We are nearing the edge of the wilds. After we bedded down the night before last, that was when I last wrote, I awoke in the middle of the night to sounds of fighting and the sight of flame burning. Their was not time to get into my armor, I only just managed to put on my shirt and some trousers.
By the time I got their the fighting was done and Alistair was screaming at Morrigan. I eventually got the whole story out of them. A few months before, Morrigan had recovered some ashes. She had heard an ancient legend that if you sprinkled the ashes of the dead in just the right spot, the spirit Gazerath would appear and grant you a wish. This had something to do with a story about two lovers that ended when one cut the other's throat to appease her spirt friend.
Said spirit friend turned out the be a shade. It would probably have killed Morrigan had Alistair not intervened, something even she admitted. Alistair was breathing fire. Morrigan could have gotten herself and all of us killed. She hadn't bothered to notify anyone of where she was going or what she was going to to, and if she had died, the spell would have gone down and the Darkspawn probably would have cut us to pieces. Alistair said we should kick her out as soon as we reached Lothering. I thought about doing just that, but Flemeth was right, we needed all the help we could get. Still, Morrigan had acted recklessly and endangered us all.
I explained to her how important our mission was. How even she would die, how the wouldn't be a world left to explore if we lost. I then told her that once we were out of the forest that she was free to stay or leave. We needed her magic, but we could not afford to keep anyone with a halfhearted commitment. Morrigan simply nodded.
We found an abandoned camp, it still had a fire blazing. We thought Rigby might have been their. Instead we found a squad of Darkspawn. They hadn't sensed us ahead of time, but we'd walked right into an ambush they had presumably planed for some other fool. Or at least that's what Alistair would latter tell me.
They were all over us. Morrigan was nowhere to be found. Me and Alistair fought them off for as long as we could, but it looked like we were about to be overwhelmed. Then a giant spider fell upon the Darkspawn, spitting poison and clawing Hurlocks to peaces. When the battle was done it transformed in a flash of light, back into Morrigan. She said she'd be staying with us until the task was done.
We found Rigby the next day, dead. A note on his body led us to a sealed lockbox that he wished to be delivered to his wife.
We had to move on. I try to tell myself that. But the truth is I am giving my brother up for dead. Nobody could be entirely okay with a thing like that. Even if it is necessary.
Alistair and I finally got to talking about what happened. He apologized for letting his grief over Duncan get the better of him. Poor man. Duncan had no other family, except the Wardens. We commiserated yet again over our shared sorrows. It's good to have a shoulder to cry on. Duncan was from Higover. If we ever finish this fight me and Alistair will go they together.
Note: This is probably not the first, and certainly not the last time Morrigan has gotten into trouble playing with forces she thinks she doesn't understand but thinks she knows everything about. People who played Inquisition will understand.