Things were a little awkward the next morning as Solona and Aedan tore down camp in an uncomfortable silence. They left at the crack of dawn and as the morning got underway, many more people on the Imperial Highway joined them. Refugees mostly from the look of it, but there were plenty of traders too with their carts and mules. There was safety in numbers from those that prowled the open roads looking for an easy meal ticket, so those on foot that day clustered together in a pack, talking amongst themselves and exchanging road gossip.

Solona listened with an eager ear, having never been exposed to such a thing during her time in the Circle. There were wild tales of course, some of adventures and heroes, but there was also news being exchanged. The traveling merchants were as reliable a resource of news from other parts of the country as any place else, and she paid close attention to what was said about other places.

A lot of it had to do with the Blight, as was to be expected. Apparently something nasty had happened in Redcliff after they left, and the Arl there was deathly ill still. Strange. She didn't think that anything had been too out of place when they had left just a handful of days ago. Things sure changed quickly when they decided to. There was a wild rumor about wolf-men lurking in the forests that they would pass in a day's travel, but that seemed more like a tall tale than a serious rumor.

However, when conversations lead toward the Circle, she couldn't help but to feel a stirring in her stomach. Something had happened at the Circle? Fear crept into her gut for the friends she had left behind. Had the Templars gotten angry for the escape of two mages? Had they taken it out on the apprentices? On the whole Circle? Aedan nudged her, returning her to the here and now instead of thinking about the maybes. But soon enough it was his turn to get engaged in the conversation.

He perked up immediately upon hearing "Highever" from one of the traders that they were eavesdropping in on, walking uncomfortably close to Solona in an attempt to hear better.

"…say there's been a revolt." One of the traders said, a man with a large straw hat and leading a pack mule laden with goods that clanked as it walked.

"Yeah? I heard it was a nightmare. Nobody left the castle alive. They say the Couslands are dead." The second one replied, content to let his fellow elaborate on the point if he knew any more on the subject.

"I heard the same, and that Teyrn Loghain put his troops there afterwards. But it was all hush hush, nobody knows who did it. But I got my suspicion." The first trader winked, putting a finger on the side of his nose. "Whispers say that they saw flags from Amaranthine."

"No!" The second trader was incredulous. "The Arl of Amaranthine and the Highever Teyrn have been friends since before the battle with Orlais!"

"Believe what you will." The first replied with a shrug. "But you heard the rumor that Arl Howe's been made Arl of Denerim too?"

The second nodded. "Yeah, left Amaranthine to his son so that he could take Denerim. They say that the Arl's son there was killed by an elf rebellion, an' the Arl himself was killed before he even got to Ostagar. What d'ya think he had to do to get Teyrn Loghain to let 'em take Denerim, you think?"

"I think our Regent-" He spit the word like a curse "Told Howe to snuff out the Couslands."

"Oi, you be mumbling treason there."

"Then don't say it none too loud." He replied with a hiss. "But think about it. Leaves Cailan to the Darkspawn to save his men, says the Wardens plotted it all. Arl Eamon gets deadly ill, and now they say that all of Redcliff's been taken by something evil. And then the Couslands get snuffed. Sounds like someone's eliminating powerful people. An' the Civil war wot's broke out, just as a Blight has started?"

If Aedan hadn't been walking so close to her, Solona probably wouldn't have noticed how rigid the man was going the longer the two traders talked. As it was, she could feel his fists bunching up, his gaze riveted on the two. Even Keran had been set off by his master's attitude, his hackles rising slightly and obviously on the alert for danger.

Worried that he might make a scene, Solona put her hands around his forearm and gave him a tug, slowing her steps slightly so that they fell out of earshot of the traders and their gossiping. Aedan suddenly looked down, as if realizing for the first time that she was there, and a sigh escaped him. "Sorry." He mumbled, then pried her hand away from his arms and kept walking.

Solona fell behind a bit, examining his back and the shield that was hung there. Two laurel branches…

-0-0-0-

The passage across the breadth of the Bannorn had been boring in the extreme. It was nothing but rolling hills in all directions, and though it had been pretty at first, Solona was quickly disillusioned by it. By the time that evening rolled around there were trees on the horizon. The Brecillian forest took up about a quarter of Ferelden, so on the southern stretch of the Imperial Highway they'd be seeing a lot of it. Or the fringes of it, at any rate. Monsters and the Dalish ruled the real heart of the Brecillian, or so it was told. Between where they walked and where the legends originated was the Southron Hills and a broad lazy river.

Solona had suggested they put down closer to the other travelers for the night for safety's sake, but Aedan had disagreed. He staked a spot for camp some distance from the others and elapsed into moody silence while he collected firewood, leaving it to Solona to start up the blaze with her magic as per the norm.

Biting her lip, she debated the merits of trying to bring Aedan out of his dour mood, wondering if it would be worth the trouble or if he would work out of the rut himself. When he came back looking like someone had just kicked his shin, she decided that he'd risk his bad favor for getting him out of his bad mood. "Could you help me out over here? I want to see what this wound looks like."

Dropping his load of wood by the small fire Solona had managed to kindle, Aedan wordlessly complied with her request, kneeling at her side and began unwinding the bandage around her arm. The long gash had become an angry red mark on her skin by now, and she breathed a sigh of relief, glad that her impromptu healing methods had worked. "Thank you." He didn't reply, simply stalking to the other side of the fire and began rummaging through his pack, looking for dinner presumably.

For a while Solona let him do that, wondering how best to tackle this problem, and nerves stirred in her belly. She couldn't see this going down well. He was obviously very upset by what had happened today, and if he was who she suspected he was, then he had every right to be upset. "So, Aedan, who are you really?"

He paused from his rummaging, looking up at her through the fire that separated them. "What do you mean?"

"Please Aedan, don't play hard to get. I know you can only be one of two things." She gave him a second to confess, but when he remained silent she continued on. "You carry around a shield with the Cousland crest, and have a sword that seems to be of fine make, also with the Cousland crest on it. You come out of nowhere and refuse to talk about your past, and are desperately seeking to have revenge on an as-of-yet unnamed Arl. Then, the moment that you start hearing rumors about this Howe fellow you get all grouchy and bent out of shape. So, either you're a soldier from the Cousland castle who managed to survive the attack or… you're the Teyrn's son."

Her statement was met with silence, Aedan continuing to direct an icy glower at her that could chill anyone to the bone. Finally something gave, and he leaned back, his eyes drifting somewhere over her head. "Aedan Cousland. Second son of Teyrn Bryce Cousland and so far as I know, only surviving member of my family. My elder brother would be Teyrn, but he was at Ostagar when… When Loghain abandoned the king to his fate."

She had expected as much, but to hear the emotion in his voice crack with such rawness was… unsettling. He'd obviously been bottling it up ever since he had to flee from his home. "What were they like?" When Aedan only looked at her like she suddenly spoke a foreign language, she elaborated. "Your parents and brother, I mean. What were they like?"

He narrowed his eyes. "Why in the Maker's name would I want to tell you?"

Solona shrugged, not having a real answer to that. "Because I've never had family to loose? Because maybe you'll feel better if you talk about it? I don't know."

Silence dominated the camp again, heavy and seemingly immoveable. Solona was about to excuse herself for the night when Aedan drew a breath to speak. "My father… was a hard man. He fought in the war against the Orlesians, helped to win our freedom back from the sodding pigs. He was a man of principle and morals, and always did the best that he could for his subjects. He was a good man, an honorable man, and a great father. Even while on the edge of his grave he thought of nothing but to protect my mother and myself. My mother… She was something altogether different." A small smile flicked on his face for a second before disappearing again; fading back into the carefully placed neutral expression he wore. "She was a warrior before she got married. Knew archery better than any soldier I knew, and she was clever. She always knew when I was fibbing her, even when I got older and learned how to lie better. I suppose that someone like that is the only person that my father would be happy with. She stayed with him until the end. Shoved me right out of the castle and locked the door behind me so that I couldn't come back and try and drag her away to safety.

"And Fergus…" He ran a hand through his hair, resting his forehead against the palm of his hand for a moment. "What do you say about a brother? We got into all kinds of trouble. He inherited mother's wit, and he always used it against me when we got into scuffles. He'd tease me horribly as a boy, but he'd never turn his back on me in a pinch. Anybody that messed with the little brother of Fergus got his face bashed in. We got into so many fights as kids… And he was a good father, like ours was. Oren adored him, wanted to be just like his dad when he grew up and now… He'll never get the chance, because those bastards slaughtered an innocent child-" His throat closed up with the rage that trembled just below the surface, rendering him unable to speak, hardly able to breathe. His fists were tightly clenched, the metal encasing his fingers digging into the leather covering his palms hard enough to hurt.

She saw his distress building as he spoke of his family and with soft silent steps she moved around the fire, coming to stand by his side. Gently, Solona placed a hand on his shoulder and was surprised to feel him trembling in his armor, shaking with the rage that all but consumed him. "Aedan-"

"How could they do it? How could he order them to do it?" Aedan wasn't talking to her, she knew that, and so didn't answer, remaining a silent witness as it all finally came out. The dammed up emotions he'd been holding onto by a thread were finally falling loose. Keran got up from his place next to the fire and laid his broad head next to Aedan's leg, looking up at him with those liquid brown eyes, far too intelligent for his own good. "He betrayed my father's trust. Did those years of loyalty and friendship mean nothing? Was the promise of becoming Teyrn in his place and having Denerim to rule over worth the price of all that blood? The innocents slaughtered… Not just soldiers. Howe's men ploughed though our defenses. Killed the soldiers, killed the servants, killed Nan and Oren and Oriana and my father and mother... Everybody's gone."

Aedan's head dropped, his shoulders slumping inward as if the weight that he'd been carrying were finally just too much for him to handle. His proud rigid figure had all at once become sadly diminished. He was a lost soul seeking some sort of truth, some sort of answer that would help him to understand the horror he'd witnessed… but he was drowning in the futility of it all, loosing ground every second.

Solona watched the transformation with a sad gaze and then knelt behind him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pressing her cheek between his shoulder blades. Many times in the Circle she had consoled young children as they cried for their mothers and fathers, or raged at the fact that they were abused and tossed out by family when their gift was discovered. She had comforted others of her own age that were homesick or soul weary of life in the Circle and the demands that it burdened them all with. And some days she was the one who sought solace in the arms of a friend. The mages had no family but the ones that they made, and sometimes all it took was to know that you weren't as alone as you felt in those desperate dark moments. "Not everyone. There's still you, still Keran. Your family isn't lost, so long as you carry the memory with you. Show Ferelden Howe's treachery. Show them that the proud Cousland line won't be defeated by trickery and scandal. I believe that you can accomplish that."

Aedan's hand came up and rested against her arm near his throat, his calloused hands rough against her softer skin, but she didn't mind. At least he wasn't getting angry or trembling anymore.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, collecting himself once more now that everything was out in the open. Keran whined, and was rewarded with a scratch behind the ears. "That was always the plan." He muttered quietly. They sat for a while like that until Solona let him go, sitting at his side rather than at his back now.

"So, it seems like you'd need to head to Denerim anyway to carry out this plan of yours." The mage said after a bit of silence with only the crackling of the fire and the noises of the night to interrupt it. "Fortunate we met up, isn't it?"

Aedan nodded, grabbing one of the pieces of log that he'd collected and tossing it on the waning fire. "I thought that I might catch wind of Howe while I was in Denerim, but hearing what those traders said today put any question of my destination out of mind. Though, it might take more than brute force and good luck to get to him if he's holed up in Denerim castle under Teyrn Loghain's wing. My only advantage is that he thinks I'm dead."

"Well, you know I'm good for melting locks, at the very least." Solona replied with a small smile, remembering how useful the Rod of Fire had been while she, Jowan and Lilly were searching for the phylactery room. She had escaped with the equipment in her mad dash from the Circle, but it had probably fallen out of her belt somewhere along the way. Maybe it was setting fires on the bank of lake Calenhad at this very moment. Who knew? "Perhaps an explosion or two, but don't expect me to be able to blow up a castle in order to find this man. I'm not an unlimited source of ultimate power."

"Just a very humble, very temporary source of ultimate power?" Aedan shot back with a raised eyebrow.

Solona chuckled at that. "Very humble indeed. Any more humble, and I think that I wouldn't be able to confess to knowing magic at all."

"Well, if any Templars come looking for us, I expect that you'll be on your best humble behavior then." The air seemed to have cleared between them now that all the unsettled emotions had been thrown out into the open. Suddenly, Aedan got to his feet, extending a hand to help Solona up as well. "Speaking of which, I suppose it's time to try and get your decent with that staff again."

She took his hand and picked up her staff, ready for training. "Perhaps I'll leave you with a bruise this time, instead of the other way around."

Aedan simply chuckled. "I seriously doubt it. But that remains to be seen."

A/N: ANGST! Because there's no such thing as a good story without it. Also, props to the Dragon Age Wikia for existing. It's insanely helpful, especially for finding the rumors that a certain wandering dwarf will tell you on occasion. The trader's dialogue here is a compilation of several "rumors" that I could find, and a few more that I heard in-game but couldn't find online when playing through as M!Amell. Trying to keep in-game dialogue copy-paste to a minimum here. Again, thanks to my supporters, I really appreciate knowing you're there.

Also, the Rod of Fire... How come you don't get to keep the rod as like an active weapon or something, but you have to keep the damned signed paper? Every time I'm cleaning out my inventory, I want nothing more than to dump the stupid thing. Corpse Gall too. What's up with that? Stupid unchuckable quest items...