I really hate the Fallow Mire, so obviously it was a great place to send my protagonist for an extended period of time. Varric is right: when you love a character, you make them suffer. Though this chapter admittedly has more silly bonding than suffering.

The Important Questions

I had never actually fought a terror demon - none of us had, as far as I knew. Even though I had seen several in future-Redcliffe, had Solas not put up the barrier, had it come up in the midst of us, that surprise and unfamiliarity might have killed us.

As it was, the fight was no joy, certainly, with the horrible thing going to ground and coming up again wherever it thought it could do the most damage, but we were a battle-hardened group, many of us well accustomed to fighting together. We knew how to watch each other's backs, and I could manipulate the undead the demon commanded, even if I couldn't directly grab it and toss it where I wanted. I could also see it when it went underground - if I concentrated, at least.

We managed, putting down the demon and the undead it summoned, and then trying to piece together what had happened. Something about lighting the Veilfire had called it. Freed it? The writing that had precipitated the use of Veilfire was somehow bound to the residue of the demon. We took a torch around to examine it more closely, but it was just a string of gibberish overlaid with a sense of deep paranoia.

"A code?" Bull offered, squinting as he examined the writing - less because he needed to in order to see it, I thought, and more because the use of magic unsettled him, especially when it had been tied to a demon.

"Perhaps," Solas replied, pulling out a small journal and quickly writing down the apparently-meaningless numbers and letters.

"All right, well, maybe Leliana has someone who can make something of it." I shrugged. "Are we ready to go on?"

Everyone was.

We were clearly beyond where Harding's scouts had managed to progress. The road was worse, and it was easy to put a foot wrong, which I did, several times, straight into the water. Nothing beyond an unpleasant smell came up the first two times, but after that we had two or three undead to fight each time the water was disturbed.

"I'm sorry," I apologized unhappily after the third skirmish. "I am trying, it's just - "

"Hey!" Sera said near my shoulder, startling me. "None of that. Not like we can't take it, and you can't help it any more than the rest of this lot can help being a buncha wierdies."

"Excuse me - " Dorian began to sputter.

"No, won't, not now," Sera replied absently. "Someone gave you shit about this sometime, I guess, and whoever they were was a piss-gargling arsehole, yeah? Don't apologize for the way you friggin' exist. You're proper good, you."

She stalked past, heading toward the back of the party. "She's not wrong," Bull said, a shrug evident in his voice even though I couldn't see whether he actually shrugged. "Probably going to be me at some point." He moved - a gesture I couldn't see. "No depth perception." Oh, that's right - I had half forgotten he was missing an eye. I didn't often see him close enough for the eyepatch to be clearly visible. "You're good, Boss. Just keep closing rifts and putting things where we can hit 'em. We'll handle the rest."

I muttered some kind of acknowledgment, aware I was blushing. No one commented on it, at least, beyond Solas's hand briefly squeezing my arm.

We continued on, and soon came to another hill, arranged just like the first - a pillar and brazier, with magic-infused writing somehow attached. And, now that I knew what to look for, the demon was obvious.

Dorian hummed thoughtfully as the three of us who were mages climbed to the top. "There is likely a way to disconnect the trigger of lighting the brazier from the effect of freeing the demon," he observed.

"Which would leave a demon trapped here, pulling more demons in to take control of the undead and just waiting for someone to make a mistake and free it," I pointed out.

"Did you notice," Solas said restlessly, pacing around the pillar, "that the undead only became active once we left the immediate vicinity of the last pillar?"

"I suppose that's one interpretation," Dorian said thoughtfully. "Though to know for certain we would have to test it."

"What is this?" Solas made an abrupt movement, and I squinted, trying to interpret it, but mostly just succeeded in making myself dizzy.

Dorian was at his side before I could make my slow way there. "What is it?" I demanded, and had come close enough to understand by the movement of the two men that their heads had jerked up to look at me.

"A journal, I believe," Solas explained, sounding mildly apologetic as he reached out a hand to draw me to his side.

"Probably, based on these mad...can one even call these ramblings?"

"Bull was right," I said, looking down at what was written. "It's in a cipher - likely the same as the one from the last pillar.

As though he had heard his name, Bull called up to us, then: "Hey! We moving or what?"

I exchanged a look with Dorian and Solas. "You're right, we can't leave the demon bound," Dorian admitted with a shrug, "and the theory that it cleanses the immediate area of undead is worth testing."

"We have a demon that needs to be dealt with," I yelled back. "Plus, Solas thinks that doing it this way may destroy all the undead in the area. Easier to deal with them here, where there's plenty of dry land."

Bull made a sound that managed to be both uneasy and irritated. "Demon crap, shitting everything up," he rumbled as he came up the hill, Cassandra at his side and the rest of the group trailing behind.

"It's another fear demon," Solas said, gently testing the binding. "Likely terror, but perhaps some other type."

We were ready this time, and even two terror demons didn't throw things off too much, though I heard Bull and Sera both swearing about it. It also turned out that Solas was correct - no amount of water disturbance in our immediate area drew any more undead once we had destroyed those drawn by the terror demons. Unfortunately, we moved beyond the range of the pillar within an hour or so, and ended up in several more skirmishes before we made it, around sunset, dripping and muddy, to the site where we meant to camp. Bull had accidentally stepped in the water twice, and Cassandra once, so I was feeling much less conspicuous in my inability to keep to the road.

We were still putting up tents as darkness closed in, but there was a passage in the rock just beyond the campsite, too short to be called a cave, open at both ends but covered. We were able to build a fire there and warm up something approaching a real meal. Cole wandered off, promising not to go too far, and I let Solas and Dorian examine the journal we had come across while I relaxed into conversation with the others.

After a few minutes spent discussing the suitability of the campsite, Sera suggested we play wed/bed/behead, and immediately turned to me. "Right, you: enemies we've faced or know about, or whatever. Coryphemus, the muahaha evil magister, and...that demon you saw in place of my Lord Seeker demon-tits."

Cassandra registered a mild protest over Sera's treatment of the Lord Seeker and was quickly hushed by Bull.

"Can't I have Felix as an option, since he was with Alexius?" I pleaded, disliking my choices.

"No!" Sera declared, not even pausing to consider it. The denial was echoed by both Blackwall and Bull. "That takes the fun out of it!"

"All right, all right. One more question: is this beheading one that would actually, definitely kill Corypheus? Because I'm not wasting a perfectly good beheading on someone who might come back," I told her.

"Hm, right. Beheading kills dead, yeah? Otherwise it's not fair." She raised her voice. "You hear that Corythanus? Not fair!"

"Well then, I obviously behead Corypheus," I said.

"Good choice, Boss," Bull congratulated me wryly.

"I guess I'll bed Alexius - safer to wed than bed a demon, and afterward our dear magister friend goes right back to the dungeon."

Bull shuddered surprisingly delicately for such a big man - I assumed about the demon and not Alexius - as Sera said: "Guess you'd know 'bout demons and what's safest, yeah? Wedded don't mean you can't send 'em right back to the Fade."

"Exactly," I agreed. "All right my turn...and I choose..." I had an idea and smiled to myself. "Cassandra: non-Andrastian members of the Inquisition, which I think only includes me, Solas, and Bull, though if you know of others, you can add them to your choices."

Cassandra let out a half-strangled laugh as the other three chuckled appreciatively. "Very well, give me a moment to think. The Inquisition and the world need you," she told me, "and...Solas's knowledge may still prove vital. I must regretfully behead Bull."

"I see how it is," the Qunari grumbled good-naturedly.

"So, am I being wedded or bedded?" I asked, leaning towards her in the hope of catching her blushing. I thought the blur of her face was somewhat ruddier than usual, but it might have been the firelight.

"My preference is for men, and he isn't unattractive, so I suppose I will bed Solas. Besides," she added, "in marrying you, perhaps I would have some hope of keeping you from trouble."

"Wouldn't count on it," Blackwall quipped.

"It's unlikely, I must admit - but what does Andraste offer if not hope for the hopeless?" she asked dryly. "Now, for my turn...Iron Bull. You must choose among the four mages most highly placed within the Inquisition's ranks: the Inquisitor, Solas, Dorian, and Vivienne."

"Hmmm, tough," he rumbled. "I wouldn't dare attempt to behead Vivienne, so I guess that leaves Solas on the chopping block."

"Not Dorian?" Cassandra asked, clearly both surprised and fascinated.

"No way," Bull replied. "Dorian gets bedded. Too attractive to waste. Plus, who doesn't dream of tying an enemy to a bed and whipping him till he's begging for it?"

"Me," I said flatly. My enemies were uniformly horrifying.

"Wardens," Blackwall added.

Bull huffed. "I'm talking people with normal enemies, not the crazy, world-ending kind."

"I can't say the thought ever crossed my mind," Cassandra told him, and I could hear the smirk in her voice.

"Yeah," Sera said, piling on, "we're not all weirdies like you."

"Wait, does this leave me wedded again?" I asked, realizing I was the only one left.

"Sure, you're a sweet kid," Bull told me in a careless tone. "Plus," he added more slyly, "you won't consider it any more binding than I do once I convert you to the Qun."

That made me chuckle - as though I, a mage, would ever consider the Qun - but Sera seemed equal parts disgusted and entertained, and spent several moments alternately laughing and shuddering horror. Not over the Qun itself, probably, but she seemed to know what they did to their mages.

Bull waited for our laughter to subside. "All right, my turn - Blackwall. Current party."

"Hmm," the Warden grunted, "does Harding count as 'current party'?"

"Why?" I demanded suspiciously, even though I was still smiling. "You're not going to try getting out of beheading one of us by killing my very sweet and dedicated scout, are you?"

"She has only just stopped staring at Inana like she's a hero stepped from a tale," Cassandra put in, sounding amused.

I saw Blackwall make a gesture, though I couldn't make it out for certain - maybe he held up his hands? "Just making sure I know what all my options are."

"Sure, you can have Harding," Bull said easily.

"Right, then I think I'll bed her," Blackwall said, and I realized I should have known he wasn't getting out of beheading one of us - he was getting out of bedding someone who was present. "Wed Sera - "

"Blech," Sera protested.

"We'll do things the Orlesian way," Blackwall reassured her. "Separate lovers and all."

"Well - that's not so bad," she allowed thoughtfully. "Still rather not, yeah?"

"Behead Dorian," the Warden finished.

"Of course," Cassandra chuckled.

"Not until I've had my night with him," Bull added. "Right, that leaves...Sera."

"I've got a good one," Blackwall assured us with relish. "Men of the Inquisitor's inner circle, including advisors."

Cassandra, Bull, and I all laughed while Sera grumbled. "Don't like it!" she pouted.

"You gave me Corypheus, Alexius, and a demon!" I reminded her.

"Oh yeah," she replied, chuckling to herself. "Those were good. Well, all right. Who's the least man-ish? Hmm."

"Well, Solas is at least the most slender," Cassandra told her.

"Ew." Sera was near enough for me to see her look of utter revulsion. "No, not Droopy. Oh - I'll bed Dorian. Pretty sure he doesn't even like women, so we can hate it together."

"Does...that make it better?" Cassandra wondered.

"I dunno, never done it with a man. Maybe? Anyway - guess I'd wed Cullen. Needs to loosen up, yeah?" She smirked in a way that could only be described as "evil." "Behead Droopy, obviously." Then she cackled. "Oi! Dorian! Wed, bed, behead - women in the inner circle, not counting Inquisi-tits. Go!"

Across the fire was too far away for me to see their reactions, but there was a moment of confused silence. "I'd really rather not," Dorian said at last, carefully.

"I had to do the men, Inky had to do big baddies - you hafta do women. Rules."

"Ah. Inana - " he began.

"I said nothing," I assured him.

"'Bout what?" Sera wondered. "Oh - liking men? Forgot Vints were weird about it - nah, I worked it out when you kept checking out Bull's arse, but ignoring Cass and Inky."

Dorian sputtered. "I did no such thing!"

"Yeah, you did," Bull replied easily. "No shame there - I've got a lot to admire."

"I mean - and a few nights ago Quisi-tits bent over when it was her turn to cook, Blackwall and I both stopped talking to watch, Solas ignored the plants you were on about for near a full minute, and you didn't even glance at her," Sera went on. "So. Women in the inner circle. Go."

I was blushing.

"Damn," Bull complained in an aside. "Where was I? Boss has a nice figure for an elf. Not too...sharp."

"I know, right?" Sera agreed.

I was blushing much harder.

Dorian heaved a put-upon sigh. "Very well, if I must. Bed Vivienne, as her wardrobe won't make my eyes bleed, wed you, Sera, since my parents would promptly die of apoplexy, and...oh dear, now I have to behead Cassandra, Leliana, or Josephine. How unpleasant. Behead Leliana, I suppose - she would come for me if I killed Josephine or Cassandra, and she makes most of the assassinations perpetrated by magisters look like the work of bumbling apprentices. Now I feel cheated, though - I don't know what any of the rest of you said about me."

"Of the three rounds you were in, you were bedded twice and beheaded once," I told him.

"That sounds roughly correct," he said cheerfully. "What about Solas?"

"Also in three, beheaded twice and bedded once," I dutifully reported, feeling Solas's somewhat reluctant amusement, even though I couldn't see his face.

"Also roughly correct," Solas echoed dryly.

"I get to put the question to him now, yes?" Dorian asked, and went on without waiting for an answer: "Human women in the inner circle."

"Absolutely not," he replied.

"Solas, I had to bed Alexius and wed a demon," I told him. "You're getting off easy. Now make your choices."

"Inana," he said, somewhere between stern and coaxing, "a few pages of this journal aren't in cipher, and we should discuss - "

"We will," I replied as sweetly as I could, "just as soon as you make your choices."

"Wed Cassandra, behead Vivienne, and bed...Josephine," he said, and I could hear his eye roll, even though I couldn't see it.

"Hmm," I said.

"Oh dear, it sounds as though the two of you will be talking about those answers later," Dorian said, sounding utterly delighted at the idea.

I felt a small pulse of alarm from Solas and laughed. "No - I know why he chose as he did. Those are the least surprising answers this entire game. Let's talk about the journal."