Feed your Underlings, but not too well. A bit of hunger inspires hard work.

Zevran

The light was wrong, far too bright. Where am I? He turned his head and his gaze fell on billowing gauze curtains. The sky was too blue; the air too warm. Where is Lucia?

He came to himself as if from miles away. Antiva, not Ferelden. Memories began filtering back to him, but he still didn't recognize this place. The last thing he remembered was climbing into a hay wagon.

He silenced his thoughts for a moment; listening and smelling for clues. This is not Antiva City. It was far too quiet, and he heard the ocean. Antiva City was on the sea, yes, but not so close you could hear it, except near the docks, and this place didn't smell of desperation, rotten fish, and corrupt harbor masters.

He pushed up onto his elbows and took in his surroundings: A small house; the furnishings decidedly feminine. His head throbbed with the effort and he sagged back into the bed.

"Ah! You're awake," a cheerful female voice said. The woman bustled over to him. Her bracelets clattering as she walked.

He had to look twice, so closely did she resemble his Lucia. She had the same sort of unruly russet hair, dark brown eyes, strong eyebrows, a fine nose and full red lips, but there were small differences. This woman had generous curves, a bosom threatening to escape from her corset, and a bottom to match. She possessed nothing of Lucia's muscular contours. "I... Who are you? How did I get here?"

She clucked her tongue at him. "Relax, my little sparrow. You've been very, very sick. I am Nicola, and you, my pretty bird, were found broken in an alleyway. You were three breaths away from dying, I think." She bustled around the room and picked up a bowl filled with water and brought it to him. She sat beside the bed and dipped a cloth into the bowl and wiped his face.

"Nice, no?" She smiled prettily at him. "Yes, three breaths away from dying, and now you are much better." She barely paused for a breath. "I dared to use some magic to give you another breath when you drew your last one, then a bit more to have another breath after that. The Maker must be very happy with you, he didn't send the templars after me."

"Thank you, Nicola," Zevran said, his voice hoarse from disuse. He closed his eyes part of the way and tried to pretend she was Lucia. The trick worked for a moment. "Where is this place?"

"Vicenza, a little north of Rialto. We are just a small fishing village." She finished bathing his face and stood. "You must eat. You've languished here a week now, you need your strength back." The house was quite small, from what he could see, with a tiny kitchen. "I have some fish chowder for you." She laughed. Her laugh had a coarseness to it, nothing like Lucia's. "We always have fish chowder, of course." She brought him a bowl steaming with soup. "Can you sit up?"

He pushed himself up. His head throbbed but he could do it. She arranged the pillows behind his back to support him. "Molto bene. Now, eat! Mangia!"

Zevran tentatively spooned some of the fish chowder into his mouth. The hot peppers left a pleasant burn in his mouth and down his throat. He sighed with delight. The rest of the bowl soon followed and Nicola came back with more food.

"Fish cakes and fried plantains," she said handing him the plate. "Mangia! Your patrono wants to see you whole and healthy."

Zevran almost dropped the plate. "My patrono?"

"Si," Nicola said. "My Ignacio. He wants you to be healthy again. He even gave me ten gold reals to see that you had anything you wanted. He is the one who brought you to me. He comes to see me frequently. A very nice man. He bought me this house."

What does Ignacio want with me? Apparently Lucia had made an impression on him. His mistress looked so much like her. "Where is Ignacio now?"

Nicola shrugged. "I do not ask. There are some things I do not want to know about such a nice man. All I know is you must get strong and I am here to see to all of your needs."

The way she said "all" made it clear that she meant all. His mind raced. What did Ignacio hope to get from him? There would be a price to pay for having saved his life, no doubt about it. Was it by intention that Ignacio had a woman here that was nearly his Lucia's double? He shivered to think about Ignacio touching Lucia. The weasel! I would kill him. It was bad enough that he put his hands on a facsimile of her.

Ignacio easily might have killed him rather than save him. Whatever Ignacio wanted, Zevran would listen. In Ferelden, during the Blight, he'd seen Ignacio around. Sometimes Lucy went to the stall he shared with Cesar and bought items Zevran needed. They hadn't said much to one another, aside from pleasantries, but clearly Ignacio had been paying close attention to her.

Zevran devoured the fish cakes and plantains and his eyes followed Nicola as she puttered about her small house chatting continuously. He squinted his eyes, changed her voice, changed her figure and then he fell asleep and dreamed of Lucia. Once more he was enveloped in a cloud of red hair, musky, sweet fragrance and red, red lips descending on his.

Nathaniel

He held the note between his finger, musing. A little cryptic, but it wouldn't take much imagination to figure out that Bann Esmerelle had written the missive. She wanted to talk to him again. Tonight. He must start out soon to make the assignation in time. Then again, this note in his commander's hands might be enough to incriminate Esmerelle in the conspiracy.

"Nathaniel, leave us," Lucy had said, interposing her body between him and her brother.

Lucy risked her life for him. Maybe she knew Fergus well enough to know he wouldn't strike her. She had the unquestioning support of the monarchy and Teyrn Loghain, after all. Fergus wasn't so much of a mad dog to forget that even in his dire rage. If he killed her, he'd hang for it, no doubt; not much of a risk.

Then she tried to buy his acceptance with gifts. The bow, the locksmith tools, all had been chosen thoughtfully. More evidence of her coldly calculating mind.

She murdered my father in cold blood because she was play-acting!

He picked up the note from Esmerelle, tossed it into the fire, and watched the flames consume the evidence.

She murdered my father.

He threw on his cloak and went for a bracing walk into the cold, late autumn air, keeping his appointment with the Bann.

~o~o~o~

"Nathaniel!" Bann Esmerelle gushed when they met at the designated spot, a couple of miles away from the keep. "I'm so glad you came! I haven't forgotten our conversation. I still intend to see the Vigil back in your family's hands. In your hands."

Nathaniel nodded. The promise felt hollow. The Vigil belonged to the Wardens and would never be his, not really. Besides, it wasn't the Vigil he wanted, it was revenge. "What do you need of me, Bann Esmerelle?"

She smiled graciously. "Just call me, Esme. That's what your father always called me."

Her smile made him a little sick. He didn't like thinking of his father with this woman.

"I want information on your Commander. Did you discover who fathered her bastard?"

"He's not a bastard. She told us, finally. She married another Grey Warden during the Blight and he is the father. He was the one who fell."

Esmerelle bit her lip. "Well, damnation! So the two heroes had wed. What a pretty story. What about her sexual appetites? I hear that Grey Wardens – forgive me, Nate – are creatures with unnatural urges. Is she sleeping with anyone? Copulating with mabari? Has she done anything indiscreet?"

Nathaniel shrugged. "If she has, I'm not aware of it."

"Well, a few well-placed rumors about her unnatural appetites certainly won't hurt. What about magic? After the Blight there were rumors she was seen using magic. What have you seen, Nate?"

Ah, now we come down to a real choice. I can destroy her facade, reveal her as the mage she is and expose her lies for what they are. "What does it matter? If I say 'no' you'll simply spread the rumor anyway."

Esmerelle nodded. "Yes, but I prefer to have a source."

Nathaniel hated Lucy, true, but he didn't like Esmerelle... Esme. She turned his stomach. "I haven't seen her using magic." Why do I lie now? he wondered. His father had always had troubles with rumormongers. They were a coward's way to fight.

"There is one last thing, darling Nate."

His skin crawled when she called him "darling".

"Could you see that two new servants are added to the staff in the keep? One will be an upstairs maid, a woman. The other is a man. He can work in the kitchens or stables. You could claim they were your devoted servants and need the jobs."

"Assassins?" Nathaniel asked.

"Of course, darling! Crows even. We're hiring the very best."

"When?" he asked.

"They should be arriving within a few weeks."

"I'll do what I can. Have them identify themselves to me."

"You're a sweet boy. Your father would be proud." She reached out a hand and patted him on the cheek, as if he were ten years old.

He turned abruptly and walked back to the Vigil. Your father would be proud. Proud? Of him conspiring to assassinate someone? Was my father truly the sort of man to be proud of something like that?

Lucy

Things were getting crazy busy. When was life here not crazy busy? But this was getting worse. The workload was immense. I had a conspiracy to unravel, talking darkspawn to fight, and a haunted marsh to explore. At least I had my health, and if you've got your health, why, you have everything! Everything except what I really wanted: Zevran, time with my son, and a quiet life.

Today we would go to Amaranthine again to attend to unfinished business. I needed to report back about the trade route to the merchant guild leader there, but the real reason I was going was for Nathaniel. I suspected he desperately wanted to see his sister, although he hadn't said a word to me. I thought we'd gotten to a point in our relationship where he might talk to me of such things. I was disappointed. Would I ever repair our relationship so that he would trust me, confide in me and put away his animosity? He was doing well, superficially at least, but I suspected hidden resentment remained.

Still, I saw the happiness on his face last night as I announced our destination for the day. He was the first one ready to go. He even had the horses prepared. Unfortunately, my sweet mare had been lost during our trip to Wending Woods, so I was riding a new horse this time. Anders got up on the horse behind me once again and Oghren doubled up with Nathaniel.

"How are things with you and Daisy?" I asked Anders as he balanced behind me. "She seems like a nice girl." I was fairly certain Anders had been seeing her. I think it was her room I caught him coming out of that one morning, in her dressing gown no less. I still wondered about that.

"You'll have to ask Nathaniel about her. She seems to prefer him to me." His voice sounded light, as if he was unconcerned.

"Really? I thought you two..."

"Not for a few weeks now."

"Well, is there a replacement in the works? What about Penny? I've seen her give you that look."

Anders scoffed. "That look is the don't take your eyes off the mage because he's going to turn into an abomination at any second look."

"No!" I protested. "Really?"

"Really," Anders said dryly. "I never realized how terrible it'd be outside the tower, in that respect anyway."

"Bendrick said something about that," I mused. "Hey, did you know Bendrick?"

"Bendrick? Hell yeah! He was a little older than me, but we hung out together. It's been years though... Where do you know him from? Oh wait... he was a Grey Warden too, wasn't he?"

I nodded. Even after more than two years now, I still felt a pang when I thought of him. "We met at Ostagar. I only knew him a few days but... we got close."

"Oh, Maker! He was at Ostagar, of course. All the Wardens died, didn't they? Poor Bendrick, he certainly was a popular fellow with the ladies at the tower."

"I can certainly see why," I said warmly, remembering our brief affair which ended with us declaring our love for one another after a mere three days.

"So... you and Bendrick?" he said.

I nodded.

"He was a lucky man, then," Anders said.

"He died," I pointed out. "That wasn't lucky."

"Ah, but I bet he died a very happy man."

I laughed and was seized by a careless mood. "Hang on, Anders. You need some excitement in your life!" I kicked this new mare, whom I also named Buttercup, into a bouncy canter.

Anders gave a long, savage yell, tightened his arms around my waist and laughed wildly.

Why was I enjoying this so much?

~o~o~o~

Anders needed pants and he had to get rid of that stupid hat he wore sometimes. His outfit screamed "I'm a mage!" Truthfully, he looked like a Comic-Con attendee. One who should have done less, much less. He needed to man it up. Pants, definitely, and perhaps the robe could be redesigned into some sort of overcoat or tunic. Lyrium fibers were woven into the fabric, but would restyling affect the magical properties? I doubted it. I needed to find a seamstress for myself anyway; I needed to expand my wardrobe.

I asked around in Amaranthine and found a pair of seamstresses who worked together. They were interested in relocating to the Vigil. I assured them we would have plenty of work, but if not, a thriving marketplace had sprung up outside the keep. I even offered to let them live in the keep until they established themselves. I had a deliciously evil moment of delight when I found they were Bann Esmerelle's favorite seamstresses and I would be stealing them right out from under her nose. I gave them enough money to cover the expenses of the move and I got them started on making some new dresses for me.

The Wardens had lunch together in the city. Afterward, I let everyone shift for themselves until sunset. We would have dinner and head home. It might be a little dangerous at night on the roads, but I thought we could handle almost anything we were likely to meet.

Nathaniel

Delilah lives here? Nathaniel double checked the address that Samuel had given him. This was little more than a hovel. Well, all right, a house, tidy enough, and not altogether small. Perhaps the dwelling of a merchant; not a rich one, but not poor. Still, this was so wrong. They were Howes!

He wiped his sweaty palms on his pants and knocked. "I'm coming! Give me a moment." He heard his sister's voice.

She opened the door and gasped. "Nathaniel? Maker, is it you?" She choked out a sob. "It is you!"

"Delilah! I thought you were..." Nathaniel's voice caught his throat.

"Dead? I thought you were! Oh Nate!" She hugged him and tears rolled down her face onto his sleeve. "Well, come on in. I'd introduce you to Albert, my husband, but he's at the market."

Nathaniel followed her in and they sat at a well-worn table. She poured tea for him.

"Delilah..." Nathaniel took in the small dining room. "I know times must have been hard, but you can do better than this. Come back to the estate until we find somewhere else."

"What?" She laughed, her laugh sounding happy, like he remembered from years ago. "Oh, Nate, I didn't marry Albert out of desperation. I adore him! I was so glad to get away from Father's evil. This life is so much better."

"Father's evil? Isn't that overstating things a little? He got caught up in politics." Nathaniel shook his head, not believing his sister.

Delilah sighed. She put a hand over her brothers. "You weren't here. You didn't see what he did, Nate."

"But the Couslands deserved it... Elissa killed him!" He almost laughed at himself, using Lucy's assumed identity in front of his own sister, but was easier than trying to explain. "She destroyed our family!"

Delilah's face grew stony. "You want the culprit who destroyed our family? It was him, without question."

Nathaniel listened to her, the words puddling on the surface of his mind, only seeping in. Father. Evil. Father destroyed our family. "I had no idea," he murmured, still disbelieving.

Delilah's gave a bitter, little laugh. "Of course you did, but you always worshiped father, right from the time you were a little boy."

His head drooped a little and he stared at the table. "Father never approved of me. It was always Thomas with him." Having been rejected by his father had always made his father seem so powerful, so unerring and right, and him so utterly wrong. He was unworthy of his father's love; at least it felt that way.

She shook her head. "Don't you see? You always tried so hard to win his approval and he never gave it to you. You refused to see anything wrong with him, but he was a greedy, grasping, ambitious man. He never gave a second thought to what would become of us if his schemes should fail."

Nathaniel let Delilah do most of the talking for the next several hours and the words began to reach him. His father was evil. He had deserved to die...

~o~o~o~

… but not by her hand. Not to a woman who pretended to be someone else.

He signaled the bartender to pour him another drink. The bar started to fill as the sun went down. Dock hands, laborers, a few smugglers, or worse, frequented this bar. He only wanted to go somewhere he wouldn't be recognized as... a Howe.

He slammed down this shot too and asked the bartender to leave the bottle. He was beyond drunk already, but still conscious. That can be fixed. He dispensed with the glass and drank out of the bottle.

Someone must have recognized his Howe profile as he tilted up the bottle for a drink. He stood out in this bar full of riff-raff with his fine armor and aristocratic face.

"... old Arl Howe's pup, ain't it? Thomas? He was always drinking and carrying on like he owned the place."

"He did own the place."

"Oh right. Well, still..."

"Them Howes are all dead, only this one forgot to lay still."

"Har! Let's remind him!"

He moved too slowly when hands pulled him out of his chair and the fists flew. He couldn't focus his eyes, he was far too drunk. They pushed him from man to man and each one took a swing. All the hatred they ever had of his family, of their betters, they took out on him. He was too drunk to fight back, so he threw his arms in front of his face.

"He can't even fight! He's a coward just like his da. Beaten at the Landsmeet by a woman!"

"Well, it was that Hero of Ferelden. She killed the danged archdemon, ya fool, of course she cudda killed the old arl."

Nathaniel's face dripped blood. In this condition, all he could do was cower away from the punches. They were right, all of them right. I'm a Howe. My blood is tainted with something worse than darkspawn.

Another blow landed, this one on his nose. His vision grew blessedly dark and the pain went away.

Lucy

We waited for Nathaniel, but he didn't show up. There was enough food for him, in case he showed up a little later, but he never did appear.

"He's probably eating with his sister," Anders suggested, before stuffing himself with hunks of deer sausage and roasted beets.

"I suppose, but he should have sent word." I hated tardiness. Punctuality is difficult in a world with few clocks. Still, things like sunset, dawn and noon were fairly easy to figure out. Dinner at sunset was an obvious enough thing.

We ate far too much food, even for us, since we had Nathaniel's unclaimed portion to polish off. A tankard of ale apiece washed our supper down. We devoured three entire pans full of apple Brown Betty and another tankard of ale each, except Oghren who had at least four.

I groaned. "Maker, don't ever let me do that again. I think riding is going to make me sick."

"Well, Nathaniel isn't even here, so it doesn't seem like we're going anywhere soon," Oghren grumbled. "Do you think they've got any more of that apple stuff in the kitchen?"

I nearly gagged at the thought of more food, no matter how wonderful. "Where is that wascally wabbit?" I asked. I started to worry. Perhaps Nathaniel had decided he'd had enough of us and had taken off with his sister. Maybe something had happened to him? I wasn't going to wait any longer. "We need to find him."

"Shouldn't we should get rooms for the night, Commander?" Anders suggested. "It's pretty late to start out and who knows how late it might be when we finally find him. This place may fill up their rooms."

I frowned, my irritation growing. I had planned to be back with Daniel this evening. Oh well, even if we had traveled back he would be asleep by now. "All right." I sighed and got up to ask for the rooms. The innkeeper was pleased we were staying, but the kitchen staff was not quite so happy. "We'll want a full Warden breakfast at dawn tomorrow," I warned the innkeeper. "I'd also like some Antivan coffee with my breakfast. The Antivan import merchant should have some in stock by now."

He nodded vigorously. "Yes, Commander. Always a pleasure to have you."

"Send the cook out to me, if you would."

I waited while he disappeared into the kitchen and returned with the cook. "I want to thank you personally. Your cooking is very, very good. Please, take this and share with the staff." I handed him fifty silver in a small bag.

"Thank you, Warden-Commander! My lady, thank you!" the cook seemed delighted with the tip. "It is a pleasure to cook for the Wardens, always!"

"Excellent! Don't forget my coffee in the morning! I like it piping hot, but be sure it doesn't boil, that will make it bitter."

"Yes, my lady! A pleasure!"

Well, we were an appreciative audience for anyone with the task of cooking for us. I know the amounts it took to fill our bellies was unreasonable, so it only made sense to reward those tasked with the job. I took my leave of the kitchen staff and motioned for my Wardens to come with me. We had a wayward brother to find. I could make it a teachable moment.

"All right, I haven't really taught you how to use our Warden abilities to find one another, but I'd like you to try while we're looking for Nathaniel. Imagine that you're searching for a particular smell, you concentrate on that and block out the others. It's like sensing darkspawn, only you purposefully expand your senses. The sensation is different than darkspawn, but similar. We seem more right. That's the only way I can describe it."

I shut up and let them try.

"I smell horse shit," Oghren said.

"That's nice, Oghren, but we're not concerned with smells, but sensing each other. I can sense the two of you walking next to me right now, if I try. I'm not sensing Nathaniel though. Either he's far away or..." I stopped talking, remembering the last time I stopped sensing a Warden.

"Or?" Anders prompted me.

"Or dead," Oghren finished the sentence for me.

"Yeah," I said flatly. I walked on a few steps trying to summon the courage to remember. "When Riordan fell... it just..." I turned my head aside so they wouldn't see the tears welling up.

Anders threw an arm around me and squeezed me. "It's okay, Commander."

"I'm all right." I bit my lip and that forced the thought away. "There's another thing we can do." A subject change was needed. "I can call to you through the taint. It feels rather strange." I demonstrated by calling to them.

Anders stopped walking and practically twitched. "Sweet Maker! That's sooooo... It's like an itch you want to scratch but you can't reach."

Oghren got glassy-eyed. "By the ancestor's stony balls, that makes me horny!"

"And... now you're sharing just a little too much, Oghren," Anders said.

I shut off the call immediately. "Uh, right. Use sparingly." I laughed remembering the first time I'd experienced the call. I told them how Riordan had called us to him from Arl Howe's dungeon. "Alistair and I went crazy trying to figure out how to get into the dungeon. He tried to batter down the door with his shoulder while I cast spells, trying to open it. Someone else, fortunately, had the mental capacity to find a key."

We walked to Delilah's house and she reported her brother had left hours ago. "I should go with you. I only just found him, I can't lose him now."

"We'll find him, Delilah. Do you have any idea where he might have gone?" I put my hand on her shoulder hoping to reassure her.

She shook her head. "I don't know. He seemed a little dazed. I talked to him about father and... I think he had a hard time accepting it."

I thanked her. I decided we would make a loop around the city. We started our search for Nathaniel at the docks. Luck was with us as we headed toward the docks and I sensed him. "I've got him," I said. We walked into a seedy, rundown neighborhood.

"Why would he come here?" Anders asked. "Maybe I don't want to know..."

I followed my sense of Nathaniel until we were nearly out of town and then he was right at our feet, lying in a shallow ditch.

Anders kindled a light and we saw that he had been beaten to a bloody pulp, was unconscious and had blood running out of his mouth and nose.

"Sweet Maker," I breathed.

Anders knelt beside him and pumped healing spells into him. I joined him over our broken comrade. What all had been done to him, I couldn't even begin to catalog, but I knew whoever did this meant to leave him to die here.

"He's drunk," Anders said, "and he has a laceration to the liver, kidney damage, four broken ribs, broken nose, and a punctured lung. You can see what they did to his face."

We did everything we could there. Anders ran out of mana and my healing wasn't good enough to take care of some of the problems. At least he was groaning, his consciousness returning.

"Commander..." Nathaniel moaned. "I'm sorry..." he coughed. "I'm sorry I'm late."

"Don't worry, Nathaniel. We're going to get you all fixed up."

Oghren and I searched around the docks until we found someone with a horse and cart. We hired him to haul Nathaniel back to the inn and rode in the cart next to him. Oghren and Anders carried him up to his room and Anders went back to healing him.

He finished the healing with a sleep spell, wanting to make certain Nathaniel had a sound night's sleep. We spoke briefly about him in the hallway.

"Is he going to be all right?" I asked.

"Oh yeah. He should be all fine to ride home tomorrow. He's lost some blood, but not too much," Anders said.

I smiled at him. "You know, you're even more awesome at healing than Wynne, and she was damned good!"

He smiled at me. "Aw, Commander! You're embarrassing me."

"I don't know what we'd do without you, Anders." I was so grateful to him for being such a good friend and an amazing healer. I wanted to hug him, but I realized it would be awkward, so I shook his hand instead, and that was even weirder. "Well, goodnight then!"

Anders stood in the hallway and watched me walk to my room. I waved, like a dork, just before I went inside. I wasn't exactly sure of the nature of his expression, but I think he needed a hug and I wanted to give it to him. He was my closest friend, the one person who best understood and accepted me, and I couldn't express the affection I had for him because he was my subordinate. I hate being in charge.

We rode back to the keep the next day and Anders put Nathaniel through one more healing session before he pronounced him "good enough". Nathaniel never mentioned a word about what had happened or why he was even in that dreadful part of town alone at night. I wished he would open up to someone, even if it wasn't me.

~o~o~o~

A few days later fifty soldiers arrived; twenty from the royal army and the rest from Loghain's forces. Unfortunately Loghain wasn't with them, but he sent a lieutenant I knew he trusted. He was always in Loghain's personal guard when he came to visit me at the Gnawed Noble, which seemed another life time now.

The lieutenant saluted me formally. "King Alistair and Teyrn Loghain have sent troops for you, Warden-Commander, and messages as well."

I nodded and accepted the letters. "Very well. Please report to Captain Garevel and he'll figure out how to deploy your troops. We're spread very thin between the keep, Amaranthine, and the trade route, although I believe we've fixed a lot of the issues around Wending Woods." Getting rid of Velanna had been a good start, but darkspawn still preyed on travelers and merchants.

Loghain's lieutenant went into the keep and spoke at length with Garevel. Meanwhile, I began planning our next steps. We had to get to the bottom of this talking darkspawn issue. Either we should go to the Blackmarsh and look for the Warden Kristoff, or head to the abyss that the deer hunters had found.

Heads: Blackmarsh. Tails: Strange hole in the ground.

The coin landed with the picture of Maric up. It would be the Blackmarsh next. Marsh... bog... bogged down... enmired... Argh!

Translations

Molto bene: Very well
Mangia: Eat

~o~o~o~

Notes: There, you see? I didn't kill off Zev... yet. Bwahahaha!

Thank you very much, reviewers. I appreciate the feedback more than I can say. I'll be curious what you all think of this chapter, writing-wise. I ran it through a tool called Autocrit and it pointed out things like redundancies and helped me find overused words and phrases. It also pointed out a lot of passive voice. It is exhausting to rewrite a lot though so I started off very enthusiastically trying to tune things and I got a bit less picky as the chapter went on. It may be easier to do it in chunks as I go rather than doing the whole thing at the end.

I'm going to try to put up a new chapter every Friday. I'm sure as I say this I, or my lovely beta-reader, Biff McLaughlin, will become super busy and we'll miss the schedule. So don't hold me to it too closely, but just know this is my goal.

I'm plugging away on Chapter 8 right now. The muse is sluffing off a bit and my writing speed as slowed, so my chapter buffer may erode unless she comes back in full force.

I've been asked this a lot so I think I'll answer these questions here.

Will we ever know Daniel's father?
No, unfortunately not with certainty. There was no paternity testing available back then. Although perhaps with magical means there is, but I don't think Lucy really wants to know. She likes to think Daniel is Riordan's, but she also likes it that Loghain takes interest in him. You can never have to many fathers for a child... well, at least not in this work of fiction where the potential fathers are heroes and all around good-guys. The kid could even be Zevran's if he had dark haired ancestors, but the physical resemblance, so far, is more like Loghain or Riordan.

Is the Dark Wolf someone we know?
Nope! He's a totally made up character. I wrote a fiction once where he was a leading character and I have loved him ever since ("The Wolf Pact"). It isn't my best writing, but I still love the plot and characters. Anyway, the whole idea of this audacious guy whole steals the name from the rogue Warden just tickles me. That and showing up in Amaranthine with a bucket (almost) on his head, is too wonderful to pass up. So I made up someone to play the role. You'll learn more about him in the next chapter.