"Teagan!"

Lady Isolde was sobbing. Nearly all the lavish decorations in the throne room were damaged or destroyed. Blood splatters, ripped tapestries and a sword wound in the throne. Donal couldn't imagine they'd be having a party there any time soon.

The lady had her face buried into Teagan's chest plate as he laid on the floor, dazed. The bann blinked hard and then brought a hand up to soothe his hysterical sister-in-law. "It's alright," he said.

"Teagan!" His acknowledgement only seemed to intensify Isolde's tears. "Teagan, are you alright?"

Teagan swallowed. "I am better now. I think."

"I did hit you rather hard," Alistair muttered. "My apologies."

"None are needed," the bann said. "My mind is my own again."

Demons didn't get much time to play outside of the Fade. This one had to have been powerful considering that it was able to raise the freshly murdered dead. Still, Donal found it odd that it ran off the second it commanded its thralls to attack. Were fantastic displays of magic as exhausting for a mighty demon of the Fade as it would have been to the common mage? Maybe Connor's form was just fragile. As exhilarating as this world may have appeared, Donal was willing to bet spirits anchored to living vessels were infuriated by their new found mortality.

"Blessed Andraste!" Isolde pulled Teagan up to a sitting position. "I never would have forgiven myself had you died, not after I brought you here. What a fool I am!"

Teagan dragged a hand across his face at Isolde's continued fussing. "I'm fine, Isolde," he said. "Really."

She nodded, although she didn't look entirely convinced. Isolde addressed them all, "Please!" she said. "Connor's not responsible for this! There must be some way we can save him!"

At what cost? An entire castle's worth of people were dead for the sake of one boy. But the way Isolde's voice carried and arched, it struck something inside Donal that he thought had been buried and long forgotten. She had come face to face with every parents' fear and was dealing with it the only way she knew how. Worlds may burn, millions may suffer, but save my child.

Donal wondered if it had been difficult for his mother to give him to the Circle of Magi? Had she cried? Did she feel regret? He didn't have a letter, a name, a keepsake. Nothing but hazy, maybe memories that now held a dream-like quality. He felt his jaw tighten down on the way his insides twisted over a mother willing to employ a blood mage and defy the laws of the land for the safety of her son.

Nema was unmoved, as was Morrigan. He'd anticipated that. He should have joined their ranks. One boy did not outweigh the lives of so many others who had already been lost. If he lived, how many more would die?

The elf girl, Adele, spoke up. "I'm not about to kill a child." Her gray eyes were round with panic, the entirety of her irises visible.

Alistair's face was washed with shame and Zevran was as mutable as ever. Donal swallowed. He never thought it would come down to him and a scared, shrinking violet to convince the good guys to not murder a child.

"Connor is no longer a child." Jowan's voice came in the direction of the main entrance to the Throne Room. The mage followed soon after, limping and dragging his shattered ankle. "He's an abomination."

"You!" Isolde was on her feet and storming toward Jowan. "You did this to Connor!"

"I didn't!"

What did Jowan expect from this, Donal wondered. His old friend flinched merely at the words the arlessa threw at him, there was no way he'd remain standing if she actually put her hands on him.

"I didn't summon any demon, I told you!" Jowan insisted. "Please, if you'll let me help..."

"Help?" Isolde's voice was raw with rage. "You betrayed me! I brought you here to help my son and in return you poisoned my husband!"

Donal glanced to the ground. He was sick of looking at Jowan, so hapless, like a whipped and confused dog.

"This was the mage you spoke of?" Teagan asked. "Didn't you say he was in the dungeon?"

"He was." Isolde didn't take her eyes off of Jowan. "I assumed the creatures had killed him by now. He must have been set free."

Nema stood, silent. Donal ground his teeth.

"That's right," he said. "And I stand by my decision."

It gave Jowan confidence. He looked to Donal and nodded. "I know what you must think of me, my lady," he said. "I took advantage of your fear. I am sorry. I never knew it would come to this."

Jowan's words did little to soften Isolde's glare. Teagan placed a hand on his sister-in-law's shoulder to silence her. "Well, I shan't turn away his help," Teagan said, his gaze directed at Isolde. "Not yet. And if Connor is truly an abomination..."

"He's not always the demon you saw." Isolde shook her head. "Connor is still inside him and sometimes he breaks through." She gripped at Teagan's chest plate. "Please, I just want to protect him!"

"Isn't that what started this?" Teagan snatched her hands up and dropped them at her side. "You hired the mage to teach Connor in secret. To protect him."

"If they discovered Connor had magic, then they'd take him away! I thought if he learned just enough to hide it, then..."

Donal shrugged. "The Circle's not so bad, huh Jowan? Nema?" he muttered. "Three meals and a roof over our head. I mean some of the beds are a bit old and there's always the Templars looming, but the library is gorgeous and Master Niall tells some of the funniest jokes I've ever heard."

"Niall's dead," Nema said with a glare.

That was true. Donal had forgotten. His poor, poor Tower.

"What are our options?" Adele spoke up. Her voice was hesitant, like she half expected them to ignore her. Donal wondered if anyone had told her that her face would freeze in an expression if a body kept it long enough.

Alistair's chin dropped. "I wouldn't normally suggest slaying a child..." He paused and then forced himself to continue when he realized there was no delicate way to put it. "But he's an abomination. I'm not sure there's any choice."

"We can't kill a young boy, can we?" Adele's hands lurched up to grip her messy hair. "He's a child! We're the good guys!"

"And he's possessed by a demon," Nema replied.

"You're all mages," Adele insisted. "You know how to safeguard against this. You should know a way to fix it!"

Whispers of old Tevinter magic and a book in the library Donal wasn't allowed to touch. "The First Enchanter might know of something," Donal murmured. It had so many answers in it, that book, ones that made Irving frown, ones that made Gregoir caution against the price of exceptions. "What's it called? You know what I'm talking about, Nema. That one with all the lyrium."

Nema sighed. "The one that requires lyrium that we do not have along with several enchanters, most of whom are dead?" she asked. "If this had happened before the Circle was very nearly destroyed, it would have been foolish, but plausible."

"The Circle was very nearly destroyed?" Jowan asked.

"Yes, you destroy your phylactery and the magic guarding it will rise up and kill everyone else," Nema snapped. "Who was that girl you were asking about? Lily? Is she one of the dead, Donal?"

"Shut up, Nema!" Donal could feel heat gather in his face. "What happened in the Circle is completely unrelated to you, Jowan."

"Enough," Teagan interrupted. "Connor. What are we going to do about Connor?"

That quieted them. For the moment.

"Connor is my nephew," Teagan continued quietly. "But he's also possessed by a demon. Death would be... merciful."

Isolde's face fell, her trembling lip and glistening eyes the only weapons she had to fight against their verdict.

"There is another option." Jowan swallowed and took a deep breath. "Though I loathe offering it." His eyes darted from one person to the next, before they landed on Isolde. "A mage could confront the demon in the Fade, without hurting Connor himself."

"We lack both the lyrium and the enchanters," Nema repeated. "Do not string the woman along with foolish hope."

"Let me finish, Nema. Please." Jowan dragged his hands across his bruised face. "The demon approached Connor in the Fade while he dreamt and controls him from there. We can use the connection between them to find the demon."

"You can enter the Fade, then?" Isolde asked. There was a hoarseness to her voice that Donal found unsettling. "And kill the demon without hurting my boy?"

"No, but I can enable another mage to do so." Jowan shot a hard glance to Nema and spoke over her open mouth. "It normally requires lyrium and several mages, but I have... blood magic."

And there it was, then. What was the price of exceptions? What was one boy worth?

Nema laughed. "Oh, Jowan. You think your word means anything at this point? Do you honestly believe we'd let you cast a spell, let alone use blood magic?"

"You forget that you're a guest in my home, Warden," Isolde said. She straightened herself up to her full height, raised her chin and stared Nema down. "When your solution is to murder my only child, the least that can be expected of you is the courtesy to not interrupt while other options are being explained."

Isolde's posturing only goaded Nema. She met the arlessa glare for glare. "You are stupidly wasting time, hoping for a miracle that does not exist, when we all know what course of action must be taken to protect everyone you selfish, self-important-"

"Shut up, Nema!"

She didn't even acknowledge Donal with a nod. "No."

Had it not been for the icy silence that enveloped everyone, they probably wouldn't have heard Adele whisper to herself, "I always wondered why humans hated elves."

Nema's glare shifted to Adele, her dark blue eyes an endless source of frozen hatred. Rage had tightened the mage's jaw and locked it shut. Worry creases marred Adele's forehead as she examined her knuckles.

"Please, Jowan," Isolde said. "Tell us what you mean."

"Lyrium provides the power for the ritual." Jowan cleared his throat. He began quietly, but gained more confidence the more he talked. "But I can take that power from someone's life energy. The ritual requires a lot of it, however. All of it, in fact."

"So, someone must die?" Teagan asked. "Someone must be sacrificed?"

Jowan sighed. "Yes." He inhaled and tried again. "Then we send another mage into the Fade. I can't enter, because I'm doing the ritual. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything. It's not much of an option."

Morrigan had been silent for so long. Too long. Donal looked her way for something, anything. She seemed anxious and impatient with the way she shifted her weight from one leg to the other and kept darting glances toward the exit. Of course. Why would she care about a village, a child, the Ferelden nobility? The world revolved around Morrigan and she had a mother she wanted dead. Donal counted backwards from ten.

"So either way someone dies," Alistair said.

"The power has to come from somewhere," Jowan replied. "That means either lyrium or blood."

What was the cost of one child? Who would the petty Ferelden nobility deem expendable? One of the Wardens? A villager? It was easier to calculate price and worth when Donal was adding up the shredded tapestries, frayed carpets and broken wall panels in the Tower. There was a definite, monetary value, then. How much was a pound of flesh worth?

"Then let it be my blood," Isolde said. "I will be the sacrifice."

That was unexpected.

"What?" Teagan turned to her and gripped her by the shoulders. "Isolde, are you mad? Eamon would never allow this!"

She looked so regal then, despite her bloodshot eyes and tear stained face. "Either someone kills my son to destroy that thing inside him or I give my life so my son can live." She smiled up at him and smoothed her hair back with a hand. "To me, the answer is clear."

Teagan opened his mouth, but his resolve wavered. It was difficult to argue with someone so certain.

"Connor is blameless in this," Isolde told him. "He should not have to pay the price."

"It is up to you," Teagan murmured.

She kissed his cheek. "I know, Teagan."

"No." Donal brought a hand to his head. Maybe that would make his brain work better. It was all math, wasn't it? "You need enough blood for one person, right? And we can only put one person in the Fade. Let me help."

"I don't understand," Jowan said. "What do you mean."

"I have blood, too," Donal could barely believe the words leaving his mouth. He couldn't stop now that he started. "We all do. Why kill one person? Diffuse the responsibility among us all."

"I can't guarantee that will change the outcome," Jowan said. "It may just risk you all."

Donal could punch him. "But you can guarantee that Isolde will die, otherwise."

"Please don't ask me to participate in this," Alistair said suddenly. "I can't condone blood magic."

That gave Donal pause. "No Alistair and we'll need Nema to enter the Fade, but that leaves..."

That's when he realized. As he scanned his friends, he saw Alistair's drawn expression and the near rabid fear that rolled off of Adele. Zevran dispassionately whistled and avoided anyone's gaze. Morrigan glared at Donal. He grimaced. He should have anticipated being alone.

"Right." Donal sucked in a breath of air and shuffled over to Isolde's side. "Guess it's just you and me."

"Don't be a fool," Morrigan hissed.

"My promise stands," he said. "I told you it would have to wait until we finish our business here. I'm finishing it."

She didn't like that. He hadn't expected her to. Donal gripped Isolde's hand in his. "Are you ready?" he asked. "I'm ready. No one else dies today."