A/N: Thank you for reading!

...-...

"You know, for all I know you're the one who poisoned me," Varric muttered, glancing into the hall to make sure no one was nearby before he closed the door to his bedroom and headed in.

Blondie was lounging at his desk, idly looking over different reports and the like, without seeming to care much for any of them. "If I had been after your life, I would have used a fireball. And I wouldn't have healed you, either."

"What are you even doing here?" Varric asked, walking over to his desk and putting a hand on it.

"Well, I rather expected Hawke to be showing up at some point—"

Varric frowned. He'd sent out word for the old gang to assemble, using code phrases that only they would know. He'd expected Broody or Daisy to show up. Not Blondie.

"Hawke's off sticking it to the Orlesians, from what I hear," Varric muttered, before shaking his head. "Sticking it to them by helping them, if that makes sense."

"Of course not, but that's Hawke, isn't it?" Blondie said with a light shrug.

"Don't." Varric hadn't meant to say it, but it was there in the air and it hung between them. He stared up at Blondie, trying to overcome what he felt and instead just shook his head. "I can't…I know why you did what you did, Blondie, I do. But I can't forgive it. You killed so many people. So many innocent people. You resparked that fear of magic that you were trying to get rid of. You—"

"I did what had to be done," Anders said, mouth a thin line. "Do you want me to say that I didn't realize the explosion would be quite so big? Would it have been okay if I'd only killed everyone in the Chantry?"

"You could have killed Choir Boy."

"And you would have mourned him?" Blondie snapped back. His eyes flickered a light blue for an instant before he squeezed them shut. "Not now, we're talking."

"Justice still hanging around, I take it?"

Blondie gave him an annoyed look. He tugged on his robes and then looked back at Varric. "There's no use talking about the past. It won't change."

"Why are you still here?" Varric asked. "I'm grateful that you saved my life, but Choir Boy is only on decent terms because he thinks you're dead. If he finds out you're alive—that I'm hiding you, any chance of working with him will be gone."

"If Hawke's not here, then you were the one who sent for help," Blondie replied, drumming his fingers against the table. "I…I can't help much in the great outdoors right now." He shifted a little before pointing at his head. "Justice gets agitated if I get too close to a rift. Says there's the sound of something broken and that it's too loud and…"

"Chuckles said the spirits and demons coming through the rifts are mad, that the damage to the veil made them that way. Maybe it's the same for Justice."

Blondie accepted the idea without an argument, wincing as he remembered. "A rift opened up where I was staying. The mages I was helping all scattered, and I tried to find them, but there's too many rifts in the woods and I get caught unaware."

"Justice doesn't warn you you're getting close?"

"I don't think he knows until it's too late," Blondie murmured. He shuddered. "Anyway, I'm useless when it comes to leading people through and most of the places I'm safe in aren't good for large groups, not good for anyone. I thought…maybe I could help here."

"You could mark down where the rifts you found were," Varric offered. "When we get Stardust here, she can close them and you can go back to living out your days in obscurity."

"Stardust, Chuckles. I'm not in on your latest nicknames, Varric."

"Chuckles is a mage who likes the Fade and Stardust, well, that's Finley, the inquisitor."

Blondie's eyes widened. "Oh, is her Holiness making a visit? I'd thought Starkhaven and Tantervale would march if she did."

"She's not—" Varric scowled and then appraised Blondie. "You heard she was holy, too?"

"Everyone has."

"Who told you?" Varric paused and rolled his eyes. "I mean how did you hear about it in the middle of nowhere?" He eyed Blondie before adding, "Was it someone with a Tevene accent?"

"No, no one like that," Blondie replied, thinking back. "It started as a rumor that one of the mages I was trying to help had heard, when we tried to regroup after the first rift. I ended up parting ways after getting too close to the second, but..."

"You mean right after the rifts showed up, someone was telling you that she thought she was holy?" When Blondie nodded, Varric's frown deepened. "But how would they have gotten word out here so quickly?"

"Well, I found the second rift maybe a month after the first."

Varric shook his head. That was still too soon.

Or was it?

If word had spread that she was holy, it could have easily twisted into her claiming it herself the further it went.

Still, it felt like there was something malicious behind the rumor, like someone was trying to discredit Stardust and the Inquisition so that they couldn't move against Corypheus.

Perhaps the rumor had started innocent enough, but had been stoked by the wrong people?

"If you want to help, is there a way you can spread the word by word of mouth that she's not? Holy? That she hates being called that?"

Blondie arched his brow. "Does she?"

"More than just about anything, save for blood magic."

"Smart girl," Blondie murmured. "I suppose I can. Any good feats I should know about that I could add?"

"You know, at this point I should just write a book, for all the people asking me to repeat myself," Varric said, half laughing. When he remembered who he was with, the mood quickly passed.

However, Hawke believed in keeping Blondie safe, and Varric would be damned if he'd break Hawke's heart. He wouldn't protect Blondie so much as fail to mention he was around.

Surely that would be enough?

Enough for the both of them. Enough for Hawke that he didn't hand Blondie over to Choir Boy and enough for him that if Blondie got caught, he would get what he deserved for what he did to Kirkwall.

It was enough.

It had to be.

…-…

Almost a week later, Varric was about to head to bed when Tiny came up and waved him over. "You have a last minute meeting."

"No, I don't."

"You really, really wanna take this one," Tiny insisted, grinning and winking.

Curiosity piqued—and hoping that Blondie wasn't back already, making friends with more people—he followed Tiny to a small side chamber used for meetings and paused when he saw a familiar figure laying on a fainting couch, with Dalish and Krem sitting nearby, laughing.

"Stardust?" Varric nearly choked on the word.

She sat up and looked at him, eyes pure blue and quite disconcerting.

"Your eyes—"

"A glamour," Stardust said, sitting up and scowling at the world. "You didn't warn me that it would be so hot here."

"What are you—the inquisition is coming to Kirkwall?"

"Of course not," Stardust muttered. "I received an urgent message from Dalish saying to come. There's nothing for me to do, though. No way for me to push things forward at Skyhold, so I came here."

"So you, what? Ran away?"

"In a word, yes."

Varric turned to find two more familiar faces in the room, sitting off to the side. Cassandra and Ser Rodrin sat to one side, playing cards. Cole waved at him from beside them, even as Ser Rodrin reminded the boy not to talk to his cards—the templar seemed surprisingly nonchalant about how odd Cole could be.

Solas stood by the window, watching the world beyond with a look of apprehension, as though he was both appalled and curious to see what was beyond.

"I worked things out with Cullen," Stardust declared, and then lowered her voice. "Not officially of course. He said so long as Cassandra came with me, he would turn a blind eye when I disappeared and give me time to get beyond the search parties' reach."

"He failed to tell anyone else," Ser Rodrin commented as he laid a card down. He gave Cole a short nod when Cole said the card was happy to be able to help his hand.

"Is that why you're here?" Varric asked, slowly closing the door behind him and eyeing the whole lot of them.

"Yes."

"He and the others followed me and they wouldn't leave me be," Stardust muttered.

Cassandra couldn't help a fleeting smile as Ser Rodrin muttered something about not letting her get skewered by red templars. "We found them cornering Finley, insisting they come with her to help her fight demons. The other two agreed to go back once they found out she would not be alone."

Varric almost commented that Stardust must have loved that, but instead just shook his head. He wandered over to her to see that she was scribbling on a few loose pieces of paper. "I need a heat ward," she mumbled into one hand as the other held a pen over the paper, tapping out a little pattern to one side. "It's miserable here."

"Or maybe it's miserable where you're from and you're just not used to nice things?" Varric asked and tried not to get thrown when she looked him dead in the eye with that glamor still in place. "You're gonna need to drop that for a few meetings."

"I'm not here for meetings," Stardust objected.

"Okay, one really," Varric conceded. "You need to meet with Choi—Prince Vael. You need to meet Prince Vael. And he needs to know that it's you, beyond a shadow of a doubt."

By the next morning, Choir Boy sat in Varric's office, that usual, annoyingly polite smile in place as he asked Varric what it was that they needed to speak about.

"I'm heading home today," Choir Boy started, only to stop when he saw a movement in the corner of his eye. He turned and stilled as he found Stardust standing a little awkwardly in the corner hardest to see from the door. As Varric closed the door behind them, Stardust gave them an awkward bow. Choir Boy straightened up. "You must be the inquisitor."

"Finley, if you would," she murmured, shifting a little. Before anyone else could say anything, she moved a bit closer to the window. "The inquisition isn't going to follow. Not for a while, anyway. They think I've gone south to deal with rifts back home."

"In the Wilds?" Choir Boy asked, tone careful.

"Yes."

A silence settled over the three before Varric clapped his hands together. The way Stardust's gaze snapped to him, he might as well have hit her. "I wanted you two to meet, and Stardust is going to be clearing some rifts, so. Perhaps she could help Starkhaven if she finishes around here and there's no great push for the Inquisition to drag her back."

"With Bull's map, it shouldn't take long to clear the ones around Kirkwall," Stardust murmured. She looked at Choir Boy. "If we push, we should be able to close them all within two weeks. Four if things go sideways. Would you be able to get a map of the ones around Starkhaven in that time?"

"I already have a map of them," Choir Boy replied. "We're spread thin trying to keep people away from them and keep the demons contained."

"Which is why it's stupid that you don't want me to come close them in the first place," Stardust muttered. When Choir Boy arched his brow, she paused to appraise him. "Maybe not you specifically, but if the nobles had their way, I'd be sitting around doing nothing, and I've yet to see a rift close itself."

"May I see the mark?" Choir Boy asked, choosing to ignore her comments about nobility. She pulled her glove off with little ceremony and held her hand out to him. He reached for it, but hesitated before he could touch her. The mark shimmered green against her skin, ever shifting and moving. He tilted his head. "Does it hurt?"

Even as Varric thought to scoff, Stardust seemed surprised. She curled her hand back and regloved it. "Not too often." When she noticed Varric's surprise, she shrugged. "I think it frays. Solas knows how to keep it…calm, so to speak."

"Solas…" Choir Boy laughed. "I'm afraid I know all about your companions, but only by Varric's names for them."

"Chuckles," Varric and Stardust said in unison.

Choir Boy nodded. "So the apostate who helped save your life?" When Finley nodded, he offered her a faint smile. "Word here is that you think you are holy, sent by the—" he didn't get to finish before she was scoffing. "Varric said you weren't fond of that rumor."

"I don't need people thinking I'm something I'm not," Stardust said, carefully appraising Choir Boy. "I'm unlucky enough to be able to close the rifts, so that's what I want to do."

"I think I will be able to find you a place to stay in Starkhaven, when you need it," Choir Boy said, smiling at her. "Two to four weeks? That seems surreal to think our guard might be able to return to dealing with the city itself. We're in a bit of a state of Chaos with so many out fighting demons."

"Well, it would have been sooner," Stardust muttered, "if people didn't get so weird about where I can and can't go."

"I look forward to seeing you again," Choir Boy offered and then looked back at Varric. "You're a bit of a miracle worker yourself, you know that?"

When Varric merely rolled his eyes, Choir Boy nodded to each of them and then turned and slipped out of the room just as someone knocked on the door to tell him they were ready to leave.