Let the blade pass through the flesh,

Let my blood touch the ground,

Let my cries touch their hearts.

Let mine be the last sacrifice.

Andraste 7:12

Dalish set knee to ground and rested her hand to the bare, polished granite before lowering her glance and beginning to pray under her breath. Veldrin did not join her – not because she did not wish to, but because her knee joins felt as if they'd suddenly turned into stone too.

They'd found it.

It had taken them three days to work out its positioning from Varric's descriptions, but they had found it; the hardest part had been working out the dwarf's actual landing point, their debates on the matter not eased by the fact that the one person who oddly covered the most ground, Grim, truly said no more than Hm, if he was doubtful, orHrmph, if he outright disagreed.

Skinner and Sera had proved useless at scouting; as nimble and oriented as both might have been on city rooftops and dark alleys, they were utterly lost in the forest. The realisation deeply bothered Skinner, who'd grudgingly admitted to her skills not being as honed as they might have been one day in, and settled for shadowing Veldrin in her own explorations; the former Inquisitor suspected she'd earned Skinner's company because Sera did not wish to be alone with her, and could not outright blame her. She had not been brave enough to apologise for the outburst, and did not want to be alone with Sera either.

She'd nonetheless been very surprised when Sera had refused to do any further scouting, either on her own, or in Dalish's company. On the second eve, when Veldrin had been explaining how she found her way through the undergrowth to a very interested Skinner, Sera had stood from the fire and walked off in a visible huff. Veldrin had motioned to stop her, but Dalish had put her hand on Vel's arm, keeping her in place.

'Do not concern yourself, lethallan,' the blonde elven mage had said. 'She is…apart from herself.'

The fact that Dalish had used the exact same words that Solas once had had given Veldrin pause, as well as heartache, and though she could not have known from whence the heartache stemmed, Dalish had smiled, kindly.

'Anything woodsy-elfy is too much for her,' Dalish had shrugged.

'And she's getting to be a bit too much for me,' Skinner had added, in a low mutter. 'I've never met one of the people who wished to be a Shem so badly.'

'She doesn't want to be a Shem,' Dalish had replied, in a tone of voice so gentle that Veldrin could see why she bore the markings of Sylaise. 'She simply doesn't know how to see herself; we each, in our own ways, know who we are, because…we've each belonged?' she'd said.

'As if anyone belongs in an alienage,' Skinner had snarled, sounding utterly unconvinced.

'That's not what she means, Skin,' Vel had thoughtfully added, looking on Sera's trail. 'None belongs in an alienage but you grew up in one, and you know… You know where you come from – with good and bad, it defines you. I and Dalish know where we come from, too.'

Dalish had nodded. 'Whereas Sera is neither Elvhen nor Shem. In true terms, she's not even a flat ear…'

'Say those words to my face again and you'll end up with a very interesting haircut, Dalish!' Skinner had menaced, flashing her dagger; Veldrin had known she was not joking, yet Dalish had simply shrugged.

'The fact that Sera does not know where she belongs is not her fault and should not anger you,' the blonde mage had said. 'I don't think she wants to be Elvhen or Shem, she wants to be something else entirely, and if she doesn't want to learn how to scout forests, we should leave her alone.'

'She's still a bloody elf,' Skinner had smirked.

'She's just a person whose pain is different from yours,' Dalish had responded. 'Leave it.' She'd said – and Skinner had.

It had been Dalish to find the ruined altar atop which they were standing now. She had not dared scale it alone, however, despite the fact that it was neither terribly high nor difficult to climb.

'It's just evil,' Dalish had said, after returning to camp, and having Grim signal to all others to return. 'I am not going up there alone.'

'If you have not been up, how can you distinguish this is, indeed, the correct one?' Maevaris had questioned. 'The devotional magic circles would be atop it, you…'

'Trust me, Vint,' Dalish had dryly said. 'This is it, and it is an altar to the Chaos Wrym. I can still smell the blood…and there was a lot of it, Mythal'enaste. Sylaise'enaste.'

'There we go again with the woodsy-elfy fourth sense and non-words,' Sera had snapped. 'I betcha I can go up there and feel nuthin'.'

'I doubt anyone can go up there and feel nothing, Sera,' Dalish had answered, giving the rogue a hard look, and visibly restraining herself from saying anything further – this time, not because she favoured being a peacekeeper, but because she somehow inherently felt that this was a battle she would win without fighting.

Judging by the look on Sera's features now, she had.

Had she not known that Dalish had sensed the place's malevolent vibrations from afar, Veldrin might have thought that the intense malaise she was experiencing was due to the blood magic, and to the demon that was circling – yet…

Creators, Veldrin thought, it wasn't.

The veil was so thin that she had the sensation she could simply put her hand out and reach thought it, and even the echo of what the ancient Magisters had called to, here, filled her mouth with an odd, metallic taste and caused her joints to become stiff. She'd often wondered how a few priests and acolytes had managed to subdue hundreds of sacrifices – she wondered no longer, now; it was not only the dulled circle under their feet that was powerfully enchanted, it was the entire, massive granite block. In the prime of its magic, its aura would have been immense.

For once, Sera was silent, her glance fixed and dull, as if she had suddenly been yanked from her senses; the irony that Dalish's whispered prayers would certainly have conjured under different circumstances remained frozen on her lips. Skinner did not fare better, for all colour had drained from her face and she too was staring blankly in the distance, and even though he did not seem as affected by the vibrations as the elves were, Grim too looked uneasy.

They had truly found it – for a moment, Veldrin wished they hadn't.

Dorian pulled himself over the edge of the rock with a huff, and woke her from the nightmare – she cast a small cleansing spell, then a more powerful one. Sera breathed deeply, and furiously shook her head. She still could not find her voice.

'Maker,' Dorian said, looking about himself in awe.

'Why…' Sera began swallowing dry. 'Why didn't Varric say…'

'He would not have felt it,' Veldrin responded, softly. 'He's a dwarf.'

'Felt what?' Dorian questioned, with a little frown. 'What is wrong, Amata?' he again queried, in obvious concern.

'There's an enchantment here,' Dalish responded, stepping up to their side. 'It's similar to some hold or confusion…I do not know; it's still, however, remarkably strong, after all these centuries.'

Veldrin nodded. 'Must be tailored to target elves, and akin to the discomfort you said you experienced while travelling though the eluvians, Dorian.'

'Well, that's not good,' the human answered. 'That was one of the most unpleasant things I have ever felt – if this holds true for the fortress proper, then we shall have some serious re-planning to do…'

'…what…' Sera breathed, showing that the dispell was only providing minor solace. 'What the fuck was done here?' she finished, in a low hiss.

'What do you think was done here?' Skinner hissed in return; the dark haired rogue furiously shook her head, and threw Dorian a murderous glare. 'Care to explain it to the Shem with the pointy ears, Vint? Or should I? Lost for words?'

'Skin, don't,' Veldrin said, finding that her own tone lacked conviction.

'Because I think I can explain it,' Skinner furiously followed, beginning to pace. 'Here,' she said, whipping her arm to the side, to point to a flat, dulled rock, 'is where this one's grandfather slit your throat, and while your blood poured out of your body into this neat little circle they scratched on the rock, they grabbed the next one in line and…'

Sera pressed her clenched fists to her ears. 'Stop it,' she whispered; Skinner did not hear her, or simply did not care.

'The only thing I'm wondering about, Tevinter,' she said, though fiercely clenched teeth, 'is what they did with the bodies – did they do a nice pile, or just flung them…'

Dalish embraced her, then, and though she struggled for a heartbeat, Skinner put her arms around the other Charger's shoulders and let loose the tears that had been gathering in the corners of her eyes.

'I am so sorry', Dorian whispered; Dalish looked to him and shook her head, trying to smile, and much like she wished she could have prayed, Veldrin desperately wished that she could cry.

It was thus that cold and dark descended upon them long before the sun set; Skinner had not said anything further, to Dorian, Sera, or anyone else. Still, it was not until she'd heard Dalish speaking to Dorian as if from the far end of a long corridor that Veldrin had realised she too could barely look his way, and how poignantly aware of it he was, despite the other wild elf's efforts.

She felt numb, but knew she needed to remain so. A single inkling of Skin's rage atop this accursed rock might have spelled disaster, so Veldrin put it all out of her mind – the circle, the dragon statue, Sera's pallor, and simply focused on practical actions and little successes.

This was indeed Varric's entry point. The rope he'd tied about the base of the dragon statue had long rotted, but the hook he'd used to make it cling was still there; they'd lowered it into the narrow shaft to measure its depth, but run out of their own rope before it reached the bottom. The shaft ran much deeper than its surface height indicated yet its width seemed to remain relatively constant, for, as the rope ran down in Grim's steady hands, Varric's now rusty hook had only hit the walls once or twice.

With daylight dimming, and having renewed the protection spells on her non-magic wielding companions three times, Veldrin had judged it wise to leave further explorations to morning, as the others had started collecting the few things they'd brought up, she'd finally worked up the courage to approach Dorian, who stood alone on the far edge of the altar, looking out.

'You must believe I have never seen anything like this,' the man said, in a soft tone. 'There is nothing even remotely similar left in the Imperium…I would have warned you, if I'd known. I would have rather braved the front gate rather than this,' Dorian sighed, 'if I'd known.'

'It's not your fault, Amatus,' Veldrin answered; he humourlessly laughed.

'You do know that House Pavus' lineage predates the corruption of the Golden City, right?' he bitterly queried. 'It might not have been my grandfather, but…it is not improbable,' Dorian rapidly followed, 'that one of my glorious ancestors would have stood atop an altar like this one, and done precisely what Skinner described, you do realise that, yes?'

'I do,' the elf said. 'But it is not relevant anymore, Dorian.'

'Tell that to Skin,' the man replied. 'Tell it to yourself – did you notice how you…'

'Yes, I did, and I am sorry,' the woman sighed. 'It was instinctive. I don't even know how much of it is simply proof of the history we all already knew or simply the physical malaise…We'll be down in a few minutes,' she said, looking over her shoulder to Dalish, and rightly guessing that the blonde mage had approached them to say the company was eager to be away from the spot.

Dalish simply nodded. 'Don't stay too long after dark,' she said; it was not until all the others had descended that either Vel or Dorian spoke again.

The elf sat on the stone, dangling her feet over the edge; a moment and a sigh later, Dorian joined her.

'I do wonder what they did with the bodies,' he non-directionally said.

'Want to go down to this side of the thing, and see if we find piles of bones?' Vel asked. 'Or well, maybe the place had a self contained cleaning dynamic - maybe they succeeded in summoning the dragon, and the dragon ate the corpses – pronto, prontissimo, clean altar.'

He reproachfully frowned.

'Questionable humour not helping, at this point?' she asked, inching a bit closer.

'No, not right now,' Dorian muttered. 'This is a terrible position to be stuck in, Amata,' he softly followed. 'I do feel guilty, and I think Dalish was right. No one could stand atop this thing and feel nothing, but if I speak of how I feel, it is almost as if I, the heir and beneficiary of the perpetrators was asking you, the survivors, for sympathy; I cannot even say that I am truthfully sorry, but if I say nothing, then…'

'Would it help if I told you that human discomfort at the eluvian travel gave me a bit of an, eh, sense of triumph?' Vel asked.

'It's not like you went out of your way to hide it, Vel,' he smirked. 'I think that is part of what made you and Solas so annoying to Sera; neither of you said anything even remotely rude but…you were visibly enjoying it – I mean, Solas offered to carry Vivienne's water pouch, in case it was too heavy for her and the reason why she was moving so slowly.'

'He was just being polite,' Veldrin shrugged, snickering regardless. 'I can assure you the reason why I offered to carry your hip flask had nothing to do with, you know – Our magic still beats yours, ha-ha.'

'I noticed when you returned it empty,' Dorian replied, finally cracking a smile.

'I made it lighter for you,' she protested. 'I factually helped. It's true, Sera did most of the helping, but, you know the saying about looking a gift elf in the mouth…I apologise for behaving as I did, today,' the elf earnestly said.

'You really should not voice that,' he replied, shaking his head.

'Then let me phrase it differently,' Veldrin softly retorted. 'I am sorry I let this place get to me, and forget that you are my best friend, too. We've always known who we are – let's not let yet another thing get in between us. We already have enough.'

Dorian distractedly nodded, not looking even a tad more at ease. 'None of this is auspicious, Amata,' he said, at long length. 'Starting with the fact that the magic of this place hinders you, and ending in the very real possibility that I will wake up without my testicles tomorrow morning, courtesy of Skin.'

'Oh, come on,' Veldrin replied. 'This is Skin we're talking about – the same Skin who has been fighting alongside Krem for years, and robbed you blind playing drunken Wicked Grace.'

'Krem may be a Vint, but he's not a Magister,' Dorian responded, 'and all of that was before today and this place. Maker, I wish she hadn't…cried. I wish she'd punched me, or come at me with the dagger, but not cried, and above all I wish we had not run across a problem that drinking more could not solve at this very precise moment.'

He bit his lower lip. 'I thought I was taking a calculated risk with Sera,' he followed. 'She has always been uneasy around magic, and I knew that your use of blood magic would not sit well with her at all – I still thought that she would reluctantly get over it because this is you, and she admires you as she admires no other living person.'

'You're exaggerating,' the woman refuted; Dorian resolutely shook his head.

'No,' he said. 'Why do you think she's being so testy about all the woodsy-elfy everything? She thought she knew you, and now she sees you have greatly changed, so, she doesn't know what to make of you anymore. She's simply rejecting uncertainty - she's never liked the idea of you with Solas, but it made you real, in a way.'

'I thought dumping a bucket of water on Josie's head did that,' Vel smirked.

'That too,' the man said, 'but you, for however briefly, even humanised Solas…Not to be taken as made himhuman, but…around you, he was less then flawless; he actually laughed, got annoyed, got jealous – don't think I missed the fact that all of our flirting in the library made him really want your opinion on his murals, right then and there. Before Redcliffe, when my not so secret inclination was revealed, I could swear he'd clock me one right in the nose every time he passed me by.'

'You should have heard him when me and Sera tried to prank Leliana, and in so doing dropped an entire bucket of lime white on his carefully painted black background,' Vel chuckled. 'The look on his face when we first met after I delivered the – Nothing up here but us nugs! – then ran off laughing was utterly priceless. And I could not stop laughing, either; he was so annoyed…'

'He is not a man who likes things not going according to plan,' Dorian bitterly smiled.

'Maybe he should have planned better,' Vel whispered.

'So far, I would say his planning is almost flawless…Apologise to Sera, Vel,' he said, pulling her close. 'She is not right, and you are not completely wrong, but one of you needs to take a first step, and she is frightened. Solas wins by turning his foes on themselves, and he is winning here without even fighting,' Dorian softly followed. 'We've already lost Leliana and Cassandra, and we are weaker for it. What we found atop this rock is nothing compared to what we will find beneath it, I wager – Mae is scared, I am scared, Sera is scared…'

'And you think I am not?'

'No, I think you are the only one not admitting you are,' the man said. 'Just talk to Sera, please, Amata…Your fear and her fear are distractions, and you're not being my practical little sprite precisely when I need you to be exactly that. I cannot feel what Sera and Skinner felt, you and Dalish had to fight it. This is both good and bad; if this accursed place is crippling elves, it will cripple Solas too, yet, then it follows that…'

'The Old Gods' weapons may not solely affect him,' Vel gently replied; the Tevinter Magister nodded.

'Radonis said it will be hard for you to use them on one of the people,' Dorian said. 'I think he underestimated the shame I and Mae will feel in re-energising them, and while I rationally know I have never hurt a slave, that I have never worshipped a dragon, that I…that we are no longer the Ancients, the shame is heavy and crippling. And unnecessary.'

In the distance, the searing sun tentatively kissed the sea; atop a place of suffering past yet stiflingly present, the human embraced the elf, and she rested her temple on his shoulder.

'What is necessary is that you, and I, and Mae and Dalish start thinking on how we cripple Solas without crippling you.' Dorian said, putting his chin on the top of his wife's head. 'This will be hard enough technically and focus wise – there is no place for shame or sorrow, or cold between friends in this calculation, Amata.'

'No, now is not the time,' Vel answered.

'Apologise to Sera. Not because we need her, but because…'

'…because she is my friend. And I have fewer and fewer every day that goes by.'

'Because you have more friends than you care to acknowledge,' Dorian said, kissing her forehead.

The sun was now half in the sea's embrace; the human and the elf were fully into each other's.

'You know what else worries me? Practicality assumed.' Vel said.

'Hm?' Dorian asked. The sunset was too beautiful to look away from.

'There's no way that that statue's pedestal can hold the Bull's weight. I mean, Varric is stout, but the Bull is…'

Dorian laughed, and Veldrin's heart felt light as a breeze; the human stood, glanced at the statue of the Chaos Dragon, then down the shaft.

'I have a way to fix that one,' he said, propping his shoulder against the statue and pushing, as if he'd meant to topple it across the opening; it was her turn to laugh, and he gave her a scornful frown. 'Don't laugh at me, elf, come help me,' Dorian said; she added her efforts to his, and though they managed not a slither of the physical might needed to topple Zazikel's statue, they focused and managed to do so with their magic.

When the statue fell, the dragon's wings shattered and bits of them bounced off the walls of the shaft that led into the depths of the unknown fear; they both laughed and panted.

'There,' Dorian said; Veldrin wiped her brow of sweat.

More dungeon crawling now and ahead - we hope you enjoy reading as we both enjoy our dungeon scenes :)