Lothering had fallen. No getting around that now. Darkspawn still continued to trickle in through the massive breech in the wall. No civilians in sight, but that may not be such a good thing if experience had taught him anything. When he had sensed this incursion, he never expected to find something like this. Not on this side of the wall, anyway. He'd witnessed the unfortunate destruction of a number of clans and holds out in the southern wilds. But this was a different story entirely. This was a city—a 'recently reclaimed' city, but still just as significant. The citizens were lulled into complacent safety from the promised protection of that great wall. They wouldn't have been prepared for this, not by a long shot.

To the west, the fires still burned brightly in the Chantry. Figures, he muttered to himself, bet their Maker told them to save the faithful first. Bloody Bastards. If they would have just worked with us in the beginning, none of this would have happened.

As the moments passed on, he grew more and more aware of the pair of eyes watching him. His last remaining subordinates waited impatiently for his order. Both were flawed in their own way, but damn good wardens. No denying that. Oghren would likely belch at the sentiment, but even he would lay his life down for the cause should the situation call for it. Nathaniel…well, the man was stubborn but honorable nonetheless, he'd proven that much. Had events unfolded differently, he might have been able to call him a friend. But there was no room for that now. He could only hope the man had a pragmatic head on his shoulders at the moment.

Oghren's raspy voice brought him out of his thoughts quickly. "So, what's it gonna be, Commander?"

He looked down again at the fallen city. With the keen eyes of a seasoned soldier, he picked out the areas that the templars had neglected. "There and there." He ordered, pointing to separate ends of the city. "Fill in the gaps in the defenses. Do whatever you can, however you can. We meet at the Suite by sunrise tomorrow." He steeled himself as he looked at them again. He tried hard to push back the thought that he was likely sending them to their deaths. The death of the last true Wardens. "In death, Sacrifice."

Neither Oghren or Nathaniel looked particularly surprised by the sentiment. Nothing about the situation gave hope for a victorious outcome. Should they survive…it wouldn't be without a cost.

"Aye." Oghren nodded, an oddly somber look in his eye now. For a moment he paused as if to say something more but quickly thought better of it. He stood abruptly, drawing his greataxe from its holster. He let out a battle cry as he charged in his designated direction. "Come on, blighties! Oghren's got a treat for ya!"

Nathaniel scoffed at his companion. "That's how I'll want to remember him, surely." He let out a sigh as he turned to face his commander. "There's a vault beneath the throne in the great hall. My nephew's birthday will unlock it. See that my sister gets the contents."

Several dozen thoughts swirled around the commander's head in that moment. He wanted scream at the man for keeping such precious secrets about the Warden's rightful keep. But no, given the present circumstance…it wasn't the time. He nodded curtly to him. "You have my word."

Nathaniel set his eyes on his destination. He scanned the area for his targets, already drawing his arrows. "Whatever you think…it's been an honor, Rainier." He deftly leapt from the safety of their perch and right into action with the grace of an expertly trained marksman, leaving Rainier alone once again.

Rainier replaced his helmet and stood slowly. It was an odd thing facing certain death. He wasn't sure he had before, not like this. If they failed here, it would be the doom of all Thedas—what was left of it. There was an odd sense of peace that filled him as he jumped to the street below, readying his weapons and preparing to meet his end.

The weight of Hawke's story still felt heavy in the small room. Fenris was propped against the far corner. Solona had asked him to get some rest, but it seemed his mind only wanted to wander now. Alistair recognized the look on his face. He was angry, maybe even a little hurt. He may not have had much reason to like the man; he had been rather rude to Solona after all, but he couldn't help but feel sorry for him. If he'd been in his shoes, he'd be ready to tear the world down. Can't really blame him after what he had just learned.

"There's nothing more anyone could have done…" Solona said to him, "I'm glad to know she's building a life with someone better, now."

Recalling her voice made him look to her now. Solona shifted uncomfortably next to him. The couch wasn't very large to begin with. She was trying to give him space, he could tell. But she was exhausted…magic apparently is just as hard as a vigorous workout it seemed…so hard to think of her with magic…

She blinked her heavy eyes open again slowly. He was afraid he might have actually said that bit aloud for a moment. But the panic faded just as quickly as it rose, she seemed to be only checking on Ayden. The kid was a marvel. They hadn't been in this place for maybe more than a couple of hours and already he seemed to have mastered that old surveillance machine. He also appeared to have the instinctive ability to tune everything else around him out, focusing on his own little world. Alistair could understand that, he still did it himself on occasion. His mind traitorously wandered to the what ifs. What if Solona hadn't left? Would they have had a child like him? Gotten married? Intact house, tiny little yard for the boy, maybe a Mabari? She still could have been a doctor; doctors are needed everywhere right? Would it really have been so bad? He never thought about having a family, or being a father. But Ayden changed that the moment he met him. Such a stupid thing really, he barely even knew the kid. Don't get attached, he reminded himself, she left. She clearly moved on.

He looked down at Solona again. She was now attempting to curl herself into a ball to get more comfortable. She was taking care to keep as much distance between them as possible. Watching that brought a whole new wave of bad feelings over him. Hurt. Regret. Jealousy, even. She won't go near him now that he reacted so badly to the magic thing. But there's probably someone else back in Denerim waiting for her…maybe that someone didn't care…maybe that someone was better than him…

He rose from the couch suddenly, too quickly for it just to be normal. Her gaze shot up to him, her eyes grew alert again. She couldn't relax around him, another little pang of hurt. "I'm sorry, Alistair, I didn't mean to—"

"No, no, no, no, it's fine. Really, you need the rest." He hesitated a moment, his voice dropped a little as he added. "I've, um, heard healing magic isn't easy…"

She offered a small, forced smile. She was trying to be nice to him. Another ow, a bigger ow. "It is a more advanced skill, yes."

Before he could manage to bumble out something else, Ayden interrupted him. Thank the Maker. "Hey, mom, can I play a game?"

Solona sighed heavily. "Baby, we don't have any games with us."

He pointed his small fingers to the monitor in front of him. "The computer does."

She closed her eyes, the tone of her voice made it sound as if she'd had this conversation hundreds of times before. "What game is it?"

"Uh, it's called…Sool…Solli…I don't know the word."

"Oh," Alistair chuckled as he looked over the boy's shoulder. "That's Solitaire."

Ayden's eyes lit up as he looked up at him. "Ooh! Will you play with me?"

He didn't look over to her but he could tell Solona was staring at him. Don't screw this up, you blighted idiot. Alistair knelt down to his level and looked at the screen in contemplation. "Hmm, well, the thing about solitaire is you can only play by yourself."

Ayden's shoulders drooped. "Oh, okay."

"But," Alistair continued, "I could show you how to play?"

Ayden's eyes lit up again. He looked over to Solona with a pouting face. "Please, mom? Pleeeaassseee?"

Alistair slowly turned to her as well. It was then that he noticed something in her expression changed. In all their time together, he'd never seen her like this. It was almost as if she were ready to cry. She still managed to smile for Ayden though. "Of course."

"Yes!" Ayden whispered very loudly to Alistair once he thought his mom wasn't paying attention anymore. "The puppy face always gets her."

Alistair tried hard not to laugh but it didn't pan out well. He snickered as he looked at him. Surely Solona was rolling her eyes at him. "You don't say?"

"Every. Time. Except for cookies. If you want cookies, you gotta clean your room and then you gotta do the puppy face. Then it works." As the screen loaded the card game, Ayden grew a scowl on his face. "What's this?"

Alistair couldn't help but laugh. "This is Solitaire."

"Um, where's the spider thing?"

"That's just the icon, the only spiders here are on the back of the cards." Alistair clicked the button to move the nearest card to show him. "See?"

"Well, that's just stupid."

Dorian huffed a laugh in his half-awake state. "Oh, don't get bored of it yet, little one. You haven't even heard the rules!"

"Well, rules are stupid too."

Alistair nudged him playfully. "No, no, no, no. You gotta have some rules to play a game. Like this: see you got your numbers 1-10, then you got the jack and the queen, and then the king—"

"Eww, no! King's are stupid, I don't wanna play!" Ayden angrily hit the X button to close the screen.

"Whoa, now, what did the kings ever do to you?" He asked, trying to keep a joking tone. Last thing he needed was Solona to see that he somehow managed to piss off her son. He chanced a look back at her, only to find her sleeping peacefully already. Small miracles.

"They're just stupid. And mean."

"Well, have you ever met a king?"

"Yeah," He said in a tone that might as well have said 'well, duh', "We have to see King Cailan like all the time."

"Oh, I see. So, is he stupid and mean?"

"Yeah! I don't like him. Grandpa wants him to be my dad but that's stupid too."

Dorian sat more upright in his chair, "Now that's a juicy bit of gossip."

All those bad feelings he'd been trying to bury seemed to threaten to surface now. Alistair felt like he was barely holding together, but falling apart in front of this little kid was just not an option. His little voice rang in his head; he called him a hero earlier. Heroes don't fall apart. He kept himself as calm as possible as he spoke. "So, your grandpa wants your mom to marry the king?"

"Yeah. But that's stupid. He's not my dad and I don't like him."

"Right, of course…"

"So," Dorian asked, as if he somehow knew to take Ayden's attention off of Alistair for a moment. "Who is your dad, then?"

"Well, I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"I haven't met him yet." Ayden's scowl turned sad, he slumped in his chair more.

"Ah, I see. Why is that, exactly?"

"Well, he lives, like, really far away."

Dorian sat forward in his seat, resting his elbows on his knees. "Does he now? Well, do you know his name?"

"Uh…no? I guess not. Mom just says he's my dad. We were supposed to find him here."

"Oh, so 'really far away' is here?"

"I think so? Are we, like, really far away from Denerim?"

"Hmm," Dorian stroked his short beard for a moment—Maker damn this thing, ugh, what I wouldn't kill for a proper shave, "I would say so. There aren't many towns in Fereldan farther away than here."

"Yes!" Ayden's mood changed suddenly. He perked up again, practically bouncing in his seat. "We were on the road for like forever."

Dorian chuckled. "So, do you know what kind of job he has? What does your mom say about him?"

"Well…" It took the boy a moment, likely recalling anything relevant he'd heard. "She says he's really nice. And funny. And she misses him a lot. She kept saying she wanted to go find him but my grandpa doesn't like him. But grandpa is mean too. And he doesn't care if the king is mean either."

Alistair's mind was practically swimming now. He'd never claim to be a smart man but there was so much of what he said that was practically lining up for him…he couldn't get his hopes up, but maker damn him, he had to know. "Hey, Ayden…do you, um…do you know when your birthday is?"

Ayden grew a proud, almost cocky smile on his face. "10th of Firstfall!"

"Wow," He said, trying to keep a façade of excitement when all he wanted to do was hide in a hole. No, no, no, no, he thought, answers first…Then you crawl into a pit of self-depreciating void. "So, how old does that make you now?"

"Well, I'm 4 now. Buuuuut, there was snow in Denerim when we left so that means I'm gonna get another birthday soon."

Four…he's four…Solona left five years ago…did she really move on that quickly? She wouldn't have done that, it's not like her…but then…?

"Oh, cool!" Ayden shouted at one of the screens. "Look, it's another monster!"

That got everyone's attention. Everyone except for Solona, that is. She still remained blissfully ignorant of recent events as she slept. The screen showed an ogre bumbling down the street. The video had no sound but it didn't need it to tell the story unfolding out there.

A woman charged up to the ogre from somewhere off-screen. It was difficult to tell with the video quality but she appeared to be wielding some kind of magic. The battle didn't last long, however. Whoever she was, she was clearly unprepared for this fight. The ogre snatched her up in its grasp and threw her into the building. Her body went limp in its hand.

"Hey, kid, you really shouldn't be watching this." Alistair tried turning Ayden away from it but the boy protested.

"No! Look! There's another hero! He's gonna save her!"

Fenris and Dorian crowded around the other side of Ayden's chair. All four of them watched a man in some kind of heavy armor charge up to the beast. The woman fell out of its hand once its attention was turned. The man seemed far more practiced than that poor woman was. He dodged the creature's attacks every time, slicing into it at strategic points.

Dorian chuckled. "Well, someone ate their Warri-O's this morning. Let's just hope he doesn't fall to a painful death, yes?"

For the briefest of moments, the man turned towards the camera. It was then that Alistair was able to get a good look at the man's armor. "That's a Warden!"

"A what?" Solona asked groggily as she sat up. "What's going on?

"If we can get out with the Warden…" Fenris said, mostly to Dorian.

"It's our best shot, I'll wager." Dorian looked to Solona. "What do you think? Have you healed him enough yet?"

"I, um…" Solona rubbed a hand over her face, taking a short moment to get her mind in order. "No. If he does anything more than a paced walk, the leg will break again."

"That Warden won't last long on his own." Alistair readied his weapons and started for the door. "I'm going out there."

"Alistair, no!" Solona suddenly gripped his arm. She looked up at him with fear in her eyes. "We still need to…there's too much unsaid right now, please."

Dorian stepped up to the door. "Never you mind, madam. I'll make sure the templar doesn't soil his britches out there." He ignored the glare he got from Alistair, giving Solona an encouraging smile. "I assure you, he will be in good hands. You just stay here and do what you can for his leg, yes?"

"I—no, there's no way. Even if I pushed myself to complete exhaustion, there's simply not enough time. I'd need more lyrium or more help to do this, I'm sorry."

A somber expression came over Dorian's face, he looked to Fenris. The two shared a short nod before Fenris spoke. "You have your lyrium."

"What? How?"

Fenris sat back down on the floor, with his injured leg extended. He bowed his head, resting in on his bent knee. A short moment passed before his markings started to glow. "Be quick about it."

Ayden's attention was finally turned from the screen. He looked at Fenris with wide, excited eyes. "Whoa! Cool!"

Solona's gaze darted between Fenris and Alistair, she couldn't decide what to focus on. Alistair and Dorian worked together to turn the locking mechanism on the door. They found it was much easier to open the damn thing than to close it. Both men shared a disdainful grunt.

"Alistair, wait!"

Before he even fully turned around, Solona had her arms wrapped around him. She hugged him as tightly as she could manage with all of his armor restricting them. "Please, come back."

"Hey, hey, hey, none of that." He hugged her back with his shield arm. "I said I'd get you two out of here, remember?"

"See? He'll return to you, you'll get your happy ever after and all that." They both shot a glare at Dorian, who only rolled his eyes in response. "I would remind you two lovebirds that there is a poor man fighting alone out there."

"Right…" Alistair pulled away from her reluctantly. He gave her one last smile before he ducked out of the room, Dorian following him closely.

Solona took a deep breath as she returned her attention to her reluctant patient. His face was mostly covered with his hair, but he nodded to her. "Right, then, let's make this quick, shall we?"