A few weeks later Nero was just heading up to Fenris' room after having a bath when he heard voices coming from it, he stopped just outside the door, not wishing to interrupt the conversation. Which in turn lead him to eavesdrop.

"Are you certain it is her?" Fenris was asking.

"An elf matching your description, on the ship you named. And alone, as far as I could tell." He heard Aveline reply.

Aveline? Elf? What is he on about?

He heard a clunk, as if somebody had smacked the table, then Fenris said, "I need to know if it's a trap!"

"I did as you asked, Fenris. Now it's up to you." Aveline said calmly.

Confused Nero threw open the door and entered just as Aveline was getting up to leave.

"You talk to him, Nero. I've had my fill for the day." she said before leaving.

Fenris was still leaning on the table, frustration emanating off of him like a fog.

"Venhedis! Fasta vass!" Fenris spat.

"Are you leaving me for an elven woman?" Nero asked, a small smirk on his face, trying to lighten the elf's mood.

Surprisingly Fenris chuckled, "it's my sister."

"You're leaving me for you sister? That's...well that's just not right."

Fenris shook his head and his mood turned sombre again, "I never mentioned it but when we ran into Hadriana and Esperance three years ago, Hadriana told me that I had a sister, before I killed her. She told me where to look, and I got Varric's help. I ...felt it necessary to keep it quiet, but i eventually contacted Varania and sent her enough coin to come meet me. And now she's here."

Ignoring the fact that Fenris never told him any of this, Nero asked where she was.

"She was working for Magister Ahriman in Qarinus but left his service and I found her in Minrathous, that made things more difficult. Getting a letter to her was hard, and she didn't believe me at first, but she's finally come."

Nero frowned, "how is she here? Isn't she a slave?"

"No, she's a servant, a tailor in fact."

"Oh, I see..." Nero said quietly and looked away, unsure what to say next.

Fenris looked to the floor and shuffled his feet, he suddenly felt ridiculously guilty for never mentioning any of this to Nero...but it wasn't as though he had gone out of his way to make sure Nero didn't know, he just...

"I didn't mention it because I felt like...if i mentioned it then i would get my hopes up when it could turn out to be nothing, so I tried as best I could to keep it to myself." He explained.

Nero nodded and approached the elf, he was still a little hurt by it, but he could sort of understand. He walked around the table to sit on it in front of the elf and said, "it's alright, talking about things hasn't always been your strong suit." Fenris gave a small, though still guilty, smile, "are you worried that Denarius knows about your sister coming here?"

Fenris sighed and leaned forward, setting his hands on the table on either side of Nero and resting his forehead on the other man's shoulder, "the more it seems Denarius doesn't know, the more certain I become he does. It's driving me mad. I can see him using this as an opportunity to ambush me, he probably couldn't fathom that i would worry about him knowing about her presence. He's always thought I was an idiot."

"So, what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to gather as many people as I can and go see her. She'll be at the Hanged Man during the day for the next week, at least. And if Denarius has tailed her then we'll kill him."

"Sounds like a plan, why don't we ask who is available today and see her tomorrow?"

"I would like to get this done with as soon as possible."

Nero smiled into the elf's hair, "I know, but we'll be able to get more help if we tell them its tomorrow, as opposed to today."

Fenris sighed and stood up, "alright. Let's go."

...

Luckily they had been able to get just about everyone to join them. Varric and Isabela stayed in the Hanged Man, as their presence wouldn't arouse any suspicion, and watch for signs of the Magister. And Sebastian, Aveline, Hawke, and Merril joined Fenris and Nero at the mansion before they all left for the tavern. Anders hadn't even been home when Nero opened the door with his own key, after knocking for twenty minutes. He wondered what trouble the healer was getting himself up to, but decided to ignore that train of thought. He couldn't do anything about it, short of turning the man over to the templars, and he wasn't about to do that.

When they entered the Hanged Man Fenris lead them strait to a center table, where a redheaded woman was sitting by herself. Nero took a moment to try and see if she and Fenris resembled each other, but he couldn't see it. Sure, the eyes are the same color, but that doesn't really mean much. Maybe if we stuck all that dark makeup on Fenris...oh he'd kill me for even thinking that, Nero thought with a mental chuckle.

"It really is you." the red-headed elf said. Ah there it is, they both have deep voices, very nice.

"Varania?" Fenris questioned, flashes of memories from his childhood assaulted him and he said slowly."I...I remember you. We played in our master's courtyard while Mother worked. You called me-"

"Leto. That's your name." Varania said as she stood.

Nero scowled, Varania wasn't looking at her long lost brother...and she didn't seem very happy. Something was dangerously amiss.

Fenris must have sensed this as well, "what's wrong?" He asked, "Why are you so-"

"You were right, this is a trap." Nero told him.

"Ah my little Fenris, predictable as always."

Fenris cringed but raised his eyes to see Denarius descending the stairs with mercenaries in tow.

"I'm sorry it came to this, Leto." his sister said, still refusing to meet his eyes.

"You led him here!" Fenris spat, rage quickly enveloped him and he clenched his fists in an effort to control some of it.

"Now, now Fenris. Don't blame your sister, she did what any good Imperial citizen should." Denarius said arrogantly as he stood beside the red-headed elf.

"I never wanted these filthy markings, Denarius. But I wont let you kill me to get them!" Fenris snarled.

"Oh, how little you know, my pet." Denarius chuckled before catching site of Hawke, "and this is your new master, then? The Champion of Kirkwall? Impressive."

"Fenris doesn't belong to anyone." Hawke said.

"Do I detect a note of jealousy? It's not surprising. The lad is rather skilled isn't he?" Denarius laughed, "and what is this, you have the Archon's slave as well? He wasn't too bad either."

Fenris positively seethed at this, "shut your mouth, Denarius!"

Denarius sighed, "it's 'master'. You weren't always this way, Fenris. Once upon a time you had affection for me. I remember it fondly."

"Sounds like somebody has a crush." Nero said before narrowing his eyes, "you will not take him this time, however."

Denarius simply smiled at him, "I think I will, I am not alone you see."

The magister directed his gaze to the top of the stairs, where Esperance stood. She descended the stairs slowly, a cruel smile on her face.

"Nero, so nice to see you again." she said gently, and stopped to stand beside Denarius, who seemed overjoyed to have her with him.

Nero scowled and turned his attention to Denarius, "I suppose you must be elated, to have such a high member of Tevinter society willing to dirty herself by standing next to you." he spat.

Anger flooded the magister and he raised his staff, readying a spell, to put the slave in his place, when Esperance put a hand on his arm to stop him, "now now, there are better ways of punishing him for such insolence. I'll show you." She smiled and waved her hand in front of herself.

Nero furrowed his brow in confusion for half a second before he was on the floor. It was as if he was passed exhaustion, he was so tired that he was struggling to keep his eyes open. He could barely hear people talking around him, and everything he saw was blurred so terribly that he could only recognize people by their hair and the color of their clothes. His eyelids fluttered as he struggled to hear what was being said, and he could faintly feel somebodies hands on him. Then he was being turned over and he was facing the ceiling. Aveline's red hair came into view and he tried to reassure her he was alright, but couldn't move his lips. It was then he realized that he was too weak to move anything at all, he couldn't even twitch a finger. Terror seized him and he couldn't breathe. He struggled for several seconds before he realized that he needed to calm down, he wasn't able to move his chest fast enough to keep himself breathing in such a panicked state, so he focused all of his attention on breathing slowly and as deeply as he could. He still felt like he wasn't getting enough air, it wasn't long after that he passed out.

Fenris watched, stricken, as Nero fell to the ground and lay motionless. He gaped and terror seized his chest, they've killed him, they've fucking killed him! his mind screamed. But he was too stunned to bend down and check to see if Nero still had a pulse, and he could only watch as Aveline knelt next to him and placed her fingers on his neck.

"He still lives, i wouldn't come all the way here myself just to kill him." Esperance chuckled, "it's a simple control of the river, he was made to live off of it, so if i prevent the essence from flowing into him, he becomes almost..catatonic. It's quite a convenient method of controlling him."

Merril gasped, "how did you do that? No one can control the river like that!"

"Oh, I didn't see you there, you are Dalish as well? Of course you are. You look just like my sister, you must be her daughter." Esperance rolled her eyes, clearly she held no love for her sister, or her progeny, "nice to meet you. And to answer your question, I can control the river like that. How else do you think the man was created? It took many years of practice before i could control it so well, mind you, but it was enough. I guided the river into him, and gave him life. Such a beautiful child, isn't he?" She smiled at the unconscious man, "the only person that can control the river better than I can is him."

While she was speaking Varric was on the landing, loading his crossbow, just as she finished her speech he let loose his arrow and punctured her in the back of the head. The arrow pierced her with such force that it came out just under her left eye and she looked at them, terrified, for a half a second before she too fell to the ground. Any patrons that had remained when all of the armed men began to speak left, and everyone else looked up at Varric.

The dwarf shrugged, "she talks too damned much."

Aveline opened Nero's eyes, she was pleased to see that they seemed to be turning less blue and more purple, and she looked up to tell the others, only to see one of Denarius' mercenaries load a bow and aim it for Varric. She hollered and caught Varric's attention, he followed the direction she was pointing and barely had time to hide behind the wall before the archer fired the arrow.

"Imbecile!" Denarius said, and slapped the man on the back of the head.

The rest of the mercenaries pulled free their weapons and were ready when Hawke, Aveline and Isabela ran at them. Sebastian and Merrill hung back, shooting off arrows and spells while Varric ran down the stairs and grabbed Nero by the foot, to drag him behind the bar. He knocked another arrow, and shot it over the bar before ducking down and loading another. Between shots he also checked to see how Nero was doing and was glad to find Nero breathing deeper and his fingers twitching as little moans escaped his lips.

On the other side of the room Denarius was making his way past the fighting crowd and towards the door, intending to get away. He had his hand on the handle and was just pulling it open when a spiky, gauntleted hand slammed the door shut. Denarius felt as though time turned to mud as he turned to look at Fenris, whose eyes were dark with a maliciousness and deadly rage that he was certain he had never seen before, especially aimed at himself.

He brought himself to his full height so that he was looking down at the elf and when he spoke he put as much confidence in his voice as he could, even though he was deathly afraid of his slave, "come now, Fenris, my pet, you were so eager to come home last time. Until that, that...monster interfered."

Fenris growled and grabbed the magister by the collar of his shirt and slammed him into the wall, causing his staff to fall to the floor with a clatter.
"That 'monster' is more of a man than you could even imagine being." Fenris snapped, no small amount of loathing in his voice.

"Put me down, my little wolf. You should know better than to treat your master like this." Denarius said, hoping that his order would drive the elf to obey, even if just by instinct. He was disappointed to learn it would not.

"I have no master." Fenris snapped before sinking his fist into the magister's chest and letting his fingers wrap loosely around his heart.

Denarius gasped and cried out in agony. The pain, it burned, he just wanted it to stop. "please, Fenris, let me go, I'll leave you alone, I'll never come after you again. I'll-"

"Maybe once, i would have considered it." Fenris told him before crushing the heart in his hand and watching the light fade out of the magisters eyes, "I am not that man any more." he said as he let Denarius' corpse call the floor.

He turned to face the others, who had already finished off the mercenaries that Denarius had brought with them. He couldn't look any of them in the eyes, he felt...ashamed. That they had heard the things Denarius had said, Fenris knew they would draw their own conclusions, and they would be right. He felt guilty for bringing them all here and putting them at risk because he wanted to meet his sister...his sister!He raised his eyes and searched the room, quickly finding her cowering in a corner, he stormed up to her.

"I had no choice, Leto." she said.

"Stop calling me that." Fenris snapped.

"He was going to make me his apprentice. I would have been a magister!" She said.

"Your a mage? I shouldn't be surprised then, your kind are always conniving, lying, snakes. How could you sell out your own brother to become a magister?" Fenris snarled.

"You have no idea what we went through. What I've had to do since mother died. This was my only chance!" she told him.

His lyrium burns flared with his rage, "and now you have no chance at all!' he told her as he approached.

"Stop!" Nero said.

Fenris turned slowly, shock obvious on his face, "Nero, you're...alright?"

Nero gave him a weak smile from where he was leaning against the bar, "tired, but for the most part unharmed."

Fenris furrowed his brow, "why should i spare her? She almost had all of us killed."

"Shes as much a victim of Tevinter as either you or me, Fenris. What harm can she do now?" Nero told him gently.

Fenris frowned, a terrible feeling weighed down on his shoulders. The only word he could use to describe it was 'lost'. He turned back to his sister, "get out" he snapped.

She ran through the group and headed to the door, but just before leaving she turned back around, "you said you didn't ask for this." she said, "but that's not true. You wanted it, you competed for it. When you won you used the boon to have mother and I freed."

Fenris turned around to face her, a pained expression on his face, "why are you telling me this?" he asked.

"Freedom was no boon, I look at you now and i think you received the better end of the bargain." She said angrily before leaving.

Fenris watched her leave, without really seeing her. He felt sad, and empty, and he couldn't bring himself to move. He jumped when Hawke put his hand on his shoulder.

The look on Fenris' face when he looked at Hawke almost made the Champion want to weep for him, instead he said, "lets get you home, you and Nero."