OMG 20 CHAPTERS *flaps arms excitedly* Let's have a round of huzzahs for the mile marker, eh? You guys are totally awesome. All your support keeps me enthused to keep writing this story, and I'm glad that you're all enjoying it as much as I like typing it out. Cheers, and here's to another 20! Yeah? No? Hehehe

Denerim was silent as the night crept on, the smell of salt on the wind and fish heavy near the docks. There were any number of drunks moving about, heading home after a long day of work and a brief night of drinking and being merry. Among them walked a singular figure, cloaked in heavy material with a hood up despite the muggy warmth of the summer evening. Most paid no attention, the rest only gave a cursory glance before resuming whatever it was that they were up to. The hooded figure picked a way along the docks, eventually retreating into the winding maze-like alleyways that covered the entirety of the port front. The weaving mass of closely built roads were no place for large groups or cargo traffic, the alleys only useful for getting home quickly and only wide enough to allow access of three men abreast of each other. However, it was also a convenient place for thieves and vagabonds, the shadows and ilk that roamed the night figuring themselves safe from pursuit of the law where staging an ambush was nearly as easy as breathing.

Either unaware or uncaring that entering the seedy back alleyways was a plea to get mugged, the hooded figure continued, roaming deeper into dangerous territory. It wasn't long then when a handful of shadows slid from an alleyway a little ahead of where the cloaked one was walking, a few more appearing behind.

"Oi, this is dangerous territory." One of the thugs called, a man that needed a bath badly, his beard matted with food and blood and head covered with a greasy bandanna. He bore the scars of many battles, and was built more like a battering ram than a person, all stocky muscle and grizzled sneers. "If you wanna pass, you gotta pay a toll. 30 silvers."

The seven or so other bandits chuckled at the high sum, figuring that the hooded person they had cornered wouldn't be able to pay it. Instead of being intimidated, the hooded person stood taller. "You will let me pass, or you will regret it." The voice was female, strong and piercing, silencing the thugs who had been laughing for a moment when they were confronted with such authority.

The leader cackled after a moment of tensed silence. "An' just wat do you think yer gonna do about it, little missy?" The others were bolstered by their leader's bravado, and laughed with him, closing in on the lone female. "You know what? You can go free, but'cha gotta do somethin' else fer us."

The woman sighed audibly, her head shaking slightly in disbelief. "They never learn…" She mumbled to herself, then lifted her hands, one holding a dagger and the other empty with her palm facing upward.

"Hah! You think yer gonna take us with a knife, girly?" The leader chortled, unsheathing a gnarly looking sword and advanced. "Get 'er boys!" With a rallying cry, the surrounding thugs charged on the lone cloaked woman.

Steeling her resolve, she drew the blade across her palm and power suddenly surged, a red glow bursting from her. The thugs immediately seized where they stood, a couple of them falling over and writhing on the ground in pain. Choked off gasps and murmurs emitted from the strangely contorting thugs, and the blood mage calmly walked forward until she was only a handbreadth from the leader of the group. "You should have left when you had the chance." She mumbled, and placed her bleeding palm on his forehead. The mage's form was cloaked in seething red energy and then the thug also became illuminated with it. He struggled against his own blood and flesh, managed a choked off scream, bleeding from his ears and eyes then collapsed to his knees, dead.

Power continued to surge from the blood mage and she turned, facing the other bandits as they continued to convulse in silent agony. She held her hands out, fingers splayed wide like a puppeteer would do, the red glow intensifying around her. Sweat broke out on her forehead as she concentrated hard on trying to control the bandits, but the ability seemed to slip past her reach every time. One by one the lives that were tethered to her began to fade, and a handful of the bandits dropped to the ground dead. Exhausted by the mental strain, her grip on the remaining live ones began to slip as well and one broke out of his silent imprisonment. There was murder in his eyes when he charged the blood mage screaming, weapons out and ready to strike.

He fumbled mid-stride and nearly slammed straight down on his face by an invisible spell cast. The other three were released in that moment and rushed the mage as well, unconcerned by the fate of their fellow. The mage spread her hand in a wide arc as the bandits came closer and the air seemed to simply crystallize at her will despite the balmy evening. Two of the bandits were stopped dead in their tracks, frost creeping over their limbs and freezing them solid, but the third managed to avoid the attack and pummeled the mage.

She cried out when she went down, the two struggling in a heap briefly before a flare of fire lit up the night and the man tumbled to the side, clutching his face, which was smoking with the acrid stench of burning flesh suddenly slicing through the dull tang of salt and fish. Acting quickly, the mage got to her feet and slit the man's throat, leaving him to bleed out. The other two frozen ones she went to quickly deal with, but the first that she had weakened came after her, swords whistling through the air. She managed to duck the first barrage, the man accidentally slicing into the frozen form of one of his fellow thugs before charging after her with a blood-curdling yell of outrage. Placing two fingers to her forehead, the mage sent out a wave of pure force that sent the man sprawling backward, his head cracking wetly on the stone.

Breathing hard from the exertion, the mage quickly scooped up one of the man's weapons that had skittered away when he'd fallen and plunged it through his chest. The other she took from his limp hand and drove through the one thug still encased in rapidly defrosting ice. Before she could fully relax however, something caught her attention, a flicker in the shadows that was no simple trick of the moon. Her blood pulsed hot in her veins and she reached out, feeling the pull of the blood of the nearby body. Without pausing she urged the fleeing body to sleep and was rewarded for her efforts when she heard her target collapse some feet away. Stepping over the bodies of the bleeding and broken bandits, the blood mage went to see who it was that had been spying on her battle with the thugs.

The elf had collapsed mid-stride, her thickly braided red hair covering the half of her face that she could see. Gasping, the blood mage knelt beside the small elf woman, turning her over so that she lay on her back instead of face down in the street and quickly healed the palm that still gushed blood. She then ran glowing blue hands over the elf, making sure that she hadn't broken anything in the sleep-induced fall and shook her awake. "Kallian? Kallian! By the Maker, what are you doing here?"

The elf roused slowly, rubbing her head, taking a little bit of intense concentration to be able to focus on the mage. As soon as she realized where she was however, Kallian pushed the mage away and lept to her feet, immediately drawing her daggers. "Stay away from me Ammy!" She screamed, her back to the empty alleyway and ready to flee at the first sign of magic. "By the Maker's bastard children, I never though you would be a blood mage!"

For a long moment, the cloaked figure didn't move, then with deliberate slowness she reached up and pushed back her hood. Solona stared back at Kallian's wild-eyed face, a look of profound sadness on her own. "I… I have no excuses."

Kallian was surprised by the defeat she heard in the mage's voice and relaxed a bit, her shock and anger being ushered away by confusion. "What? You aren't even gonna deny it?"

"To what point and purpose?" Solona asked calmly, shrugging her narrow shoulders. "You saw this-" she gestured to the carnage behind her "-so you know. I could probably send you to sleep and give you a nightmare, or use my blood magic to attempt to wipe your memory, but I will not become the kind of maleficar that the Chantry claims all blood mages to be. I will not lay a hand on those that I call friends, and I hope you can believe me when I say that I would not be using blood magic if I could avoid doing so." She was proud when her voice did not crack, though the lump in her throat made it hard to breathe, Kallian's stare unnerving her and bringing up the acute pain of self-disappointment fresh and strong to the surface.

"Then why?" Kallian's voice was acid, her hands tightening around her dual long knives. "Why would ya do it? How am I s'posed to believe you?"

"I can't make you believe me." She replied in such a calm voice that Kallian was sure she'd misheard. "I won't make you believe me. What you do from here… You can run if that's what you would like. I won't stop you from turning me in; it's only right by the law of the Chantry. I would probably flee Denerim, but please, if it is your intention to alert the Templars, tell Aedan that I am deeply sorry I will not be able to hold up my end of our bargain. I owe him for so much, and if this is the only way-" The mage choked up with tears then and turned her face away from Kallian, unable to meet the elf's incredulous and accusing stare for any longer. "And I'm sorry to you too. I never meant to deceive you, but I knew that if I told anyone-"

"Maker damn you, Ammy." Kallian sighed heavily and spat on the ground, then sheathed her swords and crossed her arms over her chest, still pinning the mage with a deathly glower. "You still ain't told me why."

The mage sniffed and looked up at her elf companion, rubbing the tears from her eyes. "Why?"

"Yeah, why. And fer how long?" She gestured toward Solona's bloody palm. "How long you been truckin' with demons? You said them nightmares were from lyrium withdrawal, but you were lyin', weren't you?" It was more a statement than a question, her tone indicating that she didn't want to hear any more excuses or half-truths if her glare didn't already make that perfectly clear.

Solona nodded and gathered herself again, inhaling deeply to regain some sense of self-control. "The nightmares happened when the demon that plagues me tried to possess me in the Fade. I… he is the one that taught me how to use blood magic, and in return wants to possess my body so that I will become an abomination." She paused, wondering how much to reveal to Kallian and how much the elf would actually understand of what she did reveal. "I didn't become a blood mage until after Aedan and I rescued you. It was in the Brecilian when we were being pursued by Templars. They cornered us after chasing us for nearly two weeks through the forest, and they would have won. I was badly hurt, and Aedan and Keran were all but defeated when I finally realized how hopeless it all was. So I… I gave in. I used it to save us. The one that held my phylactery had Aedan by the throat, Kallian! I couldn't let him get killed, not after everything he'd done. I couldn't see him die on my behalf…"

The elf made a noise that sounded like half a groan and half a sigh, rubbing the center of her head with the palm of her hand. "Damn, so you been doin' this ever since you got back?"

Solona shook her head. "No, I didn't want any part of the demon or the demon's magic, so I tried to forget about it but…" Here the mage became timid, and it took a hearty glare on Kallian's part to get her to continue the explanation. "The demon that wants to possess me, Mouse, he had been… relentless. I found that using blood magic helps me focus my mind, that's why I've been having those nightmares less and less. And it is powerful, as disgusting as it makes me feel to admit. I think that it may be the only way to beat Mouse and rid him from my dreams forever… I started practicing a few weeks after we came to Denerim, leaving the assembly building at night like tonight to practice on… the more unsavory characters that roam the streets at night."

Kallian muttered a string of curses, examining the ground at her feet, her mind working faster than her mouth. "So, you ain't tryin' to truck with demons to gain more power?"

Solona shook her head. "Never. I want nothing to do with Mouse. The only reason I'm doing this at all so that I can kill him."

"What if more Templars come fer you?" Kallian asked, her face utterly unreadable. "What if Howe's men figure out what we're up to an' come fer Aedan? What if we're outnumbered, an' there's no hope of escapin'? If I know anythin' about this shem creep that you two are after, then he won't be happy with just killin' Basher. He'll wanna make a fool of 'em first. What would you do then, Ammy?"

If Solona had any hesitation about what she would do in such a situation, then she did very well to hide it. "I wouldn't accept Mouse's help, even then. Once you become an abomination… They say that there is no hope for you. You are completely taken over by the demon and you loose all sense of your humanity. Friend and foe are no different in an abomination's eyes. I would not count on Mouse to save you or Aedan were he to be granted his wish and be able to occupy my body."

Kallian nodded, though she was chilled to hear Solona admit that abominations really were the stuff of nightmares as the Chantry painted them. It made her glad that they hadn't come across any. "You gonna tell him?"

Solona's eyes went wide and she shook her head sharply. "No. I never want Aedan to find out if I can help it. He would regret saving me if he ever found out. I couldn't do that to him. He already has so much to regret…"

There was a story there, and Kallian wanted to know what it was but Solona saw the look in her face and immediately moved to stop the oncoming flow of questions. "His secrets are not mine to tell you. If he wishes you to know, then you'll know. That's all I can say."

With a sigh, Kallian shrugged and gave up learning anything more about Basher and his pesky secrets that he kept locked up with the majority of his emotional capacity. "Fine. But in the mean time, I gotta warn ya Ammy. If I ever see yer hocus-pocus goin' out of whack, I'll summon the Templars on ya, hear?"

The mage nodded in agreement, relaxing fully for the first time since Kallian had appeared. "I do have… an idea, however. One that might help me defeat Mouse easier than relying entirely on blood magic."

"You came up with this idea after you sneak outta the castle in the middle-o-the night an' nearly get killed by a bunch of thugs?" Kallian's exasperated sigh was unmistakable, the elf scratching the back of her head furiously at the apparent air-headedness of her mage companion.

"No!" Solona colored at the accusation. "I thought about it before, but I'm not good with a lock pick or with sneaking, obviously."

Kallian snorted. "I'm surprised I didn't catch ya earlier if you been doin' this for a while."

"Point is-" Solona raised her hands in a placating way. "The Wonders of Thedas has many books that may help me out. I don't dare go there during the day. Someone may recognize me, which would do no good. So far I've managed to stay out of the way of the Templars, but I wouldn't want to press my luck by wandering in like a normal customer…"

"So you want me to sneak ya in fer som illegal readin'?" Kallian raised an eyebrow, surprised at the mage. She and Aedan hadn't exactly made it a secret that they were less than enthused to help out on thieving operations. Hearing Solona come up with a plan to sneak into a book and magic store had caught the thief a little off guard.

"Well, not tonight." Her smile was weary. "I'd be afraid to get my blood on the books or carpet, and I'm tired from fighting. Blood magic… does not come without a price."

After looking Solona up and down for a quiet minuet, Kallian finally nodded. "Alright, I'll help ya out." She suddenly found herself being smothered by Solona, the woman having thrown both of her arms around Kallian's shoulders and squeezing in a hug.

"You're a true friend. I'm so grateful to have met you."

Kallian patted Solona's back awkwardly until the mage got the hint and let her go. "I'm grateful you met me too." She smiled crookedly at the slightly confused look Solona shot her, so continued. "Without you, I'd prolly be in Tevinter right 'bout now, bendin' over backwards fer some Magister an' jabbering away in their foul language."

Solona nodded solemnly, just another reason that she would be glad to be done with Mouse and have no more need of blood magic. In the end, power corrupted those who had obtained it. She couldn't stomach the thought of enslaving countless numbers of elves for her own desires, but it had become normal in Tevinter. Would the blood magic make her begin to think like a Magister? She would rather not find out. "Let's go, then. I wouldn't want to linger here any longer than I had to." Fumbling in her cloak, Solona pulled out the red strip of fabric that Kallian had given her so long ago and tied her hair back with it, trusting in the marker to keep them out of any further danger between here and the noble quarter.

Secrets, secrets, they're no fun,
Unless you share with everyone!

But, with someone already onto her little game, how long can Solona hope to keep the secret from Aedan? OH THE SUSPENSE! IT KILLS YOU, DOESN'T IT?

As always, tell me what you think of my depravity~!