Aedan and Zevran arrived back at Arl Eamon's estate with Alistair in tow. Once out of the Fort, no one had paid them any special attention for which they were all greatful. If anyone had stopped them, it would have been likely that Aedan would have killed first and asked questions later, his mood being so foul.

Upon returning Alistair received a mixed welcome, mostly happy, and drinking in celebration had been mentioned more than once, though very loudly and very insistently from the redheaded dwarf. Aedan left them to their revelry, wanting no part of anything that remotely smacked of happy.

Now that the Warden's companions had been returned, he was eager to get back home and start figuring out how to find Solona. Hearing that she had been captured by the blood mage at the estate only had one up side: she was not being handed over to the Chantry or Templars.

He was trying to convince himself that the woman they had met in Howe's estate was just an exceptionally strong blood mage that he had picked up somewhere as a mercenary. But despite any arguments he made to that effect it was too hard to fool himself into believing such an improbability and quell his own fears. The mage hadn't summoned shades or demons. She had struck Solona down with mind magic, and in all of their dealings with the Denerim Apostates, he had yet to see any other blood mages best Solona. Furthermore, she had put Alistair out of commission with hardly a flick of her fingers, and knowing that Alistair had legitimate Templar training only served to make him more uneasy. If the woman was one of the Imperium slavers that they had been fighting, then Solona could be on a ship in the blink of the eye and whisked out of his reach just as fast.

So wrapped up in his thoughts, Aedan didn't even notice that Keran had left his side, or that the dog had returned with Fergus in tow. Before Aedan could make good on escaping the estate, Fergus clapped a hand on his brother's shoulder, concern in his eyes when Aedan whirled around, obviously surprised.

"I take it from your glum expression that not everything went as planned."

The statement elicited a bitter chuckle from Aedan who now more than ever wanted to be out on the streets. The walls of the estate felt too confining. "Well, the good news is that we saved Maric's bastard." He replied grimly, turning away from Fergus and opening the door into the courtyard. He took a few steps out and stared up at the sky, hands on his hips. "The bad news is that I found Ser Gilmore and Mother Mallol. They were tortured to death and left to rot. They might have been the source of those testimonies for our father's betrayal."

Fergus uttered a quick prayer to the Maker to guide their unfortunate souls to his side. "And Solona?"

What little composure he had gathered cracked. "Gone." Fergus' face fell and he began trying to think of some sort of comforting statement that would suffice when Aedan spoke again. "Alistair said she was taken by a blood mage."

A great gust of a sigh left Fergus. "It's just one problem after another, isn't it?" He asked of no one in particular, then lay a gentle hand on Aedan's shoulder. "But she's not dead, so there is hope."

"How can you stand it?" Aedan asked abruptly, his anger quickly being swamped in a rush of hopelessness. "With her gone."

Fergus needed no clarification, his gaze gone distant as he studied the clouds moving over Denerim, the silence stretching for a long time. "It is a struggle." He admitted finally, tearing his gaze from the silent skies to meet Aedan's gaze. "Not a moment goes by that I don't think of her. But sitting on my arse and feeling sorry for myself wouldn't make her happy." He nodded his head toward the drawn portcullis and began walking, Aedan following closely at his side. "We can only keep moving forward. As I have done since Ostagar, and as you have done since Howe razed our home. We can't go back and change what has been done, so there is only moving ahead. That's what keeps me going."

Silence elapsed between the brothers again as they navigated the Denerim streets, Keran trotting along ahead to stick his nose in interesting corners and returned to lick Aedan's hand occasionally. They had left the market distract when Fergus spoke up. "You love her."

Aedan seemed startled to hear him say that, but once recovered from his shock a half-hearted chuckle escaped him. "Is it that obvious?"

"Blindingly." Fergus replied with a hint of amusement coloring his tone. "I'm sorry for not trusting your judgement." Aedan's quizzical look prompted Fergus to elaborate. "About your mage. I'll admit that she's grown on me, and after all of this…" He gestured vaguely at the air. "I've seen what she means to you, and what you mean to her, even if the both of you are being pigheadedly stubborn about the whole thing. You're lucky to have found each other."

Aedan was sure he was gaping. He wasn't hearing what he was hearing. There was simply no way. "Fergus…?"

"If this Blight has taught me anything, it is that we have to appreciate what we are given. A pretty girl like that who's single and loves you despite you being a short-tempered little blighter isn't an opportunity to be missed, mage or otherwise." Fergus' soft grin turned cheeky. "So when you find that lass again, you ask her to bear your sons and don't take no for an answer!"

Despite his melancholy Aedan couldn't help but to burst out laughing. He could only imagine the shocked look on Solona's face if he were to blurt that out and the deeply satisfied smug look that Kallian would no doubt be wearing if she were anywhere in earshot.

"Ah, that's the sound of my little brother." Fergus grinned, giving Aedan a hearty pat on the back. "Where have you been?"

"At the bottom of a well." Aedan replied with a grin in return. He was more grateful than words could express that Fergus had managed to puncture the veil of gloom that had been suffocating him and affectionately punched him in the arm. "Thank you."

Fergus shrugged. It was no big deal to him. "Now, we've a mage to find. Where do we start looking?"

"Kallian." Aedan replied immediately, hoping the redhead would be easy enough to find. "Her Knifers have been monitoring the city for months, always on the lookout for Tevinters. If Solona is in their hands like I think she is, someone will have noticed."

•º•.•º•

The front of the estate was a mess.

Soldiers bearing the crest of Highever were milling about in front, collecting bodies. The ones that belonged to the now-deceased Arl Howe looked more like pincushions than people, arrows sticking out of every available slot in their armor. They were being piled on a wagon that was already full of armored bodies to be carted to the Chantry and given final rites. The few dead of the Highever lot were being laid out carefully in a separate wagon, though the defenders had suffered far less casualties. The front gate had been bashed in, evidence of a wooden ram left in the middle of the street by the fleeing opposition.

The grim faces of the soldiers didn't even turn up to acknowledge Kallian, entrenched as they were in their own matters. To her surprise, she saw a handful of her elves among the soldiers, picking up bodies and salvaging arrows where they could. The elves greeted her with much relief and she shook a number of hands and patted many backs before she could enter the estate itself. When she stepped through the door, it was to find Sticker and his brother Elai waiting for her in the foyer, talking together quietly but stopped the second that they noticed her. Never a good sign.

"Kallian, there's an elf here. Claims to be your cousin…" Sticker trailed off, looking her over and was obviously surprised to see her covered in blood splatters. Even more surprising was seeing one of her wrist markers gone, exposing the scars on her wrists. "So you really did it? Stormed the castle? Again?"

A grin was his only answer. "Where's Soris?"

"Rebecca got a hold of him." Sticker replied with a small smile. "He's in one of the guest rooms being coddled. How long was he in the dungeons?"

"Near a year." She replied sadly and started walking, Sticker and Elai falling in behind her as she went. "He came to rescue me after Vaughn took us to the estate. He's a brave fool who didn't deserve what he got. He's a hero."

"About that…" Elai's voice was squeaky with nerves, his fingers twisting together. Sticker gave him an encouraging nudge and the young boy took a steadying breath. "There's uhm… well, rumors I guess and uh… well, you see…"

"The people of the Alienage apparently blame you and your cousins for the Purge." Sticker finished for his brother, the younger boy clearly afraid to deliver the message himself.

That brought Kallian up short, and Elai very nearly ran straight into her back. She whirled on the two, disbelief and anger on her face. "They blame me?" She hissed, her anger starting to win out over her disbelief. "It wasn't even Vaughn that ordered the damn Purge! It was bloody Howe!"

"When the soldiers came…" Elai piped up quietly, his gaze on the floor. "They said that we were being punished because of what happened to the Arl's estate. To teach us our place."

If Kallian had something in her hand, she would have thrown it right then. Instead, she quietly seethed for a moment, remembering the terrified look on Vaughn's face as he died and that went a long way to soothing her bruised pride. She calmed herself with a deep breath and relaxed the tenseness from her shoulders with a force of willpower. "I'll settle that if we ever get back in the Alienage. How did we fare during the raid just now?"

"Fine." Sticker replied with a self-satisfied grin. "The walls around the estate apparently aren't for show. I had anyone with a bow on the wall raining down arrows on their bloody heads. By the time that they managed to break down the gate, the Highever boys were more than ready to handle it. They turned tail and ran after the beating they got inside the gate."

Kallian sniffed in approval and pat Sticker on his newly recovered shoulder, his collarbone finally healed after their little escapade in the warehouse once Solona had seen to him. "Good man. Now, I'm gonna go save my cousin from the housekeeper." The three parted ways and Kallian headed immediately to the guest rooms, eager to see Sorris. He wasn't hard to find. She had just entered the guest room wing of the estate when Rebecca came out of one of the rooms, a bowl in her hands.

"Now you get some rest." The woman admonished, wagging her finger at the occupant of the room. "You'll never get better if you don't sleep." Rebecca closed the door behind her and looked up to see Kallian, her face softening. "Hello dear. I'm glad to see you back safely. The boys, are they-?"

"Safe." Kallian replied with a tight smile. She couldn't imagine referring to Aedan and his bear of a brother Fergus as 'boys' herself, but supposed that the housekeeper had known the two Couslands since they were swaddled. "They're storming Fort Drakon right now though, I believe."

Rebecca's face went white as a sheet. "Maker's mercy!" She hissed and looked like she might faint. Kallian mentally condemned herself to the Void for finding it amusing that the housekeeper was so easily flustered. "I'm going to go… pray…" She left Kallian to herself, walking on wobbly knees back toward the main foyer.

Shaking her head, Kallian opened the door that Rebecca had just closed and poked her head in to see Soris hidden under a mountain of blankets and pillows. She smiled when he perked up at seeing her, lifting his face from his cushy feathery trappings. "I see yer livin' it up in here." She said and let herself in the room.

"Not by choice, I assure you." Soris replied with a grin and managed to sit himself up in bed. "You've made some strange friends, cousin."

"Tch! You can say that again!" Kallian laughed with a snort, moving over to Soris' side and sitting on the edge of the bed. "But seriously, I'm glad yer alright." She mumbled more quietly, reaching out and taking his hand, gripping it in her own. "I'm sorry that I couldn't come an' get you sooner, Soris."

"It's alright, Kallian." His smile was small, but honest. "I'm grateful that you got me out at all. Shianni will be glad to see us both."

Kallian tried to ignore the way that her heart squeezed painfully at the mention of her other cousin, wondering if she was going to be one of the missing that they never had a chance to save. "Yeah. She'll probably have us all go drink ourselves stupid. Maker knows I need a break."

Soris chuckled at that, grinning and knowing it was true. "I never thought I'd miss Shianni's swill, but I do. I just hope that…" His gaze dropped to the covers, his silence stretching for a moment. "I hope that it's not all gone when we get back."

"It'll all be there." Kallian replied, trying to convince herself that she wasn't blatantly lying. "The Alienage has faced worse. We'll go back, an' everyone'll be pissed, and it'll be like old times."

His answering smile was a ghost of what it was meant to be, and Kallian couldn't blame him for trying to put on a brave face. "I hope you're right."

"I will be, don't worry. But fer now you should concentrate on sleepin'. Rebecca will have my head if I keep you from gettin' better." Kallian stood and gave Soris' hand one final squeeze before letting go. "I'll see you in the mornin'. If you need anythin', just call." She turned and headed for the door, intent on finding some busy work to keep her mind off of how the adventure through Fort Drakon might be going.

"Kallian."

Soris' voice stopped her up short and she paused with her hand on the door frame, looking at him over her shoulder. Soris held up the red marker that she'd given him earlier. "This is yours."

"No, keep it." She replied with a wave of her hand. "You're part of the Knifers now. We look out for our own."

He nodded and tucked the scrap of cloth back into his pocket from whence it came and settled back on the bed. "Thank you Kallian, for always being the strong one."

"Don't mention it." She had to try hard to keep the bitterness out of her smile and closed the door behind her gently went she walked out into the hall, leaning against the wall behind her for support. That was her all right, always the one leading the charge and shouldering the majority of the burdens. She was the strong one. But in moments like these, sometimes she just wanted to not be the one that had to hold it together.

She indulged in a moment of self-pity, then straightened and walked purposefully down the hall and toward the main foyer, intent on getting a full report of the attack and doing a headcount to assess the casualties.

When Aedan and Fergus arrived some time later, Kallian was not eager to hear what they had to say. Neither of them looked particularly jovial, and Solona was not tagging along behind them. The news that she had been taken by the woman back at the estate who was possibly a Tevinter blood mage made her instantly go into panic mode and she spent the next half hour organizing a man-hunt utilizing the entire force of elves she had at her disposal capable of the task. Once she had dished out patrol orders and was preparing to go on her own route, Aedan pulled her aside, looking just as worried as she was.

"What do you want me to do?" He asked, for it had not escaped his notice that she had not given him a particular task to do.

"Keep your ear to the ground." Kallian replied in short clipped tones, shrugging into her sword harness and inspecting her blades for damage before sheathing them with practiced motions. "You an' your brother can listen in on circles of conversation that we can't. The last cell of slavers we wiped out was workin' fer Howe. If this one's got ties to nobility too, then you're the only guy I've got that can pry out that information."

Aedan barely restrained his urge to argue. He wanted to be out on the streets searching high and low as well. Kallian apparently saw this and paused in her preparations to look him in the eye. "Look, if I hear anythin' about where they've got her, you're the first guy I'm tellin', alright? Ammy's one of the Knifers, and we don't let slavers take our people, not without a fight. We'll find her, and we'll gut that witch an' all her cronies. Until then, you hang tight an' do yer job."

With a sigh, Aedan nodded his head, seeing the sense in her words even if he didn't like it one bit. "You keep safe, Kallian."

"You too." She punched him gently in the shoulder then was off, heading out the main door with the rest of her people to begin the hunt.

H'okay guys, if you're reading this, chances are that I'm on a car trip heading back home for the new years. Happy 2013 to everyone, and I'm glad that the world didn't end.

So, going to deviate a little from the Origin's plot here. It doesn't make sense to me that the Alienage would immediately just crack open once all the Howe business is settled. I'd figure that in the absence of something new to do, the Denerim soldiers would keep doing their assigned task until given different orders. So, the Alienage stays closed for a little while, but not very long, I assure you.