Halamshiral, the journey's end. Arl Dumat pours out his fury for several days, but when he quiets again, the surface of the fresh lava cools quickly. Our heroes make their way across the blackened plain to the edge of the Tirashan, and from there rejoin the Dalish camp. They pause for the impromptu festival that is held to celebrate the rout of the dragon cultists from the ancient temple, although perhaps only the dog is in a celebratory mood.

As Vashti suspected, Finn comes to terms with Ariane's calling as an allan'isa without too much trouble. The Circle mage has spent enough time among the Dalish to understand how these guardians differ from Chantry templars, even if their gifts were similar. But his brush with blood magic has left Finn shaken. The Dalish Keeper has some gentle and healing words for him, and his wounds will mend with time - even if they leave marks behind.

As if that were not enough, he has another thing weighing on his mind. In a small encampment along the Imperial Highway, he finally finds words for it...

Ariane woke to a light touch on her shoulder. "Uhn," she grunted articulately. "My turn already?" Finn nodded and backed away, letting her sit up and then, rubbing at her eyes, stand. "All right, you turn in. I'm up."

"Actually..." he began hesitantly, "can I... ask you something?"

"Of course," Ariane said, frowning slightly. He looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Should I wake Vashti for this?"

"Maker's breath, no!" the mage hissed quietly, shaking his head emphatically. "No, I want to ask you... what happened with the Orlesian Wardens?"

Ariane took a deep breath. "Oh," she sighed. "That." She had been feeling rather better about the entire thing since Vashti had explained that the offers of surrender would have simply led to a public farce of human justice. But she wasn't sure if Finn would see it in quite the same way. "They were tracking us, to take back Dumat's Spine, I suppose. There were a half-dozen of them, and two of us plus the dog. Since we weren't going to give up the sword, and they certainly didn't come all that way to go home without it, we just... skipped the preliminaries and attacked them. It would have come to that, anyway."

Finn crossed his arms, contemplating the ground. "So you... stole the sword back?"

Ariane bristled. "That duel was ridiculous! He had no right to take it from her."

"I don't actually disagree," Finn replied. He paused, then grimaced and asked, "And the First Warden?"

That brought Ariane up short. "What? I don't understand... what's the question?"

Finn, chin still tucked to his chest, raised his eyes to meet hers. "The First Warden. He's the one who had the Spine sent to Ferelden in the first place, and who ordered it sent from Vigil's Keep to Ostagar. So it didn't occur to either of you to just ask that he make the Warden Commander return it?"

Ariane opened her mouth, then shut it with a click before anything stupid could fall out. She just shook her head wordlessly.

"Because... let me guess... there was no possible way one shemlen Warden would go against another shemlen Warden on behalf of an elven Warden."

Ariane just stared for a long moment, shocked by his bitterly cold tone. She finally shook her head again. "No," she said. "Not like that. We didn't have the idea and then discard it. We just... didn't think of it, at all." They were too used to relying only on their own efforts to achieve anything... And maybe if the shemlen lords and magi were more forthcoming with their help, we'd think of them more readily!

"Or at least you didn't," Finn allowed, relenting somewhat. "I believe you, Ariane, but... this sort of thing can't happen again. I don't mind fighting darkspawn... well, I mind but I don't have a moral problem with it... and I don't have a problem with us defending ourselves, like when those dragon cultists attacked us at Drake's Fall. But, no matter how old these relics are, no matter how much ancient wisdom might be within them... they are things, Ariane. And I'm not willing to kill people over things. Or..." He hugged himself a little tighter. "Or be party to it."

She nodded, face solemn. "I understand," she said. Gently, she tugged one of his hands free of his elbow and took it in both of hers. "And I agree. We won't do something like that again." She paused, then added with all seriousness, "Which is not to say that, if someone were to walk into the Great Hall and begin to take things from the Path of the Ancestors, that I would not try my utmost to stop them."

Finn nodded. "Yes, I see your point. Conversely, if you were planning to raid the Circle Tower for books, I would not go along, even if deadly force were not intended. And... I would most likely not continue in your company."

"I understand," Ariane replied seriously. She paused deliberately, then released his hand to lightly punch him in the arm. "I'll just tell Vashti the raid is canceled, then."

Finn smiled - wanly, but he smiled. "Oh, good." The smile faded and he nodded, once. ""Thank you for your honesty, Ariane."

"Hey, I figure I owe you some, after the whole allan'isa thing."

"Thank you anyway. Now I... I guess I should get to sleep. More walking in the morning."

"I don't regret his death. At all." Vashti's voice came, quiet but firm, from her bedroll as Finn started to turn toward his. "'Two hounds for two horses,'" she quoted Thierry's words to Finn just after the accident, suggesting that the mage give him the two elves in exchange for his dead steeds, her disgust evident.

Finn and Ariane shared a guilty glance as the Warden sat up, as if they'd been caught at something. "Light sleeper, eh?" Finn asked rhetorically. "He was an unpleasant man, I'll grant you that, but I don't know if he deserved to die for it."

"He was going to beat you. You were going to let him. Doesn't that bother you?"

"I... well... yes, of course," Finn answered, a little flustered at the sudden change in direction. "But spilling his guts in front of the Grand Cathedral would bother me more. Especially once the templars got wind of it," he added dryly. "Just from a purely pragmatic perspective."

Vashti grunted noncommittally. "Way of the bow is to bend. Not saying we have to fight every fight. But he picked it. When we got Dumat's Spine back, I could have put an arrow in his throat; I didn't. Dropped a tapestry on him instead, and we ran. He was warned. But he followed, all the way to the Tirashan."

"That's true," Ariane said, suddenly feeling better about the whole thing. "We did get the Spine back without bloodshed."

"Oh." Finn paused to process this new information, then pinched the bridge of his nose, frowning. "So... why did you spare him in the one instance but attempt to kill him in the other?"

"He contrived to take the sword unfairly, agreed?" Ariane asked. Finn nodded. The veiled threat against Ariane if the duel were refused had been coercion; there had not been a way to avoid the duel, and then Thierry had deprived Vashti of her customary offhand weapon. By Ferelden standards, that was outright cheating, although the Orlesian templars hadn't had a problem with it. "So we had to right to reclaim it. But - "

"He didn't kill to take it. We didn't kill to take it back," Vashti interrupted.

"And if he had killed," Finn mused, "I think that getting the sword back would have become a secondary concern, yes?" The elves blinked in surprise but nodded. "What?" Finn asked crossly. "We are friends, aren't we? I'm a scholar, not a lizard; I can get angry. But you still could have tried asking."

"Because that worked so well in the past," Vashti said with dark amusement. But she held up two hands peaceably. "I did not think of it," she said seriously. "I do not regret his death, but there may be consequences that I will regret. Your way, if it would have worked, would have been better. But."

She picked up the two scabbards that lay next to her bedroll and stood. She drew both weapons slowly and carefully, letting the sheaths fall. Purple shadows of dragonbone rippled down the matched set, seeming to twist and move in the flickering firelight. "We bend but we do not break. 'Never again shall we submit.'" She lifted the blades to a combat stance; a demonstration without threat. "There are injustices I will not bear, a measure of dignity I will not cede."

Finn shivered and crossed his arms defensively. Vashti twirled each blade in a slow arc; she watched the Spine intently, lips pressed together. "Some things are... more than things," she said at length. "Symbols. I trust a mage will not argue that symbols are not as real as rocks."

Finn nodded. Words were symbols, after all, and he a linguist. "If asking had not worked, you would have retrieved the sword by other means," he surmised.

"Yes. Not because I desire the sword, but because I will not allow it to be stolen from me. Does this make sense to you?"

Finn considered it. "It's a sort of stubbornness that has, historically, often caused feuds between nations... but it is not unjustified in the case of the Dalish, I think. You have had much taken from you, and have little confidence that the pattern will not continue."

"Yes. They will not believe that we are strong unless we show that we are strong."

"So are we of a mind?" Ariane asked. "No wanton killing, no boneless surrender?"

"It seems so," Finn said, clearly relieved. Vashti grunted and stooped to put the blades away.

"Great," Ariane said. "I'm glad we got that straightened out. I like working with you two. Three," she amended, with an apologetic glance at the dog. Two smiles, one small and private and the other one big and a bit lopsided, conveyed her companions' agreement. "Now, it's my watch, so you two get to sleep. We've got a lot of ground to cover before we're home."

Home! Was there ever a sweeter word? And so we leave our heroes by their fire, en route to the white walls of Ostagar and home.

Will they linger there long before adventure summons them forth once more? Doubtful, my friends, doubtful! Tune in next season for our next hair-raising archaeological adventure in the far-off lands of Thedas!