Author's Note: I meant to get this out before the holidays, but things just kept getting in the way. Apologies for the long wait! Thank you all for the kind comments, and a very warm welcome to new readers! I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 75 - Entering the Alienage

It was nearly a week before Samuell's letter arrived at Eamon's estate, instructing them to head to the guard station posted outside the Alienage's high walls. Satinalia had passed with relative ease. Denerim was in high spirits for the holiday, with people openly drinking and kissing in the streets. Dance halls through the city had filled to the brim with friends and happy couples.

Serena and her companions had frequented the same tavern as they had for her birthday, everyone exchanging gifts, except Sten, of course, who claimed the Qunari had no such traditions, and he wasn't about to start the pointless trade of meaningless gifts now. Serena found it interesting that he didn't reject any of the gifts the others got him, though.

"So, he's gone now? Gone to Ostagar?" Alim's voice pulled Serena from her thoughts of Satinalia and back into the present. "How am I supposed to... you know... finish things?"

"He'll be back, Alim," Serena said softly. "Besides, we have no darkspawn blood to complete the ritual. Though at least we have a bit of the archdemon now... Well, an archdemon, anyway."

She and Alistair had taken Alim with them to the Grey Warden vault the day before as they had practically raided the cache there. Inside a small chest they'd found a vial filled with dark, almost black, blood. Presumably, it was the blood from the archdemon who had begun the last Blight. A small ticket had been in the leather case with the vial that simply read "Andoral" in a neat script.

With a little research, and a short visit with Brother Genitivi, they'd found out Andoral had been the God of Slaves, also called the Dragon of Chains, and had been the archdemon who had been tainted and led the 4th Blight over four hundred years previously. Alim had been delighted to learn that the archdemon had been slayed by an elf named Garahel. "There's hope for me yet, then," he'd joked to Alistair.

Other than the archdemon blood, they'd found Duncan's shield, which Serena had promptly gifted to Alistair as an early birthday present. His gratitude towards the gift had nearly driven him to tears, and as it was, he'd pulled Serena into a bone-crushing hug.

Looking over, Serena saw he proudly displayed Duncan's shield, with the Grey Warden insignia emblazoned across the front, as they marched to the gate of the Alienage. Samuell was leading their group, which was as motley and highly conspicuous crew as always, past the city guard who nodded stiffly at them as they passed.

"He's a friend," the dark haired guard muttered under his breath to Serena. "He also owes me a bit of coin after our last game of Alouette, so I called in this bit as a favor. Raygard won't say a word."

The outside of the gate was absolutely forbidding. Tall, dark planks of wood shot up twenty-five feet in the air, which were then sharpened to spikes. The inside, if it was possible, was even worse. Calling it squalor would be a kindness, as the houses the elves lived in were little more than hovels, shacks made of wood that had been thatched at the top. The only lightness that broke through were the brightly colored clothes set out to dry on lines drawn between houses.

Even now, she saw many of the elves were outside, working hard to repair roofs and mend small fences that ran across small front porches. It was in much poorer shape than the Highever Alienage, at least from what Serena had seen from the one time she'd been allowed within it's gates. The only thing that appeared the same was the large tree in the center, the branches of which rose up high, higher even than the spiked gates of the Alienage gates.

"That is the "tree of the people," I believe," Leliana whispered to her. "The vhenadahl."

"It's beautiful."

Leliana nodded solemnly, her eyes on the thick dark leaves. "They are always beautiful. In every alienage I have visited, even the ones where the vhenadahl is not so well tended, it is magnificent."

"We're not going to be mobbed, right?" Alistair's voice carried just slightly through the group, and Serena saw Alim roll his eyes. "That's not something elves do here? Mob people?"

"Only when it suits us, shem," Kallian said testily, her eyes narrowed at the large blonde.

"Try not to offend further, my dear friend Alistair," Zevran added, his face a twin of Alim's.

"My father's house is just up this way," Kallian murmured, her annoyance with Alistair momentarily forgotten as relief flooded her delicate features.

"Kallian, wait-" Soris said, grabbing after his cousin. "The place looks..."

"It's been looted!" the blonde elf cried. "The whole place... it's..." Kallian slipped into a side room, her relief quickly shifting to frantic worry. "Father? Are you in here? Father!"

"It happened during the purge, after the wedding." A dark haired elf was leaning in the door way, his eyes catching Soris', who nodded gravely. "My house was nearly set aflame."

Soris gestured to the newcomer. "This is Andarion, one of our cousins and a neighbor."

"Where's my father?" Kallian said, wrapping the dark haired elf in a quick hug. "Tell me he's alright! They didn't take him, did they?"

"Depends on which 'they' you mean," Andarion replied. "It's a plague, brought on by the Blight, or so they say. I've seen a few sick people, but I don't know how bad it really is." There was a careless shrug. "There are mages, from Tevinter supposedly, here helping to treat it. Shianni is out there now, shouting at them."

"So my father's sick?"

"If any of them are, then yes." Again, there was the casual shrug, as if life in the Alienage was rough, and these hardships were to be expected. The silence wore on for a solid minute before Serena headed back towards the door, a deep frown marring her face.

"This bodes well," Alim said quietly, falling into step beside Morrigan as they crossed the Alienage, heading for the area Andarion had mentioned.

"I have never heard of a plague brought on by the Blight when one was not actually exposed to the darkspawn," Morrigan replied. "Blight sickness... it occurs of course, but only in those who touch the darkspawn, or get their blood on them." She smiled. "Or in them."

"That's disgusting."

The witch snorted. "It's the nature of the beast."

"I've got children at home, I can't wait out here for another day!"

A large group of elves stood milling about outside of one of the larger structures in the Alienage. Many women were among them, and Alim could see Serena with Kallian as they made a straight shot for a pale faced woman with bright hair. Kallian was mouthing something to Serena, who nodded in agreement to whatever the elf was saying, her head jerking towards a gruff looking mage who was openly frowning at the group.

"So go home! The best thing you can do for your children is not trust these charlatans!" The elven woman with flaming red hair shouted from the center of the group suddenly. "What do we even know about their supposed magic?"

"Everyone, remain calm." The rough human mage with a neatly trimmed beard stepped forward then, his eyes scanning the agitated crowd. "We'll try to help as many as we can today, so long as we can do this in an orderly fashion."

"Ohhh, you're helping us, are you, shem?" The accusatory tone was unmistakable. "Like Valendrian and my uncle Cyrion? Like you helped them, didn't you? Helped them never to be seen again!"

"Cyrion is Kallian's father," Alim murmured, his eyes on the elves who were watching Serena move forward with Kallian. "So he has been taken..."

Morrigan frowned. "But is it by this so-called plague, I wonder?"

"We've explained this to you before, girl! More whining will not persuade us to let you into the quarantine so you can carry more plague back out to the alienage."

"Quit trying to get us all killed, Shianni!" another elf snapped, pushing slightly at the red haired woman. "Some of us still have things to live for!"

"Ha! If this spell of theirs works, why are half the people they quarantine perfectly healthy?" With a dark look, the ginger haired Shianni turned on Serena, her eyes flashing angrily. "What's wrong, shem? Get bored and decide to watch some elves die of plague?" There was a dangerous flash of teeth before the woman's eyes flicked to the side. "Wait, Kallian?"

"Shianni!" The blonde wrapped her arms around her cousin, the two women clinging tightly to one another. "This is Serena. She and her friends helped Soris and I escape from Howe's dungeons..."

"I thought you were both dead... I hadn't dared hope..." Shianni grasped at her cousin once again, tears glistening unshed in her eyes. "What of the others?"

Kallian shook her head. "We couldn't, we... how did you-?"

"That mage... the dark haired one that was staying with Merylith? He came with Nelaros and the others. I barely got out, and not before... I... it... doesn't matter." Shianni shook herself, as if pushing off a terrible memory. Alim felt his insides squirm at the implication. Of course they hadn't reached her in time... "These foreigners say they're here to help with our outbreak of plague... Funny thing, though, Kallian. All the people they 'help'... well, they just seem to disappear."

"My father among them," Kallian whispered.

"He wasn't sick, though," Shianni insisted. "There's something going on here, they just won't let anyone in..."

Serena surveyed the building, her eyes resting on the large barred doors. "And this is the quarantined area?"

Shianni glanced over her shoulder at the imposing structure. "It's the largest building in the Alienage, so they converted it into a quarantine zone for the plague victims. It's supposedly an infirmary, too, to cure them with their spell." She said the last bit with a thick layer of sarcasm.

Wynne stepped forward. "Did they mention where the plague started from?"

"From the Blight, you know, coming up from the south." Shianni shrugged. "That's what they say, anyway. People started getting it after the refugees showed up from Ostagar, so I guess that makes sense." Another shrug. "These men from Tevinter say their magic will prevent people from catching it. But it doesn't work if you're already ill. So they set up a quarantine."

"Sounds more like a hospice to me," Alim murmured.

"And I've never heard of any spell that could protect from Blight sickness," Morrigan added, her yellow eyes hooded.

"See? And some of the elves they quarantined weren't even sick!" Shianni pursed her lips in agitation, throwing the large building another distrustful look. "One of them was our hahren, Valendrian. I don't know what we're going to do if we don't get him back."

"Is your hahren like a Keeper?" Serena asked.

"Keepers are mages, really," Kallian replied. "But they are the leaders of the Dalish tribes, and Valendrian... he is the leader of this Alienage, and our voice to the outside world. Without him, we are mute."

"So we'll take a look around, and see if we can't get Valendrian and the others out then," Serena managed.

Shianni scoffed, as if Serena were being purposefully foolhardy. Though Alim had to admit she was often... inordinately optimistic, things did always seem work out one way or another for her. He thought back to their adventures in the Deep Roads, and how if he honestly thought about it, they should all be dead. "If it were that easy to get in, I'd have done myself already."

"Through the back then?"

There was a long pause, where the outspoken elven woman appeared thoughtful. "There is another entrance in the alley... There's no crowd watching, no mages, and only one guard." She shrugged. "You could try it, at least." She lowered her voice, leaning in towards Serena and Kallian. "Be careful though. Those guards mean business." With a final nod to the group, Shianni drifted away again. Alim thought perhaps she would try to keep up the attention in the front, to ease their time in sneaking in the back.

Quickly enough however, Alim saw Serena realized their group was far too large to move stealthily throughout the Alienage without attracting a lot of attention. Scrutinizing the group carefully, and with more than a little bit of insistence on Kallian's part, she decided to bring Alim, Wynne, Kallian and Zevran in her group to scout out the quarantined building while Alistair and his group would attempt to enter through another building on the opposite side.

Sten would stand guard outside, acting as one terrifying lookout and making sure no one came in after them once Kallian had bribed the elven guard who originally took the post with a bit of coin.

"I could have just put him to sleep, you know," Alim whispered, twiddling his fingers. "It's a simple spell. Then you wouldn't have lost that coin."

Kallian smiled fiercely, tapping her coin purse lightly. The coins inside, though considerably less now, jangled softly. "Thought you ought to save your hocus pocus for the inside situation, assuming there is one. Besides, that coin was stolen off that wretch of a human, Vaughan, so I have no qualms giving it away."

"If you took it off Vaughan, it's probably tainted anyway," Serena muttered. One of her hair pins was out as she worked it in the lock. The guard had taken their coin, but he had refused to open the door for them. "That man, what little I knew of him, was nearly as bad as Howe." Her voice dropped conspiratorially. "Given time, perhaps..."

"Did you take anything of that swine?" Kallian asked. "I would have looted everything not bolted down. Even his fillings wouldn't be safe."

Serena shrugged, her fingers still working the tumblers of the seemingly complicated lock. Alim contemplated offering to freeze the lock to help, but thought maybe she enjoyed doing things with her hands. Serena appeared to have some nervous energy she needed to burn off. "Fergus and I... we took his life, and avenged our parents. That's enough, I think."

"For now," Wynne added archly.

At that, Serena shot her a look Alim would have quelled under, her blue eyes were so icy and sharp in that moment. Ever the teacher, Wynne simply held her gaze steadily, one delicate white eyebrow raised. The two women stood there for a long moment, the challenge, the accusation, was unmistakable. The three elves stood slightly apart, two wearing faces of varying degrees of shock or surprise. Zevran, however, was frowning, her own amber eyes narrowed at the white haired mage.

Serena's voice was lower when she spoke next, barely a whisper. "He's gone. It's finished."

"As long as it doesn't come up at some inopportune time, Serena. Emotions are tricky things, almost like spells, really, and I mean only to caution you-"

Zevran's frowned deepened, and he stepped forward, between the two women. One hand was held out, a gesture clearing saying stop. "It's done, Wynne." Serena sent Zevran a grateful smile and the two, with Kallian, slipped into the now unlocked door, weapons out.

"I did not mean to imply she would-" Wynne began again.

Alim placed a hand on her arm, squeezing it, though not necessarily what he would consider in a reassuring way. "I would not venture to explain to Serena what you may have meant to imply, Wynne. She is dealing with quite a lot right now, not to mention we have a plague to get to the bottom of."

"You are... you are right. Thank you, Alim."

"Anytime." Alim gave a quick nod of his spiky head before slipping into the building after the others.