They set off down the path leading away from Flemeth's hut, travelling in relative silence, and when they finally reached what looked to be a main thoroughfare, they turned north, heading towards Lothering.

Morrigan led the way, knowing the area a lot better than the other two, and Elissa was happy to walk alongside her. Alistair brought up the rear. He walked with his hand on his sword and his eyes were near-constantly scanning the surrounding area for any danger. Elissa did notice, however, the frequent glances he made towards the witch beside her, his hand never leaving his sword.

She let out a sigh and focused on Morrigan. "I have a few questions. If that's alright."

"I may have answers," the witch replied. "Ask."

"Have you never been outside the Wilds?"

Morrigan shrugged, "from time to time. I have been to the village I mentioned, watched its people, and pondered what curious beings they are. On occasion, I purchased goods from the village merchants. There I spoke with men, a little. There they stared and knew me as an outsider."

Elissa couldn't help the thought that these 'men' were not just staring because the witch was an outsider. But, thankfully, before she had the chance to accidentally say something to that effect, Morrigan continued with a sigh.

"Mother wishes for me to expand the horizon of my experience beyond the Wilds. Even she was not born here."

"Is that what you want?" Elissa asked.

"What I want is to see mountains. I wish to witness the ocean and step into its waters. I want to experience a city rather than see it in my mind. So, yes, this is what I want." She paused, looking a little uncertain. "Actually leaving is … harder than I thought, however. Perhaps mother is right - it must simply be done quickly."

"It's not easy, leaving everything you've ever known," Elissa commented. Morrigan raised an eyebrow, but Elissa quickly cut her off, changing the topic before they could continue that chain of conversation. "So, tell me about this village to the north."

The witch narrowed her eyes slightly, but acquiesced. "'Tis a small place of little consequence called Lothering. No more than a stop along your Imperial Highway where travellers purchase goods from local farms and smiths." She shrugged again. "I would go more often were it not for the town's chantry. It makes the village particularly intolerant and unpleasant for a stranger such as me."

Elissa frowned. A chantry. Of course, there had to be a chantry. There were everywhere. Hopefully, they'd be able to bypass it without too much trouble.

"A chantry?" Alistair piped up from behind them. "And they never, in all this time, thought that maybe you were a witch?"

"Of course they have," Morrigan replied. "They even called out their templars once. They found nothing." She briefly turned her head and settled him with a glare.

Figuring she'd probably pushed the other woman's patience enough for now, Elissa stayed quiet. Neither one of her travelling companions seemed all that keen to continue any conversation and so the group fell back into silence once more.

Eventually, they started to see more signs of civilisation, a few houses and farms dotted about the countryside. Their silent marching led them further on, to a large stone bridge, on which they were met by a small troupe of armed men. One of the men approached them as they neared.

"Wake up, gentlemen! More travellers to attend to," he said and the others gathered around. His eyes settled on Elissa. "I'd guess the pretty one is the leader."

One of the others, a mountain of a man with a couple of axes strapped to his back, leant forward to whisper in the man's ear. "Err … they don't look much like them others, you know. Uh … maybe we should just let these ones pass?"

Elissa tried not to smile. He wasn't quite as quiet as he thought he was.

"Nonsense!" the man who seemed to be in charge snapped. He turned his attention back on Elissa and smiled. It was probably meant to be charming, but it reminded her of the salesmen that'd turn up at the castle from time to time trying to get her mother or father to spend an exorbitant amount of coin on whatever their latest product was. "Greetings, travellers!"

Alistair frowned. "Highwaymen," he grumbled. "Preying on those fleeing the darkspawn, I suppose."

"They are fools to get in our way," Morrigan said simply. She turned her attention on the men and grinned. "I say teach them a lesson."

The highwayman held up his hands. "Now is that any way to greet someone?" he asked. He shook his head and continued to smile his fake charming smile. "A simple ten silvers and you're free to move on."

Unfortunately for the man, Elissa had been trained from a young age in the Ferelden court and while in the battlefield and Wilds she was clearly out of her element, dealing with people trying to get money or favour out of her? No one shook her down. She settled the highwayman with a steady, albeit overly pleasant, look and smiled gently. "You should listen to your friend. We're not refugees."

"What did I tell you?" the mountain man grunted. "No waggons. And this one looks armed."

"The toll applies to everyone, Hanric," the highwayman pointed out. "That's why it's a toll and not, say, a refugee tax."

"Oh,right," the mountain said slowly. "Even if you're no refugee, you still gotta pay."

"Oh, so you're toll collectors, then?" Elissa asked.

"Indeed!" the highway said, grinning. He seemed excited that he'd got her on the hook. He gestured around them at the crumbling masonry, even managing to look almost upset for a moment. "For the upkeep of the Imperial Highway! It's a bit of a mess, isn't it?"

Elissa smiled. "Perhaps you should charge more, than," she suggested.

"You want to pay more?" If it was even possible, his grin grew even wider. "Well, we'll happily accept donations."

"I'm just saying," she shrugged and slowly gazed over his small group of men, "it's a rough business for such a pittance."

The man halted. "I - I could be mistaken, but that sounded threatening." He let out a nervous laugh.

"Sounded like a threat to me," the mountain man added.

"Interesting," the highwayman said, crossing his arms and settling back a bit in his stance. "Because, you seem a bit outnumbered."

Elissa mirrored his stance and shrugged again. In her mind though, she was not quite so relaxed. Her subtle words had always worked before. Clearly though, outside the court, things played by a different set of rules. Ones a lot more inclined to lead to settling differences with swords rather than carefully worded alliances and takeovers. Maybe she'd have to try a much less subtle approach. "It's hard to be outnumbered by common thugs," she said haughtily.

"Well I can't say I'm pleased to hear that," the highwayman said, shaking his head. "We have rules, you know."

"Right!" the mountain said, grinning. "We get to ransack your corpse, then. Those are the rules."

Okay, so that didn't work either. Elissa unfurled her arms and straightened up. An unfamiliar feeling rose inside of her, a wave of heavy anger, it was a feeling that she'd no doubt ponder on later. But for now? She looked the highwayman dead in the eye and sneered. "You're welcome to try."

"Let's finish this, gents!" the highwayman shouted and, in an instant, every member of his troupe had their weapons out and ready to go.

Unfortunately for them, Morrigan was just as quick. She thrust her staff towards them and the whole group was immediately frozen in place. "Well, get to it!" she shouted. "It won't last long!"

Heeding her call, Alistair and Elissa unsheathed their blades and started to slice their way through the pack. A small part of Elissa was uncomfortable with attacking someone that couldn't fight back, but then the spell broke, the man nearest her immediately swung out at her and she quickly got over it.

It actually didn't take too long, before the group of highwaymen lay strewn across the stone road. Only their leader remained and when he saw what they had done to his men, he quickly dropped his sword and held up his hands.

"All right! We surrender!" he cried. "We - we - we're just trying to get by. Before the darkspawn get us all."

"Get by?" Elissa spat. "You're a criminal!"

"Yes, I'm a criminal; I admit it." He hung his head. "I apologise," he said, sounding anything but contrite.

"I want some questions answered," Elissa said, narrowing her eyes at him.

"But, what could I tell you?" he stammered. "I'm not even from these parts!"

"Even so, you must have heard something?"

The man shrugged. "Everyone's saying how the Grey Wardens betrayed the king during the darkspawn fight. Got him and themselves killed. Teyrn Loghain pulled out just in time. First thing he's doing as regent is putting a bounty on Grey Wardens."

Elissa frowned that was not good, they'd have to be even more careful than they'd thought. "Have you heard about any survivors from the battle?" she asked.

The man looked between the three of them, uncertain. "Um, a couple. Maybe. A group of wounded ash warriors came by earlier," he paused and gave his nervous laugh, "got right out of their way."

Elissa raised an eyebrow and he wilted back down again.

"What's been going on in Lothering?" Alistair asked.

"It's packed full. The bann took his men north with Teyrn Loghain, so there's no one looking out for it except a few templars at the chantry." He turned his attention back on Elissa, giving her his best pitying look. "I was just trying to feed my family, you know?"

Elissa doubted very much that this man actually had a family, but then her eyes settled on the bloodshed around her and she instantly felt sick. What had she done? Was this the new normal for her now? That feeling burned in her stomach and she fought to keep it down. She glared at the man and sneered. "Then start running," she said, her voice low and steady. "An don't come back."

"Right, yes. Okay. Bless you!" he said. He picked up his sword and, without even a backwards' glance at his fallen men, ran off down the highway.

Once he was gone, Elissa turned her attention on her unfortunately now-routine post-fight pattern. She wiped down her blades, then pulled out a rag and wiped the blood off her skin. Next, even though it almost made her sick to do so, she methodically went through each of the fallen men's pouches and bags. She found a few potions and healing poultices, even a couple of dog treats, and all-up a handful of coins.

When she was done, she stood up to find Morrigan giving her an intrigued look. In an instant, the look was replaced with her usual one of complete indifference, but Elissa counted the brief look of 'something' as a win. She rinsed out the cloth with some water from her waterskin and handed it to the witch. "Here," she said quietly.

Morrigan looked like she was about to snub the offering, but then slowly she reached out and accepted the cloth, using it to remove the few specks of blood that flecked her skin.

"There's a bit more stuff around here," Alistair called out from behind a nearby pile of crates.

His voice snapped the women out of their moment and Elissa gave Morrigan an awkward couple of nods of her head, before she blushed and hurried over to where the other Grey Warden was.

Sure enough, Alistair seemed to have found the bandits' horde. If horde could really be used to describe the measly collection of trinkets. Still, it was just lying there, with no owner now, and it could contain things they could use. Again there were a few elixirs and even more coins. The rest, Elissa packed into her backpack, ready to be sold at the next merchant they came across that would take them.

Turning away from the boxes, the Wardens were surprised to find that they were actually now overlooking a small village.

"Lothering," Morrigan said, walking up beside them.

"Pretty as a painting," Alistair added, as the group looked out over the collected of cobbled-together brown wooden huts in front of them.

"Oh, you have finally decided to rejoin us, have you?" Morrigan asked the man. "Falling on your blade in grief seemed like too much trouble, I take it?"

"Is my being upset so hard to understand?" Alistair snapped. "Have you never lost someone important to you? Just what would you do if your mother died?"

Morrigan smirked. "Before or after I stopped laughing?"

"Right," Alistair said slowly, narrowing his eyes at the witch. "Very creepy. Forget I asked."

"What did you want to talk about, Alistair?" Elissa asked the man gently.

"His navel, I suspect," piped up Morrigan. "He certainly has been contemplating it for a long enough."

"Oh, I get it," Alistair said, rolling his eyes. "This is the part where we're shocked to discover how you've never had a friend your entire life."

"I can be friendly when I desire to," the witch replied. "Alas, desiring to be more intelligent does not make it so."

"Hey!" Elissa snapped, getting their attention. She looked between the pair, as if challenging them to continue. Fortunately, they seemed to realise that now was not the time.

Alistair cleared his throat. "I thought we should talk about where we intend to go, first."

"I need to look for Fergus," Elissa said simply. "He might still be alive."

"He was out scouting in the Wilds, wasn't he?" Alistair asked. "That's what the king said."

"Then attempting to look for him there would be foolish," Morrigan pointed out. "He is either dead, or he managed to flee to the north."

"Very sensitive," the soldier deadpanned.

Morrigan sighed and turned to look at Elissa. "I am simply saying that it is foolish to mount a rescue when you have no notion where this man is and the Wilds are overrun with darkspawn. You will either find him outside the Wilds with other survivors, or … not at all."

"He's my brother," Elissa hissed. "That doesn't mean I shouldn't look for him!"

"That's exactly what it means," Morrigan replied, just as forcefully. "You wish to do this brother of yours a service? Avenge him. The time to look for survivors will come later."

Elissa huffed and turned away. She moved over to the edge of the bridge and leaned over it, taking deep breaths and trying to calm her thoughts. She had to find Fergus. He was her only family now. But, maybe Morrigan was right. Without knowing where he actually was, it would be a fool's errand. And, as much as she wanted to, taking the time now to gallivant across the countryside for him would take time away from getting allies for the blight. Time that she just didn't have to spare.

"I think," Alistair said gently, taking the few steps towards her, "what Flemeth suggested is the best idea. These treaties … have you looked at them?"

She nodded. She'd managed a quick look as they'd been walking.

"There are three main groups that we have treaties for: the Dalish elves, the dwarves of Orzammar, and the Circle of Magi. I also still think that Arl Eamon is our best bet for help. We might even want to go to him first. "

"Is there a way to contact the Grey Wardens?" Elissa asked.

Alistair shook his head. "Short of leaving Ferelden to seek them out, the only place to send word to would be Weisshaupt Fortress, and that's thousands of miles away."

"Right," she said with a sigh. "Then we need to find these people. Assuming Arl Eamon is still at Castle Redcliffe, how far away is that from here and how do we get there?"

"He should be there," the soldier agreed. "We'll need to head to the mountain passes in the west and go from there. If he isn't there, someone will be able to tell us where he is."

"Okay," Elissa said with a nod. "And what about the Dalish elves. They tend to wander about and I haven't heard of a clan being anywhere near Highever for quite some time."

"I suggest east from here, towards the Brecilian Forest. From there we should hear word of one of the clans that wander that area."

"And that leaves the dwarves in Orzammar, not exactly an easy trek through the Frostback Mountains, and the Circle tower at Lake Calenhad in the north," she said, thinking of the geography of Ferelden in her head. "And I think it'd be best to stay clear of Denerim for now. At least until we know a bit more about what's going on and have a bit more support on our side. If Loghain has set himself up as Regant, as the highwayman said, then he's probably at the palace there and I don't plan on just walking up to him unprepared."

"Agreed," Alistair said with a firm nod. Then he gave a cheeky grin. "I suspect that they aren't just going to let us walk around the capital. Only a suspicion, of course."

"Just go after your enemy directly," Morrigan cut in. "Find this man, Loghain, and kill him. The rest of this business with the treaties can then be done in safety."

Alistair rolled his eyes. "Yes, he certainly wouldn't see that coming! And it's not like he has the advantage of an army and experience and -"

"If your wish is to come up with reasons why something cannot be done, we will stand here until the darkspawn are upon us," Morrigan snapped back.

"Enough!" Elissa all-but-shouted. She closed her eyes and let out a heavy sigh. "Can you two please just …? For one moment?"

Thankfully the pair seemed to get the message and fell silent.

"Thank you," she said. "Let's just go. We'll see what's in Lothering and then go from there."

"Fair enough," Alistair said. "I don't know about you, but I'm starving."

Both women looked at him, eyebrows raised. "What, we've been walking for ages. And we left before we even got any stew." He glanced over at Morrigan and grinned. "Hey Morrigan, seeing as you're such a good cook …"

"I suggest, that you do not finish that sentence," Morrigan bit back.

Apologies for the hiatus (work, life, work, PC issues, etc.). I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Reviews/feedback are always welcome! This wasn't beta'd so any and all mistakes are my own.