We now return to our regularly-scheduled plot.

Details

Crestwood was a disaster.

We arrived in the midst of an icy rainstorm to discover a rift located beneath a lake, undead walking out of the lake in a steady stream, and a keep located along the main road captured by bandits, who were using it to block travel. Hawke had managed to slip through alone, but a group of any size would draw attention and an attack. There were also red templars about and rumors of a dragon.

Luckily, I had brought everyone on this trip, and so I had enough people to divide into two teams: one to help the local village deal with undead, while the other stormed the keep. Harding also advised me to find out how to drain the lake - there was a dam, apparently - but my primary objective was Stroud. The rift would have to wait a little while.

Hawke elected to stay and protect the village, at least until I had secured the keep. "The edge of the darkspawn horde came through here, you know," she told me. "A miracle enough people survived to rebuild the town."

"Remind you of Lothering?" Varric asked sympathetically.

"Reminds me that Lothering didn't receive any miracles," Hawke replied. "The people here have been through enough."

"Agreed - and so I'll leave you Solas. He's a very competent healer," I told her. "If the Creators smile on us, we might not lose anyone else."

"Thank you," Hawke said.

"Inquisitor," Solas protested.

"You're staying," I told him. "Dorian will stay with you. Vivienne's abilities will be better suited to taking the keep, especially paired with my abilities. I have enough healing magic to act as our healer." Our bond communicated his distress to me - the last time I had left him behind this way had been Haven - but he could also feel my resolve. The two situations were nothing alike, and he knew it regardless of whether he felt it. He subsided.

"Bull and Cassandra will be with me," I decided after another moment of thought. "And Sera. Blackwall, you stay to protect our mages, and Varric - you're with Hawke."

"Thanks, Vanish," the dwarf murmured.

"You don't have an aura for me to read anyway," I reminded him, even though Bull didn't, either, and I was still taking him along. I turned my attention to Cole. "Where do you think you can help most?" I asked the spirit.

"I...don't know," he answered. "Can I decide after I see the village?"

"Of course," I agreed. We needed to go there first - they would be able to tell us more about the bandit-held keep, the bandits themselves, and what I would need to do to drain the lake and get to the rift at its heart. I clung to the optimistic belief that the rift hadn't just opened somewhere on the lakebed where I would never be able to reach it.

Solas took my arm to help me keep up with everyone else as we followed the road toward town, and Hawke fell in on my other side, threading my other arm through hers, perhaps as an excuse to walk close enough to keep our conversation private. Although perhaps she was just trying to help me walk faster, or giving me the opportunity to read her expressions. "I've seen a few Grey Wardens about, looking for Stroud," she told me in an undertone. "They're hunting him on the orders of their Warden Commander, though they don't seem to be very happy about it, or even to know why the order was given.

"You've spoken to them?" I asked, somewhat surprised.

Her amusement was evident in her voice. "Unlike you, I don't have a glowing hand giving away my identity. This far from Kirkwall, I'm unlikely to be recognized - especially when I borrow a few pieces of Inquisition gear."

She had a point. "Is your friend in danger?" I asked. "Immediate danger?" I clarified as one of her eyebrows arched.

"I don't think so," she replied. "The Wardens I met appeared to be getting ready to leave the area. So unless the red templars start venturing well away from the mine they've claimed, I don't think anyone is likely to stumble over him."

"A mine," I muttered, caught by that piece of information. "Is it a lyrium mine? Surely not so close to the surface…"

"Another thing you'll likely need to look into while you're here," Hawke sighed. "I'm sorry. It's endless, isn't it?"

"I can't even tell you that you have no idea, because you're likely one of the few people in Thedas who does have some idea," I told her with a rueful laugh.

"Some," she allowed, "but it turns out there's a reason I focused on my city and left the rest of the continent to care for itself."

"Kirkwall needed as much attention as the rest of the continent combined?" I offered, teasing her a little.

"Instinctive urge to retain some shred of my sanity," she retorted. "Not that it worked," she added dryly after a moment.

Evening was drawing in as we gained the village, but there was no shortage of people willing to speak with us. Hawke had already been there, and learning that she had brought additional defenders created an almost giddy willingness to tell us whatever we wanted to know.

The only exception was the mayor, who regarded us and our plans warily. I tried to put it down to the trauma the village had already endured, but once we had left his house, Bull announced: "He's hiding something."

"Twitchy as a Carta goon diverting lyrium to fill his own pockets," Varric agreed.

"What luck for him that he was born Fereldan and not Orlesian," Vivienne sniffed. "He wouldn't last a day playing the Game."

"I noticed that when I spoke to him before - not the Game thing, the twitch," Hawke said, "though it was much more obvious this time. I think it has something to do with the dam or the lake."

Solas's free hand covered the one I had tucked beneath his elbow, and he cast me an entreating look.

"We can wait to approach the dam until we've regrouped," I reassured him. "The main purpose of taking the keep for the moment is still securing the road. It's just good luck that doing so will also gain us access to the dam."

"Felasas emma lath'in," he said quietly, the words for my ears alone, even though no one else spoke the language.

"That seems the best course," Cassandra agreed with me, ignoring the reason I had proposed it. "Whatever treachery may be at work is best faced by our whole team. Particularly if it somehow involves darkspawn."

"Creators," I huffed, "I hadn't even considered that."

"You haven't faced darkspawn yet?" Hawke asked, amused. "They're not so bad once you get past the stench, the possibility of taint, the wanton brutality - "

"Corypheus is a darkspawn," I reminded her, "and he has an archdemon - or something so like one as makes little difference - on a leash. Just because I haven't yet cut down a hurlock…"

"Maker, I hope there are no Deep Roads in our future," Varric breathed, making it sound like a prayer.

"Well, now there definitely are," Hawke told him. "Don't you know the Maker gives people like us the exact opposite of what we ask for?"

I thought Varric would have a witty response to that, but he was quiet for a moment - and too far away for me to see his expression. "You know, that would make a lot of sense, actually."

"No it wouldn't," Cassandra told them, sounding exasperated. "You're still alive, aren't you?"

"For now," Hawke allowed, and then laughed a little self-consciously. "It's my working theory, anyway."

"Enough," I sighed before Cassandra could continue the argument. "We have work to do." I released Solas's arm, reaching up to pull his face closer and pressing a kiss to his lips. "Take care of yourself and don't do anything foolish. We'll be back practically before you have time to miss us." I turned my attention to Cole as a means of forestalling the protest I knew would follow that statement. "Which group do you want to go with?" I asked the spirit.

He tilted his head as though listening to something. "Yes," he said quietly. "That would help. I can do that." His eyes fixed on me. "I'm going with you," he announced. "Keeping you safe helps everyone."

I snorted. "I think I know whose mind you picked that thought from," I told him, more amused than irritated. "Your help is welcome," I assured him, and took his arm as he offered it.

"I can help with this, too," he told me happily, referring, no doubt, to my need for a guide.

"You can," I agreed, patting his arm affectionately.

Caer Bronach - which was the name of the keep in question, though I suspected I would need to hear several more repetitions before I managed to remember that mouthful of consonants - was only a half hour from the village on foot. No one had been able to tell us how many bandits were inhabiting it, but there was no word of a mage, so unless they had either a full army or a group of former templars, I didn't expect too much trouble.

Bull appeared to fully enjoy the drama of kicking in a portion of the rotting gate, and I made a mental note to have that fixed properly first thing if we ended up occupying the place, as I suspected we might. Inside, there were footsoldiers and archers, along with a few mabari. "Keep an eye on the dogs," I reminded my team. "I can't see them."

"I can!" Sera crowed, her bow twanging. An instant later, that sound was followed by a canine howl of pain, quickly ended as she launched another arrow.

I restricted myself to repositioning our enemies until Sera announced that the last of the mabari had been dealt with. Then I unleashed my full range of abilities, and within moments, the courtyard was littered with bodies.

"That was...very efficient, my dear," Vivienne congratulated me, sounding surprised, and I realized it was her first time experiencing my unique ability to arrange a battle to our advantage. "I admit, the practice sounded unnecessarily risky when I first heard it described, but the experience is actually quite seamless."

"You're only barely skimming the Fade," I reassured her, "and only for the barest instant. You aren't even there enough for there to be any chance of you becoming trapped, even if something struck me down in the middle of using the ability. You would just drop back into the waking world. It's very like a Fade step."

"I'm almost as glad that was not a possibility that had occurred to me as I am to learn that it isn't a possibility at all," Cassandra told me dryly.

There were shouts above us, and a few badly-aimed arrows came down. Vivienne tossed up a barrier as Sera scoffed at the lack of skill on display.

"Enough talking," Bull growled. "Let's kill some assholes!"

We fought our way through the keep, up to the top where the leader of the bandits apparently resided. He reminded me of the Hand of Korth and the former leader of the Blades - a large man who believed size, muscle, and an ability to ignore pain somehow, by themselves, constituted a defense. I let Bull toy with him while the rest of us made short work of his lieutenants and remaining archers.

"Come on, Bull," I chided the Qunari as I looked around following Vivienne's strike on the last of the lieutenants and caught sight of their leader's aura. "Do you need Cassandra's help?"

"Nope!" he assured me, finally cutting the man down with a strike that drew an appreciative sound from Cassandra, though I was too far away to see it. "See something you like, Seeker?" he teased her.

She chuckled. "A reclaimed keep, foremost," she replied.

"Good place to set up, Boss," he told me more seriously.

"Cole, do you think you could tell Harding she doesn't have to camp in the rain any longer?" I requested of the spirit, reasoning that he could move faster than any of us as he wasn't strictly bound by either time or distance. "And have her send a scout to the village - the rest of our team can bring the villagers to shelter in the keep until we can take care of the rift in the lake."

He smiled. "Yes, I can do that."

I just had time to thank him before he disappeared.

"Kid's pretty useful," Bull commented, "but we should go pick out the best rooms before everyone else gets here."

"I do look forward to sleeping under a roof," Cassandra said.

"As do we all, even the Inquisitor, I suspect, given the dreadful weather," Vivienne agreed.

I laughed. "The Dalish have aravels and not tents for a reason," I pointed out. "I like roofs as much as anyone. You should probably go work out where the leader was staying - I'll wager he made sure he had the best of everything. Meet up back here after - we have bodies to dispose of." The leader had been wearing something enchanted. Maybe if we found it and put it on the other -

"You don't want the room, my dear?" Vivienne interrupted my thoughts.

"No, it's fine." I waved her off. "We won't be here long enough for it to matter to me." I thought the item might have been a ring, though maybe it was the hilt of the sword he had been using. As long as he still had it, I should be able to move his corpse with my Fade trick, and then none of us would have to actually carry -

Sera's laughter in my ear alerted me just before her arm fell across my shoulders. "You," she cackled. "You, yeah? Coulda pushed Vivvy off the wall, surprised her less. Don't know what to do with someone who don't give a rat's arse about all her fancy shite."

"Oh. Well…" I paused to consider. "That's probably not true. I imagine she still thinks I desire power." I shrugged. "Maybe better to let her think so - I suspect she might be a more valuable ally if she believes me easy to manipulate."

Sera studied my face, smirking, and then abruptly released me. "Gonna need wood for a pyre, right? I'll find some."

"Ma serannas," I called after her.

Felasas emma lath'in: You calm/slow my heart