He woke with a start, gasping for breath and clutching at his arm. There was no pain, for it seemed that wounds accumulated in the Fade didn't transfer over to the waking plane. The realization had him disoriented, so it took a handful of seconds to notice that everything in the room was bathed in soft crimson light. Aedan looked up to see Kallian stirring from where she'd collapsed, groaning with a hand on her head like she had a headache. On the bed above them, Solona still appeared to be asleep, but that wasn't what had Aedan on his feet and reaching for his sword, despite the fact that he'd come into the room without one.

Blood was suspended in the air above the mage, the red liquid moving slowly like plants underwater, swaying back and forth under the pressure of invisible waves. Kallian stood, speechless as she watched the spectacle, entirely unsure what was going to happen next. The magic seemed to react to their confusion, the soft crimson glow suddenly becoming a violent red and both Kallian and Aedan felt as something pulled at them. Kallian, weaker than the warrior very nearly collapsed as her energy was drained from her, her limbs shaking and suddenly becoming incredibly lethargic. Aedan held her steady, the tugging sensation increasing as his vitality drained away.

The magic quieted as suddenly as it had gone berserk, the glow dimming and the blood simply seemed to disappear, fading in a wisp of magic. Solona woke immediately afterwards, sitting up with a look of panic on her face, her breath coming quickly and clutching at the sheets twisted around her body. With the slowness of someone waking from a long sleep, she looked over at Aedan and Kallian, her face paling visibly. "You were really there…"

"You're a blood mage." It wasn't a question, it was an accusation. The light from Solona's magic faded from the room, leaving them in the darkness, but there was no mistaking the livid expression Aedan bore.

If it were possible, Solona's face would have gone even paler. As it was, she swayed unsteadily. Despite having absorbed power from Aedan and Kallian's blood, she was still weak from her battle in the Fade against Mouse.

"Now hold on Basher-" Kallian stepped forward to intercept anything that Aedan might do to the mage, but he instantly turned his ire on the elf, in no mood to hear excuses.

"Don't call me that!" He allowed his glare to cow Kallian into submission; the elf finding that any retort she had planned was terribly out of place when compared to the anger that had suddenly gripped the warrior, and for once she was silent. Once that was taken care of, he settled his roiling glare on Solona, the mage looking small and frightened where she sat on the bed. "That's what this has all been about? Your nightmares, that… that demon because of blood magic?"

"I never wanted this!" Solona cried out desperately, trying in vain to make him see the truth of it. She knew that he would react this way, knew that there were only a handful of outcomes once he found out. And she was too weak to make any sort of escape attempt. Just thinking of trying to stand made her head swim. "Not the blood magic, not Mouse, nothing!"

"You honestly think I'll believe that?" Aedan scoffed, spreading his hands. "The Templars were right. All apostates become blood mages in the end. How long has it been Solona? How long have you been manipulating my mind, or Kallian's?"

"I wouldn't!" Her heart was breaking at the accusations lobbied at her. "I couldn't, not to you or Kallian, or anyone-" She felt her head spinning with exhaustion, and the next words that Aedan yelled at her were lost in the dull roar that filled her head. All at once, the world went dark and she knew no more.

•º•.•º•

She found him easily enough, for the warrior hadn't exactly made himself scarce, and if he really wanted to keep a master of lock picks out of his room, then he would have made it harder to unlock. When Kallian walked into his room, Aedan was standing with his forearm propped against the mantle of the unlit fireplace, staring at the blackened stone in moody silence.

He made no sign that he heard her forced entry, so she closed the door behind her with an audible click, then rested her back against the wall near the door. Still he didn't turn to look and see whom it was, so Kallian sighed heavily and folded her arms across her chest. "You're an idiot."

Aedan tensed visibly at the jab, but still made no move to turn and face her. "Insults are not what I need from you right now Kallian." His voice was low and hard, projecting a nearly physical aura that clearly read 'go away,' but Kallian wasn't intimidated like she had been before. She'd recovered from their trip to the Fade and the draining magic somewhat, and now that she had everything sorted again her fiery personality was back in full swing. He was going to answer for throwing Solona in the dungeons, justified or not.

Instead of retreating she frowned, her brows drawing together and straightening a little in her relaxed pose propped up against the wall. "She did it to save us, y'know. To save you. We woulda been dead if she hadn't used blood magic to turn the tides."

"And how am I supposed to react to this?" His anger finally got the better of him, and Aedan turned on Kallian quickly. He looked angry and hurt, the two emotions warring strongly to gain control of his facial expression with neither quite able to dominate. His hands fisted and the knuckles turned white, meeting Kallian's bored gaze for only a handful of seconds before averting to the floor as he collected himself once more. When next Aedan spoke it with was with a more controlled tone, though tinged still with heartache. "I've been harboring a blood mage this entire time… I should have seen the signs. I knew that she'd helped that friend of hers escape from the Circle, I should have been more suspicious, but I took her words at face value. We've fought blood mages. You and I both know how dangerous and unpredictable that power can be…" He made to turn away from Kallian, raising a helpless hand in a gesture of defeat. "The Chantry-"

"The Chantry?" Kallian hissed in disbelief, an eyebrow rising in stark curiosity. She snorted, drawing away from the wall and let her hands rest on her hips, Aedan looking at her over his shoulder with a wary glare. "Since when'd you develop a sense of morals that the Chantry would approve of? You're planin' the murder of a Teyrn, an' you've been defyin' the Chantry ever since you met Solona. As I've heard it told, you got the blood of several Templars on your hands, so don't pretend that you weren't a willin' participant." He looked like he wanted to argue still, so she decided that it was time to lay down the gloves. If he wanted to be stubborn, then she could be stubborn too. "She's been a blood mage since you two went an' faced the Templars in the Brecilian."

He looked truly shocked to hear that bit of information, going completely still save for the widening of his eyes. "What?"

Kallian laughed humorlessly, shaking her head. "Yeah. She figured that she was gonna die, that you'd die for her along the way, so she used blood magic to get rid of those Templars. She hated it though, said she never wanted to have to use it again, an' since she was free, didn't figure she'd have to. Then that thrice-damned demon came along an' everythin' went pear-shaped."

He stiffened at the reminder, the battle with the fell Fade beast still freshly raw in his mind since waking up from the blood-magic induced sleep a little more than half an hour ago. He had always wondered what it was Solona had seen in her dreams when she would wake screaming, and now he knew. At least the damned thing was dead.

"Point is, she was afraid of loosin' to him an' figured that blood magic was her only way out. She didn't want to hurt any of us, so it was defeat the demon or leave. She picked winnin' over runnin' an' so started practicin' in earnest. I caught her one night. When I saw what she was doin', I was gonna run for it an' tell somebody. You first, maybe the Templars if I came across 'em. She saw me though, an' could have killed me with a thought." Kallian tapped her temple, a solemn look on her face. "But she didn't. She looked like she wanted to crawl away an' never be seen again. She told me that if I was planin' to turn her in, she wouldn't stop me. That if I was scared an' wanted to run, she wouldn't chase me. I could've got away, but I wanted to know why she'd do it. Why she'd take to performin' demon magic. After what she felt, an' knowing what the Tevinters did with blood magic, I had to know why anybody would want to go that way.

"Then she told me about her dreams. How Mouse an' his crony would try an' use her desire for freedom an' life to corrupt her and take over her body. She wanted to be free of that, an' knew that blood magic was the only way to make her strong enough to take 'em both on and win. If that were the only way to stop the dreams, then she'd do it." Kallian paused, her expression going soft in place of the heavy glare that she'd been pinning to the side of Aedan's face as he listened to her go on. "She loves you."

The quiet confession seemed to jolt Aedan into having emotions again, and his brow furrowed when he dared to meet Kallian's eyes. "She can't…"

"Oh, she can, an' she does." Kallian shrugged, watching Aedan carefully as the man tried to sort out his own feelings upon hearing that the mage he had locked away was utterly enamored with him. "In fact, I'd say she's completely around the bend for you. But she knows that there's nothin' to be had. After all, you're noble born, not some common Templar that she can seduce an' pretend to love." He looked back down at the floor, fists clenching silently. Kallian took a step forward and made a helpless gesture. "The Desire demon knew. It took your form an' promised that the two of you could be together if she would let Mouse inhabit her body. The demon promised that not even the Chantry or any law would be able to separate you with the power that the demons could give her. Mouse had you dancin' fer him in five seconds, an' you turned on her easy, but she held out for you. She didn't want those empty promises. All she wanted was to stay by your side an' protect you, even if that meant that you could never be more than friends. But now, she can't even have that." Kallian was satisfied to see that Aedan was looking quite miserable now, but couldn't resist adding another nail to the coffin.

Turning, she opened the door and stood with one foot on the threshold, ready to leave. "As you said, you've been harborin' a blood mage this whole time…" She gave him a second to absorb the words, then looked over her shoulder at him, noting that his gaze was still unwaveringly focused on the floor, dark brown hair falling into his eyes. "Solona hasn't changed, Aedan. You just know all her secrets now." With her final blow delivered, Kallian left the room and closed the door behind her, leaving Aedan alone with his sullen thoughts.

•º•.•º•

Solona wasn't sure how long she'd been asleep for, but it appeared that she had been unconscious long enough to be transported to a dungeon. At first she wasn't sure where she was, the dark stone unfamiliar to her, but decided that she was either in the cells in the Highever estate or had been taken somewhere else as equally as damning. There were bars over the window above her head, the tiny space letting in enough light so that it wasn't completely dark in her cell. Sitting up on her cot, Solona put her back to the wall and folded her knees to her chest; despair welling up in her soul.

So, this was finally it, huh? The gaping hole in her heart had started causing an unrelenting ache beneath her breastbone, growing with the darkness as the minuets dragged by in the night. Just when she thought that finally, finally there would be no more ties or bindings to hold her back, there was always one more thing. She cursed vehemently and swatted at the tears gathering on her cheeks. Damn that she had been born a mage. Damn Mouse for being so persistent, and damn herself for ever giving into him even just that once.

Everything was just backwards and wrong. Why was it that things only went bad when she thought that everything was settled and done with? It was stupid. Everything was stupid. She wanted to let her magic ripple out and simply blow out the dungeon's walls, but at the same time just wanted to crawl under a rock and die. The stricken look on Aedan's face when they awoke from the blood-magic induced voyage to the Fade and he realized what had happened… She nearly choked on a sob as her heart clenched in grief and she had to delve deep within herself to find a sense of calm again.

"It will go away." She whispered, drawing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around her shins. "All wounds fade with time…" Wisdom, for all of its perks really had its downfalls sometimes. She didn't want to have to wait for this incessant ache to go away. Maybe it would be better to ask to become Tranquil when the Templars finally came for her. Then at the very least the pain in her heart would only be a distant memory, not this aching thing that consumed her. And what of Kallian? The elf had accepted her blood magic as part of her. Would she still be so trusting after the mayhem that Solona had brought her into during the life-and-death struggle against Mouse? Doing so had been a completely accident, but what else could she accidentally do? She could frighten herself with that thought.

She was well and truly alone now. There was nobody here to comfort her. Nobody at the Circle would want anything to do with a confirmed blood mage, but that was assuming that most of them were even still alive. How many of her friends had died of Uldred's madness? And now the friends she had managed to make outside of the Circle were lost to her as well, in a different way though seemingly as permanent as the mass slaughter of the Circle. There was nothing for her in Ferelden. Perhaps if given the chance to flee she could head north and try and charter a ship to another country. Perhaps Antiva, or the Free Marches? That was assuming that she could or even wanted to get out of this prison, or away from the Templars when they came for her.

The screeching of a door opening on badly oiled hinges dragged her out of her sullen line of thought, looking through the barred door that lead into the hallway beyond. There was another cell directly across from her, and as far as she could tell, two more on either side of her prison. The small confining space was sectioned off from the rest to the building by a heavy metal-bound wooden door that was black in the gloom, light spilling in from a fire around the cracks and edges. Warily, Solona got to her feet and wrapped her hands loosely around the bars to try and get a look at what was going on. The heavy wood and metal door swung open, a familiar silhouette standing there clearly defined against the unsteady light of a wall torch. She stepped away from her cell door, eyes instantly beginning to tear up even as panic clenched at her heart.

Aedan left the door open behind him when he walked in, a small torch he had lit in one hand. Once he was in front of the cell that he'd put Solona in, he put the torch in a nearby slot on the wall, examining the girl through the bars. She was staring at him fearfully, hugging herself against the chill of the dungeons in only her night shift that was splattered with drops of her own blood, a wealth of sadness in her face. It tugged at his heart to see her so, but he took a deep steadying breath and steeled his resolve. "I've called the Templars." He announced in a soft voice. "They should be here fairly soon."

He had expected her to cry, or become angry at him. Maybe even lash out at him for his betrayal and bring the whole castle crumbling down with her magic. Instead, Solona simply stared at him for a long moment, her eyes searching his face. "I understand."

"Why?" Solona blinked at his question, obviously confused by it, but Aedan was just as confused as she was. There were any number of ways he could expand on the question. Why was she so calm about this? Why wasn't she spitting in rage or pleading for a second chance? Instead, he simply elaborated as best he could, making up some inane question on the fly, though he already knew the answer. "The blood magic, why?"

She felt tears prick the back of her eyes. After taking a calming deep breath, Solona unwaveringly met his gaze and lifted her chin. "The blood magic was the only thing I ever kept from you. I've never lied about anything else… My time at the Circle, my hand in Jowan's escape… I didn't lie about it."

"But why blood magic?" His voice was carefully neutral, his stance and expression even more so. "I want an honest answer."

Solona's gaze dropped to a point somewhere around Aedan's shins, collecting her thoughts silently and trying not to let the panic and sadness well up and stop her from being able to speak entirely. "To live. I didn't want to die, and I didn't want you to die on my behalf either. The Templars… they would have killed us, even if they thought that you were only a blood thrall of mine. After all you'd done for me, I couldn't let them kill you. It would… have been poor thanks to let you die when it was me that they were perusing."

"Don't you enjoy the power that it gives you?" Her gaze snapped up to Aedan's face, a stricken look of disgust on her face when she met his soft stare. "It's just you and me down here. Won't you use your magic to escape?"

"Never. These powers mark me as something almost worse than an abomination. If we weren't about to have been killed, I would never have used it." She clenched her fist, remembering with a bitter taste how the consciousness of the Templars had flagged beneath the power of her spell and felt as one by one their lives were extinguished. The feeling made her skin crawl.

"But you want to live, don't you?" He asked, his voice still deceptively gentle, almost as if he were encouraging her to use her bloody magic on him. "The Templars will kill you when they come to get you. They won't let a blood mage live in the Circle tower and corrupt the others."

What did he come here for? It made her sick to even think of tapping into her magic and simply making him retreat or controlling his mind. The magic may have stained her soul, but she refused to scar it further by turning on a friend. "I can't hurt you." She whispered, trembling at the thought that Aedan would truly hand her over to the Templars. Blinking back tears, she looked up once more, wearing her heart on her sleeve. "I could never harm you, even if it were to avoid death. You are-" Her voice seized, cut off by the welling lump in her throat. She hated the thought that she couldn't resist the inevitable, but even more she hated the thought of becoming precisely what the Chantry said all blood mages were. She would not turn on him. Never on him. "You are a dear friend."

Aedan saw the struggle warring on her face, the utter defeat that seemed to settle over her slumped shoulders and downturned face. And then the damnedest thing happened.

The jangle of keys being withdrawn from a pocket could be heard rebounding off of the stone walls. With wide eyes, Solona watched as Aedan unlocked her cell and let it swing open, then he simply replaced the key on a loop of his belt. "I believe you." He whispered into the silence that had fallen, meeting Solona's unbelieving stare unflinchingly. "I'm sorry that I ever doubted you, and more sorry that I had to trick you. There are no Templars. You're free to leave if you wish. I couldn't keep you here against your will if you hated me for this. I hope that perhaps someday, you would be able to forgive me."

She wanted to cry, to hug him, or maybe punch him for leading her on like that. A part of her thought he was still leading her on, that he was only saying such things to get her to come along quietly, that he would turn on her once she submitted. "Do you?" She mumbled into the silence, standing resolutely still and making no move to cross the threshold between freedom and her cage. "Do you really believe me? Do you really trust me? Please, don't lie to spare my feelings. No more… no more lies. I don't want to lie to you anymore."

"I would trust you with my life." Aedan replied with all the honesty he could muster, and could see the profound effect it had on Solona, the woman's eyes immediately filling with tears that tracked freely down her face. She sniffled once, then became possessed with her overflowing emotions and leapt forward, wrapping her arms firmly around his chest, her small form trembling with relieved laughter. He returned her embrace without hesitation, squeezing her gently as relief washed over him. Kallian had been right. Solona really hadn't changed. The only difference was that he knew now. Knew beyond a shadow of a doubt of the shape of her character and somewhere in the depths of his imprisoned feelings there was a stirring.

He could trust.

AN: This drama is so worthy of highschool. Aedan knows that Solona loves him, but Solona doesn't know that Aedan knows, and Kallian knows everything because she's a sneaky, sneaky rat like that… Come on, you really believe that she didn't have her stealth talent activated and was totally just standing right outside the door? Oh dear, oh my, what next? Will I ever let you hard-core shippers have your way, or will I be content to let you wallow in an unfulfilled romance setting? I shall be waiting eagerly to hear what you have to say about this latest development~!

PS The new summary is courtesy of smashbrawlguy. I held a contest over at deviantArt because it's against the rules to hold one here, and he won. So, round of applause! *claps enthusiastically*