First Enchanter Irving pored over his book; even the Knight-Commander seemed to be sneaking a curious peek every few moments. "This is truly astounding work, Florian... I do apologize, it's Finn, isn't it?"

Finn tried not to preen, either from the praise or for Irving getting his name right. "Ah, yes, First Enchanter. Thank you for remembering."

"Absolutely remarkable. A complete grammar for the elvhen tongue and a lengthy dictionary of recovered words besides. An enduring work of scholarship, indeed."

Finn breathed deeply, settling his shoulders back. "Thank you, First Enchanter." He made it as nonchalant as he could. No big deal, just a spectacular, impossible, ground-breaking resurrection of a previously dead language. Yes, yes, all in a day's work for Finn Aldebrant. "With the Circle's permission, I'd like to take it to the Dalish nation at Ostagar. I couldn't have written it without their help."

Irving smiled his kindly old man smile. "I'm sure that can be arranged. Don't you think so, Knight-Commander?"

"The matter must be given proper consideration," Greagoir said, stiff as ever, "but under the circumstance, approval does seem likely."

"Excellent." Irving closed the volume and passed it carefully back to Finn, who took it and cradled it in his arms as if it were his own child. "I'm sure our other scholars will want to see that as well. Do let them read a bit of it before you go."

"Of course, First Enchanter," Finn said with a polite bow. He left Irving's office with a spring in his step and finally let a stupid grin crawl over all over his face. An elvhen grammar! And an expanded dictionary! The world's most thoroughly lost language - no, not lost, eradicated - reconstructed, uncovered, unburied and made to live again! It was the absolute pinnacle, the singular achievement of his lifetime. He couldn't wait to see the look on Vashti's face when he'd walk up to her and say... And say... Wait, what would he s-

"Finn!" The young dwarven scholar Dagna bounded up to him, looking nearly as excited as he felt. "Can I see it? Can I see your book? I've been thinking about studying the links between the magic of ancient Tevinter and Arlathan, except nobody knows much about Arlathan, but -"

"But their concept of magic and its use is reflected in their words for it!" Finn finished, catching her enthusiasm. This work really had the power to revolutionize scholarship in so many areas!

"Right!" Dagna reached up for the book. "I'd just love to read it."

There were plenty of reading desks in the library. (He did walk the intervening halls from Irving's office to the library, didn't he? Must have been so giddy over finishing the book that he hadn't noticed...) With a slight, strange hesitation, he let her take the tome and settle down into a chair. "Gosh," she sighed, just a few pages in, "this is wonderful!"

"Oh? Which part?" He craned his neck to try and see the text. Mostly because he wasn't above wanting to know which bit of prose was so excellent, but partly because... because... something wasn't quite...

He was interrupted by screams. A gout of flame jetted from beyond one of the bookshelves, lighting a rug on fire. A bookcase toppled, revealing ranks of demons and abominations, all with fire at their fingertips. Mages ran from the room and books burned.

Finn stood frozen in confusion and terror. This can't be happening. This can't be happening again.

"There's too many," Dagna whispered beside him. To his right, the thick oaken door that led upstairs slammed shut. She looked up with wide, pleading eyes as the demons began to circle around them. "Finn, they'll kill us andburn your book."

His book! All that knowledge would be lost again! A shelf of irreplaceable histories went up in a gout of flame, underscoring the threat. He threw down a repulsion ward to keep the monsters at bay. Maybe, somehow, that would buy enough time to do something...

"We. Need. Help," Dagna said firmly, pointing to a single word of his text.

Xebenkeck.

"What's that doing there?" he wondered.

"It says she's an ancient goddess mages can call upon in their time of need and this is pretty needy!" Dagna said. An abomination lurched and she shrieked, ducking under the table. "Hurry!"

"But..." Finn frowned. "But..." A fire demon slithered forward, its fiery aura making his beautiful clean robe discolor and smoke. "But that can't be right!"

"What are you talking about! Hurry!"

"The phonology's all wrong! There is no way that is the name of an elven god! It's full of stops, hard consonants. Elven doesn't sound like that, it's all fricatives and sibilants, and I can't think of a way to tell Vashti off in a language I supposedly wrote the book on, and and this isn't real."

And with that sudden certainty, the stone walls of Kinloch Hold faded, replaced by the familiar surreality of the Fade. Where Dagna had been, a barely-clad desire demon reared up; beyond her, the ranks of demons were somewhat thinned but hardly gone.

Fine by him.

Free of the illusion of the corporeal world, he had access to all the mana he could handle, here in the Fade. Power would no longer be a problem, nor the need of flesh to recover after channeling energy. He could work magic at the speed of thought, and he was more than motivated to think fast. The past few days had been full of demons chattering in his semi-conscious mind, teasing and tempting, prompting and pushing, and he'd had no way to make them stop. Swinging Vera free, he gave a grin that was maybe just a bit feral. "I am finally going to have some peace and quiet!"

First, a great flying chunk of rock bought him some space, and a bit of time as it recovered its balance, away from the desire demon. Not that space would prevent it from casting its own spells - but he needed room to work.

Finn generally disliked combining paralysis and repulsion glyphs, on aesthetic grounds if nothing else. Uncontrolled runaway magical reactions were not to be trifled with. He was willing to make an exception in this case, though. Paralysis first, towards the left-center of the throng, then repulsion directly atop it - quickly, before one of the demons surging forward could trigger the first one. Magical energy fields overlapped, resonated, feeding off of each other until - !

The edge of the explosion rippled out, a band of white light expanding to encompass somewhat more than half the demons, leaving them all frozen from the paralytic explosion - including, thank the Maker, the most dangerous desire demon. Searing pain rolled over him from the right - a fiery attack from one of the rage demons - and he answered with a straight repulsion glyph and a healing spell.

Glyph, glyph, glyph. A barrier of wards designed to keep him out of claws' reach while he fired bolts of arcane energy at the monsters, starting with the frozen desire demon - it wouldn't stay stuck forever, and it would be a formidable foe. Anything that breached his wards caught another fist of stone, sending it sprawling back again.

The wards did not protect him from their blasts of fire. He wasn't much of a Primal mage, but he did have a knack with stone - and the most basic spell that turned his skin into flinty armor certainly helped dull the hot, burning fire. He was much of a healer, and with little danger of running out of mana, it was just a matter of time.

The desire demon finally shook the paralysis, and he sent another stone fist flying its way. The demon vanished from sight, and Finn smiled. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard after all.

He wasn't sure where he was or how he'd gotten there. Finn remembered defeating the demons in a dream of the Tower, and then... it all got a bit fuzzy, and now he was here. It was very... green. Really, really green, with trees that seemed to be made entirely out of giant leaves. Really, really giant leaves, leaves as long as he was tall, and veined in bright red and gold. The sunlight that made it past the giant leaves was, even in the Fade, somehow brighter, stronger and more real than it was in Ferelden, and he had the impression that it should be hot and sticky.

There was a path, cut through the enormous plants. Without any better idea, Finn began to follow it. It didn't go very far - he'd hardly walked a score of steps, around a sharp bend, before it opened into a shaded campsite huddled under the boughs of massive trees, these with the more usual trunks, but canopies that only opened twoscore feet above them. A trio of shockingly violet birds flew across the small clearing under the trees, disturbed by his approach -

- but not as disturbed as the camp's residents, a trio of humans even darker than Vashti, and the lyrium-lined form of Fenris. They were dressed briefly, as befitted the heat and humidity, but for battle. No bright colors, no showy plumes - just simple, dark harness holding a bare minimum of tough leather plates over the most vulnerable spots. They rose from where they sat or crouched, reaching for weapons. "There you are!" Finn called to Fenris. "Come on, it's time to go. This is all just a-"

"A magister!" cried one of the humans (or, well, a demon in human form, he assumed).

"He's come to take you back to Danarius!" said another, clutching at Fenris's shoulder.

"No, no," Finn said with a shake of his head, "this is just a dream, and -" Fenris charged him with a roar. "You made me do this," he said, and threw down another repulsion glyph.

The glyph bloomed under the elf's feet - and Finn watched with wide eyes as the energy crackled through the lyrium brands. Like lightning through metal, the spell directed itself into the lyrium instead of at Fenris's body, and the repulsion effect failed to take hold.

Doesn't matter, Finn thought in the spare second left to him as the elf closed the distance between them. This is the Fade. Will is strength. He might be a strongman on Thedas, but here, it's the mage who -

There was a sickening cracking sound as his vision when briefly white, then a spinning kaleidoscope of green leaves and white lyrium and violet birds, and Finn found himself flat on his back seeing double. And what he saw was Fenris, teeth bared, and lyrium brands glowing with power.

Oh, of course, Finn thought groggily. He should probably be alarmed, but his mind simply wasn't having it at the moment. When he's on Thedas, he can step half into the Fade. So when he's in the Fade, it only stands to reason that he's also half in the waking world - and just as strong here as he is there. ...Maybe this won't be so easy after all.

"Die, mage," Fenris snarled, and Finn wondered if he just might.