Maxwell sighed. He'd hoped Ellana and Solas could make more sense out of Theron's information on the Architect. Unfortunately, it was starting to appear that the two men couldn't spend more than a few minutes in each other's presence without antagonising each other. Ellana attempted to calm the two of them down, but to no avail.

The last conversation had been almost entirely in the elven language and had resulted in Leliana grabbing Theron by the arm and dragging him away and Ellana doing the same to Solas. It wasn't just the fact that Theron was a Warden. Apparently, Solas had also made a comment about the Dalish not knowing as much as they thought they did, which made Ellana a little annoyed as well.

Fiona had told them her story. Or most of it, Theron thought the former Grand Enchanter was still leaving something out of the tale. Maxwell took tea with Vivienne, hoping she could shed some light. With the Circle libraries in disarray though, what few suggestions Vivienne had would be difficult to follow up upon.


"So, how come only Grey Warden can kill an Archdemon?" Maxwell enquired.

He watched Theron pace in front of the window. Finally he sighed. "If anyone, other than a Warden, were to kill the Archdemon, the essence of the beast would simply transfer into the next nearest darkspawn and the beast would rise again. It happened dozens of times in the First Blight. That's why my order was created."

"Okay, but that doesn't explain why only members of your order can kill them."

"As you very well know Inquisitor, Grey Wardens are tainted. It is that connection that allows us to slay an Archdemon. You see a darkspawn is a mindless, soulless beast. An empty vessel." He took a deep breath. "A Grey Warden is not. Should a Grey Warden slay the beast, the essence travels instead to the Warden. Both are thus slain."

Maxwell stared at him. "But you slayed one and you're still alive."

He was silent for almost a full minute. "Yes."

"How?"

"I'm sorry Inquisitor, but I can't tell you," said Theron. "For you see I do not know myself, but I do have my suspicions. Unfortunately, the suspicions lead to the private lives in an old friend of mine and I do not wish to devouge them."

Maxwell nodded. "Has there been any word of Daylen?"

"Was still searching and even with Morrigan's help it is not an easy task."

"And let me know of you hear anything," said Maxwell as he got up.

"As you wish, Inquisitor."


"Was Servis able to provide you any useful information?"

Leliana nodded to Maxwell. "He's actually somewhat terrified we might ransom him back to the Venatori. It seems he was using his smuggler contacts to smuggle artifacts out from under the Venatori's noses."

"He stole from Corypheus?" Maxwell shook his head and laughed. "I don't know if he's bravely stupid or stupidly brave."

"He claims he was hired by a third party and has no loyalty to Corypheus." Leliana shrugged. "With your permission, I believe I can make further use of him."

"He's all yours." Maxwell glanced at the map. "We should get some people out to look over that laboratory we found in the still ruins. I'm sure Vivienne can suggest a couple mages to send. Anything else?"

"Arl Teagan invited the Inquisition to send a champion to a tourney being held, with the winner being given possession of an untended bannorn." Josephine held up a piece of parchment.

"I'm sure we can find one or two soldiers around that might be interested." Maxwell smiled, and then looked up at Cullen. "I'll leave finding some suitable volunteers to you."

"Fairbanks, in the Emerald Graves, claims to have information of value to the Inquisition. He says he'll provide it in exchange for us eliminating a dangerous rebel band called the 'Freemen of the Dales'. Uprooting them could be a very good move for us."

"Dispatch Harding. We'll head there next."


As they made their way to the Emerald Graves, Iron Bull was smiling at Blackwall with admiration.

"Now, isn't this better?" he said giving Blackwall a friendly nudge. "Removing the burden of that lie of your chest."

Blackwall raised an eyebrow. "And exchange it for burden for everyone hating me. Yes, so much better."

"Hey, I don't hate you," said Iron Bull defensively. "You and me, we're good. Now that you know who you are you can stop doubting yourself and crap again."

"Why don't we had a few bottles first, huh," Blackwall suggested.

Maxwell was pleased that not everyone hated Blackwall, but many were still giving him the cold shoulder, including Cassandra and Solas, who were previously on good terms.


The forest here was truly beautiful. Ellana'd never quite realised trees could get that big. Part of her just wanted to stop and stare for a while. Behind her, Solas glanced over at Dorian. "I am surprised you do not practice blood magic, Dorian. Is it not popular in Tevinter?"

Dorian smiled widely. "While we're sharing surprises, you've done a lot less dancing naked in the moonlight than expected."

Ellana ran a hand down her face. Solas just rolled his eyes. "Tevinter lore about elves remains accurate as always."

"I wanted to see you make flowers bloom with your song, just once." Dorian gestured grandly.

"I don't suppose the Dalish actually have spells that can do that?" Maxwell asked curiously.

"There is magic that affects the growth of plants." Solas shrugged. "None of it, however, involves singing."

"No matter how beautiful one's voice is," said Ellana.


"Good to see you again, Inquisitor. Hope you've got your comfortable boots on," said Harding leading them over to a map with several flags sticking out of it. "The scouts have seen a number of Fade rifts, all over the forest. We've located this mysterious 'Fairbanks.' He won't share his information with anyone but you. He and his men are camped out at Watcher's Reach, on the path ahead. From what we can tell, they're refugees from the war. Peasants, mostly."

"Tell me everything you know about Fairbanks."

"We don't know much about him. He appeared after the civil war started, helping people fleeing from the destruction. 'Fairbanks' is likely not his real name."

"You know anything else about the region?" Adaar asked.

"They call this place the Emerald Graves. Legend says that a tree grows here for every elven knight of Halamshiral who perished in its defence. Makes you sad, doesn't it?" Harding gazed up at the green canopy.

"What was done to the elves here was unforgivable," said Maxwell.

"Never again," said Harding. "At least, I hope not." She then remember that among them was in fact a Dalish, whose face was emotionless. "I'm sorry, Guardian. I spoke thoughtlessly."

"It's fine, Harding," Ellana assured.

"Thank you for the information. We'll head out," said Maxwell.

"Ah, one other thing. You've tangled with the Freeman of the Dales before. They have a presence here. Watch your back."


They found Fairbanks' camp and he was quite pleased to see them.

"It's an honour to meet the Herald of Andraste and his guard," he said.

"You're too kind," said Maxwell.

"As much as I admire you, however, I did reach out to the Inquisition just for this," said Fairbanks as he led them into the camp. "As my missive stated, we can help each other. You have encountered the Freeman? Aggressive bastards, no? They've killed a dozen of my people. We're trying to fight, but we can match their strength. You can. Why should you care about this, you ask? Because the Freeman are colluding with your enemy."

The Inquisition had so many enemies was hard to keep track. "Which enemy do you mean?" Adaar enquired.

"The rogue templars. I've seen them through the woods, heading for the Freeman basis, leaving with crates. Destroy the Freeman, and they'll lead you straight to the red templars. This I promise."

"We'll look into this, Fairbanks," Maxwell assured.

"All my information about the Freeman is right here, in our camp," said Fairbanks gesturing to a table. "Help us, and everything I know about the Dales, about these woods, I shall share with the Inquisition."


Maxwell soon led them out of the camp. Solas and Cole were having another of their stranger conversations, the ones in which he couldn't quite figure out the subject matter. And Sera and Varric… he could really understood what they were talking about, but judging by the way that Erdic was listening they were clearly talking about smuggling.

They found the caves marked on Fairbank's map and they met the Freeman. It would appear that Fairbanks was quite correct in saying that they were in league with the red templars for they found red lyrium scattered all over the place.

Their leader was also not too pleased to see them and she commanded her forces to attack. However, they were not trained soldiers and easily fell to their blades and Adaar took great pleasure by plunging her greatsword into the commanders chest.

Maxwell was able to pick the lock long before Erdic found the key. Maxwell looked over the information in the camp before sending it back with the freed prisoners for Fairbanks.


They finished dealing with the Freemen holding the small fort, and began making their way back to Fairbanks. The fort would be a better location for his people, and the Inquisition could strengthen it, giving them a presence in these woods.

Blackwall called over to Solas. "Sera and I were just talking about you. We need you to settle a question for us."

Solas sighed. "Sera's involved? So this question will be offensive."

"Yes, probably. Sorry." Blackwall's smile was completely unapologetic. "You make friends with spirits in the Fade. So…" He shrugged. "Um, are there any that are more than just friends? If you know what I mean."

Solas stopped short. "Oh, for…" He turned towards Blackwall. "Really?!"

"Look, it's a natural thing to be curious about!"

"For a twelve year old!"

"It's a simple yes or no question!"

"Nothing about the Fade or spirits is simple, especially not that."

Blackwall's eyes practically lit up. "Aha! So you do have experience in these matters!"

"I did not say that."

"Don't panic. It'll be our little secret."

"Ass." Solas started walking again.

"Now who's twelve?" Blackwall called after him.

Ellana then walked over to Solas. "Do you have any experience?"

Solas' face turned bright pink and he walked off without even answering her, causing her to giggle.

The continual tracking and found an abandoned estate that the Freemen were using as a base of operations and clearly they had got wind that their other bases had been taken over by the Inquisition and Fairbanks' people.


Iron Bull hit the heavily armoured freeman commander with a full on tackle before the man could bring his axe down on the fallen Blackwall. Both tumbled down the stairs and out of view. Erdic moved to Blackwall's side and blocks the blade of an incoming sword. Ellana assisted Solas with barriers to protect their warriors. Maxwell on the other hand was using his staff in order to get behind the commander and then he plunged his blades into his back.

After dealing with the Freeman outside the estate they ended into the building itself and found it for Freeman. They naturally attacked, but they easily fell under the crushing blow of Adaar and Iron Bull.

The freeman leader was fast, but not as fast as Maxwell and Cole. The man didn't know what hit him when the two of them struck him with their daggers. Ellana was busy protecting everyone else with a barrier as the the archers as they stood on a vantage point, picking off the Freemen who tried to rush into the courtyard. Dorian used a wall of fire to block off various paths, while Maxwell and Cole became the front lines. The fight took longer without the presence of their warriors, and Dorian was visibly dragging by the time it was done. It occurred to her that not all that long ago, she would have been as well.

They began to investigate the estate and found a huge operation for red lyrium, no doubt weakening Samson's hold in the area. He would have to report this to Cullen when they returned as he was still trying to locate Samson.


They decided that this was the best location to rest up as they had taken quite a beating from the Freeman. It was clear that the Freeman had had training, no doubt so they could be a thorn in their side.

Adaar was gently placing Iron Bull down and Ellana came up to him and began to heal his wounds. As she was doing this, Iron Bull looked to Varric. "Hey, Varric, are you gonna write me into one of your stories?"

Varric gave him a pointed look. "How could I not?"

"When you do, make sure you describe the musculature right. Cause this isn't just endurance work-there was a lot of strength training to get here. You wanna use words like 'rippling' or 'ripped.' 'Ripped' is good."

"Hmm…" Varric started writing. "The Iron Bull's belly was prone to rippling after every meal. He rarely wore shirts as they ripped under the strain."

"That hurts, Varric. That's hurtful."

"Fairbank should be happy, my bet the Freeman are getting tired," said Erdric. "Still don't know why Samson is bothering with them though."

"No doubt just for cannon fodder," said Adaar. "It's like they did with the Promises, promised them what they want and then later betray them."

"She's right," said Maxwell. "At least stopping the civil war will put a dent in Croypheus' plans."

"He seems to be quite interested in finding elven ruins," said Ellana. "But suppose I shouldn't be too surprising considering that is not too far off the time when the Imperium took everything from the elves."

"I still dunno how he got that orb," said Erdic.

"We'll figure it out," said Maxwell.


After which they returned to Fairbanks, who was very grateful for their intervention and as he promised he provided information of the area. Maxwell knew that Leliana will be able to use this for great effect.

However, before they left they were encountered by one the prisoners, called Clara they had rescued, who told them that she believed that Fairbanks was a noble. Maxwell had a feeling that Fairbanks was more than happy to remain a commoner and he himself knew that being a noble was not all that it cracked up to be.

Even still, he promised to look up on these leads and they were indeed promising. He soon discovered that Fairbanks was the legitimate child of Lady Bernice Lemarque, who was disowned because she was pregnant out of wedlock.

Before handing them over to the Clara, he wanted to talk with Fairbanks, who didn't deny that he was indeed of noble birth, albeit from a disowned mother. He said that he did not want to be in the gilded cage of the nobility and believe that he could provide more help for the refugees than he could ever do as a noble.

Agreeing with him, Maxwell gave them all the information that he had collected on him.

They carried on through the forest and then met a group of Dalish elves in what appeared to be an old elven ruin. They were hostile at first, but upon seeing Ellana they lowered their bows and their leader approached them.

Apparently he was Keeper Hawen's First and he was investigating the ruins that had once been the headquarters of the Emerald Knights and apparently the tomb had been left untouched. Maxwell had offered some help with uncovering the ruins, but he insisted that this the Dalish had to do this for themselves.