it was the Elvhenan or Tevinter who bound the spirit, but he was left here from the war."

He put a hand to his staff. "Maybe it freed itself?" Killing demons was okay. Killing friends possessed by demons not so much.

"It would have taken powerful magic to break him free of this prison." She paced in front of the statue. "You couldn't just set him loose. Nobody could. Not without doing something terrible. This is very wrong."

"How are we going to finish the mirror now?"

"I don't know. I don't understand what's happened. How can he be gone?"

A footstep came from behind them, scraping against the stone. "I happened." Keeper Marethari descended into the chamber.

"Keeper, what have you done?"

Marethari's face held sorrow. "The demon's plan was always for you to complete the mirror. It would have been a doorway out of this prison and into our world. You would have been his first victim. I couldn't let that happen, da'len."

That was the kind of information it would been useful to know three blighted years ago. "You didn't think to mention that the demon was gone before we hiked all the way up here?"

"It's not gone," Marethari said. His blood went cold. "I couldn't fight it in the Fade while it was trapped. And I couldn't banish it without making it stronger. So I made myself its prison. Kill me, and it dies too. Merrill will finally be safe."

"No. You can't ask..." Merrill covered her face with her hands. "I won't do this."

"You always knew your blood magic had a price, da'len. I have chosen to pay it for you." The Keeper smiled gently. "Dareth shiral." The demon took over.

#

Merrill used her staff to fling rocks at the demon. Gabriel hit it with a blast of ice. Suddenly, it vanished, and Keeper Marethari was standing there again. She fell forward. "Keeper," Merrill cried out, rushing towards her.

"You've beaten it, da'len. You are so much stronger than I imagined. The demon is dead."

"Keeper, I..." Merrill's face was joyful.

"Let's leave this awful place. The clan should hear the good news."

He wanted it to be true. For Merrill's sake. For the clan's sake. He closed his eyes, shook his head, and then gazed at the Keeper. "You told us that the demon was bound to your life. It would only die with you."

Merrill's eyes went wide, and filled with tears. She turned, and drew her dagger. "Ir abelas, Keeper." She cradled the old woman's body as the Keeper fell. "What have you done? I don't want this. I never wanted this. Creators, please let this be a bad dream..." Gabriel stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'll wake up and feel like an idiot and she'll scold me for not listening..."

He wanted to comfort her. "Exactly which part of, 'don't talk to demons or awful things will happen' did you fail to understand?"

"If there was a price to pay, I should have paid it." She stared up at him angrily. "She had no right to interfere."

"I don't think anybody wanted this. Not even the demon. Marethari did what she had to."

"Why couldn't she have believed in me?" She bent her head. "I don't know what to do now." He pulled her to her feet, and into a hug. She clung to him. "I... I should go to the clan. Someone needs to know, needs to come... take care of her."

#

Fenarel met them a few steps outside of the cave, several other hunters behind him. "We know the Keeper came here. What's going on? Where is she?"

"Fenarel, the Keeper, she..." Merrill started to cry again.

One of the other hunters gestured. "Look at her, Fenarel. She's covered in blood."

"What have you done, Merrill?" Fenarel walked towards the cave. "Keeper. Can you hear me?"

"She's dead." Merrill choked out the words.

"I should have guessed you'd turn on her, you monster," a hunter said.

Gabriel moved to stand between the elves and Merrill. "This was a tragedy. I promise you, I'll make sure no one else is hurt by Merrill's blood magic."

"You expect us to take the word of a shemlen?" The hunter started to reach for her blades.

"Stand down, Ineria." Fenarel's voice was tired. "She was our First, once. The Keeper loved her." He wouldn't look at Merrill. "More than she loved the clan, it seems."

"Fenarel... I'm sorry. I never wanted this. If I could have saved her... if I could have died instead, I would have."

"Words are cheap." Ineria practically spat the words. "That you're still breathing says enough."

"Enough, Ineria." Fenarel met Gabriel's eyes. "Human, take Merrill away from here." He gestured, and the other elves followed him.

#

"They'll never forgive me. If you weren't here, Hawke, they'd kill me." Merrill sounded broken.

Fenris glanced at her. "This... Keeper of yours, she was a friend?"

"She was like a mother to me. To all of us."

"Then I'm sorry."

Merrill glared at him. "No, you're not. She's just one more mage to you. Why would you be sorry she's dead?"

"I'm not sorry she's dead." Fenris's voice was calm. "I'm only sorry she died for you."

"What?" Merrill nearly stumbled.

"Let's hope the sacrifice of someone who cared for you that much isn't wasted."

Gabriel glanced down at his hands. Any other day, he'd be defending Merrill, telling Fenris his words were uncalled for. Today, though... perhaps they were exactly what she needed to hear. Everything about this was senseless, and could have been avoided. If the Keeper had told them everything. If Merrill had listened to what she had been told. If Arlathan had never fallen.

#

Merrill let them take her back to the estate. Varric tucked her into the bed in one of the guest rooms before coming back and joining them in the study. "She took a hell of a beating."

"Let us just hope it took," Gabriel said, staring out into the garden.

"Yeah." Varric helped himself to a bottle. "I know what you mean."