As they approached the camp where Morrigan, Theron and Jowan were waiting Elisa gave a nod and everyone save the Templars silently drew there weapons; it was almost certain that they would recognize Jowan and would need to be dealt with if they could not accept that the wardens allowed the use of blood magic. She had spoken with the other members of the group and all had agreed, if Alistair and Wynne had been particularly reluctant to participate; they stood at the back of the group and while they had drawn their weapons it was doubtful that they would willingly participate if it came to combat. Elisa knew this and did not care; she had established that they would not fight with the Templars and the issue could be easily handled without their help.

And sure enough when the Templars saw Jowan they immediately went to draw their swords, only to stop when they felt the blades of the group members pressed firmly against their skin. Jacob was the first the grasp the situation "He's an apostate!" he snapped "he will turn on you the moment he's given the chance!"

"Perhaps, but the he seems willing to atone and the wardens welcome anyone who will fight the darkspawn. Frankly I'd look more closely at you three considering that your first act as warden recruits was to draw on a fellow recruit" Elisa snarled

All three Templars were taken aback by the statement and Elisa pressed on "Let's make this very clear; wardens do whatever is necessary to end the blight. As far as I'm concerned the fact that he's a maleficar just means that he can kill the darkspawn quicker; we are not judges, anyone who wishes to aid us is welcome. If you have a problem with that, then you are more trouble than you're worth are we clear?"

Before the Templars could reply a fireball flew out of the trees toward the center of the group. Solona quickly countered it with an ice spell, dissipating the magic before it could do any damage. Immediately following that a large group of men dashed out from the forest and began to attack while a group of archers began to fire arrows down from the trees.

"Archers! Mages! I want those archers dead! Jacob, go kill yourself a mage! The rest of you, protect the mages and kill these assassins!" Elisa roared

The battle was fast and brutal; clearly their attackers had been counting on them being wounded by the fireball but even still, they were deadly fighters. The archers were a great danger and Solona found herself working overtime on shields, keeping the others safe from the raining arrows. Thankfully, while deadly, the attackers lacked the constitution for pitched battle and were felled, one and all. The most dangerous member of the group, and apparent leader, was an elf that had immediately attacked Elisa and had actually managed to block several of her attacks before she knocked him out cold with a strike against his temple with Silence's hilt. Once the assassins were dead Elisa gave out another set of orders "Tie the elf up!" She roared "kill any other wounded! I'm going to make sure Jacob dealt with the mage!" and took off into the forest.

oOo

As soon as the mage had realized that there were Templars in the group she had turned and ran, fleeing a fight she knew she could not win. Unfortunately for her, all Templars were trained to chase after feeling mages in full plate and Jacob had no problems chasing her down. When he got close enough he unleashed a holy smite that brought the mage to her knees. Ignoring her pleas for mercy and offers of valuable information Jacob struck her down without hesitation "No apostate deserves to live" he snarled, grinning savagely at having killed yet another one of the abominations; if he had his way all mages would serve the Chantry without hesitation or be made tranquil.

Elisa walked through the forest behind him "Just making sure that you handled the mage" she said.

He grinned "No problems" he replied.

He did not see the dagger she was holding, or did not think that it was for him. He did not suspect that she knew of his plan to alert the Templars of Jowan's location at the first chance he got and so did not suspect that she would have reason to harm her. He continued to believe that until she slid the dagger under his armor and between his ribs. "Blood mages can read minds you know" she whispered in his ear as she held his body against the dagger before slipping it out and walking away, heading back towards where the others were.

oOo

To the casual onlooker the group was simply lounging about; Kallian and Solona were sitting near the unconscious elf while the rest of them were spread out around the camp, talking amongst one another. But Elisa saw that their chatter was quiet and distracted and they were looking everywhere but the person they were talking to; they were on the lookout for more attackers.

"Jacob's dead, the mage was carrying a blade and he let her get too close. We'll go get the body after we deal with the assassin" she said

"Why are you so certain he's an assassin?" Henrick frowned

"Superior armor and weapons, well timed ambush, superior training, mage assistance, shall I go on?"

Henrick looked suitably chastised and Elisa nodded to Neira, "Wake him up"

The mage held her hand over the assassin's head while Alice held a blade to his throat, healing his injuries enough to return him to consciousness while simultaneously wrapping him in curses that would impede his movement even if he managed to untie the ropes binding him without them noticing. Elisa glanced at the others "Go guard the perimeter" she ordered "I don't want any surprises"

Most of the group spread out to the edge of the camp and Elisa, Neira, Alice and Kallian were left alone with the assassin as he came to "Ugh" he grunted "I admit I am surprised to wake up. I had assumed that I would wake up dead" the elf's smile was one of dark humor "or not wake up at all as the case may be"

The elf's demeanor despite the obvious threat confirmed his occupation; one of Elisa's teachers had once told her that "No matter who they if you hold a blade to someone's throat they'll usually do what you want. The exception to the rule is trained killers and psychopaths; sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between the two." Given the situation it was safe to assume the elf was one of the former. Elisa visibly nodded to Kallian, who drew a pair of daggers and smiled.

"Going to torture me for information?" even for an assassin, this elf was extremely blasé about his situation "My name is Zevran Araiani, Zev to my friends, I am a member of the Antivan crows who was hired by Loghain Mac Tir to assassinate the last grey wardens, which – sadly – I have failed at"

"I'm rather happy you failed" Neira quipped

"Yes, I imagine you would be. Unfortunately to me, it sets rather poor precedent. Getting captured by one's targets tends to stifle one's budding assassin's career"

Elisa sighed "This doesn't really help us" she nodded to her sister "Kill him"

"Wait!" Zevran cried out "I have a proposition for you"

"What? Crows don't meet their employers after a hit so you can't get us to Loghain so don't think you can pull a fast one"

"Not that"

"Then what? Speak quickly"

"Well here's the thing: I failed to kill you yes? Good for you, but the Crows don't look too kindly on failure; even if I went back they'd kill me for failing. And frankly I wasn't given a choice about joining in the first place. However the only way to leave without dying is to sign up with someone that even the crows would hesitate to take on. And you are clearly the sort to give them pause. So I propose this; allow me to swear an oath of loyalty to you and aid you on your quest"

Elisa snorted "You must think I'm royally stupid"

"The crows are a strict lot; even if I killed you later they might just kill me on principle for failing the first time, besides, what are the chances that I could kill you all and escape with my life? And that's what I'd have to do if I wanted the crows to take me back"

Elisa was in the process of drawing Loss when a memory came to her unbidden; a memory of a mercy she had not deserved and the redemption it had preceded. She had come up against the crows before and knew of their hiring practices; it was doubtful that the elf had lied when he said he had been given no choice on joining the Crows. She knew that the elf almost certainly deserved mercy far more then she had – why not offer it and gain an ally?

She closed her eyes briefly and then brought the blade down.

The sword had cut through the ropes binding his arms, partially freeing him. "Hold out your arm" she instructed, sheathing Loss and pulling a dagger from her belt and a runed vial from her pack. He complied and she sliced his arm open, filling the vial with his blood. "Just in case you get any funny ideas" she explained before freeing his legs

"Care to explain how?" Zevran asked and Elisa just smiled "I can't cheat if I don't know the rules. Clever" he chuckled before kneeling before her "I, Zevran Araiani, swear my life to your cause until such a time that the task is complete, you release me from my oath, or I am dead." He stood "If that's all cleared up then let's move on, I'm sure that we have important business to attend to"

A/N Another small chapter, mainly b/c this was a good break point and I'm pretty sure this is the longest I've gone without updating and I wanted to get something out.

Yes, one of Elisa's teachers was the DA incarnation of Zaeed – if he ever shows up in the story I'm actually give him that name (For those of you that haven't played Mass Effect, Zaeed is a DLC companion in ME2, a very mercenary character – an old grizzled veteran of a merc) I always loved that quote from him and it suits Zevran so I figured I'd add it in.

On another note I am now convinced that Tainted Mercy is going to grow arms and write itself – it just keeps popping up. I know that if I knew how to start the second chapter it'd be up by now.

Anyways, thanks for reading and please review