The following morning, the others head for the Assembly to crown Bhelen, come what may. I whine about being tired so they let me stay in bed, with Barkspawn on watch. I wait a few minutes, and then seek out the pack full of stuff from the Deep Road. Ooh, shiny things. I spend an hour or so happily inspecting the pieces of armour, the weapons, the amulets and other things they've found. I fumble around the bottom of the bag to see if I've missed anything, and pull out a thin golden armband with a single amber-coloured stone embedded in it.

Pretty. I brush my thumb over the stone, and suddenly I'm in the Deep Roads; it's dark and there's piles of pinkish gunk everywhere, and there's a woman's voice echoing off the walls, low and rasping, reciting some kind of poem:

"First day, they come and catch everyone.

Second day, they beat us and eat some for meat.

Third day, the men are all gnawed on again.

Fourth day, we wait and fear for our fate.

Fifth day, they return and it's another girl's turn.

Sixth day, her screams we hear in our dreams.

Seventh day, she grew as in her mouth they spew.

Eighth day, we hated as she is violated.

Ninth day, she grins and devours her kin.

Now she does feast, as she's become the beast.

Now you lay and wait, for their screams will haunt you in your dreams."

For a moment, all in my vision is quiet, and then the voice comes back, much louder than before.

"BROODMOTHER."

I see a brief glimpse of a terrifying, huge monster, and I scream. I cover my ears, and then a woman comes rushing in while Barkspawn barks at us both.

"What's wrong, child, what's wrong?"

"I…I…" I can't explain. "I fell asleep, and I had a nightmare, I'm sorry," I lie sheepishly. The woman frowns at me and stalks away, obviously annoyed by the apparent false alarm.

I get back into bed, shaking, and Barkspawn curls up next to me. "I wish I'd left that stuff alone," I whisper to him, and he huffs at me. No sympathy from him, then.

The others return shortly with good news; Bhelen is officially the new king of Orzammar, and he's pledged Orzammar's assistance in the battle against the darkspawn. Neria immediately notices something is wrong when they come back. My eyes move involuntarily to the pack of Deep Road things, and she gasps. "Did you go through my things again?" she accuses, hands on her hips.

I nod, hiding under the bedcovers. "Did you…have another vision?" she asks, softer this time.

Another nod.

"Will you tell me what you saw?"

I emerge from hiding. "The broodmother," I mumble. Neria takes a sharp breath.

"Oh, da'len," she exhales, exasperated.

"I heard a woman, too. She was reciting a poem, I think, but it was scary."

"Maker," she groans, joining me on the bed. "Why did you do that, after what happened last time?"

I shrug. "Was curious."

"Faellathi, for the love of the Creators, don't touch anything else we bring back unless I tell you it's ok- please?"

"Ok. Sorry."

"It's alright, da'len."

"Neria?"

"Mm?"

"Are we leaving Orzammar, now?"

"Almost. Shale's talk with Caridin brought back some memories her of her past; she remembers where Cadash Thaig is, the place she came from. We're going to go check it out in a few days, after we've had a chance to rest. When we come back, we'll head to Denerim to wait for the Landsmeet."

"And we'll stop in Redcliffe to get Sten's sword first?"

"Yes, with any luck. And, we'll also stop by the Dalish camp; Wynne's apprentice may have joined them many years ago, she's hoping to find him."

"We're going to see the Dalish?!"

"Yes, we're going to see the Dalish. You'll have to behave yourself, mind you, they're already twitchy enough as it is."

This is very exciting news. I want to see a real forest and real aravels and halla and—the Dalish!

The prospect of meeting the Dalish is enough to keep me going for the next few days while Neria takes Shale and the others on their expedition to Cadash thaig. The trip goes relatively smoothly; they face more deepstalkers than darkspawn, and Shale finds a big wall with the names of all the golem volunteers etched into it, including her own, and it triggers a few more of her memories. They take charcoal rubbings of the carved names to bring back to the Shaperate, and the leader of the Shapers is very pleased with this new information.

Finally, we say goodbye to Orzammar, bringing with us our new dwarven companion, Oghren, who wants to fight with us against the darkspawn who destroyed his House. He smells really bad, because he's always drinking, but other than that he's alright, I think. So, we all head back down the mountains and past Lake Calenhad, towards Redcliffe.

We don't stay for long enough to set up camp; Sten just takes one look at the dwarf who bought his sword and the man scrambles to give it back. A few days of walking later, we arrive at the outskirts of the Dalish camp. The sentinels at the outskirts are surprised; the group has nearly doubled in number since Neria's first visit.

They decide to allow only the previous visitors into the camp as well as Zevran and myself, as fellow elves. After speaking with a few of the elders, Neria takes everyone else further into the forest to look for Wynne's apprentice. Wynne had told me about her elven apprentice, Aneirin, who she'd been a bad mentor to when she was younger. He'd run away from the Circle to seek out the Dalish, and Wynne had given up hope that the templars didn't find him, until she heard about the group's recent-ish encounter with the Dalish.

Meanwhile, the elders tell me about their face tattoos, the vallaslin, and about travelling in aravels, and I even get to meet the halla, and the herder shows me how to greet a halla by bowing, and then patting their noses gently after they bow in return. I love them.

It's fun, and when the others return, having successfully made the reunion between Wynne and Aneirin happen, we head to Denerim, with Wynne seeming less tired than usual. Good for her.

The most important development I've noticed since we left Orzammar is that Neria and Zevran are head over heels for each other. Neria acts all girly around him, blushing and giggling, and Zevran whispers things in low tones in her ear that makes her blush and giggle even more, which is unlike her. To make matters worse, I've been kicked out of our tent! Now I have to share with Leliana, because Neria and Zevran want to sleep in the same tent and kiss. Animals.