Happy Mother's Day!

Approach

"Fenedhis lasa," I growled as I came to the end of the message. We had been at Skyhold less than a full week, and Hawke was already sending word about the Wardens, advising us to make our way to the Western Approach as quickly as possible.

Stroud still has a few contacts, and has been told that Warden-Commander Clarel's Tevinter ally is on his way to test the "solution" he has proposed as I write this, Hawke had sent. Stroud and I agree that it would be best if we were to interrupt his test before it can be completed. I know we thought there would be more time. I'm sorry, Inquisitor.

I had truly been counting on more time. Fiona had only recently managed to trace the tower Widris had been trained at, and was now trying to find people who might have mentored her. Dwarves, mages, and Tranquil had all converged upon Valammar and were just beginning their research into red lyrium. Most importantly to me personally, my clan had been moved away from danger, but Leliana's agent was still trying to find out why they had been attacked in the first place, and Cullen's troops had yet to arrive to truly secure their new location.

And then there was the matter of Blackwall.

"Leliana?" I asked.

"I have virtually no agents in Tevinter, and have not yet been able to determine who this ally is with any certainty." She tipped her head towards me subtly, letting me know that she wasn't speaking of Tevinter, but of Blackwall.

"Does it matter?" Cullen asked, completely missing the real meaning behind her statement - as intended. "Whoever he is, we can assume he is working with Corypheus and the Venatori."

I wasn't as skilled as my spymaster, but since I apparently needed a pretext to leave Blackwall behind, it was probably fine if I alluded to him. "Perhaps it doesn't, but information is never unwelcome," I told him. "And...if we had been able to learn his identity, we might have been able to glean something about the ritual he intends to carry out. We don't know, for instance, if it will be targeted at Wardens who are compliant, or if it will somehow subvert the loyalties of any Warden within range."

"Blackwall," Cullen said uneasily.

"Just so," Leliana agreed.

"I'll leave him behind, just to be safe," I said, "though I don't expect he will appreciate it. At least he won't be alone - given Sera's unease around magic, I think I ought to leave her, too. Besides," I added after a moment of thought, "if we fail to stop this ritual - whatever it is - we will be forced to subdue the Wardens. I know you have been readying our army, but those preparations need to be finalized. Blackwall is an experienced commander and can aid you in doing that."

"That is true," Cullen agreed. "Given that we still have an uncomfortable number of raw recruits and not nearly enough officers, I would welcome the chance to put Blackwall to use. If Iron Bull is willing, I might also appropriate Krem. And perhaps Stitches to command our healers - many of whom still have little experience with battlefield triage."

"I have no objections," I assured the commander. "Bull might have other suggestions from among the members of his company."

Cullen bent to write something down.

"Very good, Inquisitor," Josephine said. "We will have fresh mounts waiting for you at regular intervals, and I believe you can expect to be between two and three weeks on the road."

"The army will be several days behind you," Cullen told me, "but of course we will be slower."

I nodded. "That can't be helped. I hope Stroud's timeline for gathering enough Wardens to complete the final ritual holds true. If it does, you should arrive in time, even in the worst-case scenario."

"We can only pray," Cullen agreed.

"All right, let's gather my team," I told them.

I went to see Blackwall myself, and had Sera brought to join us.

"I'm leaving you both here, to march with the army," I told them.

Sera, predictably, had the louder and more immediate reaction. "What?!" she screeched, and I heard one of the stablehands - perhaps Dennet himself - growl at her. She took no notice of it. "That is - that is just shite, and - "

"And you're terrified of mages," I reminded her. "I have no idea what the Wardens are doing, but I would place good money on it involving blood magic and probably demons. We haven't yet accounted for that demon army Corypheus had summoned in the future I visited, remember?"

"Fuck," she grumbled.

"Stay here and whip Cullen's archers into shape," I told her. "Make sure he and Josephine remember all the little people who are going to have to travel with the army." I turned my attention to Blackwall. "In your case, I'm worried that whatever this ritual is, Corypheus might be able to take hold of you - and Stroud, for that matter, but leaving him behind isn't up to me."

My ostensible Warden companion took a deep breath and then released it, averting his eyes.

"It also happens that Cullen has particular need of you," I added. "He wants you to act as one of his officers."

"I - " Blackwall began. "I'll serve in whatever capacity you require, Inquisitor."

"I know you will," I reassured him, trying to let the words be light and not laden with meaning. "Ma serannas, Blackwall."

We rode out from Skyhold before dawn the next morning. I was glad to have Sylalhan as we descended from the mountains, even though I would be trading him for a horse at the estate of some noble Josephine knew just outside of Halamshiral. He wouldn't be suited for the desert climate of the Western Approach anyway, and would be happier once one of Dennet's girls retrieved him and took him back to Skyhold.

Everyone seemed to accept my reasons for leaving Blackwall and Sera behind, except, perhaps, for Bull, whose gaze I could actually meet at Skyhold - at least as long as he stood near enough. He gave me a long, deliberative look that seemed to be examining all my secrets. I gazed back at him soberly, not actively trying to pretend I didn't have ulterior motives. If Leliana's investigation of Blackwall came to nothing, he would never need to know about my motives. If it didn't, his suspicions now made no difference to what I would choose to reveal then.

We were two and a half long, brutal weeks on the road, rising early and riding late, changing mounts daily between Halamshiral and Val Firmin, and once more between Val Firmin and our forward camp in the Western Approach. Everyone required frequent healing for sores and strained muscles, and we typically just put up two tents and crowded in, leaving our gear in a warded circle. It was too much effort to do anything else. We didn't cook, and ate preserved foodstuffs except when one of Josephine's contacts offered us a hot meal - which was usually daily, at least as long as we were remained on the highway. Once we left the road, however, it was all dried fruit, jerky, and hardtack.

The Western Approach was a desert, but not a particularly warm one - at least not in this season. We did leave the rain and snow behind, but at night an icy wind blew through the rocks and dunes, cutting through tents and clothing alike. Even warming glyphs only helped so much - we four mages began to take turns laying glyphs and providing light barriers to cut some of the wind. Even so, Solas and I weren't the only ones curling up under furs together: Dorian and Bull gave up the pretense that they weren't sleeping together every night, cuddled up like an actual couple .

Hawke and Stroud were both waiting for us when we reached our forward camp in the region, an hour's walk north of the eastern end of the Abyssal Rift. There wasn't much to be said of it, but at least it was located in a relatively sheltered valley ringed by stone cliffs rather than sand dunes.

"Hello again Inquisitor, Varric, and assorted friends and comrades," Hawke greeted us. "Welcome to the ass-crack of Thedas - and I want to you to remember when I bestow that title that I have both lived in Kirkwall and walked through the path of a darkspawn horde."

"They aren't really testing out this ritual, are they?" I sighed. "You just wanted to force me to share your misery."

"You? No," she replied with an easy smile. "You're either collateral damage or a nice bonus. My target was, of course, Varric."

"Hawke, this isn't the time for jokes," Stroud admonished her.

"Yeah," Varric said with tolerant exasperation, "people keep telling her that."

"I'm afraid there is a test of the ritual," the Warden went on, ignoring Varric's commentary. "We wouldn't have sent for you were your presence not necessary."

"I know," I assured him. "Have you worked out where and when?"

"There is an old Warden lookout tower along the Rift. Your scouts have seen Venatori camps in the area, and there is a group of Wardens approaching from the northeast," Stroud told us. "We don't know precisely when, but likely within two or three days."

"It sounds as though we arrived just in time," I said. "Should we intercept the Wardens?"

"As tempting as that possibility might be," Hawke said, "I think we have to let this play out - at least for a while. If we fail to capture Clarel's Tevinter advisor, she can not only proceed with her plan unhindered, we still won't have any idea what it is."

I accepted that, and asked about rifts in the area. As long as we were waiting, I thought I might as well do some good.

It actually took four days for the Wardens and Venatori to prepare the ritual. I spent the intervening time closing rifts and, somewhat ironically, delivering stolen mail to a scholar from the University of Orlais who was in the area studying a high dragon. Bull had some questions for him. A lot of questions, actually - I had never seen him so interested in an academic subject. "I don't know why you're so keen on fighting another dragon," Dorian complained as we were making our way back to camp. "Do you remember what happened last time?"

"What? It was our first time and we weren't expecting it," Bull replied easily. "It will go better next time."

"Next time," Dorian repeated flatly, and then fell silent. I didn't realize he was staring at me until he remembered to call my attention with words - then I pieced together what the pause had signified. "Inana." His voice was a plea.

"We aren't going to get out of fighting Corypheus's archdemon," I reminded him a little more irritably than I had intended as I slid back an arm's length down a dune that had given way beneath my feet. Solas reached down from the crest to pull me back up, and I quickly apologized to Dorian for my tone. "The fact that our last encounter with a dragon went so poorly unfortunately argues for the need to train against more dragons," I concluded.

"Fuck yes, it does!" Bull boomed.

"Ir abelas," I told my friend. His face was almost level with mine as he struggled up the dune Solas had just helped me up, and I could see that it was lined with concern. "I promise I won't let what happened last time happen again." Dagna hadn't yet completed the customized runes I had requested when we left Skyhold, but I expected them to come with the army. "I'll take care of Bull and Varric."

Dorian's voice softened. "I wasn't blaming you," he told me as he came to a stop beside me, resting his hand briefly on my shoulder. "I'm fairly certain all the blame rests with the dragon."

"You sure you'll be able to pick me up like you do the others, Boss?" Bull asked, skeptical, as he joined us. "I'm a little bigger than the average human."

"Not entirely certain," I admitted, "but we'll find out, I suppose."

"Er, yeah - and what are the chances that if you mess it up I get dumped in the Fade?" he demanded.

"Zero," Dorian replied for me. "No one has ever crossed into the Fade with a Fade-step - this is the same magic used to much better effect."

"Not precisely the same," Solas protested, speaking up for the first time. "It is considerably more difficult to move another person than one's own body. But the principle is admittedly the same."

"The principle is what I was referring to, you pedantic - " Dorian broke off, taking an audible breath to calm himself, while I turned my face away to hide a small smile.

The voices of the rest of our party drifted up from below while Dorian muttered about snooty hobo-hermits and Solas pretended not to hear since he was more amused than offended. "You would do it, wouldn't you Seeker?" Varric asked Cassandra.

She laughed - an unexpected sound given that she was talking with Varric. "No, but only because it would remind everyone of my...youthful exploits. Otherwise, yes - and I would send a copy to every suitor my uncle still has the gall to occasionally recommend."

Vivienne tsked. "And that, darling, is precisely why I wouldn't do it. It lacks all subtlety and would earn me far more enemies than I care to waste time fending off."

"It would suit you too well - like removing a carefully-designed mask to reveal your true face," Cole put in quietly enough that I could barely hear him over the hissing of wind through the sand.

"What are you talking about?" I called down to them, intrigued.

"Whether or not the Iron Lady should have her portrait painted with the head of the next dragon we kill," Varric replied.

"What if I were to commission a portrait with all three of us?" I suggested as they joined us on top of the ridge of sand. "If it were my invitation, couldn't you both then claim that I insisted?"

The suggestion actually won a soft chuckle from Vivienne. "My dear, there may be hope for you learning the Game yet."

"I'm sure Leliana and Josephine will be glad to hear it," I replied, hoping I had managed not to wrinkle my nose in distaste.

It wasn't much farther to the camp, but the terrain this direction was rough, and so we were all fairly quiet for a while - save for a few curses when the sand shifted out from beneath someone's feet. As we approached the outer sentries, we began to relax, but the scout at the first perimeter dropped down from her lookout to stop us.

"Harding told me to report the moment you returned," she warned us, and then gave a short, sharp whistle, echoed a moment later from nearer camp. "We received word that the Wardens were entering the old tower an hour ago. The Champion and her Warden friend have already left, and wanted you to follow as soon as you returned."

"Well, shit," Varric said.

"We need our horses," I told the scout.

"Already have them." I turned my head and saw a shape that had to be - and was - Harding approaching, and as she came closer the large blur following her resolved into the mount I had borrowed from someone-or-other's estate a day's ride from Val Firmin. "Hawke and Stroud went on foot, so if you hurry you might catch them."

"Ma serannas," I told her, accepting the reins as she handed them to me.

"Well," Varric sighed, "I suppose we should go stop the Wardens from the destroying the world they've spent centuries trying to save, shouldn't we."