Everyone with an inkling towards magic felt suffocated with the evil magic from the dark ritual.
"I can sense Hawke this way!" Merrill exclaimed as she led them through the corridors, killing everyone in their way.
They appeared outside a dome and what was happening inside made them all feel sick as they watched Flemeth rape some man. They could feel the dark magic coming from inside.
"We're too late," Morrigan murmured.
Familiar magic washed over Merrill and her head turned. "I just felt Hawke's magic!"
They followed Merrill as she led the way again, into a side room of the dome. Killing the many darkspawn in the way, they burst into the room and found them.
"Hawke!"
"Donna!"
Grabbing their friends, they rushed out. The moment they were out of the mirror, Merrill shattered it beyond repair.
Merrill, Morrigan, Wynne and Anders worked together to heal their damaged friends. Merrill and Morrigan had to work on Donna due to the blood magic within her and Wynne and Anders made quick work of the severed arteries. Anders was kicked out after so they could change and examine them.
"Your friend is...pregnant," Merrill said to Morrigan.
"No, she was," Morrigan answered as she concentrated on trying to heal the damage her womanhood took.
"No, she still is. It's a miracle!"
Morrigan looked at her strangely before allowing her magic to check on Donna's womb and indeed, a baby was healing and growing inside her stomach. Morrigan's eyes widened in surprise.
"What...does this mean?" She wondered.
Leliana, Isabela and Aveline entered with clothes and chose to stay with them. After several hours of examining and treating, the females all exited the tent.
"Well?" Alistair asked.
The females looked at each other with mixed emotions.
"It's not very good news."
"Can I at least see her?"
"Alistair, please," Wynne began. "You must wait. She looks a little different and I think it would be easier if you knew exactly what happened before you see her, so as to prepare you."
"What about Hawke?" Fenris asked.
Morrigan shook her head. "She too has changed but she will awaken soon."
"All we can do is head back to Denerim and allow them to sleep."
The trip back was mostly silent. The men carried the women's stretchers that were like little carriages, covering them from the elements.
About a day away from Denerim, Zevran thought he heard a gasp come from Hawke's tent.
"Hey, hold on a moment," he called.
Everyone stopped to look at him as he shouldered Donna's stretcher into a more comfortable position.
"What's the matter, Zevran?" Leliana asked.
"I think I heard something from Hawke's tent."
Carver, Anders, Sebastian and Fenris lowered Hawke while Zevran, Sten, Shale and Alistair lowered Donna's.
"Hawke, are you awake?" Aveline asked.
"A-Aveline?" They heard a voice croak.
"Set up camp," Alistair ordered and they got to work.
Hawke was helped out of the carriage and she closed her eyes to the bright sunlight. Tears ran down her face.
It was silent as she tried to recollect herself.
"I-I'm so s-sorry," she gasped between her sobs.
Aveline, Merrill and Isabela hugged her and she broke into more sobs, clinging to them.
"I didn't think we were going to make it!" She cried.
"You both almost didn't," Isabela stated.
Hawke looked up at her in shock. "Both?"
"There was only you and Donna, Hawke," Anders stated.
"But...Dominic..."
"There was no one else, Hawke," Aveline told her.
"Could you tell us what happened?" Alistair asked. "Only you know and they won't let me see my wife until I know what happened."
Hawke took a seat near the unlit camp fire.
"I don't know where to begin," she whispered.
"Start with your story," Fenris said. "For those first couple of months you were gone, I thought you had abandoned me."
Hawke looked offended. "Fenris, how could you think such a thing of me? I love you!"
Fenris looked guilty. "I know. I just, I'm always afraid you'll realise you deserve better and up and leave me."
Hawke touched his hand. "I'd never."
Fenris offered her a smile.
"My story is almost exactly the same as Donna's. I went to leave my cabin and the next thing I know, I'm in the middle of an arena to become part of a death tournament."
"Death tournament?" Alistair asked.
"It's exactly what it sounds like, Alistair," Morrigan rolled her eyes.
Hawke nodded. "Wave upon wave of enemies came for me and I just had to keep fighting. It was coming to the end of the second month there and I couldn't do it. I knew I'd die if I didn't do something."
She looked at Fenris sadly. "I'm sorry, Fenris. I'll understand if you never want to be near me again."
"What are you talking about?"
"I...I started to use blood magic."
Fenris pulled his hand away from her as he stood from his place beside her. Surprisingly, it was Alistair that forced him back down next to her.
"No, you will not pull away from her for turning to blood magic," Alistair snapped. "She was fighting for her life day after day. It's no wonder she used blood magic. You will not turn her away."
Fenris didn't get up again but neither did he take her hand. Hawke took that as the end of their relationship but pushed it back as she continued to recall her time in the Eluvian.
"After, it wasn't long until I met Donna. We had made the finals," she said, words dripping with disdain. "Donna and I were to be paired to verse the last warriors."
"Let me guess," Zevran started. "You won, yes?"
"With ease," Hawke smirked sadly. "We made the perfect team."
Then she shook with terror as she remembered what came after.
"But I wish we hadn't won."
Everyone listened intently.
"The moment I saw the interaction between Flemeth and Donna, I knew that Flemeth despised her."
"After we won, she brought many darkspawn to take us down and down we went. When we woke up, we were chained. I was strung up like a sacrificial virgin and Donna was..."
The tears started again.
"Donna was chained down to a table, naked and vulnerable."
Everyone tensed.
"Flemeth came in with the darkspawn and they...they..."
"Please don't tell us they..." Leliana couldn't finish.
Hawke sagged in her place as she nodded.
"She begged me not to watch. To close my eyes."
Alistair stood and paced.
"I did as she asked but couldn't stop myself from hearing them as...as they..."
She gulped.
"Raped her."
Alistair threw his shield with a vicious cry. He threw it with such force it stabbed into a tree and stayed there.
He stomped off and Hawke couldn't bring herself to continue.
"Perhaps you should try and get some more rest, Hawke," Wynne stated.
"Will Alistair be alright?" She asked.
"He needs time to accept what happened. I think we all do."
When Hawke awoke from her light rest, the sun was beginning to set. She got up again and Leliana gathered everyone up again.
Alistair stood a bit away from everyone else for some semblance of privacy to deal with whatever news was to come.
"The next day," Hawke continued. "Dominic was there and he covered her. I was glad that I didn't get to see. I had knocked myself out so as not to hear it."
"As I hung there, I came up with a plan to contact Morrigan through Dominic."
"That was when you fainted?" Wynne asked Morrigan who nodded.
"I explained what was happening and I think she knew what was going to happen."
"I knew from what you'd tell me that my son was going to die."
"Well, we had no clue what was going to happen to us. For a month after the first time, Donna was raped and we were tortured. I was constantly bled almost dry and they filled my system with Fire Lily Essence. Instead of slowly breaking my system down with the corrosive liquid, my body accepted it as blood."
Holding out her hand, it became engulfed in flames. "This is what I was rewarded for my pain."
"And Donna?" Wynne asked.
"Donna had Lyrium forced into her blood for a fighting chance. At the time, I had no idea what that meant. All I knew was that she was like Fenris. His markings light up when he uses them but Donna's was in her system. You can see her veins through her skin, though they are a silvery blue but they stand out on her dark skin. Whenever she felt strong emotions, they lit up and caused her pain so she practiced schooling her emotions, though it never worked. She's an expressive person."
"After that month, Flemeth came to us and told us Donna was pregnant. That was what the Lyrium was for."
"Pregnant with a darkspawn baby!?" Alistair growled lowly.
"The torture didn't stop but she made more of an effort to shelter Dominic from what was happening to her. She'd tell him stories of his mother and their fight against the Blight. She'd sing Leliana's song to him like a lullaby and many times, it would put us to ease. When she'd sing, it was easy to forget about everything."
"But then we reached the third month, the month Donna's baby was technically alive."
"She chained me up like before and chained Donna to the ground. Dominic stayed by Donna, like a protective son. Flemeth used her blood to paint a circle of symbols around Donna before she stabbed me in the legs and gathered my blood to paint another circle out on the arena."
"We saw it," Zevran spoke seriously. "As we entered, we saw."
Hawke nodded. "Donna knew it was the end and that Flemeth intended to kill us. We watched as she forced herself on the man in the arena and we didn't see when the Hurlock grabbed Dominic."
She started choking on sobs again.
"He became like a nephew to me as Donna became a sister. The Hurlock grabbed him and when the man climaxed in Flemeth, the Hurlock stabbed him in the chest with the dagger."
Morrigan clenched her fists angrily and the women felt appalled that a young boy was killed.
"It tossed him like a ragdoll. Donna was hysterical as she reached for him but the Hurlock turned on her next. I watched, horrified, as it drove the dagger repeatedly into her stomach to kill the baby inside her as a sacrifice."
Leliana broke into sobs as the horrific truth shook them all to the core.
"Donna bled out and the Hurlock left with the dagger to give to Flemeth. She grabbed Dominic and pulled him to her and weakly started singing again as they lay there dying. I was...so angry, so upset that something inside me snapped and suddenly I was on fire yet not burning. I melted my chains and killed the darkspawn in the room before falling to lie with them. I cried for not being strong enough to do anything as we all bled to death. Then suddenly, the circle lit up and I used my blood magic to try and close her wound before I fainted."
"That's when we found you."
"Oh my," Morrigan gasped. "Hawke, you're a genius! Do you know what you have done!?"
Everyone turned to her.
"No?"
"You saved Dominic's spirit! Before his spirit left his body to go to Flemeth, your blood mixing with Donna's dead infant and it gave Dominic a link to the baby. That explains why the baby is alive."
"Donna's baby is alive!?" Hawke gasped.
"Yes. That means she holds Dominic's soul, untainted while Flemeth holds just an evil spirit."
"Alistair, how do you feel about this?" Wynne asked.
"I'd like to see my wife."
"There's something I think you should know first," Hawke spoke. "She became a sister to me while we there and on that last night, she revealed to us something. She was...going to leave you that morning when you saw her go."
Everyone looked at her in shock.
"What? She told you she was going to...leave me?" Alistair asked.
"She loved you enough to leave. She knew Ferelden needed an heir and she couldn't give you that. Even though you always stood by her, she felt like you blamed her and she blamed herself. She felt as if you probably never even wanted the marriage in the first place so she was going to simply disappear."
No one moved. No one said a thing. Then she looked up and glared at Alistair who had no idea what to do or say.
"But you will not leave her behind," she hissed. "Donna is broken so badly and she loves you with all her heart. How many women can you say would willingly turn away the title of queen simply because they felt it was right for their husband and country? She wanted me or Dominic, whoever lived, to tell you that she loved you if she never made it and if you even think of letting her go, I will castrate you so there will be no heirs to ever be born."
"At any rate, I don't think Donna will wake up," Morrigan spoke. "From what I saw, there was a high chance that the taint will keep her locked inside her own body."
"Then, what are we supposed to do?" Anders asked.
"Andraste's ashes!" Leliana exclaimed, causing a few to jump.
"What are you talking about?" Fenris asked.
"The Urn of Sacred Ashes is myth," Sebastian continued.
"Tell that to Donna who touched them herself."
"She touched the ashes?" Anders asked, amazed.
"How do you think the Arl of Redcliffe recovered? We found the ashes and were allowed to take a pinch. We used that to revive Arl Eamon."
"Then what are we waiting for?"