Maeva and Louis had forgotten their wood-gathering when the first sounds of a distant scuffle reached them, and they raced for camp. The pair burst into the clearing. Louis's longsword was drawn, and Maeva held a wickedly sharp dagger in each hand. "Heard the fighting—what the fuck are you doing?"

Amidst a slew of outlaw corpses, Theo stood with the edge of his blade pressed against Adara's throat, his other arm held very still at his side to keep the arrow in his shoulder from jostling painfully. Maeva leaped over a dead bandit without even looking at him and pressed one of her daggers into the nobleman's back. "Put your sword down, or I'll carve out your kidneys and show them to you."

"She's a blood mage," Theo spat.

"Yeah, I know, you dipshit. So does Kay. It's pretty helpful at times like this, so put your damned sword down."

Adara only stood there, meeting Theo's eyes with a sort of fatalism. Theo hesitated before looking away, his gaze flickered briefly to Maeva. "You knew? And Kay allowed it? Kay sent her?" His voice wavered with disbelief and rage.

"I've proven my loyalty," Adara said, speaking up for the first time since before the attack began.

"How can a maleficar know loyalty? I know what you've done. You belong to a demon."

A stricken look passed over her face, and the elf said nothing. Maeva jabbed her dagger a bit harder into Theo's side, hard enough to prick through his tunic and likely draw blood, though the nobleman did not flinch. "I don't care. Put your sword down, or I swear I'll gut you right here."

Louis stepped a bit closer with his blade raised, but he was clearly uncertain as to the best course of action. "Look, everyone just stop. Let's all put the blades away, and someone explain to me what's going on."

No one lowered their blades, but Adara spoke anyway. "A few outlaws attacked us. He killed a few, I killed a few. Theo was injured and overwhelmed, and I… reacted."

Theo snorted. "She forced a man to slit his own throat. Maker, Louis, I saw him do it."

"Looks like it saved your ungrateful life, too," Maeva snapped.

Adara met Theo's eyes calmly. "So what is your plan? To cut me down here and give up on your quest?"

"I'll find another mage. You aren't the only apostate in Denerim, I'm sure."

"Not from Kay, you won't," Maeva interjected. "She'll be pissed to the Void if you kill one of her mages."

"And think of the time it will take," Adara added softly.

Maeva picked up on the threads of that line of thinking. "She's right. To return to Denerim, find another mage, and let your shoulder heal on its own… that'll be weeks. You've been in an awful hurry this whole trip." The dwarf stepped away, her voice smug. "You won't kill her, because you can't bear to lose that much time."

Now it was Theo's turn to look stricken. His grip on the blade seemed to tighten, and Maeva tensed in case she had misread him. Then he backed away from Adara, letting out a low growl of frustration before flinging his sword to the ground in a show of temper. "Fine. Fine. I won't kill her, but I won't let her run free, either. Louis, bind her hands. Now," he added when the other man hesitated.

Maeva's expression twisted with frustration. "You're a right ungrateful bastard," she snapped at Theo. "You're going to tie her up like a common criminal and still expect her to get that arrow out of your shoulder?"

"And you're a fool to trust a blood mage. I'm only doing what I must. Louis, I said bind them."

Maeva opened her mouth to complain further, but Adara shook her head. "Let him," she said in a tone of tired defeat.

Though they had never been an exuberant group, the party that arrived at the seashore was much grimmer than the one that had set out from Denerim a few days prior. Theo still favored his shoulder. Though he had allowed Adara to remove the arrow and heal the injury out of necessity, complete recovery would require time and rest, neither of which the nobleman seemed prepared to give it.

Adara walked in front of him, her gait awkward with her hands bound in front of her. She occasionally stumbled over the uneven rocks that dotted the coast, but Theo remained close enough to steady her. He sometimes even mumbled something close to an apology. Louis and Maeva brought up the rear.

Once they reached a cliff face that jutted into the sea, Theo bade them to stop. "This is it. We can't enter until low tide."

Ever practical, Maeva asked: "Yeah? What happens at high tide?"

"We wait it out inside. The tomb's interior is supposed to be above the waterline, so it's not like we'll drown," Louis said.

"According to the word of someone who's never even seen the place, I'll wager." Maeva eyed the damp beach with distaste. "Thought the Avvar were mountain folks," she grumbled.

Louis shrugged. "They say that with enough time the very earth and oceans will move. Perhaps the sea wasn't here when they built the crypt."

After a few minutes of silent watching, Theo announced: "Shouldn't be long now. It looks like the tide is beginning to go back out. Maeva, with me. I want to make sure there are no surprises waiting for us around the entrance. Louis, watch the mage."

Maeva and Theo climbed down to the rocky beach below, and Adara settled onto a large stone to wait while Louis kept watch. He kept his sword drawn, though whether it was for fear of more bandits or the elven mage herself, no one could say. Likely both. Eventually he cleared his throat and spoke: "I'm sorry about the binds. My friend has lost too much to take risks."

"He's wise," the elf said with a small shrug.

"So, uh… how long have you been doing the… er, blood thing?"

Adara looked at him suspiciously, but in the end what harm could there be in telling him? She couldn't make the situation any worse. "Only a couple of years. I was with Maeva, actually. We got into a tight spot on a job in the city, and we both nearly died. I did what I had to do." With her magic spent and Maeva dying in front of her eyes, what choice had there been?

"Was it…" Louis hesitated, casting about for the right words. "… worth it?"

"I ask myself that a lot," she answered with a faint and grim smile. "Maeva is alive. I'm alive. That's all that matters, but sometimes I wonder." The cost had been very high. What was worth more: a life or a soul?

"Can't you just stop doing it?"

Adara chewed her bottom lip briefly before speaking. "It's not as easy as that." She didn't want to speak to a stranger—or anyone—about how terrifyingly good it felt to use blood magic, even better than the high of lyrium. Or about the way it just seemed to happen, to the point where she couldn't recall making the decision to use it at all. She could have smashed Wendell's head in with a fist made of stone just like the others, but she had made the cut in her wrist almost without knowing it. The song in her blood grew more difficult to resist as time passed.

"There is still a price that must be paid," she added, her voice barely more than a whisper. Adara couldn't escape the demon's price, whenever she demanded it. It made her a danger to everyone around her, and she knew it.

Louis looked as though he would rather be miles away from the mage, but he had his orders. He asked no more questions of her as they waited the long minutes until Maeva's voiced called up to them from the beach. "Oy, tide's almost out. Let's get on with this. It's bloody wet down here, and I want it done."