I was nearly knocked over by a man in light leathers running towards us over the bridge. Oghren grabbed him by the wrist. "What are you running from?" I demanded. "What's chasing you?"

"The elf!" he shouted, near incoherent. "She makes the trees come alive." Oh thank the Maker, I thought briefly. Not werewolves. "All we wanted was some easy money from the caravans," he added, apparently thinking we were kindred spirits.

"Andraste's ass, you're a bandit?" I groaned. "Do you know how much trouble you've caused me? How many people have been complaining to me day and night because of your sort? All the blasted paperwork? Not to mention," I added, getting angry, "the number of traders and merchants who are dead now."

"So… kill him, then?" Oghren asked, still holding tight to the man's wrist.

"If you would," I replied. "Otherwise he'll just attack us on the road some day."

I looked for the elf he mentioned, hearing a grunt and thud behind me. "Thank you, Oghren. Andraste's ass, I hate bandits."

We didn't have to search long to find this elf. She appeared above us before the bandit had even hit the ground. Without letting me say a word, she launched into a tirade where she accused us of being scavengers, then bandits, then working for bandits or traders of some kind, who had kidnapped her sister. She then threatened us, said we had to deliver a message to these coconspirators, and vanished just as quickly.

"Well she seems nice," I commented.

"Reminds me of Morrigan," Oghren observed.

Eventually we managed to find her camp on the other side of a hill crawling with darkspawn. I sat in front of one of the aravels, helping myself to her water to wipe blood of not one but two ogres from my face. "They never attack our enemies, do they? It's like they just sit and chat until we show up." Anders crouched next to me, healing my hand.

"You know I hate doing this," he reminded me quietly.

"I know. Thank you." He finished with a shake of his head and went off to explore the camp.

I jumped up and inspected the camp. "Maker, I think that man we found was right." A lone merchant, badly corrupted, insisted the darkspawn were pitting the dalish and humans against each other. It seemed like madness at the time, but staring at a large pile of discarded weapons I began to reconsider.

"Why do you say that?" Nathaniel asked.

Pointing to the swords, shields, and even bows littering the ground I replied "Who just leaves their weapons abandoned after using them?" I kicked the pile, sending them scattering.

Anders made a choking sound from the opposite end of the ruins where we found the camp. We raced over to see Sigrun kneeling on the ground next to him, both of their faces grim. "What is it?" I asked him. He just pointed. "Blessed Andraste," I gasped, a hand over my mouth. There was a pile of dead bodies tossed to the side of the camp. The rest of the Dalish, clearly. Even children were tossed among the corpses. No wonder the woman we met was half-mad.

"This place is scarred by pain," Justice said from behind us. I nodded, turning my back on the garish sight.

"These people seem different from the ones I've encountered," he said as we walked away.

I paused. Had he met elves before? Surely he had when we were in Amaranthine at some point. "The Dalish?" I asked, hoping for clarification.

"The body I inhabit was familiar with that name. The Dalish were… cast out? Unwelcome in almost every land? Why is that?"

"It's an old hate," I said, trying to explain the history behind it. I could recount every detail from my study of Ferelden history, but ancient was a bit out of my league. After covering the downfall of their homeland, the enslavement by Tevinter magisters and alliance with Andraste, and the Chantry's destruction of the dales, I explained that the dalish were elves who wouldn't submit to the laws making them inferior in human cities.

"How odd that mortals find so many differences to hate when you have so very much in common," he observed. "To one such as I it is difficult to even tell you apart. Are these similarities not worth rejoicing in?"

"I wish I had an answer for you, Justice. It confuses me as much as it does you, and I've always lived in this world. The one good thing about where I was raised is that we were always taught elven mages and human mages were no different."

"Well, to be fair," Anders interrupted, "we were taught human and elf mages were all equally evil."

"You're missing the point, Anders. We were treated equally horrible, but at least it was equal." I insisted. "This rivalry and mutual hatred everyone else has is pointless."

"And yet it happens anyhow," Justice said sadly. "But then, I do not even understand demons. My entire existence is spent seeking out wrongs to right."

"That's a noble goal," I said. "But there is more to you than that."

"Is there?"

"Sure," I said. "You obviously like reading, you enjoy looking at nature, you're interested in religion. Just because you have a goal or job doesn't mean it has to define every second of your existence, not while you're in this world." He seemed to be considering this. "I mean, look at us. We're all Grey Wardens, our goal is to fight darkspawn. But we're also people with our own interests and hobbies. I mean, just because my goal is to kill as many darkspawn as I can doesn't mean I can't also enjoy dancing, does it?"

"I still can't picture it," Nathaniel muttered.

"You'll have to excuse me if I don't break into a galliard right here to satisfy your curiosity, Nathaniel." I cast him a dirty look and he shrugged. "Anyway," I said, "we should start looking for a campsite soon. Tomorrow we can check that mine and see if it goes all the way to the deep roads. I'm not sensing any darkspawn here right now, but we'll need to be careful tonight." We had moved to the opposite side of the campsite, in an effort to distance ourselves from the bodies. Sigrun held up her hand, gesturing me to be quiet. She made a walking gesture and pointed. Trying to move as little as I could, I saw the elven woman standing over the bodies we had found. She was weeping.

I stood up and approached her, making sure my steps were noisy enough to be heard.

"You won't take me alive," she said as she turned to face me. Her tone didn't match the words, though. She sounded broken, not defiant.

I measured my response, keeping my voice level. "I'm not here to kill you."

She didn't seem to hear me, again insisting she wouldn't stand before a human magistrate. Only, well, she didn't say human exactly. I really didn't like that word.

"Um, technically," I began, "you already are." Her head snapped towards me. Maker, she even did her hair like Morrigan. Bizarre. I crossed my arms over my torso and bowed briefly in salute as I introduced myself. "Margaret Amell, Warden Commander of Ferelden, Arlessa and liege lord of Amaranthine."

"Maker, I forget she has all those titles," Anders muttered behind me. I shushed him.

"I only want to talk," I insisted. She scoffed, but I went on. "Look, there has been a horrible misunderstanding here. Something has happened to the darkspawn. They're changing, evolving. They can talk now, plan, plot. They've been pitting you and the merchants against each other. I don't know why, but they are. And, well, they take prisoners now."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"Believe what you want, but I'm telling you the truth. Why would a Warden lie about darkspawn? They took more than a dozen of my men after staging an attack on our Keep, timed for just hours before I arrived to take charge. They wiped out the Legion of the Dead. Keep your head in the sand if you want, but I've no reason to lie about darkspawn, of all things."

"What about the weapons?"

"Do the Dalish typically throw away their blades after each use? I'm rather partial to my own, but I can't see anyone doing that. Besides," I added, "look at the ones on the bottom. Those aren't human make, they're darkspawn crafting. You can tell, they're horrid." She sat, considering what I told her.

"So the darkspawn took my sister?" Well, at least she was listening this time.

"Here," I tossed her an amulet we'd looted from a hurlock corpse. "Does this mean anything to you? I took it from a darkspawn we killed." That did it. She begged us to help find her sister. Since we were now on the same side, and she seemed at least a little repentant about her reaction, I agreed. We decided to share her camp for the evening after she offered, the only reasonable option at this point since it was far too dark to find and set up our own.

"Do you trust her?" Anders whispered later that night from a dead stranger's bed in an aravel.

"No," I admitted. "But she wants what we want now. She's powerful, but the two of us alone could take her if it came to that. All of us together and it wouldn't even be a real fight."

He was quiet after that. I wasn't sure if he had fallen asleep. "Anders?" I whispered.

"Hm?"

"Tell me if I'm being crazy or not."

"Crazy."

"I'm serious," I whispered. "It just hit me. What if this whole thing, the darkspawn turning them against each other, was a larger plan? It just feels wrong."

He went up on one elbow to see me better. "Maggie, what are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking…" I groaned, hoping and praying I was wrong. "I'm thinking it was to lure us here. Wardens."

"Like a trap?"

"Yeah," I sighed. "Crazy?"

"I hope so."

My head was pounding when I woke up. But, no… I had already gotten up. We got up, went to the mines and now… I was getting up again? What happened? I thought, forcing myself to a seated position.

"Thanks for joining us, Maggie." Oghren's voice was the first I heard. Forcing my eyes open I took in the scene. We were in a cell of some kind, dressed in peasant clothing. Oh maker, the darkspawn undressed us? I felt ill at the thought. I remembered waking, earlier, on a table. One of the darkspawn stood over me and apologized before I was unconscious again. Not a dream, then.

Anders was pacing the floor like a caged animal while Sigrun and Nathaniel sat, backs to the bars, talking quietly. Velenna was watching everyone, observing each of us in turn. When he saw I was awake Anders bolted to my side, helping me to my feet. I felt dizzy, and my arm was aching.

"We need to get out of here," he informed me, eyes wild, holding my hand hard enough that I could feel the bones grind together.

"My arm," was all I said, showing it to him.

"Your arm? But, you weren't hurt. We had just gotten up, I healed you yesterday."

"I know," I said. "I feel like I've lost blood, though. I'm dizzy." I looked up at him, trying to keep my own panic at bay in the face of his. "I think the darkspawn did something to me." He pushed up my sleeve, revealing a strange looking health poultice.

"Stand still," he ordered, the panic fading from his eyes as he raised both hands to me. I felt warmth pouring off him. My arm tingled, and the dizziness subsided. "You did lose blood. Nothing else I can see wrong, just a lot of blood loss."

"Fantastic. Very creepy." He leaned over, touching his forehead to mine and embracing me. "We'll get out of here," I assured him. Anders gave me a distracted nod and resumed stalking from one side of the cell to the other. I walked over to the door and examined the lock, not expecting to see anything I could make sense of. "So, what have you tried so far?"

"Nothing," Nathaniel spoke up. "We were all in here, but you were missing. They must have put us to sleep again since when we all woke up you were back, but unconscious."

"Oh good, I got special attention," I muttered. "I am taking a nine hour bath when we get home. In boiling water." I tried the door, it was locked. No shock there.

"We did try that, Maggie," Sigrun said, sounding amused. How could she be amused, we were in a cage!

I started pacing, trying to think of a way out. We had no equipment, no armor, no weapons, they'd even taken our robes. And we were in a cage. An actual barred walls cage. This was just like Fort Drakon. No, this was worse. At least in Fort Drakon they didn't perform experiments on me, my captors were people, not darkspawn. I resisted the urge to scream.

Velenna finally spoke up. "What do you humans do to your mages? They both look like condemned animals stalking the floor!" I forced myself to stand still. I could see Anders doing the same.

"Conversation for another day, Velenna. We need to get out of here." I examined the lock again. "Anders, I need your help. Velenna, you too." They both came over. "You can both conjure stone, right?" Nods. Good. "OK, well, since we have no weapons, we're going to hit that lock with as much stone as we can, for as long as we can, until it busts open."

"We should go one at a time," Anders suggested. "Wouldn't do any good to have the stones chipping off on each other." He went first, followed by Velenna. I ran over to the door as soon as I finished casting. It rattled slightly in the frame, looser than it had been.

"It's working!"

"Aren't they going to hear us?" Nathaniel asked.

"They might," I said, casting another stone projectile. "But I'm pretty sure they already know we're here. If they show up and open the door we just get out that much faster." I cast another spell. "I don't plan to die in some darkspawn's lair. Well, not today anyways."

The others chuckled at this, of all the things. Velenna only looked confused.

Finally, the door popped open. "About damned time," I said, walking out of the cell. A young blond elf ran into the room just as we were looking around for some kind of weapons. It turned out to be Velenna's sister. I could feel the darkspawn taint rolling off her in waves, patches of corruption were already visible on her face. I had no idea how she was even speaking rationally. The level of corruption in her was almost as severe as that of a full darkspawn. I didn't know how she managed to remain coherent, but she had brought us the key of all things, and told us where our property could be found. I tried to question her further, at least to find out if anything had been done to me, but she ran off.

"That seemed… strange," Sigrun observed after she had left. I agreed. She was in full splitmail, and clearly not a prisoner.

"Did you notice what she called him?" I asked her, hoping Velenna couldn't hear us.

"She called him 'the emissary,' but it sounded like she was going to say something else, and changed her mind."

I wasn't the only one who noticed it, then. "So, do darkspawn have first names? Was that it?" She didn't know any more than I did.

After fighting our way through several rooms, first with magic and fists, and then eventually with weapons looted from the darkspawn, we came upon more tainted people. The first was a dwarf, dressed entirely in Oghren's armor. "No one touches Oghren's junk and lives," he bellowed, and Sigrun howled in laughter. I was beginning to wonder how sane we would be after this day. One by one, we recovered our clothes and equipment from more of the strange tainted people wandering through the mine. Were they going to do that to us, I wondered in horror as I pulled my robe over my head, using the rough clothing I had woken up in to wipe corrupted filth from my weapons and staff.

I tried to sense darkspawn nearby. I was picking up a nearby source of taint, but it seemed off. Closer to Warden, if I had to guess a source. I guided everyone down a narrow passage to investigate. A man in leathers was on the ground, seriously injured. I dropped to kneel beside him gesturing for Anders to do what he could. He was one of the captured Wardens from Orlais, the last survivor. Begging me to deliver his wedding ring to his wife, I resisted, telling him we would bring her husband home instead. Anders caught my eye and shook his head quickly, his face grim. Accepting the ring we stayed with the man for a few moments, until he was gone.

"I'm not a cruel person," I said, more to myself than anyone else, as we left. "But I plan to make this Architect bastard suffer." No one disagreed, thankfully.

Reaching what seemed to be a perfectly normal bedroom, I froze. Why would something like this be in a lair of darkspawn. There were robes, a bed, bookshelves. Maker, can they read? I thought, numb with horror. Even worse, there was a diary. It was the Architect's room, and he could both read and write. It talked of Velenna's sister, a bond she had forged with her guard, and her willing cooperation. I passed the paperwork onto her, watching her face pale as she read.

"Maggie," Anders said from behind me, "the darkspawn has a bigger room than I do."

"If you ask nice maybe he'll trade!" I replied.

"No thank you. I prefer the neighbors I have now."

A Quinari trader was in the next room. I stopped mid step and gaped at him, wondering if I'd lost my mind. "Are- are you a quinari?" I asked him, wondering if the hallucination would answer.

"I'm Tal'Vashoth," he replied, as though that explained why he was there. I remembered the phrase from Sten, a quinari who didn't follow their belief system. I don't think the next step was 'collaborating with evil incarnate,' though.

"You trade with the darkspawn?!"

"They pay me, we have an arrangement. You shouldn't be here."

I looked at the others, confirming they were seeing him, too. Oghren had discovered a chest with the rest of our possessions and was happily packing everything up, the others were watching me, but not in the way one would watch a woman conversing with a phantom. I guess he was real.

"Yeah, I'm hoping I can fix that being here thing very soon. Why do you trade with the darkspawn, what if you get tainted?" He insisted they promised his safety, but didn't look particularly confident. Impulsively, I asked him "Why not trade at Vigil's Keep instead?"

"The Warden outpost?" he confirmed. I nodded. "Very well. If you survive this place I will see you there."

Shaking my head we pressed forward. The room contained a balcony where Velenna's sister and an even more corrupted dwarven woman stood with the emissary who had apologized to me when I was on a table. The fabled Architect, at last.

He shared a glance with the elven woman and I shuddered. Sigrun caught my eye and made a disgusted face. The expression she gave him wasn't a casual glance by any stretch, and even that wouldn't be something a normal person would cast at a darkspawn. Velenna looked horrified. I couldn't blame her.

Before we could look for a way to attack them he raised his hand and two small dragons landed near us. "Wings first," I called out, annoyance in my voice. We killed a high dragon just weeks ago in blackmarsh, and these things were barely larger than a common drake. Did he think that little of the Wardens? I suppose I shouldn't complain, better that than a high dragon and a room full of emissaries.

Dragons defeated, I turned back to the Architect. He looked strangely sad, turning his back to us and leading both women into a tunnel. I heard Sigrun gasp as he put his arm around the shoulder of the blond elf. If she hadn't reacted I would have assumed I imagined the whole thing. The tunnel collapsed behind them, leaving us no way to follow. We took a side door, which, thankfully, led to open air and sunshine.

I stretched out on the ground, only feet from the entrance of the mine. Muttering a brief prayer of thanks, I looked to the sky. "That is the second time I've woken up in a cell. Just once was bad enough." Food was passed around and we ate in relative silence. "Does anyone know how long we were in there? How long we were unconscious?"

"At least a day," Nathaniel suggested. "It's early afternoon now, we went in the mine in the early morning. We were conscious for far too long for it to be the same day." He rubbed his face. "I'd guess we were out for close to three days, if my beard is any indication." I looked more closely at the men and, sure enough, they all had several days of hair on their faces.

Velenna broke her silence, looking at me. "Make me a Grey Warden so I can find my sister," she demanded.

I raised an eyebrow. "It doesn't work that way, Velenna. It's not a spell I can teach you or a skill I can pass on."

"But you can sense the darkspawn. If I could do that I could find her."

"You think it's some trick we can do? Becoming a Warden is for life, it's a host of physical and mental changes, not just being able to sense darkspawn, and it's not something we put people through so they can leave the order and go on a quest of their own. Besides, sensing them can take months to even develop, and years to train to accuracy." This was true, I was still the only one of our group who could sense them with any detail. I looked at the others who were all carefully avoiding getting pulled into the conversation.

She was still insistent. I groaned. There was no way to explain how crazy her request was without revealing too much.

"Look, we have a common enemy. Stay with us, work with us now, and we'll find the Architect and kill him. Believe me, I'm looking forward to that. If you decide you want to leave your clan and become a Warden after that is done, we can talk again."

She grudgingly agreed. "There is one more thing," I said. "About your sister."

"Look," she snapped, "I know, I saw her with that thing, I'm not blind. Something's going on, and it's unnatural. They did something to her mind, that's why I must save her!"

"Well, there is that, but I wasn't thinking of it now." Or ever again if I'm lucky, I added silently. "You saw the marks on her face, like bruises, yes?" Suddenly the other Wardens had decided to start paying attention to me. They saw the same thing, but they knew what it meant.

"And her arms as well. They're torturing her."

"Not exactly, no. I mean, they may be, but those aren't really bruises. It's- It's the corruption. She's infected with the darkspawn plague. I could sense it in her."

"How much time do we have?" Velenna asked me, horrified. I shook my head.

"I'm sorry. She's just too far along. Sometimes, if you catch it soon, we can put someone through the Joining and that will suppress it. But those are cases without any outward signs yet, usually within hours or days of exposure."

"You're telling me she's going to die, even if we find her?"

"I'm very sorry," I told her. I prayed silently that she would die. The alternative was so much worse, but I didn't have the heart to tell Velenna that.

Velenna was silent for a while. When she spoke again it was to say "All the more reason for me to want that fiend dead!"

A/N: I was really debating doing a whole buzz off thing with Velenna, I just didn't much care for her. Happy happy since I'll be done with the in-game story in a couple chapters and can move on to where I really want to go with this. :D

I'm also really loathing the title of this. Any suggestions for a new one? I suck with titles.