HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I love this time of year and so in the spirit of my generosity, I'm releasing this a day early. It is not because I plan to be heavily intoxicated this time tomorrow. So that's the story if anybody asks, and we're sticking with it!

Ariem: Dagnabbit, I knew it had a name! Oh well, been ages since I've read the book and longer since I've seen the film but I'll definitely be brushing up. Yeah, I love that song :D

And here we are, ready to rock and or roll, whatever you're down for really.

Chapter 26: Clichés are Universal

I'm in the real world. Thedas. I can tell. There's a certain heaviness in my bones that I hadn't noticed was missing. It... tastes different. I can taste the dust in the air, the wax from the candles. In the Fade, things just tasted of... Fade, I guess. I can hear the breathing and creaking of armour around me.

I hear blades scraping in their sheathes and open my eyes to find a Templar ready to stab me in the heart. My feet act on Tamarel's training, and I kick him in the gut, following through with a back roll as I crouch to my feet.

I leap up with a unearthly roar, and when my eyes find Greagoir with his blade poised over my heart I cast fire around my hand, slapping his blade away, turning it into molten slag as I do so and grab him by the collar of his armour.

"IF YOU EVER SEND ME BACK THERE I WILL RIP OF YOUR HEAD AND SHIT DOWN YOUR THROAT!" I yell before someone clubs me over the head and I fall back into darkness.

Sparrow - 2. Creepy rituals that send me into surreal dreamscapes - nil! Get in my son!

So yeah, survived the Harrowing so that's cool. They even gave me some awesome robes, I feel like it's the Joining all over. No sign of Duncan yet though. When they let me free to wander the tower (they weren't 100% sure I wasn't possessed after my outburst) I was allowed to send a message to the Warden Barracks. I addressed it to Duncan, or whoever else could read there. I mean, I guess Serana can, being a chevalier and all... Elvha probably could of. But the Rogue Brothers and Kherek don't strike me as the literate types. Not sure about Tamarel, but I'd guess not.

Until someone can track me down, I'm stuck in the Circle. Which has a plus side. I've been doing research. And I'm doing a lot better at finding things than my compatriots.

After about a fortnight or a bit longer, I hit the jackpot. I found a line on the Crawler. There's some text from the Ancient Age, predating the Chantry. Some monk took it upon himself to collect all the myths and legends from the times before the Chantry - I shudder to think how exciting his life must have been! - and within the book I found something called "He Who Comes With The Night."

The name's accurate, the Crawler isn't known for his love of the light. It says that during the First Blight, way back when, when things were looking their shittiest and it seemed the world was circling the plughole the Veil was torn. The Veil between here and the Fade. Kinda like what happened at Soldiers Peak, but a lot fucking bigger. Apparently it's a shitstorm of fun, with demons walking freely without having to possess anyone. And one of those demons was the Crawler. It took, and this is the part that really grabs my interest, three Heroes - with a capital H - great sacrifice to seal away the beast.

It's obviously Jack and Oakvale. But who's this third? They've never mentioned anyone else, any other Heroes. I remember, all that time ago, the letter I found with the blades.

Signed S. Is that the third Hero? What happened to him?

Most likely he's dead, seeing as how this was a thousand years ago. What was his sacrifice, I wonder briefly.

But then I'm brought onto more important matters.

The Crawler's a demon. Just a plain old, hugely powerful demon if two Heroes couldn't kill it. So I need to know how. I remember in the games when the Crawler died, his master the Corrupted was called, the Corrupted being the corruption that was cast from William Black after his time in the Void.

God, I am such a nerd. How did I ever get laid?

But yeah in the game the Corrupted was called. But the Crawler was relatively weak compared to his boss. And the only was the Crawler got through was a tear in the Fade, the size of which was described as "a tear in the sky only blocked by mountains and darkness". I doubt boss man's getting here anytime soon. I think it's less a size issue and more a power one.

And if he does, it won't be my problem.

I inquire about the location of Demon Slaying for Dummies, drawing a blank glance from the librarian before he points off towards the back. I scan the section for a few minutes, pulling the most relevant looking tomes from their perches and stacking them on the table. Then I move back to the previous section and pick up everything I can about legends from the Ancient age, anything that might help me find out about the Crawler, Oakvale and Jack, Heroes in general etc. I stagger towards the table and drop the books with a thump before sighing. There's three piles, and all three tower over me.

I've got a long night ahead of me. Best get cracking.

I wake with a start, mumbling incoherently as I sit up, blinking around. The candle I've set next to me is low and spluttering, it's been burning for hours and it's reached the end. I look down and see that I'm only a few dozen pages into the first book of the pile, Binding of Demons: Trapping and Containment of Spirits.

I rub my wrist, a reflex from when I had a watch. Where did I even lose it again? I chuckle as I think back to the, uncommonly, pleasant dream I'd just had.

It'd probably be in my chest, back on the Siren's Call. Isabella's probably chucked it, which is depressing. Everything I owned was in that chest. Fuck, my keys and phone was in that!

Not that I actually could use them. Hmm. Guess I'm still as sentimental as ever. I wonder what ever happened to the fastest blade in Llomerryn? She's probably fine.

I look over my shoulder as I hear a light bang behind me. Frowning, I see another light source behind me along with twisting and writhing shadows on the walls. I get to my feet slowly and groan lightly, my bones cracking. Shit, I'm getting old. I'm not even in my twenties yet and I feel the years I've already had weighing me down something fierce.

I stagger slightly before gaining my feet and turning around the bookshelf, yawning slightly. There's another candle burning ahead of me, and my candle dies almost the moment I turn my back to it. I'll have to get a new one before I get back to my studies. I wish I could say my cat nap had recharged my batteries but I still feel like crap.

God, I wish this place had coffee. I never used to drink it, but I could really go for some right now.

I hear a woman's moan of pain and a man's harsh whisper. What's going on? Is someone about to get their ass kicked.

I turn a stack and see a flash of red hair, a naked arse and tangled limbs and realise that wasn't pain in her voice. I immediately leap back in shock, back behind the stack. That... is clichéd.

"Oh... Maker," the woman whispers huskily. The man grunts and I hear the table they were using begin to bang against the ground as...

No no no no no, I'm out.

I quickly duck out of the library, shaking my head smirking stupidly. Never walked in on someone like that before. Heh, that was a weird birthmark. Kinda looked like America.

For the love of god, I want to stop thinking about that guys ass!

I move towards the lower levels, where the kitchens are. I rarely eat with the other mages in the Circle - I'm the outsider and reputed to be dangerous so they're wary - so I quickly deduced where the kitchen was so I could grab a snack when I needed.

There's always a soup down here, as far as I've experienced anyway. I always enjoyed cold soup with some buttered bread. Mind you, everyone likes buttered bread with their soup. I mean... It's a thing.

I wave a hand and the fire springs to life. I pour myself a bowl of soup and take a seat on the ground nearby, letting the fire warm my tired bones. I think back to the candle trick I pulled for Hawke as I dab at my soup with the bread. Hopefully they're all doing alright. When I get out of here I'll have to check on them and pick up my gear.

When, being the imperative word. It's already been... what, a month? A month or so since I was in Lothering? About that. And it had been about a month before I'd seen Duncan either. I hope he didn't run into any trouble. A thought passes my mind that maybe Elvha sent him into a trap, but I dismiss it. She was after the Hawke's, she wouldn't have bothered going after her boss. Still, he should have been in touch by now.

Even if my letter had missed him, someone at the Barracks should have found it. Where the hell is everyone?

I push it to the side. No point dwelling on it. I've got work to do.

Get rid of the Crawler. Make sure the Hawkes are safe. Find Flemeth. Kill the Architect. That's the to-do list, but I'm not in any rush to do one thing or another. If the opportunity to kill the Architect presents itself before I can find Flemeth, I'll take it.

The sooner I get home, the sooner I can start putting all of this behind me. If that demon taught me anything, it's that I really, really need to go home.

I'm selfish, I'll admit that freely. All this time, I've never thought about my family, how they're dealing with me being gone. Year and a half... they probably think I'm dead. I mean, I don't know how I got here but I doubt I had time to prepare. No note, all my stuff left at home. Hell, I don't even know if I was in my car or not. They could have thought anything had happened to me.

They could think I abandoned them.

I would never do that. I'm never going to do that. They're my family and they need me. I have to get back home. And to do that, I need Flemeth. To get to Flemeth, I need to get out of the Circle. To get out of the Circle, I need Duncan. And to get Duncan, I swear to shit, I'm about a week away from using smoke signals.

But I keep my promises, as much as I can. Before I go home, the Crawler and the Architect have to be dealt with. I've got a responsibility, what with being the only one who can do it, supposedly. I mean...

Yeah, this is a story. It's not important. But aren't we all? Are any of us really that important to the grand scheme? Maybe back in my world this story isn't any less real than Earth. But we aren't on my planet. My perspective has changed. Altered. I've seen this land, experienced her people... I can't just abandon them either.

But my family takes priority. I let out a small, rueful smile and look around me. I'll probably have to stop getting captured all the time if I want to get anything done.

And speaking of getting things done...

I finish my bowl of soup and quickly wash up before heading back to the library, taking my time. I stop at the door before slowly inching it open to peek. I know, how voyeuristic of me...

Wait, what the hell is-

A sharp pain fills my mind, my vision shaking and blurring before the floor rushes to meet me and I fall into darkness...

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking Kilo - Mega's too pretentious and 69 is because I'm a child - you're thinking Kilo, what the hell is this? Seriously, what is even the point of this? I mean, is this important? Is this just relevant to the plot? Is this just you adding filler before you move on to the big stuff? When making tea, do you remove the tea bag before you add milk?

Yes.