Anders awoke slowly, swimming up out of the dark depths of unconsciousness. A view of vertical steel bars greeted him when he opened his eyes. He jolted upright, surprise and fear knocking the breath out of him.

He was in the Circle of Magi. Somehow, someway he had been transported back to that damnable place; and not just to the Circle, but to the cell where he had been imprisoned for nearly a year of his life. If he had had breath enough to speak he might have cried out, but as it was all he managed was a raspy croak.

His eyes swiveled about the cell and he saw Nathaniel sitting just a few feet away. That couldn't be right—why would Nathaniel be in the Circle's dungeon? It took several moments for his mind to finally clear and to remember what had happened. The Wending Wood. Velanna. The mine. Blacking out.

Blacking out. Anders had felt the surge of magic in the air even as he was succumbing to the sleep spell; there was a powerful mage about, one who obviously did not wish Gideon and the others well. It had put them to sleep, and then cast them into this cell—presumably somewhere deep within the mine they had ventured into to find Velanna's sister.

He took a closer look at Nathaniel, checking to make sure he was all right. The rogue was kneeling, forehead resting on his clasped hands. Anders couldn't quite tell if Nathaniel was praying, or if he was suffering a headache from the spell that had been cast on them. Anders sent out a small wave of healing magic just in case. Surprised, Nathaniel picked up his head and looked over at Anders. The visible crease in his forehead relaxed as he saw that Anders was awake. "Are you all right?"

Anders nodded back. "A bit sore, but I'm fine." He cast another small healing spell on himself to relieve the ache of having been lying on a stone floor for an indeterminable amount of time.

The sleep spell hadn't worn off of all of the party members at the same time, it seemed. Oghren was still passed out, flat on his back, a little drool trickling from his mouth into his beard. Velanna was seated in the corner, awake but grumbling to herself in what must have been elvish. Anders was surprised to see that she was no longer wearing the colorful robes that he had first seen her in, but was instead wearing a drab, sack-like dress. Looking at the others, he realized dimly that all of them, himself included, were wearing breeches and tunics made of the same rough cloth.

Gideon was standing at the cell door, examining the hinges carefully. "I can't see any way to get this open without a key; even with all of our weight against it, I don't think we could bash it open."

Claustrophobia was already threatening to take over Anders, and he hadn't been awake for five minutes. Not only were they deep underground, but they were locked into a cell with no way out. A very small cell, with five people crammed into it—one of them a very smelly, often flatulent dwarf.

As if on cue there was a loud braappp as Oghren let one loose in his sleep, and the air immediately began to reek of rotten eggs. Velanna scowled and kicked Oghren in the leg. It obviously wasn't enough to wake him; the dwarf smacked his lips a few times, chuckled, and mumbled something about roasted nugs. Gideon walked over and kicked him harder.

"What? What?" Oghren yelled out as he sat up. "I wasn' sleepin'! I was just restin' my eyes!"

Gideon snorted. "Sure you were."

Oghren grumbled lowly. "Sodding nughumpers," he mumbled. "Man can't even get a little sleep around here without someone trying to bang him up."

Normally Anders would have laughed at Oghren's antics, but he was too busy worrying over Gideon's declaration that there was no way out of the cell. His chest was constricting painfully; he couldn't even manage a deep breath as cold panic began to rise up. "Can't you do anything?" he asked Gideon, barely keeping the hysteria out of his voice. "There has to be a way out! Right?"

Gideon gave him a flat look. "There is. With a key. That's usually how you open locks."

Anders looked over at Nathaniel pleadingly. "Can't you just pick it?"

Nathaniel shook his head as he got to his feet. "I don't have my tools with me."

Nathaniel got to his feet and went over to inspect the door with Gideon. "Maybe we can lift the door up off the hinges?"

Gideon shook his head. "They're too sturdy. Whoever built these cells did a damn good job, and they probably did it pretty recently. I doubt the original workers had any need for cells in a mine."

"Well, someone's bound to come along soon, aren't they?" Anders asked. "They wouldn't have gone to all this trouble if they were just going to kill us."

Gideon shrugged. "Depends on why they captured us." He smiled wryly. "Maybe they just want to fuck with us before they do us in."

Anders opened his mouth to snap at his commander, but the sound of footsteps in the hallway stopped him. Anders looked through the bars and saw a shadowy figure approaching. The area outside the cell was too dark to make the person out clearly, but whoever it was definitely was not a darkspawn.

A few more steps and the figure was close enough for Anders to see that she was an elf. Velanna scrambled to her feet. "Seranni!"

Velanna hurried to the bars and reached out, touching her sister's face affectionately. "Seranni, what are you doing here? Are you all right? Did they hurt you?"

"I'm fine," Seranni said, but Anders could tell that she was a long way from "fine." Dark patches of skin, sunken eyes—she had been exposed to the taint.

Seranni held out her hand, showing a key lying flat on her palm. "I've come to get you out, but you have to hurry—he could come back at any second."

"Who could come back?" Gideon asked, his brow furrowed. It was clear that he had also noticed Seranni's condition. "The one who kidnapped you? Was it the darkspawn?"

Seranni shook her head. "No one kidnapped me, I'm fine. He's helping me. He's good to me."

"Who?" Gideon asked again, rather more impatiently.

"The Architect," Seranni said. The tone of her voice when she said the name was almost worshipful.

Gideon looked thoughtful. "The Architect . . . that must have been who I saw before I blacked out."

"You saw someone?" Nathaniel asked, surprised.

Gideon nodded. "At the top of the stairs. It was a darkspawn, I'm sure, but I've never seen anything like it before. It knew who I was; it called me 'Warden Commander.'"

Nathaniel looked unsettled. "I don't like the idea of talking darkspawn, but I like the idea of one of them knowing who you are even less."

"Tell me about it," Gideon said. "It's not surprising that the thing recognized us as Wardens—they can sense the taint in us just as we can sense it in them—but it is surprising that it knew I'm the commander. I wonder what it wants from us . . . darkspawn don't usually take prisoners."

"Except for women," Anders mumbled under his breath, glancing at Seranni. Gideon shot a glare at him but didn't respond.

Seranni fitted the key into the lock on the cell door. "He's trying to help, really he is—but . . . I don't think it's going the way he wants it to."

Gideon pushed open the unlocked door. "What do you mean?"

"I don't . . . I don't know. I don't really understand what he's doing." She took a smaller key out of her pocket and handed it to Gideon. "This is the key to his room; maybe there's something in there that will help you."

"Help us with what?"

The girl shook her head, her expression a mixture of fear and confusion. "I have to go before he finds out I'm gone. I'm not supposed to help you. He wants—" she paused, looking uncertain. "I'm not supposed to help you," she repeated.

"Seranni, wait!" Velanna called out as the girl turned to leave. She pushed past Gideon and rushed out of the cell, but she wasn't fast enough. Seranni broke into a run and dashed through a side door. Velanna tried to go after her, to no avail. Beyond the door there were several passages, and Seranni was nowhere in sight.

She turned back to Gideon. "He's holding her prisoner. He—he must have done something to her mind. Brainwashed her."

Gideon looked away, catching Anders' eye. "It's the taint," he murmured to Anders, too quiet for Velanna to hear. Anders nodded his head. He was a little surprise by Gideon's handling of the situation. Either he had slowly become more diplomatic over the last few months, or he had taken a shining to Velanna; either way, he obviously wanted to spare her feelings by not letting her know of her sister's condition—one that would subject her to a slow and painful death.

"We need to find her," Velanna insisted.

"First, we need to find some weapons," Gideon said rationally. "I very much doubt this Architect is here alone, and I'm not too thrilled at the idea of getting into fistfights with a bunch of darkspawn."

He turned to Anders. "You can still cast spells without your staff, right?"

"Of course," Anders replied. "I can even do it blindfolded, with both hands tied behind my back if I wanted."

"Might be an improvement," Oghren muttered.

"How about gagged?" Gideon asked ominously.

Anders took the hint, and tried to compose himself. It was not that he was in the mood to be flippant or humorous—it was just what he did when he was nervous. The times he had been in the Deep Roads, he had been more scared than anything, and he hadn't spoken much because he was too occupied by the sheer terror of the situation. Being here in the cell was a different feeling. It brought back old, uncomfortable memories. Ones that were not necessarily terrifying, but extremely unsettling. He did not want to think about them, so he resorted to humor.

Seeing as how Gideon obviously didn't approve, he was going to have to try and focus on something else. Luckily—ha!—the door they passed through led to a series of long, dark earthen tunnels.

"Just like the Deep Roads," Anders said aloud. "Brings back so many fond memories."

Gideon just ignored him this time, thankfully. Anders nearly jumped out of his skin, though, when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Relax," Nathaniel said. "We'll be out of this soon enough." He smiled at Anders reassuringly before moving to the head of the group, relying on his and Gideon's acute senses to alert them to any nearby darkspawn.

Once again, Nathaniel's reassuring touch helped to calm Anders, and though he was still uneasy, he was not quite as jumpy.

There were a few darkspawn further down the tunnel, and Anders and Velanna made use of their magic to dispatch them before the creatures even had a chance to draw their weapons.

Anders was impressed by Velanna's magic—it was like nothing he had ever seen before; certainly not a school of magic taught in the Circle. Tree roots literally shot up from the ground, trapping the darkspawn in one place. There must have been some sort of poison in the vines because as they lashed out at their victims, a green liquid oozed from the many cuts made by the sharp vines.

Gideon did not hesitate to grab the weapons the dead darkspawn dropped. A one-handed sword and a flimsy shield for himself, a two-handed axe for Oghren. Nathaniel grabbed a dagger, lamenting the fact that none of the darkspawn had been equipped with a bow. There were also a few pieces of leather armor, inferior in quality but better than nothing. Gideon parsed them out as best he could, so that each of them had at least one area of their body that was protected.

They managed to accumulate more armor—and a semi-decent bow for Nathaniel—by way of the few darkspawn scattered through the tunnels. Set into the side of one such tunnel was a large, ornate door. Gideon pulled out the key Seranni had given him and turned it in the lock. The lock clicked home with a quiet snick and Gideon pushed the large door open.

The room inside looked like a combination of living quarters and study, with a bed tucked into one corner and two desks fitted into another corner. A chest against the far wall produced a few nice trinkets, but Gideon seemed more interested in a small book he found lying on one of the desks. He scanned a few of the pages as the others searched through the rest of the room.

"Look at this." Gideon handed the open book to Nathaniel. Curious, Anders peered over Nathaniel's shoulder to get a better look at the book. By the dates listed at the top of each page, it appeared to be a journal. The handwriting was small and cramped and he had to press closer to Nathaniel to make out what was written. He lost focus of where he was for a few moments as he inhaled Nathaniel's scent and basked in the head radiating from Nathaniel's body.

"What does it say?" Velanna asked impatiently, jarring Anders. "Does it say what happened to Seranni?"

"There was someone called a Seeker," Gideon replied. "A darkspawn by the sound of it. He's the one who took Seranni and brought her here."

"It seems that he was also the one who set things up to make it look as if the humans had stolen your sister," Nathaniel added, reading through the journal. "He wanted to see how your leader would react."

Velanna frowned. "The Keeper didn't want to do anything, she thought we should try to be peaceful, to get Seranni back without a fight. But I know how shems are. They deserved to die, all of them!"

"But they didn't even do it!" Anders protested, glaring at her.

Velanna shrugged. "I thought they did. I was wrong." Anders could not believe how casual she was being about the many men she had slaughtered. Based on this journal and Velanna's statement, she had been the one to goad her people into fighting the human soldiers, and then she had murdered all of the surviving humans in revenge. She'd even taken her wrath out on the merchants traveling through the woods—innocent people who had had nothing to do with the dispute.

"Does it say anything about Seranni?" Velanna asked anxiously. "About what they did to her?"

Nathaniel seemed hesitant to answer. "It says—"

"—Just that she was captured," Gideon interrupted, giving Nathaniel and Anders a pointed look. "Nothing of any help."

Velanna seemed to deflate for just a moment before she rallied once more. "When we find her, I'll ask her myself," she said determinedly.

Gideon nodded. "I have a few questions for her myself."

Anders could guess at what Gideon wanted to know about, and it had to do with the last paragraph of the note:

"The female elf has developed a . . . bond of sorts with her guard. Many of the other disciples seem drawn to her as well. The Seeker says her name is Seranni. Perhaps I should speak to her. Maybe she will understand."

Anders wondered just how much of a prisoner Seranni now was. Or if she had, for whatever reason, become allies with this Architect. Perhaps he had some sort of mind-control abilities, or he had brainwashed her in some other way. Or maybe he had threatened her with something dire if she refused to comply with him.

Gideon took the journal pages back from Nathaniel and laid them back on the desk face down, not offering them to Velanna to read for herself. Anders agreed with Gideon's decision—there was no need for Velanna to know that her sister was cooperating with the Architect, had maybe even befriended him in some weird way.

It didn't actually matter in the grand scheme of things, unfortunately. Seranni was tainted; even if they managed to get her out of here safely, it likely wouldn't be long before her mind completely degraded. She had seemed lucid enough when she had broken them out of their cell, so the disease hadn't had long to progress, but it would catch up to her sooner or later. Anders might not like Velanna, but he felt pity for her sister. Pity for Velanna, as well, truth be told. Because when the time came, either Velanna would have to watch Gideon end Seranni's life, or she would have to do it herself. Guiltily, Anders found himself hoping that they wouldn't actually find Seranni.

Just past the Architect's quarters was a long balcony, looking out over a large room. In the very center was a large statue of some unknown person; crowded around the statue were several darkspawn. Gideon cursed under his breath. "We can't take on that many armed like this."

Nathaniel pointed to a ballista on the other side of the balcony. "If we aim at the statue, we might be able to knock it over so it will crush the darkspawn."

Gideon smiled devilishly. "I like the way you think, Howe."

Given that the ballista was basically a huge crossbow on wheels, Nathaniel—as the archer in the group—was assigned to operate the unwieldy machine. At Gideon's nod, Nathaniel aimed the ballista and pulled the lever. The heavy bolt flew true and hit the large statue, dead-center. The force was enough to shatter it into several large chunks that fell to the ground, crushing all but two of the darkspawn.

Gideon and the others pelted down the stairs and quickly slayed the remaining disoriented hurlocks.

Ander grinned over at Nathaniel as they stripped the bodies of any useful armor and weapons. "Nice aim."

Nathaniel rewarded him with a small smile. "High praise, coming from you."

They pressed onwards, down several more long, winding tunnels. Finally, they turned the corner and stepped into a large cavern; on the far side was a strange figure shuffling around slowly and grunting to itself. It wasn't a darkspawn, that much was apparent, but it didn't exactly look human either. It looked like something that used to be human—before being exposed to the taint. The armor it was wearing looked oddly familiar . . .

"Hey!" Oghren yelled. "That thing's wearing myjunk!" He hefted his rusty axe, his face nearly purple with rage.

"NO ONE . . . TOUCHES . . . OGHREN'S JUNK AND LIVES!" The dwarf charged forward and swung wildly, his axe lodging itself firmly in the thing's neck, severing its head in the blink of an eye.

The others just stood there, completely nonplussed by Oghren's fury. "Maker's breath," Anders muttered, "he really doesn't like people touching his junk." The ridiculousness of the situation became too much, and laughter bubbled up from him. "No wonder he and his wife aren't together anymore."

Gideon snorted with laughter. "Interesting theory."

Oghren, in the process of undressing the corpse to get his belongings back, glared up at them. "I just don't like people messin' with my stuff." Grumbling the whole time, he grabbed up all of his armor and retreated down the tunnel they'd just come in from so he could change in privacy.

Not much further in, they encountered another ghoul—this one wearing Velanna's robes and gripping her staff tightly. Several other ghouls rushed in from a nearby tunnel; most were wearing plain clothes, but three of them were dressed in the rest of the Wardens' stolen armor and wielding their weapons.

Once Gideon had wrested his sword from his ghoulish "twin," the fight went pretty fast. Afterwards, the group spent several minutes sorting through the bodies, collecting all of their things. Velanna, Gideon and Nathaniel went to separate areas to change, away from prying eyes, but Anders just stripped down where he was, in the middle of the cave. Years of dressing and undressing in front of others in the Circle had erased any possible shyness he might have about his body. As he had once told Nathaniel, if they didn't want to see it, they didn't have to look. Oghren apparently had no interest in looking as he huffed off towards the other end of the cavern, growling as usual about "sodding mages."

Once everyone was back in their own gear, they set off down the tunnel on the far end of the cavern. A loud groan sounded from a small side passageway, halting their movements. Gideon held up his hand, stopping the others. Slowly, he crept forward, peering into the entrance. After a moment he motioned for the others to follow.

Lying on the floor of a tiny alcove was a man, clearly wounded and, by his pinched face and harsh groans, in extreme pain. His legs were twisted unnaturally and they appeared to have been crushed. Anders felt a faint tingle, the same that he felt whenever he was near one of his fellow Wardens.

Anders knelt down on the floor, running his hands over the man's mangled legs as Gideon asked "What in Andraste's name are you doing here?"

The man cracked an eye open and looked up at Gideon. "You're Fereldan . . . I can tell by your accent." His own voice had a thick Orlesian accent. "Are—are you the new Warden Commander?"

Gideon nodded. "You're one of the Orlesian Wardens sent to Vigil's Keep to help out, aren't you?"

The man nodded, wincing. Anders was still assessing the damage, but he could tell that they were too late. The man was emaciated, practically skin and bones, and although there was a water skin next to him, its flatness indicated it was empty. The Warden had likely been down here for weeks, maybe longer. His wounds were not new, that was certain—the bones felt like they had already begun knitting in a twisted, mangled fashion. There was a sickly-sweet smell in the air and when Anders borrowed Nathaniel's dagger and slit the man's right pant leg open, the leg was swollen and discolored. He checked the other leg and found it in the same condition. The damage was just too much, and it had happened too long ago.

Add in the fact that the Warden hadn't eaten or drunk anything for Maker knew how long, and he was near death. Anders' healing skills were excellent, he had been the most talented healer in the Circle, but even he couldn't save this man. His brows knitted as frustration surged through him. It seemed that every wounded man they encountered was beyond Anders' ability to save. What was the good of being able to cast healing magic if he couldn't even save anyone with it?

Anders looked up at Gideon and shook his head silently. The Commander nodded in understanding.

"What's your name?" Gideon asked the Warden.

"Ke-Keenan. I was part of the Warden contingent from Orlais, like you said. We were only there for a week when the darkspawn set upon us. They came up from everywhere . . . we never even sensed them.

"I'm the only one left," he said despairingly. "The others are all dead . . . or worse . . ."

Gideon frowned. "Worse? What do you mean?"

Keenan swallowed. "Don't know for sure, Commander. But I wasn't the only one of us brought down here. There were others with me—but I haven't seen them. That emissary who's leading the darkspawn, he's cunning. He's fascinated with Grey Wardens. I think . . . I think he experimented on some of the others who came in with me." He swallowed. "I heard their screams," he said despairingly, "so many screams . . . . For days and days . . . maybe even years . . ."

"What are you doing in this tunnel?" Gideon asked, trying to get the man to focus. "Why didn't you end up like the others?"

"I would have," Keenan said. "We were all in cells. The darkspawn came, took the other Wardens one by one, until I was the only one left. When it was my turn, only one came. I managed to kill him and escape into the tunnels. But I ran into a troll . . . big, mean . . . he had a huge mallet . . . smashed my legs. I crawled in here." He laughed bitterly. "And this is where I'll die."

Gideon was not the type of man to give empty reassurances; he didn't bother with any false promises of getting Keenan to safety, of fixing him. It was clear, beyond a doubt, that Keenan really would die here.

"Commander," Keenan stretched his hand out, weakly beckoning to Gideon. "Please . . . my wedding ring. Take it—take it back to Amaranthine. To my wife, Nida. She works at the Crown and Lion."

Gideon nodded. "I will make sure she gets it," he said. Keenan's hand clenched loosely—once, twice, before finally relaxing and falling to his side. He let out a low, rattling breath and went still.

Gideon reached out and closed Keenan's eyes. "Be at peace, brother." He took Keenan's lifeless hand and gently slid the plain gold band from his ring finger. He stowed it away in his pack before getting to his feet and leaving the tiny alcove.

They crept quietly down the tunnel, none of them eager to encounter the troll that had attacked Keenan. At the end of the hall was a pair of thick double doors; standing just to the right of the door was a tall, burly-looking man, his skin dark brown, with white hair braided into cornrows. There was something not quite human about him.

"Is that a qunari?" Anders whispered to Nathaniel, who had only ever seen one in pictures.

"I think so," Nathaniel replied.

Gideon approached the man. "You're an awfully long way from Seheron, my friend."

"Perhaps," the qunari said. "Though the Architect pays well for my goods."

Gideon's eyes widened. "You're actually trading with darkspawn? Do you even know what those bastards do?"

The qunari shrugged. "It is no concern of mine what they choose to do. As I said, they pay well. Beyond that I could not care less."

Gideon looked at him appraisingly. "What if I said I could pay you more?"

"Then perhaps I could be persuaded to trade with you instead."

"I'm the commander of the Grey Wardens, stationed at Vigil's Keep. If you go there, I promise you that you'll be well compensated for any goods you can provide for us."

The qunari seemed to think about it for a moment. "Very well. It will be good to see the sun again, and feel the fresh air. I will meet you there soon."

Gideon nodded and gave directions on how to get to the Keep before bidding farewell. As the qunari set off the way they had just come—likely to fetch the remainder of his supplies—Gideon turned towards the door.

They all knew instinctively that they were close to the end of their journey through the mine. With a quick glance back at the others, Gideon pushed at one of the doors—it opened slowly, with an ominous creak.

"Warden Commander." A wet, breathy voice sounded from above. Anders looked up to see a tall figure standing at the railing of a balcony. It looked like a darkspawn, but not any kind Anders had seen before. It was thin—almost emaciated-looking—and dressed in floor-length robes with heavy fur pauldrons. Its eyes were covered by a mask, and the rest of its face was crisscrossed with thick scars. The top of its head was conical, and topped with what looked like strange, misshapen horns.

Seranni was standing to the left of him, looking tense but compliant. To his right was a dwarven woman, and even from this distance Anders could see that she, too, was tainted.

The Architect—for that's surely who this creature must be—raised his hand imperiously, and there was the leathery sound of wings flapping. Anders' head whipped around as he saw two red dragons swoop down on the Wardens. They were too small to be high dragons, but they were certainly fierce. As the dragons landed hard on the floor—their claws scraping along the stone—Gideon raised his sword and shield and charged at the nearest one.

The dragons' hides were thick, and difficult to penetrate, and the fire constantly streaming from their maws meant that almost all of Anders' efforts were spent in keeping his comrades shielded from the flames. Again and again, Velanna proved herself to be a strong combatant, using a combination of her special nature magic and other, more common, elemental spells.

It took a great deal of effort to weaken the dragons enough to finally slay them; Gideon beheaded one of them with his large broadsword, and Nathaniel struck the other in the throat with an arrow that Velanna had enchanted with ice.

The Architect and his companions—or prisoners, or whatever they were—hadn't moved at all during the entire battle. When the dragons lay dead on the ground the Architect cast one long look at Gideon before turning and heading towards the tunnel behind him.

Velanna cried out as Seranni followed him. "Seranni! Wait!" Velanna's sister did not pause, or even acknowledge her in any way. As the elf and dwarf disappeared down the tunnel, the Architect stopped and turned back. Rising up from the ground, he summoned a huge ball of white-hot flames and cast it at the ceiling just above the mouth of the cave. Enormous boulders came crashing down, sealing the way behind them. There was now no way for Velanna and the Wardens to follow him or to get Seranni.

Velanna turned to Gideon. "We have to get her back!"

Gideon sighed. "They're gone, Velanna. These tunnels could go on forever; they probably lead all the way down to the Deep Roads. That bastard is cunning, and looks to be a powerful mage as well. If he doesn't want us to find him, we likely won't."

"But he has my sister! My sister! You're just going to let him keep her prisoner?"

"She didn't look like much of a prisoner to me," Anders said dryly.

Velanna rounded on him, glaring. "Of course she's a prisoner! Do you really think she would go with him willingly?"

Nathaniel came to Anders' defense, much to Anders' relief. "She did go with him willingly," he said gently—a little more gently than Anders was comfortable with. "She was moving of her own free will; she didn't try to fight him."

"She also didn' try to stop him from sic'ing a couple of dragons on her sister, either," Oghren grumbled.

"But, why?" Velanna seemed to accept from Nathaniel what she would not accept from Anders. "Why would she go with him?"

"I don't know, Velanna," Gideon said. "But if she's allied herself with him for some reason, it's likely she'll be headed to the Deep Roads with him."

"Then that is where I'll go," Velanna said determinedly, eyes hard. "You're Grey Wardens; I have heard that you have the power to sense darkspawn, even underground."

Gideon looked at her warily. "That's true . . ."

"Then make me a Warden. Give me the ability to hunt down these monsters, and find my sister."

Anders' jaw dropped; was this elf really asking for Gideon to make her a Warden? After all that she had done?

To Anders' relief, Gideon looked skeptical. "Becoming a Warden is no easy matter. For one thing, the Joining itself could kill yo—"

"I am not afraid of death," Velanna interrupted angrily.

"For another," Gideon went on, "we're dedicated to fighting darkspawn, no matter where they are. If you become a Warden, finding your sister is not our top priority."

"I can find her myself," Velanna said. "All I ask for is the ability to do so. In exchange for that, I will pledge myself to you. Perhaps if I stay with you long enough, we will encounter the Architect again, and I can get Seranni back. Until then, I will fight with you."

Gideon was silent for a while, his brow furrowed. Finally he nodded. "All right. You can come back to Vigil's Keep with us, and we'll put you through the Joining. If you survive, I'll hold you to your word: you'll carry out the duties of a Warden, no matter what."

Anders wanted so badly to object, to list all of the reasons why this was the most stupendously bad idea he had ever heard of; even worse than conscripting a man who had admitted to plotting to kill Gideon. He kept his mouth shut, though. Once Gideon made up his mind about something, he rarely changed it. He had made it clear time and time again that it was his decision alone regarding who could and could not join the Wardens.

Velanna was obviously surprised that Gideon had accepted her offer so readily, but she did not say anything about it either. "Well, then . . . lead the way. I am eager to be rid of this place."