"Cullen?"

He looked up from where he'd been sitting with his head in his hands, and leaned back, folding his arms. "Lenore."

She walked over and pulled out a chair to sit across from him. "Talk to me."

"I'm fine."

"And I'm a virgin." She shook her head at him. "Cullen..." She sighed. "I have known you since you were a gangly thirteen year old with massive feet and hair that wouldn't stay out of his eyes." She brushed her own hair out of her face. Her voice was quiet. "I've seen you at your worst. And I know there is no way you ever gave your son less than your best."

"He was so busy reassuring me about his staff that he didn't tell me he had a fiancé." He swallowed. "Maker, Lenore. We were such wonderful parents Fen'Harel had to step in."

"Or you were such an inspiration the Mangy Mutt was finally moved to actually fix something he broke." Lenore shook her head, and then a smile came to her face. "I've got a hundred gold says Gavren kicked your ass at chess."

"Two games out of three." He felt himself start to smile.

"According to the guy at the first tavern they stayed at, he also picks the onions out of his soup." She leaned forward and very lightly whacked him upside the head. "What kind of father teaches his son it's okay to dislike onions?"

"It's not the flavor..."

"It's the texture, yeah yeah, I've heard your excuses before." She smiled, and then it slowly faded. "I sent Agatha to Kirkwall to represent House Brosca. And I'm scared shitless that's what she thinks she's doing right now. That she thinks she has anything to prove to..." She swallowed. "Here we are. You're worried you're a lousy father because your son is a mage, and I'm worried I'm a lousy mother because my daughter isn't."

"It sounds..." He looked down at the ground and laughed softly. "Pretty stupid when you put it that way."

#

"I'm..." Leliana stared at the crystal in her hand. "Going to need you to repeat that."

"No, you aren't." Brehan's voice came back over.

"Naked, hands and feet bound, hopping down the road with rabbit ears glued to his head?" She looked up at the faces of the others in the room. Most of them were staring at Dorian, who was staring at the crystal in her hand. "Did he say why?"

"You should sit down."

"I am sitting."

"Liar." She heard him take a deep breath. "Apparently, they 'overreacted' to his description of his contact. For reasons he cannot fathom, three of them took special exception when he mentioned his contact was..." Brehan's voice imitated a Tevinter accent. "'A product of miscegenation that had managed to overcome that disability.'"

Dorian winced. "And he..."

"I'm not done." Brehan's voice sounded like he was having trouble not laughing. "He went on to say that he felt very slighted that they would judge him for disapproving of the 'mixing of the species'. He assured us he was very open minded, and cited the fact that he believed Magister Pavus to be an exemplary person despite his openly indulging in his own 'unnatural urges'. Did I mention he was explaining this to Hawke and Fenris, in a room that also contained Lenore, Zevran, Carver, Sera, and myself?"

"How badly am I going to pay for this later?" Dorian asked. Iron Bull patted him on the back in a comforting gesture.

"Zevran has started you a tab." There was a murmur from the crystal that she couldn't quite make out, and she heard Brehan assure someone he was getting to that. "A bit later, after Cullen had sent the various Amells and Sera to their respective rooms, Magister Adralicus apologized and said he should have remembered he was in the south. Then he helpfully informed me that there was actually a rumor that the White Divine herself had an elven lover."

"Wow, Songbird. I imagine that came as something of a shock to you." Iron Bull barely managed to get the words out. Leliana rolled her eyes.

"In any case, we know from him that all of the kids are alive and in good shape. Though he is concerned about the mental well-being of Kels. Apparently he's prone to unexplained fits of hysteria." There was another murmur, and Brehan hushed someone. "He claims the kids were discussing whether to head to the University of Orlais or the Circle in Minrathous when they left him behind. Except when we backtracked to where they'd left him, someone had left a scrap of paper with the word 'Hasmal' on it. Some of us are heading in on griffin-back and doing sweeps, the rest will follow on horses."

"I'll reach out to our contacts in Val Royeaux, just in case."

"Magister Arenda is doing the same in Minrathous. If nothing else, it will lay a false trail for whoever else might be looking for the kids at this point."

#

"Didn't we meet Magister Adralicus once?" Gavren looked down at Leandra.

"The name is vaguely familiar, but I'm pretty sure I'd remember encountering that walking disaster." She shook her head. "I can't figure out how he has lasted three years in the Magisterium."

"If he was a member of a group opposing you, wouldn't you try to keep him alive?"

"I..." Leandra frowned. "See your point, yes." She looked back up at him. "Are you okay?"

"I know better that to lose control like that." He sighed. "I could have killed people."

"You didn't know how much more adding Kieran's spell in was going to do."

"That's not an excuse. I shouldn't have opened up that much."

"Blood mages threw a fireball at your fiancé." She put an arm around his waist, and felt his arm go over her shoulders.

"Stop making light of it."

"Gavren, you can't go through life afraid of your own magic." She sighed. "You're the most over-controlled person I know." She pulled him closer. "And you didn't lose control today, even with an old god feeding your magic and a couple blood mages involved."

"Leandra..."

"You threw out force, not fire, and hit their spell." She glared up at him. "Or do you think La-la and I don't talk to each other?" She caught his neck and pulled him to her for a kiss. "You killed some bad guys. If it will make you feel better, I'll give you a good spanking later."

"Oh for..." He turned bright red.

She laughed. "You are such a Rutherford." They walked for a while before she let out a wistful sigh.

"What's wrong?"

"We were in a temple of Urthemiel..." She shook her head. "With Urthemiel. We should have had Kieran perform a wedding ceremony." She whacked him lightly in the belly. "It would have been awesome, with it all glowing like that and those statues fighting cultists everywhere. I mean, we even had the King of Ferelden to stand as a witness, and I so could have gotten Caleb to give me away. And I bet Kels would have stood up for you. Well, after he pointed out how your father would kill him for it."

"You are insane."

"I can't believe we missed that opportunity." She threw up her hands.

He caught her and spun her towards him before dipping her into a kiss. "Absolutely nuts."

#

"Dammit." Caleb saw the bolt miss the deer by almost a foot. The buck started to run, and an arrow caught it mid leap. It stumbled another couple steps before falling. "Show off."

Duncan smirked, and replaced his bow over his shoulder. "City boy."

"Says the guy who grew up in a palace." He sighed, and followed Duncan and Jerath towards where the deer had fallen.

"I was what..." He glanced over his shoulder at Jerath. "Ten?" He shrugged. "When Mother handed me over to Arlessa Lanaya for a month. She promptly handed us over to some of the hunters. Getting only piece of stale bread for dinner does a pretty fast job of teaching you not to miss."

Caleb chuckled, and glanced at Jerath. "You got dragged along for that too, I suppose?"

"Yes."

"The first night he saved some of his dinner and gave it to me. The next night they told him if he did it again he'd eat what I ate. The third night he ate stale bread." Duncan shrugged. "The fourth day I didn't miss." He gestured at the dead deer. "And he learned the proper way to gut a kill."

Jerath put a hand on Caleb's shoulder, and offered him a knife hilt first. "Which you will now be learning."

He took the knife, and sighed.

#

Kels made it two cycles before dropping one of the sticks again. "Dammit."

"It just takes practice." Agatha was currently juggling two rocks, a fork, a heel of stale bread, one of Salla's shoes, and a knife hilt, occasionally crisscrossing the items in front of her.

"Wait until she starts doing it with knives." Trian didn't look up from where he was idly carving slivers off a stick.

"Rather she do it while naked." Loghain called over.

"You first." Agatha waggled her eyebrows challengingly.

"Do not give him ideas." Kel immediately began shaking his head. He picked the sticks back up and started trying to imitate Agatha's movements again.

"What would be the point of juggling while naked?" Trian glanced over at Loghain.

"The part where the juggler is naked." Loghain shrugged. "Same as the point of naked singing, naked wrestling, and naked jousting."

Agatha dropped the shoe and the knife hilt. "Please tell me at no point in the future does naked jousting ever become a thing."

"What did I just say about giving him ideas?" Kels glared at her.

#

She half closed her eyes as she formed the barrier, feeling the Fade dance around it, vibrating in tune. "I can almost hear it."

"'Tis beautiful, yes?" Kieran stood behind her. He laid his hand on her arm, and she felt him twist the veil around her barrier just slightly.

Her eyes widened as the world around her seemed to spark into more intense clarity. He moved away to stand in front of her, smiling in challenge as he twirled his staff. She could feel the spell as it formed, and shifted the barrier almost instinctively in response. His spell struck it and bounced back, striking his barrier before fading away.

The barrier dropped as her concentration broke. "It sent it back." She shook her head. "It actually sent your spell back at you." She formed the barrier again, twisting the veil as he had done.

"Hold it steady." He twirled his staff again, and then twisted it in his hands. It separated into two pieces. The piece in his left hand resembled an axe, while the piece in his right resembled a sword. He struck out with the weapons as if moving through a drill. Each time the blade hit her barrier there was a spark as the energy from the blows were redirected back at him.

When he stepped back, she lowered the barrier. "Each time it reflected back, it was like..." She frowned. "Like it was coming back into my barrier as well, energizing me."

"Yes." He smiled. "Harmony, back and forth. Action reaction. Dirth'ena enasalin, dancing their way across the battlefield to the rhythm of the primal chaos. Listening, hearing the music and shifting the steps in time with the changing patterns, moving with the beat and flowing by instinct. Cathartic energy restoring the soul. Mi'sulahn, the song of the blades." He laid a hand on her arm once more. "Touch the barrier to me, shift, listen."

"It's..." She closed her eyes again. "Humming. Like wind over reeds and -" Something cut across the melody, wrecking the harmony. "Wait." She reopened her eyes. "Something hap -" Her eyes widened when he held up his hand, bleeding from where he'd cut it on the blade of his staff. "I sensed your injury through..." She smiled, and stepped forward, her fingers glowing white to heal the wound. "Through the barrier I put around you."

"You can shift further, counter the melody with your own notes."

"Heal..." She stared down at the vanishing wound. "Through a barrier?"

"Yes."

She smiled up at him. "Teach me."

#

Carver touched the reins of his griffin lightly, and Sulevin responded by starting a spiraling descent. She landed far enough away from the Seekers to not panic their horses, and he dismounted. Sulevin went towards the nearby river for a drink. Cassandra tossed the reins of her mount to one of the others before walking towards him. "Any sign?"

"A campsite a couple miles ahead had this." He handed her a whittled stick on which the Inquisition's sigil had been carved.

She nodded. "Good. He's leaving us a trail."

"They are using magic to cover their tracks."

"You are certain."

He shrugged. "Morrigan and Merrill each had a version of that spell, and one of the first things they did together was improve upon them. No way Kieran isn't an expert with it, and I've got ten gold says there was something similar on the list of spells Fen'Harel taught Gavren."

"Would one of the mages be able to pick up the residual traces?"

"That's one of the things they improved upon."

"Naturally." Cassandra folded her arms. "Not to mention Leandra is your daughter, and you managed to keep ahead of Brehan."

"He's with Greta, running low sweeps. Greta and Atisha are the most nimble pair we have. He spots a track, they'll land him on it." He rubbed the back of his neck. "There are clouds to the west. Flying in the rain is dangerous for the griffins."

"Head back to Hasmal. Do not risk your mounts."

"Good luck." He started to turn back towards Sulevin.

"Carver." He turned towards Cassandra. She sighed, and shook her head. Her eyes went to the mark on his cheek. "Loghain wears the same mark."

That did not surprise him in the least. He wasn't sure yet how he felt about the fact his own eldest child did not. It was something he had accepted without hesitation, but a small part of him was pleased it was not a burden she carried. "I saw."

"I need to..."

"Cassandra, if you needed to know, you would."

"Gavren is my best friend's son."

"And he's apparently engaged to my daughter." He frowned, and then narrowed his eyes. "You think Kieran is a threat to them."

"I..." She nodded. "Yes."

He looked down at his hands, and then shook his head. "And you aren't sure what side I'll take if it turns out you are right."

"Can you blame me?"

No. He couldn't. She didn't know, and couldn't understand. But he could give her what small comfort he could. "Leandra is my daughter, Cassandra." He met her eyes steadily. "Whatever else I am, I was a Hawke first. Remember that." He shrugged. "There is a good campsite another two miles up the road. Safe journey."

#

"He's turning various shades of purple, and the Commander is holding his clipboard in front of his face trying to block out the sight. Iron Bull just sort of sits up a bit and says 'oh, hey Cullen.'" Kels shook his head.

"I cannot believe they were having sex on the wartable." Caleb laughed.

"That thing is surprisingly comfortable." Leandra shrugged, and grinned. "And sturdy." Gavren immediately turned bright red.

Kels gaped. "Gavren!"

Gavren shook his head. "Oh, like you and Minaeve never..."

"We most certainly did not!" His eyes widened when Gavren and Leandra both grinned. "Oh, no. We didn't?"

"You've got two kids, Kels. I'm guessing you did a couple times."

"That's not what I..." Kels shook his head. "I very much regret starting this conversation."

Salla shook her head. "Isabela once tried to embarrass Papa by leaving one of her 'written dedications' where he could find it. He got it published."

"He did not." Trian stared.

"The Randy Dowager gave it four scarves." Caleb put a hand over his heart.

Kels winced. "Maker, I remember that. The Viscount made sure Seeker Pentaghast received an autographed copy."

"Who'd have thought my father would be the normal one of the family?" Leandra shrugged.

"You were conceived on the back of a griffin a mile above the ocean."

Leandra stared at Kieran. "How do you even know that?"

"They neglected to secure their clothing while in flight. Uncle Caronel memorialized the event in one of the murals he painted."

"You're telling me that on an island somewhere out in the middle of the ocean there is a painting of my parents having sex on the back of a griffin?"

"Yes."

Leandra folded her arms atop her knees, buried her head in them, and groaned as the others laughed.

"I'd tell Trian it's his turn to share a story, but I'm still working on figuring out how Warden-Commander Saitada is his father." Caleb shrugged.

"It's a dwarf thing. I'd share a story, but my parents are pretty much impossible to embarrass." Agatha shrugged. She grinned. "Though the time Mama walked in on a certain king and queen of Ferelden testing the weight limit on a chandelier was pretty funny."

Duncan choked on the bite he'd taken. Jerath hit him in the back, and he coughed a couple times before taking a drink from his canteen. "And I am now traumatized. Thank you for that."

"You're welcome." Agatha grinned. "So, Loghain, have you been caught?"

"By your mother or with your mother?"

Agatha dropped her bowl. "What?"

Duncan started laughing. "Loghain, if I could knight you again, I would."

#

It was approaching sunset when they got their first sight of Hasmal in the distance. "Camp or keep going?" Salla glanced back at her companions.

"Keep going." Caleb shrugged. "I'd wager we can be there by midnight, and asleep in a real bed ten minutes after that."

Jerath shook his head. "Waiting until morning would give us the chance -"

"Real beds."

"- to scout out -"

"Fresh sheets."

"- the area and make sure -"

"Hot baths."

"- we don't run -"

"Clean clothes."

"- into any -"

"Warm bread."

"- problems or -"

"Tall mug of beer"

"I'm going to have to side with Caleb on this one." Trian shrugged. "Beer is good."

"I could go for a beer."

"Yeah, I vote beer."

"I'm casting my vote for a change of clothes."

"I'm going to have to side with certain people taking baths."

Agatha shook her head. "Jerath has a point. None of us has even been to Hasmal before. We sure we want to arrive in the middle of the night?"

"I want my own room, at least four doors away from Trian's snoring."

Salla rolled her eyes at Kels before turning towards Jerath. "Sorry, I think you got outvoted."