Secrets Saved and Spilled

The two adolescents scrambled to their feet as we entered the main room of the tavern, the girl clutching - I saw as I came a little closer - what was probably partially-removed clothing to her body, and all discussion within my group stopped dead. "In-Inquisitor!" the boy yelped as I approached near enough to have some hope of reading their expressions, quickly throwing his arm around his half-dressed paramour so she could more effectively hide both her body and her face against him.

We had entered the Rusted Horn somewhat cautiously, looking for signs of the mayor's betrayal. I somehow doubted the tryst we had interrupted was one of those signs. It did remind me of the night before, though, and I hoped everyone would believe my blush to be on behalf of the embarrassed couple rather than on my own.

Solas's thoughts didn't seem to be headed in the same direction as my own. "Wonderful," he commented dryly, more impatient with the delay than anything else.

Dorian was attempting to disguise his laughter as a coughing fit, and failing badly. "Oh, please, don't mind us! Just passing through," he assured them.

Hawke wasn't even trying. She leaned against the fireplace beside me, laughing openly.

We weren't yet ready to drain the lake even if it turned out that repairs to the mechanism were simple. According to the villagers, no one lived in the lowland area the floodwaters might sweep away - not since a dragon had arrived to lay claim to it. Even so, there were a few farmsteads downstream, on the outskirts of the Southron Hills, and I wanted to make certain no one was out foraging or anything of that sort when we opened the sluices. Stroud's cave also happened to be that general direction, though higher in the hills according to Hawke. Warning away the farmers would be good cover for visiting him, in case looking for and closing rifts wasn't enough reason for me to wander the countryside.

I rolled my eyes at both my beloved and my friends, and took off my cloak, handing it to the boy to drape over the girl's shoulders. "I suppose, between the weather and the undead, there aren't a lot of places to snatch a moment of privacy," I told them, working to stifle my own amusement and project sympathy. "Thank you for not leaving the keep, but be aware that coming here was a risk - the reason this place is deserted is because it hadn't yet been scouted. By that same token, we're only passing through now, but someone will likely be in to do an inventory within the next few hours."

"Then - you aren't going to tell on us?" the girl asked, raising her head to look at me, her voice tinged with wavering hope.

"I wouldn't even know whom to tell," I pointed out. "But if you're inclined to do me a favor in return for my discretion, just...defer your meetings for a few days. Let me piece things back together. It will be much safer to run off together once the undead stop pouring out of the lake. Can you do that?"

"I think so," the boy said, looking at the girl.

"Yes," she said in a near-whisper.

"All right - we're going now. Stay if you like, but keep in mind what I said about inventory."

Hawke fell in beside me again, directing me toward the back of the tavern. "Through here, I imagine," she said. "But I'm shocked, Inquisitor - encouraging immoral sexual conduct and defiance of elders. What will your Seeker say?"

"Any thoughts, Cassandra?" I asked, sourly amused by Hawke's teasing.

"This is the least romantic place they could have chosen for such a meeting," Cassandra observed.

Hawke began laughing before I could comment. "I see why you're Varric's favorite Seeker, Cassandra."

"I never said that!" Varric protested from somewhere behind us.

"As if you needed to," Dorian told him slyly. "All that play-fighting."

"No, that's just fighting," Varric said at the same time Cassandra snapped: "I'm hardly playing."

Hawke and I exchanged a look. "Sounds - " she began as she pushed the door to the back room open, and then cut off. "Well, this looks singularly...functional."

I squinted and then entered the room for a better look, touching the wheel for opening the sluices. It was worn, but appeared perfectly intact. "He - the mayor - did say this was what the darkspawn had destroyed, didn't he? I'm not remembering that incorrectly?"

"That's what I remember, Boss," Bull said.

I turned to look at my companions - the blur that I knew constituted my companions, anyway. Everyone had come on the expectation that something here might be a threat, though Blackwall and Cole had remained outside, keeping watch against attacks from behind.

"Something weird is going on," Varric muttered.

"I think perhaps we may need to have another little chat with the mayor before we head off to meet Stroud," Hawke said.

"I think that's a good idea," I agreed.

We returned to the keep. I didn't see the two adolescents when we passed through main room, but they might have been there somewhere - I didn't look thoroughly for non-mage auras beyond the ones crowding around me. Outside, Solas wrapped me in his cloak, replacing the one I had given away, and though I tried to protest, it was clear from the outset that I wouldn't prevail.

"All right," I sighed as we walked up the path, Solas at my side to help me keep my feet, "I don't need everyone along to meet the Warden. Varric will want to come, of course, but you can stay, Sera. You, too, Dorian - you both spent enough time wandering around the Fallow Mire with me. Vivienne, I actually need someone to keep the villagers organized and out of Harding's way until I can close the rift. Is that something you could do?"

"Of course, my dear. You can count on me."

"I assume you want to meet Stroud, Blackwall?" I asked him. I stumbled as we came to a length of uneven stairs set into the hillside, but Solas's hand on my arm steadied me.

"I had actually wondered if you'd like me to hunt down any bandits remaining in the area. I doubt they were all here, and they could cause headaches for Harding's scouts - not to mention the outlying farms," he said.

That wasn't something I had considered, and though he was right, I was also surprised he didn't want to meet with Stroud. "Well...if you would prefer," I said. "You need support, though. Bull? You like hunting things."

"Sure thing, Boss," the Qunari said easily.

"I'll go," Sera said. "Don't really want to be stuck here, 'specially if Vivvy's helping run things. Besides," I heard the smile in her voice, "might get a look at the dragon. That'd be the tits."

"Fuck yeah!" Bull agreed with considerable enthusiasm.

"Any preferences, Cole?" I asked.

"Hunting helps," he said. "No more hurt. Not from them."

"That should be fine, then. Dorian can go along if you need him or if he gets bored. That leaves Cassandra, Varric, Solas, and Hawke with me, which should be plenty." I paused to pick my way across some rocky ground. "Oh - watch out for the mine where the red templars have set up. Let Harding - or Charter - handle it unless they ask for help. They're both better prepared for covert observation."

There was a short chorus of assent and I paused at the door to the interior of the keep to look back at them - what I could see of them. " Ma serannas . I couldn't ask for a better team, and I can't tell you how helpful it is knowing that you can all handle whatever you're assigned."

"Shut it, before you make Cassandra blush," Sera called out.

"Just for that," I told Sera, "you're coming with us to see the mayor so you can report what we find out back to Harding."

"Pfft, joke's on you - I woulda volunteered anyway," she shot back.

We were all more or less ready to begin on our assignments immediately, and so my group set out for the village after a brief word with Harding asking her to find someone to look over any of the sluice mechanisms that could be safely reached while we were out delivering warnings. The cold rain continued today, but Solas managed to acquire another cloak during my short conversation with Harding, so we were all outfitted appropriately. Varric was a little smug wearing the Satinalia gift I had given him, at least until Sera and Hawke started threatening to steal it from him.

Even Solas and Cassandra, flanking me and therefore visible, looked tolerantly amused by the time we arrived in town and made our way to the mayor's house, but sobered as we considered the task before us - and sobered further when we discovered the house was empty.

"No sign of forced entry," Cassandra observed. "The undead appear largely uninterested in the town now that it is deserted."

"Look at this," Hawke said, the crackle of paper providing me with a clue regarding what she had found. "'Inquisitor.'" She paused, and then continued more slowly: "'It was not darkspawn that opened the dam and flooded Old Crestwood ten years ago. I did, in secret, the night they attacked. The undead you have been fighting are people I killed with my own hands.'"

There was a brief moment of silence.

"That shite-fucking arse-biscuit!" Sera snarled, stalking over to Hawke and - there was movement, more sound of paper crackling, and abruptly Sera was the one speaking: "Blah, blah, ill, Blight, drowned all the sickies with the darkspawn, only way to save his own frigging arse. Argh!" The paper crackled again, angrily this time, and everyone but me protested.

"Don't crumple the murderer's confession!" Hawke snapped at her.

"Right. Sorry. Balls."

"I'll take that," Cassandra sighed.

"We're going after him, right?" Sera demanded, turning on me.

"The Inquisition will pursue him, yes," I agreed, "though not us personally. See if Harding has people to spare, and, if not, have her send a raven to Skyhold," I instructed Sera.

She was silent for a moment, but then I saw her head move. "Yeah - yeah, that's good. Frigging bastard."

I exhaled. "Let's get out of here."

The walk back to Caer Bronach was much quieter than the walk to the village had been. We left Sera at the gates and went on, following the road through a canyon and beyond, into rolling hills that had once been farmland. A few farmsteads appeared to have been burned - probably by bandits rather than the dragon given that the frames of structures still stood - and more had been abandoned. It took us the rest of the day to examine all of them to ensure no one lived there, but in the end we only found two inhabitants in isolated corners. Neither farmed, though - one relied more on foraging and the other on hunting, which made me glad we had taken the trouble of seeking them out. Farmers would, it was to be assumed, mostly keep to their fields. Foragers and hunters might easily wander into the path of the flood.

We climbed into the foothills to camp that night, and found a site near the cave where we were to meet Stroud. Hawke disappeared for a while before dinner, I assumed to warn him of our presence, though she brought back handfuls of edible herbs that made a good addition to our soup.

"What do you think of the Grey Wardens?" Solas asked me as we lay together that night.

The question surprised me, though perhaps it shouldn't have. I had heard him asking Blackwall about the Wardens as we traveled together, probing for...something. I didn't know what. "I think they are the only reason the Blights haven't destroyed all life in Thedas," I told Solas. "The First Blight lasted two centuries and left broad swaths of the continent uninhabitable on the surface, and, it's said, not only destroyed the kingdom of the dwarves, but nearly eradicated their entire race. The Wardens are the only answer we have ever found, so...it doesn't matter how imperfect they are, does it? Until the Blights end, they are necessary."

"And you believe that, once the final archdemon lies slain, the Blights will come to an end," he stated, not asking.

I answered anyway. "I have no idea," I told him truthfully. "From what I understand, Blights on the surface are a respite for the dwarves - and likely not enough of one. There are always whispers about how Orzammar is pushed ever closer to the edge of oblivion, the territory it holds slowly dwindling with each age that passes. What will happen when there are no more archdemons for the darkspawn to spend time and resources seeking out? What will happen when there is no longer one great enemy to slay to make the entire thing end? I don't know the answers to those questions, Solas."

He exhaled slowly and then pressed a kiss to my forehead. "They are good questions, though uncomfortable, ma vhenan - questions not unlike those that worry me."

"What questions worry you?" I wondered.

"That conversation would keep us awake all night," he told me. "Ir abelas - I know you need to sleep. It was exceedingly selfish to bring it up now."

And he was deflecting - but it didn't make him wrong. "Someday," I told him, yawning, "I'm not going to let you get away with doing this. But today isn't that day."

"Noted," he said quietly, pulling me a little closer, and pang of something like fear echoing through our bond. "Ar lath ma, vhenan."

"Ar lath ma," I agreed, letting his presence soothe me to sleep.