Lance walked up to them slowly, cloak drawn up tight around his body. He was holding a cup, steam billowing up from it.
Velanna and the others were kneeling before a green hillock, overlooking what was left of a Tivinter Ruin. They gestured for him to keep low, but he ignored them.
"A whole platoon," said Cauthrien. "They aren't expecting us. They've all moved into the ruin. They're after something."
Lance nodded. "Dirge?"
"He went in ahead of the group."
Then it was true. Leliana and Marjolaine hadn't been wrong. He had no idea how, but they'd all found Morrigan. There was a platoon of men between him and her, but he had found her.
"Here," said Lance, handing the warm cup to Velanna. She thanked him for it, though she looked a little confused as to why he had just decided to brew her some tea.
She tasted it.
"It is good. Peppermint?"
He nodded.
"Got the recipe from Lilith."
He stood on the hillock, watched as the last few men in the platoon entered the ruin, hands away from their swords. He cleared his throat. There was no point in talking about it.
The ring throbbed on his finger. She was there. He knew it. She knew it.
He patted his side, felt the comforting steel sheathed there.
"Guess this is it then," he said. And they all looked at him, varying levels of stunned. He looked back, let them see his determination.
"Commander," Velanna began, but shut up when he held up his hand.
"No. I'm not asking any of you to follow me in there," he said. "Wouldn't dare."
Velanna looked at him with an even mix of rage and desperation.
"I will come with you," she said. He shook his head.
"No," he told her. "You aren't."
"I am," and she raised her staff, readying a spell of warding, to protect them both. Lance reached out, grabbed her shoulder.
"I've gotta do this alone," he said. "It's my duty. It's my responsibility. The rest of you have something better to do. I don't."
Leliana stood, stepped towards him. She touched his arm.
"I hope you know what you are doing," she said, and glanced between him and Velanna. He nodded to her, a little shamed.
"It's been a long time," he said. "It was good to work with you again."
"Do not say that!" Velanna ordered. "This is not it. We aren't dying here! You aren't dying here!"
He smiled. It was the first she'd ever seen, and it stunned her.
"I chose this," he said. "I did this. This is for me to do."
She readied another defense, another response. But her eyes fluttered, and she fought against a yawn. Then she wavered, stumbled on her feet a bit. He caught her as she fell, sleeping.
He handed her off to Cauthrien who laid her down gently.
Lance gave her a nod.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Commander," she said.
Lance stepped onto the edge of the hillock, facing the ruin.
Morrigan was in there. This was it.
This was his moment. This was what he'd come for. A year ago he never would have imagined that he could feel this way, so sure, so strong, so impossibly determined. He was going to do this.
No matter what. He couldn't live without seeing her just one more time.
He looked back at the group, how they looked up at him with that same… hero worship. And he took a breath.
"If I'm not back in three hours, and Morrigan isn't here," he nodded to Velanna. "Set her loose."
And he was gone.