A report said they'd managed to open a tunnel to the red templar's reported location. Ruya gathered her people and prepared to head out.

Sera traipsed along behind Dorian, occasionally poking him with one of her arrows. She laughed gleefully.

Dorian turned to glare. "Something particularly funny?"

"You. And Bull." Sera cackled. Ruya nearly stumbled over her own feet.

He started to sputter. "I-I'm glad it amuses you, but what I get from my affairs is my affair."

"I know what you get." Sera poked him again. "It's like falling through a tree into custard." Her gestures left unfortunately all too little to the imagination. "Too high! Wham! Too fast! Wham! Leaves! Wham! Splat!"

"I'm not sure which is worse, the mockery or the accuracy."

"Leaves," Cole said in a dreamy voice.

"Leaves?" Varric raised an eyebrow.

Iron Bull just shrugged. "Eh, depends how much rest the trees had."

"Oh for..." Ruya shook her head and kept walking.

#

Clearing out the remaining red templars gave them control of a hidden dock. Leliana was going to be thrilled. They'd have to notify the King, but he'd been reasonable enough thus far. And it had been his agent that had given them the information.

They returned to the Crossroads camp to find an impromptu tournament occurring. She raised an eyebrow at Cullen. He shook his head. "Some of the chevaliers that joined us derided the Order of Vigilance as a bunch of sheepherders. The Silver Order took great offense." He gestured. "This was Warden Sigrun's idea. Prize is some armor she claims was made from the shell of a fire-golem."

"A fire golem?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Anders told me about that once," Varric said. "Thought he was bullshitting me."

"Is Warden Sigrun here?" Ruya raised an eyebrow. "I'd like a chance to talk to her."

Cullen led her to a dwarven woman with facial tattoos that vaguely resembled a skull. She was quite happily divesting several Inquisition soldiers of their pay with a deck of cards. "Ser Alec is making mincemeat of your forces, Commander." She snickered. "Someone should have told the Orlesians just how dangerous Ferelden sheep are."

"Warden Sigrun?"

"Pull up a rock, Inquisitor." Sigrun shuffled the deck.

"You served under Jerath Tabris in the battle of Amaranthine, and encountered the Architect and the Messenger."

"The talking darkspawn." Sigrun dealt. "You know, if the Messenger hadn't been a darkspawn, he'd have almost been a likable fellow. Darkspawn are tough, but they just sort of swing wild. Messenger fought like a soldier. It's not the talking part that's the problem, it's the thinking part."

Ruya nodded. "So why did Jerath let it go?"

"He told it if it fought alongside us in Amaranthine, he'd show it mercy. And damn, the Messenger fought." Sigrun shrugged.

"Why did he let the Architect go?"

Sigrun shuffled the cards again slowly. "He didn't."

Ruya blinked. "But..."

"Sorry, let me clarify. The Commander saw an asset. An enemy he could use to deal with a greater threat. Reckon your Inquisition's done the same thing a couple times. Like that magister fellow with the mages."

Slowly, Ruya nodded. "I think I see your point." She shook her head. "Not the choice I would have made, but I wasn't there."

"I was. He wasn't happy about it either. But the Architect kept his end of the bargain. Even healed us up after the fight, so we could get back to dig out the Vigil."

"Any other information you could provide would be helpful."

"You want to know why he vanished?" Sigrun shrugged. "You and everyone else. Skyhunter always figured he'd picked up a trail, and he'd be back when he was done hunting."

"Consensus seems to be he's dead."

Sigrun snorted. "Doubt it. Him or Loghain. You watch, one day you're going to be sealing a rift and Loghain's going to step out of it, all cranky and wondering why Ferelden hasn't conquered the world yet."

"You think Jerath Tabris is still alive?"

"You find a giant crater somewhere a mountain used to be? A leveled forest? I'll grant a slight possibility something could kill him, but no way in hell that boy goes quiet. The guy leveled a thaig full of harvester golems by himself, Inquisitor. Then walked back to Orzammar to set the High King down hard. Stone, he was a sixteen year old elf could make hunger demons run like hell. How many templars do you know walk into the Fade and kick the shit out of demons on their own turf?"

"One, but she's technically a Seeker." Ruya shook her head. After a few years, it wasn't all that surprising to learn that the stories had grown. The Warden might not have had Varric's help to exaggerate the tales, but the man had put down two Blights. "Tell me about the other Wardens."

Sigrun shrugged, and launched into several equally unbelievable stories. Most of the information matched what Brehan had already given her. Ruya sighed, and started to say a farewell. "Hey Inquisitor?"

"Yes?"

"You were there, right, when Loghain..."

"He was a brave man. You were friends?"

"We wrote each other regular. Visited him in Orlais a couple times."

"What more can you tell me about him?"

"Damn good general. Liked dropping by and visiting the mabari. Was really put out that Jerath wouldn't marry Anora. Trained most of the Silver Order's old guard." Sigrun shrugged. "And for a grumpy fellow he was a hell of a lot of fun in bed."

Ruya choked.

#

"Inquisitor?"

Ruya glanced over at Kels. "Yes?"

"Cullen asked to speak with you. He said there is a problem."

#

Ruya walked into Caer Bronach, flanked by Cullen and Iron Bull. Cassandra and Varric followed. Charter was waiting for them, her eyes huge. "Inquisitor."

"Fill me in."

"We were down in the tunnels. We stopped at one of the waystations and found him rummaging through one of our drops. He saluted, said 'hi. I'm Carver Hawke. You wanted to talk to me?' Came along quietly." She shrugged. "Orders were to capture, bring him in alive and if possible unharmed. Seems he knew that. We tried backtracking to figure out how he'd gotten in there, but couldn't find a trail."

"And the problem?" Ruya raised an eyebrow.

"The Queen has people in Crestwood. They must have notified Denerim."

She nodded, and then glanced back at where Varric was standing. "Think you can talk him down?"

"That..." Varric hesitated. "Depends on a lot of factors, Inquisitor."

#

They entered the cell to find Hawke, Lenore, Zevran, and Fenris standing between the cell door and two rather intimidated looking Inquisition soldiers. The cell contained a dark haired young man wearing Warden armor. Ruya blinked. He hadn't even been trying to be inconspicuous.

"Inquisitor. Lovely to see you again." Hawke gave her a nod, but didn't budge from his position.

"Inquisitor, Carver is a Warden. If he is to be arrested, he should be remanded to Warden custody." Lenore folded her arms.

"Warden-Commander Saitada gave me leave to arrest both Carver Hawke and Nathaniel Howe," Ruya replied. "Hawke, we aren't..."

"That's my little brother we are talking about." Hawke narrowed his eyes. "And I'm not particularly inclined to let him be questioned by seekers or qunari."

"Hawke..." Varric tried to say. "Nobody is going to hurt Carver."

"They've got him in chains, Varric." Hawke started to take a step forward. Cullen shifted position, and Ruya saw fire start to appear around Hawke's hands. She started to throw up a barrier.

There was a pulse of energy through the room and her spell vanished, as did the magic Hawke was calling. "I think that's quite enough of that." Carver stood at the cell door. He gestured with his shackled hands. "It's Cullen, brother. Remember how you two are friends? You didn't repeatedly save his ass from demons and giant bronze spiders just to set him on fire now."

Ruya blinked. "You're a templar."

"I'm a Warden." He shrugged. "Maybe everyone should take a few minutes to calm down?"

#

Despite her repeated assurances that she meant Carver no harm, Lenore and Hawke were disinclined to budge on the subject of letting Iron Bull and Cassandra question the prisoner. And taking those two into custody wasn't going to do wonders for their relationship with Ferelden.

"Alright." Ruya held up her hands. "Hawke, I'm willing to let you remain in the room while we question him. Is that fair enough?"

"As long as when you're done questioning him, he gets to come home with me." Hawke folded his arms.

"A lot of that is going to depend on what answers he gives." Ruya sighed. "Hawke, for all we know, he's been compromised by Corypheus."

"Inquisitor, if that were the case, you'd have a lot more dead soldiers." Lenore narrowed her eyes. "And Carver is a templar. That spell didn't work on Alistair because Alistair is a templar."

"We can decide what to do with him after we learn where he has been the past few years." Ruya sighed.

"Let's get one thing clear, Inquisitor." Hawke lowered his head belligerently. "The only one allowed to kick my brother's ass is me."

#

Carver was sitting in one of the cells. Ruya gave permission for his shackles to be removed. He'd been cooperative enough thus far, and they needed answers.

"Carver." Hawke strode forward.

"Gabriel." It actually took Ruya a moment to realize Carver was addressing his brother. She'd never heard anyone use the man's first name before. It was somewhat surprising to learn he had one. "Court mage of Ferelden. Not bad."

Ruya folded her arms. "Everyone has had a few moments to calm down. We have some questions for you."

He nodded. "I'm sure you do, but that's not why I'm here. For some things, a letter just won't do." Carver grinned, and then looked at his brother. "You're going to be an uncle."

Hawke's jaw dropped. It took him three tries to respond. "You and Merrill..."

"Daisy's gonna..." Varric said almost simultaneously.

Carver nodded. "She's due midsummer." He laughed softly. "If it's a boy, she wants to name him Varric."

"That's..." Varric couldn't get the words out. Tears were actually leaking out of the man's eyes.

Hawke ruffled his friend's hair. "You're going to talk her out of that, right?" He grunted when Varric elbowed him.

Ruya exchanged a look with Cassandra, and then turned back to Carver. "You are saying you let us capture you because you wanted to talk to your brother?"

"No. If it had just been that, I'd have just snuck into Denerim. Needed to tell Varric too, and Skyhold is a bit harder to get into."

She shook her head at him. "Where have you been doing the last couple years?"

"Helping Merrill train her griffin. You would not believe how much those things eat. And fishing is right out. There is nothing as pathetic as a wet griffin."

"Griffins." She took a breath. "What else have you been up to?"

"Let's see..." Carver considered a moment. "Joined a cult, went to where wolves pray, hunted down a couple ancient magisters, found an eighth archdemon, saved Aveline from Qunari, saved a bunch of folks from demons and abominations, located every Ben-Hassrath agent in Thedas, visited the Fade a lot, got possessed a couple times, robbed some Orlesians, rescued my brother, raided Seheron, tried to teach Divine Lollipop some tricks and failed miserably, rescued my brother again, attacked some Venatori, blew things up, and killed darkspawn. Did those last two a lot. And simultaneously. Oh, and I got married. Going to be a daddy soon."

Hawke turned to glare at Varric. "You have been a very bad influence on him."

"Hey, Carver was a pain in the ass long before I ever met him."

Cassandra glared. "Do you know why the Warden Commander disappeared?"

"You're going to have to be more specific. Which Warden Commander?"

"Jerath Tabris."

"Which time?"

Ruya blinked. "What do you mean which time?"

"Well he had to go play bodyguard for Flemeth a couple times. She's something of an annoyance, what with the whole 'I can see the future' and 'look at me, I can turn into a dragon' things."

Cassandra made a disgusted noise. "I would prefer not to have to do this, but we can see if you are more cooperative after a few days of no lyrium."

Carver shrugged. "Never touch the stuff, personally. It tastes like electricity."

"I am starting to note a very distinct family resemblance," Zevran said.

#

"Any suggestions on how to get your brother more cooperative without having to resort to unpleasant methods?" Ruya glanced around the room.

"I hate to say it, but that was Carver being cooperative." Hawke paced the room.

Fenris tilted his head. "Did he say he got married?"

Varric's eyes widened. "He did."

Hawke stopped pacing. "They got married and didn't invite us?"

"That hurts my feelings." Fenris frowned. "Why does that hurt my feelings?"

"Head or gut?"

"At the very least, I think that deserves one of each." Varric folded his arms. "Maybe a crossbow bolt to the ass." Then he smiled and started getting choked up again. "She wants to name a boy after me."

"If we could get this conversation back on track, please." Ruya tapped her foot. "We need to know who the others in the tunnel were, and what they were doing down there." She glanced over her shoulder. "Cullen, have Charter send a team down to search the area again."

"At once, Inquisitor."

"Is ordering him around any fun?" Lenore asked. "I mean, you get to boss around templars. I bet it's fun."

"Especially in the bedroom," Hawke added. "Think we should tell him she's a mage? It took him five years to figure out I was one."

"We are going to have to break it to him gently. That, and where babies come from."

"Can we..." Ruya gritted her teeth as she felt her cheeks redden again. "Yes, you are definitely all related."

#

They walked into the cell in the morning to find Iron Bull and the two Inquisition soldiers left on guard sitting in the cell and Carver nowhere to be seen. Ruya blinked. "What..." She looked around. "Happened?"

Iron Bull glared. "We were talking, and then..."

"We woke up in here." The guard swallowed.

"And the Warden was gone." Iron Bull kicked the wall.

#

"Thoughts?"

"I should be annoyed, but I'm having too much trouble not being proud."

"Varric, you aren't helping." Ruya glared at him.

"Come on, Inquisitor."

"He has a point," Lenore added.

Ruya sighed, and glanced at Iron Bull. "Get Brehan here, and see if he can pick up the trail. Stick with him. When you find Carver, bring him to Skyhold."

"On it, boss."

Hawke glanced at Zevran. "Ten gold on Carver."

"I have seen Brehan track. I will take that bet."

"I think I will too."

Hawke glared at Lenore. "You would bet against family?"

"Seen Brehan track. He's like a tattooed bloodhound. He once tracked Jerath across half the Deep Roads by scent."