It's been a long time since i've uploaded a new chapter. PoTJ wont be getting a new chapter for a while, but I hope this will apease some of my readers that follow this story. I hope to have this particular arc in Redcliff done in the next chapter, then some bonding and the next arc will start. I think the Circle of Magi will be next.

EDIT 8/23/17: The previous upload had been unedited, random inclusion of Lelianna when she was not in this chapter have been fixed.

Chapter 21: Reunion

The tunnels leading down under the windmill were dusty; cobwebs trailed down from the ceiling. Aria covered her mouth with her gloved hand to prevent the fit of coughing she would have been subjected to otherwise and reached out with her other hand to ignite a fire in her palm. Her ears twitched from the shuffle of her companion's feet behind her and with a nod to them and Uthnehn by her side, she lit the way through the tunnel.

Looking back at her current party, she had brought only Alistair, Morrigan and the mabari. She hadn't wanted to leave the town they spent the night protecting to be left unguarded as she led them into an obviously questionable danger. Aria trusted Sten and Leliana enough to believe they would not abandon the townsfolk for their own safety or interest.

Besides, Leliana chose to join them, and Sten had nowhere but a cage and possible wanted poster if he were to lose his temper again and…Aria shook her head away from those thoughts. She tried not to think about why he had been in that cage in the first place.

The journey through the musty, old tunnels was uneventful for the most part.

There was a steep dip in the path as they headed farther underground and the air was stale and heavy. It was hard to breath in the encompassing darkness that swallowed her fire light and every crumble of earth over their heads had the mage gulping in paranoia. She felt as if the walls around her would cave in under the weight of the earth above them. When such thoughts stuttered her steps, she was relieved at least, that Uthnehn could ease her troubled mind if only for a few more minutes by pushing his head into her unoccupied hand for an ear scratch. At that point she would release a heavy breath that helped the tension as the group carried on.

Mentally, Aria would apologize to the humans with her. She was nervous and twitchy the deeper they went. The earth and pebbles fell from the low hung ceiling and dusted their hair and faces, and the lichen that brushed the tips of her ears was uncomfortable and caused shivers to run up her spine. The tension that hounded her every step had to have been malleable to the others as the silence left hanging in the air was thick, choking any thought to forming words to ease any of their worries. She shouldn't make the ones following her lead nervous, it would make everything worse. So she focused on thoughts outside of their situation.

But the only real thought that held even a moment's distraction for her was Alistair's confession. His connection to the Arl they were set to save and the king that was left to the slaughter at Ostagar was complicated. Shocking, really. Aria believed she took it well enough when they were above ground. But it honestly hurt to think too hard about it. Because there was a prince amongst whatever sort of group she's made of them all. For her fellow Warden, and dare she think friend, she would work to get passed the mind numbing shock of his heritage. They had no reason to linger on such things anyways. None of them were invested in the politics of Ferelden—except for bringing Loghain to justice—and Alistair had no desire for the throne in the first place.

Earth crumbled and landed atop her head. It caused a sharp flinch and yet again, Uthnehn was making a pleading noise as he brushed up against her, reaching with his broad head for her free hand. Her twitchy fingers focused on his coarse, short fur before relaxing her shoulders and once again breathed evenly through her nose. She pointedly ignored the rocks beginning to flatten out and form a barrier over their heads and the chill of Morrigan's magic at her back.

When dirt passageways turned to cracked stone and the walls stretched at least an extra foot above their heads with supports of dusty wooden beam did the group well and truly start to straighten their backs from their cautious, hunched back forms. There was a distinct incline to their path now; not just one of them breathed a sigh of relief. Before too long, the outline of a door could be seen where the fire alight in her hand barely reached.

They reached it shortly after as Alistair pushed ahead of the women to pull open the heavy door. Dust kicked up in the wake of the movement, causing Alistair to cough as Aria and Morrigan stood back.

Pushing the door against the wall, Alistair peaked in, yet already all three could see the torches had been lit, and had been cared for at some point recent. The warrior stepped into the more well lit area and checked the immediate area before he gave them the 'ok' to follow him in.

Stepping in, Aria extinguished the fire in her palm to stand in a long corridor with lit torches at regular intervals and a wall of iron bars. The elf started, stepping back as if shocked to see the hand of an emaciated skeleton peeking out from one of the cells. She collided with Morrigan, whom grasped her shoulder, turning to glance at the sharp eyed woman, the witch gave her an equally stern expression.

Straightening up, the Mage mumbled an apology before turning to Alistair for an explanation.

"We're in the dungeons now." He pointed down the hall. "Around the corner will be another hall, at the end should be a flight of stairs that leads into the castle."

"Right…" The elf sighed as she squared her shoulders.

There was a faint echo of what sounded like a pebble hitting the wall and Aria's brave expression faltered yet again.

"Let's just do what we came here for." Alistair stood a little straighter in her stead. His brown eyes locked on the path ahead. Aria looked up at him, thought about what he had to lose if they did not do what was asked of them.

A dead father figure, a young boy who could have been like a brother if he had stayed in this place.

She couldn't let that happen.

With one last deep breath, she looked ahead as well and began their trek down the hall. They stopped yet again though at another echoing noise, this one more distinct than the sound of a pebble hitting the stone surface of the walls around them or the floor they walked upon.

Morrigan hummed.

"It seems the Arlessa and her son may not be the only ones to survive."

"Then we free them from this place too. Prisoner or not." Aria decided.

"They may also have valuable information to give." Morrigan commented as they continued on.

Uthnehn took the lead then, tail wagging and nose going to the floor before his head would perk up, and then go back to the ground as if looking for something.

They turn the corner.

"Hello…?" A voice echoed and Aria stopped in her tracks as her heart leapt from her chest and into her throat. It wasn't anyone from the group that traveled into the tunnels, they were as tight lipped as she was and looked to her before eyeing the hall as the echo of the other voice bounced off the stone walls.

Alistair looked distinctly troubled, like he hadn't expected there to be a prisoner regardless of whether they had decided to free anyone who was still obviously alive.

And there was something almost familiar in the sound of the voice as Aria picked up her pace to end the sudden mystery they've gained to the one they've already been tasked to deal with. Their steps echoed on the stone walkway and that in turn caught the attention of the prisoner.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" the man's voice wavered nervously and they come to the one cell that held a living prisoner. Aria turns her head towards them and she stops moving. All the breath in her body just escapes her without her consent as she and the imprisoned man in blood stained robes lock eyes. She sees him in a similar state of shock as his intake of breath is audible to everyone in the dungeon.

The two mages stare at each other as if this was the first time they'd thought another like them did not exist until they were faced with them this very second. Suddenly, Aria wanted to do nothing more than turn away and continue on, to face the disgusting hordes of walking dead than deal with the dark haired man staring at her with wide, haunted eyes.

"Jowan…." Her voice was so soft, she was sure the only one to hear it was Uthnehn, as the mabari's ear twitched just so before the man before them broke out of his own trance and took a hesitant step towards the iron bars of his prison.

"By the Maker….it-it's you. I can't believe it's you, how did you get here?" He breathed.

And then the mage remembered her task at hand and the shock was replaced with a cold douse of ice water and she took a step away from the prison, shaking her head. She stumbled into Alistair, who reached out a concerned hand to steady her.

"Jowan…What have you done." She murmured to the man she never thought she would see again after leaving her and the woman he claimed to love surrounded by Templars.

Jowan seemed to have remembered their last endeavor together as well before he flinched back, his hands retreating from the iron bars. He brought his hands to his chest as he unconsciously rubbed at a rough scar that was on both sides of one hand. Aria turned away sharply with an intake of breath as she realized the scar he rubbed had to have been on the hand he had stabbed as he overwhelmed everyone with blood magic to escape. She felt her fists clench as a tense silence swallowed the people in the dungeon. Aria could feel Jowan's eyes watch her as she struggled not to make a sound, or choke on nothing.

She didn't think she was ready for this, whatever this was turning into. An intervention? A confrontation? Aria didn't much like the idea of either of those words. And from the look on Jowan's face, he wasn't ready for her either.

A rueful noise that left the human mage brought her attention back to him as he gave her that familiar self pitying smile she remembered as he lowered his hands and covered the scared one, as if not showing it meant it didn't exist, as if it wasn't the proof of a broken friendship.

"Yeah…I never expected to see you again either." He murmured. He sighed, looked away from her, somewhere over her shoulder where her companions must have looked either utterly confused or indifferent.

"Just another bloody mistake on my part, like the phylactery, like the magic, like everything in my miserable life I've screwed up." The man in the prison continued to mutter.

"You mean it was you who poisoned the Arl?" Alistair's suddenly very loud voice made the elven mage flinch, as if he had broken her out of her own little world, where it had only been she and Jowan and their twisted little reunion.

"Yes, I poisoned the Arl." Jowan pursed his lips, looking only at Aria as he answered, as if she had asked him and not the soldier behind her.

Aria wanted to balk at how easily the confession came. It made her angry for some reason. She didn't understand it, but the ease in which the man before them had bowed his head and professed his crimes in that infuriating, self loathing tone made her want to slam her fists against the iron bars, or break the cage holding this man just so she could leap in and strangle the bastard.

And that rage in her, so odd and unfamiliar to her caused her fists to tremble and her teeth to grit as she furrowed her brow and stared at this damned, bloody mess of a man.

"A mistake, is that all this ever is to you? Poisoning the Arl, or sending me to my death by convincing me to help you escape with that Lily woman? Is that all you can call it?" The bite in her harsh tone brought all eyes on her, yet for once, Aria couldn't care less.

Then Jowan's eyes got wide, Aria watched him forget himself as he stepped closer and wrapped his fingers around the bars and peered out at her with an imploring, almost hopeful gleam in his dark eyes.

"Lily, oh my sweet Lily! They didn't hurt her did they? What happened after I left?"

Aria couldn't help but once again back away into the reassuring hard metal of Alistair's armor. She felt his hand come up to her shoulder. She spared him a glance, his brow was deeply furrowed and his confusion was clear as day even in the dramatic lighting or the sparse torches in the hall. He looked as if he wanted to speak. Maybe to ask her how she knew this other man, or if she was ok when the shake of her tense shoulders clearly told the others without her needing to speak that she most certainly was not ok right now.

But there was no point to running now. As much as it loathed her to speak with the desperate man in front of her, he admitted to poisoning the Arl, and now, with the knowledge of knowing Jowan has done blood magic before, she must question if he had been the cause of Redcliffe's nightly terrors as well.

"The chantry sent her away." She finally informed him. "I don't know where, better than where I was going, probably." She muttered bitterly, her brown eyes dull as she recalled the templar's that surrounded her. The threat of being sent to death as a practical stranger was sent away with an escort. The redhead had been in hysterics after witnessing Jowan cut his hand and take control of his blood.

Before, even though Aria had hardly known Lily, she was terribly concerned for the woman and if she would be ok.

Now though, she felt oddly numb even thinking of the woman's name. She hadn't even been friends with Lily, hadn't known her last name or spoke to her until that fateful day. Now, she realizes, with everything she had gotten roped into doing after joining Duncan, she hadn't really thought of the poor woman.

Aria wonders briefly if that made her a bad person, forgetting someone that could have been sent off to jail or worse because of her childhood friend.

"She must hate me so much…" Jowan moaned. "If she even lives. Maker, how did it come to this…"

He looks back to Aria before sighing miserably.

"So, my beloved is gone, you are looking at me as if I was that stupid brat that stole the little pastry I slaved over for your thirteenth birthday after he smacked it out of your hand, and I am in a cell after making a mess of things. What have I missed?"

"The undead wreaking havoc in the town every night and killing a lot of innocent people." Morrigan supplied unfeelingly.

"Are you responsible?" Aria asked out right.

"No! I-I know this looks suspicious, after all I did to the Arl, but I'm not responsible for the creatures. I was already imprisoned when that began." Jowan gave another rueful smile as he looked down at his torn robes. Aria noticed many of the stains were new. Or, new-ish. "Isolde came here with her men one night, demanding I fix what I had done, I thought she had meant the poisoning. What she told me was happening in the castle was news to me….S-She thought I was lying." He whispered as she rubbed his hands habitually once more.

They watched him space out, finch at nothing but at whatever memory was going through his mind.

"She thought I summoned a demon to torment her family. I was…I was tortured, but she was not pleased with my answer." Jowan lowered his head and in that instance, Aria felt a sickening pang in her chest. She looked down and the two shared a silent moment, her anger in him lost in the pity she felt.

Aria hardly flinched at his grime confession to torture. But even as her stomach roiled in distaste at the thought, she found herself not the least bit caring. It...frightened her. How uncaring she felt in the face of the man that use to be her world in the Circle. Aria took a deep breath and look back up at the man regardless. Because there were still questions to be answered.

"Why were you here Jowan. How did you get from escaping the Circle to being locked in this cage?" she whispered. Jowan turned his head up to her yet again.

The tale he spun made her gut twist and she could hear the leather gloves Alistair wore creak with his agitation.

Loghain had found him, he said. Half starved and scared out of his wits trying to avoid public areas until he had stumbled upon the Teyrn's party as they were heading to Ostagar. He said, at first he ordered his men to lock him away. His escape from the Circle was widely spread since he was now labeled a dangerous Blood Mage. Jowan said he wasn't sure if they were going to kill him or return him to the Circle for retribution. It wasn't until after the events that happened in Ostagar—of which Jowan was actually ignorant of except for knowing Loghain's forced retreated. When they arrived at the Teyrn's manor in Denerim he was then locked in the dungeons there.

It wasn't until the Teyrn and another man came into the dungeons to strike a deal with him did he actually speak with Loghain for the first time.

"However, it was the other man, a much older one with a big nose that did most of the talking. Teyrn Loghain just kind of watch with this big scowl on his face most of the time. He looked kind of troubled, I think. That was when they brought up the Arl." Jowan informed.

They asked him to kill, and in return, they would speak to the Circle about his punishment for his crimes.

By the end, Aria was pale. So many things happening were over her head. The Teyrn sending an assassin to kill the arl, Loghain betraying the king, killing off the Grey Warden's, Aria didn't understand what he could be playing at. What was his end goal.

Too much was going on by the hands of one man and it terrified her that he had the power to do it.

"How could you listen to a man like Loghain!?" Alistair shouted "Do you not realize what he has done?"

The mage in the prison jumped in fright, curling in on himself.

"I was told the arl was a threat to Ferelden. I just wanted to return to the circle, to go home. But I've been abandoned again, haven't I?"

"And you would kill to go back there now?" Aria spat

"Connor—the arl's son…he started to show…signs. Lady Isolde was terrified he would be taken away, Teyrn Loghain knew she was searching for a tutor in secret."

However, apparently, Jowan hadn't been able to teach the boy much. And by the time Jowan was starting to question the reason he was really there, it had been too late, the arl was poisoned and he was locked away.

"You're here to fix things, aren't you?" he asked her.

Aria bit her lip. She wasn't even sure if she would be able to save Isolde's son at this point. What if the boy had been corrupted by a demon already? By the sounds of it, it could have been Connor himself who had started this nightmare.

"Please Aria, I'm sick of all this running. I wish, if there is still a little part of you that considers us still friends, to let me out. I want to help fix this, I know I don't deserve a second chance, or to even call you a friend. But I need to try and fix things, make them right again."

Aria let out a harsh laugh.

"Fix this? And how would you fix this? With more blood magic Jowan?!" the mage raised her hand, motioning to his bloodied robes.

"Face it, even if you had succeeded and Loghain had spoken to the circle, you would have ended up, at the very least, tranquil. But if I let you go, what's stopping you from betraying my trust a second time and running off?"

Aria turned away, from both the man she once considered a friend, and her current companions who had been silently by her side during this whole exchange.

"Aria…please I-I'm so sorry…" Jowan pleaded. But the elf shook her head, and hunched her shoulders.

"No Jowan, you can stay in your cell."

And then with a quick few steps Aria was sprinting down the hall like her life depended on it, catching her companions off guard as they turned from the imprisoned, miserable mage without a second thought to chase after her.