Anders and Oghren each had an ear pressed to the heavy wooden door that opened into the throne room. The voices were muted but Anders could just barely make out the words of the speech Gideon had given them at their Joining the previous day. Silence reigned for a few moments and then there was a soft thump of something hitting the ground. Man and dwarf exchanged a glance.

Several minutes later, Gideon came out into the hallway, followed by Varel. He noticed the two Wardens waiting uneasily by the door. "He survived," he said, guessing correctly as to why they were waiting there. "He's out cold though, and there's things he and I need to talk about. Our trip into the city will have to wait."

Anders sighed—he'd been looking forward to getting at least a couple more sets of robes. Maybe he could talk one of the servants into finding him a washboard and tub. His robes might still have a few tears in them from his fights with first Templars and then the darkspawn, but at least they'd be clean.

There was indeed a washtub in the kitchen, and after Anders had shooed the cook and her serving girls out of the room he spent a long while scrubbing his clothes and then waiting for them to dry out by the hearth. He was slightly amused with himself for making the women leave before stripping down—after living in the Circle Tower for so many years, he was used to doing everything in front of an audience, including going to the loo. But privacy was a rare luxury that he grabbed up eagerly whenever he got a chance at it.

After a glare from the cook for taking so long and a kiss on the cheek for one of the giggling maids—he was not so eager for privacy that he'd pass up a tumble with a beautiful woman—he decided to explore the rest of the Keep. A glimpse of the rooms the previous day had revealed what looked to be a fairly decently stocked library, and a building this large had to have a few other places of interest.

A few hours and another trip to the kitchen larder later, Anders headed for his room. Pushing the door open he was stopped in his tracks by the sight before him. There was a man standing near the dresser facing away from the door. He was stripped down to the waist and the light from the room's fireplace highlighted the many muscles in his broad back. A few faint scars were scattered across his shoulder blades and lower back.

Hello, Anders perked up, half-naked man in my room. Not bad. And then the man turned and he saw it was Nathaniel Howe. "Oh, it's you," he said flatly. He was not entirely certain how he felt about the other man. On the one hand, he was undoubtedly attractive. On the other hand, he had tried to kill a man who had been kind enough to spare Anders' life. Granted, he and Gideon would most likely never become bosom buddies, but he had a fair amount of respect for the Commander.

"Do you not know how to knock, Mage?" Nathaniel was glaring at him, his shirt hanging loosely in his hands.

"Why should I knock?" Anders was nonplussed. "This is my room. I slept in it last night."

"Well it was my room when I was a child, so it's my room now." Nathaniel looked at him stubbornly.

"No, no way," Anders huffed. "You cannot have dibs on something for twenty years."

Nathaniel scowled at him. "Are you always this childish?"

Anders grinned at him cheekily as he leaned against the door frame. "Oh, no, sometimes I'm much worse."

Nathaniel seemed to change tack. "Are all your belongings in here?" He looked around the room.

"Well, I don't exactly have any belongings at the moment," Anders admitted grudgingly.

"Then there's nothing for you to move out," Nathaniel smiled triumphantly.

Anders threw up his arms. "Fine, fine, you can have the room." He shook his head. "And you think I'm childish."

Nathaniel tossed his shirt on the floor before turning back to the dresser, where a basin filled with water had been set. Anders tsked and picked the shirt up, folding it over the back of the chaise sitting in front of the fireplace. "Seeing as how I'm letting you have this room, you should learn to keep it tidy."

Nathaniel glanced at him. "That's what the servants are for." Ah.

"Well, you're not 'Lord High-and-Mighty' anymore," Anders said, a touch sharply. "You can clean up after yourself now."

He saw the cords in the nobleman's neck tighten as he scowled. His family's loss of the arling was apparently a sore point for him. "Fine," he said, "I shall endeavor to improve my habits." He stared at Anders, seemingly waiting for the mage to leave.

"So," Anders said, plopping down on the chaise, ignorant of the rogue's glare, "I take it you don't like me much."

Nathaniel raised an eyebrow, surprised at the change of subject. "When did I say that?"

"You don't have to," Anders waved his hand negligently, "you have that look about you."

"And what look is that?" Nathaniel dipped his hand in the basin of water and scrubbed at his face.

Anders took a moment to admire the rogue's curvaceous backside. "The kind of look that says you don't like mages."

Nathaniel looked at him thoughtfully, "I've never actually met a mage before, to tell the truth. So I don't have much to compare you with."

Anders shrugged and stood up. "Well, if you're ever interested in learning more about mages," he took a step towards Nathaniel, pointedly casting his eyes up and down the other man's body, "I'd be happy to oblige you," he purred.

He saw Nathaniel stiffen, his eyes narrowed dangerously. Anders grinned at him slyly. "Pleasant dreams, Nathaniel." He chuckled as he left to check out the bedroom across the hall.

oOoOo

The next morning, the Wardens made it as far as the courtyard gates before they were stopped by a guard. "Commander, we have a problem," the woman said.

Gideon rolled his eyes. "Of course we do. What is it this time?"

"We think there are still darkspawn about," she saw the look of doubt on the Commander's face. "Let me explain. You remember that mad bomber Dworkin? Well, his explosions seem to have collapsed several floors of the Keep's cellars. From what we can tell, pockets of darkspawn got trapped down there."

Gideon sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You'd better take me down there."

They followed the sergeant into the cellars and waited while the workers cleared enough of the rubble for them to venture further in.

"You know, Nathaniel," Anders said conversationally as they made their way down the stairs, "you and I have a lot in common."

Nathaniel looked at him curiously. "How so?"

"Well you're hated and despised for something you have no control over—being the son of a murderous bastard." He saw Nathaniel clench his jaw, but he continued on unabashed. "And I'm hated and despised for something I have no control over—being born a mage."

"That's not the same thing at all. I'm not going turn into an abomination just because I'm a Howe. Mages are dangerous."

Anders felt himself tense at the rogue's proclamation. "So you think mages really should be locked up in a tower?"

"I believe that mages need to be controlled, though it's not for me to say how." Nathaniel quickened his pace and moved ahead of Anders.

Anders thought on Nathaniel's words as they emerged from the staircase into a large room lined with statues of strangely-garbed humans. A mabari lay on the floor in front of the door on the opposite wall.

Gideon motioned for them to stay back. "Mabaris can be dangerous," he said. He slowly crept forward until he was crouched before the dog. The poor thing looked miserable. Its fur was caked with blood and dirt, and it was panting harshly.

Gideon reached out to the beast tentatively and it sniffed at his hand. With his other hand, he pulled what appeared to be a scrap of paper from underneath the dog's collar. He unrolled it and scanned his eyes across the paper before handing it wordlessly to Nathaniel.

"It's from Adria!" Nathaniel exclaimed. "She's trapped below—we must save her." He looked at Gideon pleadingly. "Please. She was like a mother to me."

Gideon nodded. "We'll look for her." Nathaniel sighed with relief.

The sergeant had been right about the darkspawn. The next few rooms they passed through were filled with the monsters. Watching as Gideon ducked beneath a large spiked mace swung by a hurlock, Anders decided that being a Grey Warden might not be all it was cracked up to be.

They searched each of the rooms they came across, looking for the woman named Adria. Descending another staircase, Anders looked around him in surprise. "Another dungeon?" he glanced over at Nathaniel. "Your father must have been really good at making enemies."

Oghren nodded in agreement. "There's more dungeons in this sodding place than bedrooms."

Nathaniel's eyes widened in horror as he took in the room around him. Anders couldn't blame him. There were two sets of cells, one on either side of the room. Rust-colored stains that looked suspiciously like blood covered the floors of the cells, and several sets of manacles were anchored to the walls. There were also some spiky contraptions mounted on the walls that Anders really didn't want to know the purpose of.

"I don't understand," Nathaniel said, frowning, "there weren't any cells here before."

Gideon's expression was grim. "Well, your father's tastes must have changed over the years, then, because there were plenty of dungeons in his estate in Denerim."

"Hah," Oghren grunted, "torture chambers, more like."

There were several men in the left-hand cell, but before Gideon had a chance to approach them the many bodies littering the floor rose up and began attacking.

Anders swallowed down his revulsion at the sight of the animated rotting corpses and concentrated on defending his fellow Wardens. Several tense minutes later all of their attackers were dead—well, dead again—and Gideon went over to the men cowering inside the cell.

"What happened here?" Gideon demanded.

Anders noticed that the clothing the men wore were filthy and tattered, and judging by their sunken features they hadn't eaten for a long time.

"Please, ser," one of the men begged, "we don't know. We've been here for so long. Please let us out!"

Gideon motioned Nathaniel forward to pick the lock on the cell door. The rogue was silent while he worked at the lock, and he didn't seem able to look any of the men in the eye when he opened the cell door and let them out.

"Bless you, ser," the man said to Nathaniel, "you're a good man, you are." Nathaniel's face was impassive. The men thanked the Wardens several times before finally fleeing up the stairs.

Gideon moved over to a heavy-looking door and rattled the handle. "Nathaniel, come unlock this." The rogue didn't seem to hear him. "Nathaniel!" he barked louder.

Nathaniel seemed to mentally shake himself and strode over to where Gideon was standing. Taking out his lock picks once again he fiddled with the door handle until he got it unlocked. A wave of cool and stale-smelling air rushed out when the door swung open.

Anders peered past Gideon and Nathaniel and looked into the room beyond. It was fairly gloomy inside, but Anders could make out that the circular room was split into two levels and there were what appeared to be several sarcophagi lining the walls of both floors.

"I'll uh, I'll just stay up here," Anders said nervously. "You three go on ahead."

Gideon spared him a quick glance before going through the door, Nathaniel right behind him. Oghren shrugged and followed. Anders could hear the men moving about the room, talking to each other. Suddenly, Oghren gave a loud shout.

"Mage! Get your arse in here!"

Ignoring his fears, Anders rushed into the room. The three men were standing on the bottom floor, completely surrounded by several heavily armed skeletons. Great, more walking corpses. Anders cast a quick shield around Nathaniel, allowing him to back up far enough to use his bow effectively.

Anders began lobbing fire spells at the skeletons as Gideon and Oghren hacked away at them. As soon as they were all dead, Gideon began wandering around the room looking for loot. Anders toed a large sack leaning against one of the beams that propped up the ceiling. As the sack fell over its contents spilled out, revealing a rather fancy looking bow. Nathaniel rushed over and picked it up.

"This is my grandfather's bow!" He ran his fingers reverently along the wood, tracing the outline of a symbol that had been burned into it. "Or, rather, my grandfather was the last to use it." Anders looked at him curiously. "It was originally made for an ancestor during the Exalted Marches," the rogue explained. Nathaniel was smiling, and Anders noticed how much younger the expression made the man look.

"Well, it's yours now if you want it," Gideon said. Nathaniel nodded his head and unslung the longbow he had been using, setting it against the wall. He seemed to stand a little straighter as he exited the room, the newly-discovered bow strapped to his back.

Not much further into the cellars they encountered a well-dressed woman standing with her back to them.

"Adria?" Nathaniel asked cautiously. He sucked in a breath when the woman turned around, revealing her blackened skin and crazed eyes. "No," he whispered, "not her, please." He turned to Gideon. "There must be something we can do."

Gideon looked at him pityingly. "I'm sorry, Nathaniel." His voice was gentler than Anders could ever recall hearing. "She's—"

Before he had a chance to finish his sentence, the hideous creature that Nathaniel had once loved began to shriek. Anders fought the corpses that attacked with her, but he couldn't bring himself to hit the woman, even if she was no longer human.

He watched out of the corner of his eye as Nathaniel used his family's ancient bow to shoot an arrow into the skull of the woman who had once meant more to him than his own mother. His face was creased with anguish as he looked down at her body.

Anders walked up beside him, not knowing what to say. He raised a hand to lay on Nathaniel's shoulder, but dropped it at the last moment. He wasn't sure if his attempts at comforting would be welcome right now. Nathaniel let out a choked sob before stepping over the ghoul's body and leaving her behind him without a backwards glance.

The way ahead was completely blocked with rubble, so they had to turn back and return the way they'd come. Everyone was silent on the trip back through the cellars. Gideon stopped in the courtyard to talk with Voldrik about the blocked up passage. Nathaniel seemed to be in a daze as he went into the Keep.

Oghren interpreted correctly that their trip to Amaranthine was on hold yet again, and he tried to talk Anders into having a few pints of ale with him. But Anders was worried about Nathaniel. Declining the dwarf's offer, he went up to Nathaniel's room, assuming correctly that the man would have retreated there.

The door was open and Anders saw that Nathaniel was sitting on his bed, his hands laying uselessly in his lap and his eyes cast downward.

Anders cleared his throat softly. "Are you all right?"

Nathaniel looked up at him, his expression unreadable. Anders couldn't help but notice that his eyes were shining. "I'm fine, Mage."

Anders raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? Because if you want to talk about it . . ." he offered.

Nathaniel shook his head. "No, I—I'd just like to be alone for a bit." He looked so lost.

Anders nodded at him. "All right," he said quietly, "you know where I am if you change your mind." He turned to leave.

"Anders," Nathaniel's voice was soft. "Thank you for the offer," he managed a small smile. "I appreciate it."

Anders smiled at him. "Anytime," he said, gently, before closing the door quietly behind him.