"A mage shackle?"
"That's what Rivaini said," Varric said to Anders, "I've been lucky enough where I've never had to deal with the slave-trade business, so I've never seen one up close and personal."
"I've heard of them; one of the older Templars would talk about them, say we were lucky the Chantry didn't use them. I never took it seriously - thought they were exaggerating," Anders said, "Would explain a few things though, like why I couldn't sense it."
They, along with Aveline and Merrill, took another curve around the high mountain pass, Merrill leading them in a single file line. To get as much time as they could to investigate, the group had departed early that morning.
When they reached the entrance to the cave, Merrill turned to face the non-mages and said, "We must be cautious. Keep your eyes open. If you find anything unusual or if anything calls to you, do not touch it; get either Anders or me and we'll deal with it."
Anders crossed his arms and glared at her, saying, "No, you'll come to me. If it's a demon, she'll just make a deal with it."
The elf glared back and said, "I am not some reckless child, Anders!"
"Could have fooled me," he quipped.
"Not to get in between your scheduled name-calling, but we are here for a reason," Varric disarmingly, but hesitantly, said, "Any idea what it is we're looking for?"
"A book," Anders listed, "A statue. A mural. Anything, really."
"Just keep an eye open for something that looks out of place or feels like it shouldn't be there," Merrill supplied.
"There's nothing to go on," Aveline noted a little sadly, "How can we find the source when we have no information?"
"That is where we come in," Anders said with a smirk, patting himself on the chest.
They spread themselves through the cave and began their search. No fog obstructed the view and a little morning light streamed into the space. The floor was flat while the rest of the cave looked rough and chiselled. It was a single room, they found, with no alternate openings or passages, in a circular shape with a high dome ceiling. Merrill and Anders felt along the wall on opposite ends, each with their own tiny light glowing from their hand. Varric took a sweeping look around the room and eventually began checking for hidden objects and false doors.
Feeling useless as she stood in the center, a long look around showed Aveline that there was nothing remarkable to be found. There weren't even any plants or fungi growing, that she could see. She looked down at the long shadow that cut the light from behind her in half. Something on the floor in front of her caught her eye for a flash of a second, but when she focused in on the spot, there was nothing. She stared for a few more moments. She was about to write it off as her imagination when happened again; a slight shift in shadow and light, so minute she could have easily missed it. She stared a little longer to make sure her mind wasn't playing tricks on her; it happened again, this time she noticed it over a broader area.
"Merrill," the Guard-Captain called out and the elf turned around, "Could you stand over here for a minute?" She pointed to a space on her left.
"What is it?" the other woman asked while she walked to the spot, light still glowing. Aveline noticed the shadows didn't shift as much with one of the mages practically still. But even with the aid she found she couldn't make heads or tails of what lay before her. Then Merrill got down on her knees and decided to drag her fingers of her free hand across the floor.
"Anders!" she called excitedly, "Aveline found something!"
The other mage turned around from his inspection of the wall, walked over, and said, "Let me see." He crouched down on one knee and traced the impressions in the ground. Quickly he realized what the impressions were - runes. They were shallow and softened along the edges from time, even so the shadows were barely noticeable. The one his finger currently drug along was an ancient Tevene symbol for "window."
Merrill observed out loud, "I think you're standing on Falon'Din." Anders looked around his feet until he noticed the elf was looking at the guardswoman, who shortly after chose to step back towards the entrance and out of the way of the mages.
The sun glazed across the sky while Aveline and Varric stood outside along the cave's entrance, letting the mages trace the sigils. Other than the image of the elven god, every other carving they found was a word or symbol.
The mages were still engrossed by the time the sun began to dip behind the horizon, and Aveline took the initiative to drag them away from their discovery, grabbing Merrill by the arm and pulling her out of the crouching position she'd been holding and pulling her back towards the opening while Anders followed behind. They began to travel back to Kirkwall.
Varric let out a long sigh and asked, "So, boys and girls, what did we learn from this little field trip?"
"Nothing concrete," Anders said, his brows furrowed deeply with thought, "At least not that we didn't already know. The engraving opens the Veil when activated, but really anyone could have guessed that."
"Something to do with travel," Merrill muttered airily, staring up at the lightly clouded sky.
"Merrill, all those sigils were some variation of 'door' and 'window' and 'gate'; where did you get travel?" the other mage pointed out with slight annoyance.
"Falon'Din," she stated, "He guides people in the Beyond."
"Do either of you have any ideas as to what happened to Hawke?" Aveline interjected.
Anders let out a small groan from the back of his throat and, after a bit of thought, said, "There was one time where the Warden and I were trapped in the Fade along with an entire city and it's Baroness. Maybe there's something similar to that - a door to a part of the Fade where human souls are trapped."
"So... you think Hawke is... possessed by a ghost?" Varric concluded.
"In a sense," Anders said, "When I merged with Justice, we became one. If two human souls were to merge, I doubt the process would be as seamless. That might be why she's so confused; her memories probably became jumbled in the process."
"Still doesn't explain the clothes," Merrill muttered, eyes still up at the sky.
"Well I don't hear any better ideas," Anders quipped.
"Do I have to get between you two?" Aveline threatened. Varric's boisterous laughter billowed from his burly chest. It died shortly afterward, leaving a silent group. When they made it to Kirkwall, they parted ways, returning to their respective homes.
Fenris watched from a seat in the pews as Hawke walked slowly up the aisle in the Chantry, lingering frequently to gaze at the decor or to brush her fingers along the furniture or walls. He could practically see the whispered secrets the walls of this place granted her as she tried to decipher the words. Even up until the confrontation with Varania, he had spent many nights struggling to recall the quiet truths about his sister and his family that lay just outside the realm of his working mind.
"I admit, I had hoped you were exaggerating when you described Hawke's condition to me," his friend Sebastian said, sitting on his right, "I cannot imagine what she must be going through."
"No," Fenris agreed plainly.
A few moments of silence passed by when the Chantry brother turned to his companion and asked softly, "Are you sure we should trust her fate to Anders and Merrill? Should we not inform the Circle of this? Request Orsino's aid?"
"Hawke would not want the Knight-Commander's involvement," Fenris replied.
"Perhaps," the archer said, "However, putting aside our companion's questionable circumstances, the Circle has more resources. Two apostates living rather busy lives could not uncover information very quickly as opposed to a team of mages."
The elf mulled over his friend's words briefly before consenting, "It is something to consider." At that moment, Hawke returned to where the two men were sitting. As she approached, Fenris stood from his seat.
"I'm ready to return to the estate," she said.
Fenris nodded, turned back to the other man, and said, "Until next time, my friend."
"Of course," Sebastian said with a smile, "You know where to find me."
The couple departed in silence, which Fenris left it at, understanding that the woman beside him would be overwhelmed with the sheer number of places they had visited that day beginning in the early morning. They entered her High Town mansion and he walked with her to her room, where she finally started to slouch, and even threw herself into her bed face first, arms spread across the mattress like a bird taking flight. He looked her up and down a few moments before deciding to take his leave.
As he turned around, he heard her slightly muffled voice softly ask, "Can I sleep forever?"
He turned back to regard her from where she laid, unable to tell if she was looking at him or not.
"Sleep as much as you need," he said, "But you will need to wake up some time."
With those words, he left, only wondering afterwards what exactly she was referring to when she asked him.
In Another World
Fenris stood erect by his master's seat while he and his elven apprentice dined at the table. A tall, stained glass window lit the relatively small dining room as the late afternoon sun spilled its light, colors and shadows cutting across various angles.
"I have ensured that a Templar will be stationed outside her cell at all times," Varania announced in regard to Master's concubine.
"Good," Danarius said, "Until I can return her to complacency, she may need to be subdued. Unfortunately, until her new collar arrives, it is unwise to clear her mind again." He took a bite of some green, leafy vegetable on his plate. A tightness formed in Fenris' chest.
"Magister, if I may ask, do you know what happened?" she said as he continued through his meal, "The amount of defiance, the clothes - it's all rather... bizarre."
The master wiped his mouth with a napkin, saying, "Obviously she has had assistance in her rather ineffective method of escape. The shackle she wore was infused with very powerful and complex magic; only a mage who understands how it functions would be able to remove it." He looked rather pointedly at the elf woman and continued on. "I suspect once that was accomplished, she soon had some sort of quarrel with a demon, resulting in her altered memories. During this, her accomplice abandoned her to her fate."
"M-Magister," she choked, her eyes wide and skin suddenly deathly pale, "I was tending to your laboratory - I would never betray you!" Fenris mentally scoffed.
Danarius chuckled darkly and said, "Oh, Varania, you don't get to be a magister by good faith. But relax - if you were uninvolved as you say, you have nothing to worry about."
The master continued his meal while the apprentice more picked at the remaining pieces of her food. Fenris wasn't so sure about his master's assessment of his concubine, though he knew better than to say so aloud. She called herself "Hawke", kept saying "Kirkwall" and a number of other names that seemed just out of reach of his memory, and all of it felt right. "Hawke" didn't quite seem right however - she felt different in a way he couldn't explain.
He made a silent prayer for her, wary and curious of the possibilities that could come.