The next morning, Elissa and her companions ate a small breakfast, packed up camp and continued on their journey. Just outside of the village of Redcliffe, not too far from the hill leading down into the village, Alistair stopped and looked at Elissa.

"Look, can we talk for a moment? I need to tell you something I, ah, should probably have told you earlier."

"Is something wrong, Alistair?" she asked, looking at him concerned. "What's on your mind?"

Alistair looked at her and sighed. "I told you before how Arl Eamon raised me, right? That my mother was a serving girl at the castle and he took me in?"

Elissa nodded. "Of course."

"The reason he did that was because… well, because my father was King Maric. Which made Cailan my… half-brother, I suppose." Alistair finished.

Elissa raised an eyebrow. "So… you're not just a bastard but a royal bastard?"

Alistair chuckled. "Ha! Yes, I guess it does at that. I should use that line more often."

Elissa sighed. "Alistair, this is serious. Why haven't you told me before now?"

"I would have told you, but… it never really meant anything to me. I was inconvenient, a possible threat to Cailan's rule and so they kept me secret. I've never talked about it to anyone. Everyone who knew either resented me for it or they coddled me… even Duncan kept me out of the fighting because of it. I didn't want you to know as long as possible. I'm sorry."

Elissa looked at him. "You still should have told me, Alistair. We've only got each other now and we need to be able to trust each other. I think I understand, though."

Alistair sighed in relief. "Good, I'm glad. It's not like I got special treatment for it, anyhow. At any rate, that's it. That's what I wanted to tell you. I thought you should know about it."

Elissa smiled. "Are you sure? You're not hiding anything else?"

"Besides my unholy love of fine cheeses and a minor obsession with my hair, no. That's it. Just the prince thing." He replied, chuckling.

Feeling like teasing him a bit for not telling her sooner, Elissa smirked. "So, should I be calling you Prince Alistair?"

Alistair's eyes widened and he blushed. "No! Maker's breath, just hearing that gives me a heart attack. It's not true, anyhow… I'm the son of a commoner. It was always made clear that the throne is not in my future. And that's fine by me. No, if there's an heir to be found, it's Arl Eamon himself. He's not of royal blood, but he is Cailan's uncle… and more importantly, very popular with the people." His got a worried look on his face. "Though… if he's really as sick as we've heard… no, I don't want to think about that. I really don't." He looked up at Elissa. "So there you have it. Now can we move on, and I'll just pretend you still think I'm some… nobody who was too lucky to die with the rest of the Grey Wardens."

Elissa looked at him. "Alistair, that's not really what you think is it?"

"Well, no, but… Look can we just move on?" he asked, looking at her as he silently begged her to let it go.

Elissa smiled and reached up, kissing his cheek. "As you command… my prince." She said with a giggle. "Besides, you should know that I never think of anyone as a nobody. You're my friend and companion and right now, you're all I've got. You mean more to me and those who care about you than you realize."

Alistair watched her start heading down the hill towards the village. Morrigan rolled her eyes and Leliana came to a stop next to him as he watched the sunlight catch in Elissa's crimson hair, lighting it like a bonfire.

"I'm going to regret this, aren't I?" he asked, mostly of himself.

Leliana giggled. "I believe you are, but you must remember, Elissa is the only other Warden in Fereldan. You should trust her more than you seem to if you are to travel and fight alongside her. She has shown you great respect, even without knowing your heritage. As a noble, she is very proud, but she shows it in the way she moves, the way she talks, and the way she interacts with everything. Her pride is an asset, not something that will bring her down. She is a very fine young woman, so do not take her lightly."

Alistair chuckled. "Believe me, I won't. I wouldn't dare stand against someone who has taken down an ogre head on."

He and Leliana quickly joined Morrigan and Elissa, who was speaking with one of the townsmen, Tomas. He explained the situation and took them to see Bann Teagan, Eamon's brother, and together they made ready to fortify the village square and prepare for the coming battle.

The battle that night was no different than any other. It was like the dead had risen, though, and flowed forth from the castle in three waves- two from the castle directly and one from the lake. The villagers and the knights from the castle- those who did not get trapped within- set up barricades, walls of sharp pointed wooden logs, and used the barrels of oil from the general store as a first line of defense. Once the walking corpses reached the first barricades, a fiery arrow was shot at the barrels and set them ablaze. It was an excellent idea and worked well. They managed to fend them off, but then one of the men from the village below came to them and told them the monsters were coming from the lake, too. Elissa and her companions told Ser Perth and his men to hold down the first barricade, then hurried down to the village. They fought back the corpses, though they couldn't reach the men fighting the corpses below Murdock- the village's mayor- fell to the ground, cut down by one of the monsters.

They continued to fight long into dawn of the next morning, where they honored the dead and those lost that night before Elissa and her companions went to meet Teagan by the windmill. Once they arrived, they began to discuss their next moves when out of nowhere, Arlessa Isolde came running up to them, asking for Teagan to go with her to the castle. Upon her further explanation, Elissa and her companions learned that Eamon was alive, but that whatever was in the castle needed Teagan to go with her in order to keep it that way. Teagan agreed and gave his signet ring to Elissa before he followed Isolde to the castle. Elissa quickly hurried to the secret door, used the signet ring as the key, and she and her companions hurried through the secret tunnel and entered in the castle. As they made their way through the tunnels, they came across a man kept in a cell who they learned was Jowan, a mage from the Circle of Fereldan who practiced blood magik and was asked to teach Connor, the arl's son, how to control his power. Upon learning that Jowan was the one who poisoned Eamon and that Connor was a mage who had not yet learned to control his powers, Elissa concluded that he may be the reason behind the corpses and the evil within the castle. They left Jowan in his cell and hurried to find Teagan and Isolde, fighting several corpses and even shades and rage demons on the way to the main hall. Once they broke through to the main hall, they found Teagan entertaining Connor, who had clearly put him under a spell and was enjoying it.

As she looked at Connor, Elissa had a strange feeling that it wasn't actually Connor they were dealing with, but a demon who had made a deal with the young boy in order to save his father. She answered the demon's questions and incapacitated the men and Teagan that Connor sent after them before he ran off. Once they were back to normal, she discussed with the Arlessa and Teagan what they should do. Jowan was brought from his cell and explained that he could use blood magik to send someone into the Fade to find the real Connor, but it would require a sacrifice. Elissa insisted on not using blood magik and asked if there was a different way. Jowan explained that the mages at the Circle use vast amounts of lyrium in order to perform the Harrowing ritual and Alistair pointed out that the Circle was only a day's ride away and that one of the treaties was for the Circle of Magi. Elissa thought the best way to go about their situation- and get everyone out alive- was to seek the help of the Circle, while asking that they honor their treaty with the Grey Wardens, and see if they could get Connor back and free Eamon from his slumber.