Loghain headed down the alley. He ducked back behind some crates, and took a deep breath. Agatha would have intercepted the others before they got back to the inn, hopefully. The question was, where would she take them? He frowned, and then reached out. I could use a little help here. A tiny wisp glowed into existence, and then began moving to the east. He smiled. Thank you.

#

Agatha slipped back into the warehouse, carrying a basket. She set it down, and began passing out food. Duncan lay on a makeshift pallet, apparently still unconscious. Salla was sitting next to Jerath, wrapping bandages around his shoulder with the assistance of Kieran. Agatha carried the basket over, and offered Jerath some of the contents. "Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine." Jerath took an apple from the basket.

She nodded. "Our folks have everything we left at the inn. That gives us about twenty gold between us, and whatever else we happen to be carrying on us." She looked around.

"Which is not much after that fight." Trian shifted and winced. "Kels and I lost our shields, and Caleb's crossbow is busted." He glanced at Jerath. "My armor can be fixed, but yours is beyond what skill I've got."

"And we still need to rescue Loghain." Agatha nodded.

"Rescue Loghain?" Kels shook his head. "He's with your folks. He's the safest of all of us."

"Was it telling the truth?" Gavren stood up. He stared at Kieran. "Did that thing..." He clenched his fists. "Was it responsible for what my father went through?"

"I do not know." Kieran tilted his head. "It is..." He looked up at Gavren. "Possible."

"Possible?" Gavren gestured sharply with one hand. "That's all you can say? It is possible?"

"Oh Maker." Kels swallowed. "The entire Fifth Blight..." He shuddered.

"To get you." Caleb ran a hand through his hair, and shook his head before looking back up at Kieran. "All to get you." He took a deep breath. "He called you 'old friend'."

Gavren whirled back around to face Kieran. "Did you..." He swallowed. "Did you let him get away?" He started to take a step forward, and Leandra moved to put a hand on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her, burying his head in her shoulder as she held him.

"It was not my intention."

"Not your intention?" Kels stood and started pacing. "Yeah. And the Dread Wolf didn't intend for Corypheus to put a hole in the world. He wanted to do that himself."

"Kels..."

"Dammit, Salla, he's an archdemon. He's..." Kels kicked a broken crate across the room. Kieran flinched. "He's the reason Evelina had to take us to Kirkwall in the first damn place. Or have you been pretending to be a Hawke for so long you've forgotten?" He narrowed his eyes. "Or maybe you really are a Hawke. It was your father who helped Anders, wasn't it?"

Salla slammed the butt of her staff against the ground. "Enough." She waved her hand. "This is the legendary Inquisition? A few words out of a demon, and you start falling apart?" She shook her head. "The stories are well known, even outside the Fade. Lies, half-truths, and manipulations. Are you so foolish as to believe the only danger from a demon is its claws?"

The silence was broken by the occasional shuffle of feet as various people did their best not to look at each other. It was Trian who finally spoke. "What now?"

"We need to get out of town." Agatha stood up.

"We are safe enough here." Caleb shook his head. "Nobody is going to find us."

They all turned at the sound of Loghain's voice. "I've got ten gold says you are wrong."

#

"You actually let him go?" Alistair stared at Sigrun.

"You'd rather the kids not be warned ancient elves are hunting them down?" Sigrun held her ground. "Letting him go was the only option I had."

"Are you sure they were sentinels?" Brehan raised an eyebrow.

"Sneaky bald yellow-eyed armored really tall elves with trees on their faces?" Sigrun rolled her eyes. "You're right. Could be anyone."

Alistair turned back to the items they'd recovered from Baradies' estate. He picked up a shield, marked with curved griffin claw that had become the sigil of House Saitada. Trian's shield, bent and damaged from repeated blows. Trian's shield, with blood on it. Six dead Inquisition agents, and signs of a battle against demons. And part of the building had burned down. For all he yet knew, Duncan and Jerath were dead under that rubble. He tossed the shield back down on the table. "Trian was attacked, and hurt."

Sigrun stared down at the ground, and sighed. "Anyone told Saitada yet?"

"Alistair?"

He turned towards Brehan. "What?"

"We found runes in several locations in our gear, not just the saddlebags Sigrun spotted." Brehan's eyes were hard. "We've got at least one spy among our people here, and if Sigrun hadn't gotten lucky, we'd likely have led them right to the kids." He shook his head. "For all we know, it was the Dread Wolf who set this in motion in the first place. Who knows more about manipulating spirits than he does?"

"Maker." Alistair rubbed the back of his neck. "Are we sure Adralicus isn't the spy? He's the one that told the kids about Baradies."

"Adralicus wasn't even the one who brought Baradies up in the first place. He just happened to have a passing acquaintance with him and letting him handle the correspondence got him out of our hair."

"So whose idea was it to contact Baradies?" Alistair raised an eyebrow. "There is your spy. I want to talk to whoever suggested him in the first place."

"You are." Brehan met his eyes steadily.

"You..." Alistair deflated a little. "Dammit Brehan, I didn't mean to..."

"I know." Brehan shook his head.

"How'd you know about him?"

"Spy reports aren't the only things I read." Brehan twitched a shoulder. "He wrote a book on Gaxkang."

"I know that..." Alistair frowned. "Didn't Jerath and I kill something by that name?"

"Gaxkang the Unbound, one of the Forbidden ones. The Formless One's brother, so to speak."

"Great." Alistair gestured. "So on top of everything else, it's personal."

#

"You sure about this?" Kels raised an eyebrow.

"Let's see. We've got an old god, the Dread Wolf's apprentice, the Champion's kids, a dwarf and an elf with a dwarven dad, and a guy bearing the mark of an archdemon." Caleb gestured. "Who'd look for us here?"

He looked around the old Chantry undercroft and was forced to concede Caleb's point. Salla had pointed out they'd be expected to vacate down as soon as they'd received the warning, thus it made sense to stay put in a good hiding place. From the dust, it was clear nobody came down here often, and Kieran's spell had replaced the dust and cobwebs to prevent anyone from noticing their passage.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Salla making the rounds of tending to the wounded. He owed her an apology. He just wasn't sure how to phrase it. The Hawkes weren't to blame for what Anders had done. They'd suffered for it more than most. The Champion had even risked his life to come to the Inquisition to help.

Kels sat down on a crate, and tried to make himself comfortable. Loghain's report was more than a little disturbing. Sentinels. He'd heard stories from the Arbor Wilds. The sentinels had proved to be dangerous adversaries, just as dangerous if not more so than the red templars. He wasn't sure what frightened him more, the thought of them being agents of Fen'Harel, or the thought that they might not be.

#

"Truth twisted to become lies, shifting into the minor key. Piercing tones and dissonant harmonies, ending on a sour note." Kieran sighed. "I lost my focus."

"It got to you." Salla put her hand on his arm.

"It will not happen again."

"Are you..." Salla gave him a concerned look. "Alright?"

"I am. Your healing spells are exemplary."

"I'm not talking about the part where you got put through a wall." She frowned. "Okay, I am, but I'm also talking about the rest of it." She shook her head. "Kels had no right to..."

"He was not wrong." Kieran's voice was quiet. "I was that creature. Drowned out by my own melody."

"I don't understand." She glanced at him. "I read stories, of the Old Gods. How does beauty become..." She drew one of the dusty blankets around her shoulders. "That?"

"What do you think of Jerath's scars?"

She blinked. "I..." She shrugged. "I guess I haven't thought about it."

He held out one hand. "When danger threatened, he met it without hesitation. And he stands still, proof of a greater love. He wears his courage on his face, for all to see, trophies of who he is when it matters most." He held out his other hand. "Yet they mar features that would otherwise be handsome. A flaw, displeasing and distasteful. A string out of tune, distracting from the well-played harmony until the flat is all that can be heard." He held up one hand higher, then the other, as though weighing something. "What do you think of Jerath's scars?"

Salla considered the question. "When..." She nodded. "When you put it that way, they are beautiful."

"I forgot that, for a time. Want became desire, and desire became obsession, until all that remained was a need for aesthetic perfection. No flaws. No wavering brush strokes. No missteps." He lowered his hands. "No scars." He shrugged. "Focus on chord and tempo and key until one forgets what moved them to sing in the first place. I fell."

"I see, I think."

"I will not fall again."

#

Duncan stared up at the ceiling. He'd tried to get up a little earlier, but Salla had ordered him to lay back down. Apparently, Kels had broken his leg when dragging him free of the ice. His skin still tingled here and there, and itched from the healing.

King Maric had an affair with Grand Enchanter Fiona. His grandmother was Grand Enchanter Fiona. He looked over at where Jerath was sitting near him. The man hadn't said a word to him since he'd regained consciousness. Agatha was sitting nearby, cutting up an apple and occasionally offering Jerath a slice. His grandmother was still alive. She'd just abandoned his father and walked away. His father had sheltered the mages, and she'd repaid him by bringing Tevinter into Redcliffe, an act that could have destabilized the entire country. Her own son. She'd known.

The Warden had known.

Kept the secret.

How had he known?

Bryce had been nine years old when Nesiara had found him creating patterns of frost on a window with his fingertip. Finding an answer to that mystery was less comforting than he had hoped. And the worst part was... "You realize this makes me a quarter Orlesian?"

"Andraste's sanctified tits." Loghain's voice responded. "The horror, the horror."

"Asshole." He smacked his head back into the pallet. "If I start eating snails, somebody stab me."

Leandra raised a hand. "Dibs."

#

Trian set the crossbow down and looked up at Caleb. "Sorry."

Caleb sighed and looked over at Agatha. "We need a new dwarf." He gestured at Trian. "This one is defective."

"You'd think at some point in your recent training someone might have mentioned a crossbow is not a parrying weapon." Trian shook his head.

"So this is Loghain's fault." Caleb glared at the knight. Loghain winked and pursed his lips in a kissing motion. Caleb rolled his eyes. "I've still got my knives, I suppose."

"Ah. Glad to know I don't just have to worry about being stabbed by my enemies." Trian rubbed his wrist.

"You okay?" Caleb gave him a concerned look.

"I've sparred, trained." Trian frowned. "Never really done the 'fighting for my life' thing before." He sighed. "Not sure I care for it."

"Yeah." Caleb nodded. "Not exactly like the stories make it out to be." He glanced at Agatha. "How'd you end up getting caught?"

Agatha stuck out her chin. "Brehan fights dirty."

"Told you so."

"So you two told them where we were staying?" Caleb frowned.

"Loghain did."

"Why?"

"King Alistair told me too." Loghain shook his head.

"And that's reason enough to sell us out?" Caleb gave him an aghast look.

Duncan looked over at them from where he was laying on a pallet. "Why would you tell my father where we were hiding?"

"Because I'm Loghain Mac Tir! Trying the patience of King Alistair Therin sounds entirely too much like the absolute last thing I would do."

"He wouldn't have executed you..." Duncan frowned. "Probably. You could have lied."

"I also could have told him I'm the reason his daughter isn't a virgin." Loghain waved a hand. "How would that have worked out for me?"

"Oh you..." Duncan glared. "Asshole."

#

Leandra followed Gavren into one of the alcoves. "You alright?"

"No."

"Want to talk..." She was cut off when he grabbed her and kissed her, pressing her back against the wall. She put her arms around him, pulling him close. "Guess not." She wrapped her leg around his ankle and toppled him onto a pile of old sacks.

#

Salla examined Duncan. The wounds had vanished, leaving behind no scars, and the magic had knitted the broken bones back together. "Okay, you can get up and move around now if you want."

"Finally." Duncan stood. "Appreciate the healing."

"Is he alright?"

Salla nodded to Jerath. "He's fine."

"Completely recovered?"

She glanced at Duncan, and then nodded. "Yes."

"Good." Jerath turned and punched Duncan across the face, staggering the other man. Duncan would have fallen if Jerath hadn't caught him by the front of the shirt. Jerath nodded politely to Salla. "Please excuse us." He dragged the other man out of the room.

"Um..." She glanced at the others. "Should we be concerned about that?"

"I vote no." Caleb shrugged.

"Seconded." Loghain helped himself to one of the apples.

#

"Maferath's balls, I think you broke my nose." Duncan shook his head. "Alright, I get you are angry."

"I told you to run." Jerath folded his arms.

"Dammit, Jerath." Duncan gestured. "It was getting away." He started to move back to the door, and Jerath slammed him into the wall.

"I told you..." Jerath met his eyes. "To run."

"You don't give the orders, in case you've forgotten." Duncan tried to shove him away.

Jerath grabbed him by the front of the shirt and lifted him off his feet before shoving him back into the wall. "No. Your father gave them. And I recall, very clearly, the last order he gave me." Jerath lowered him back to the ground. "Keep you safe."

Duncan sighed. "That thing is responsible for killing my parents."

"I remember." Jerath narrowed his eyes. "I was there. And you were not the only one who lost a father that day, in case you have forgotten."

"It didn't just kill my father..."

"I was there, Duncan. I saw your mother die. I saw your father draw his blade." Jerath shook his head. "I saw my father tell yours to run." Jerath's fist slammed into the wall next to Duncan's head. "Maybe if he'd fucking listened, they'd both still be alive."

"Jerath..."

"You nearly died." Jerath shook his head. "You do realize that if I had followed you, Trian, Caleb, Salla, and Kieran would have died. And if Kels and the others had been just a little slower, you'd be that thing's prisoner." He waved a hand back at the other room. "There are nine other people in there. Some of them are barely more than children, Duncan. Some of them have already been hurt because of this. And you could have gotten any or all of them killed."

Duncan stared at him. "I..."

"They could have died, screaming, the way my father did. Are you prepared to live with that, your majesty?"

He dropped his eyes and stared at the ground. "No."

"You think I left my father behind to die because I wanted to? Your father threw you to me and ordered me to keep you safe. Those were his last words." Jerath released him. "If I tell you to run, you run."

"Jerath..."

"If I tell you to run..."

Slowly he nodded. "I run."

"Swear it."

"I swear."

#

Agatha watched Duncan walk away. Jerath shook his head, and rubbed the back of his neck. "You're like something out of a storybook."

He turned to face her. "What?"

"The faithful knight, taking on dragons and demons." She smiled up at him. "And the occasional king." She laid her hand on his chest. "A hero, shining armor and all."

"I'm a soldier, not a hero."

She moved forward until her body was all but pressed against his. "In the future, what are we to each other?" She smiled coyly up at him. "Are we friends?"

"Five months ago there was a diplomatic function. A man approached Duncan with a petition. Bowed, said the right words. I didn't know his name or anything about him. I had no reason to suspect he was any variety of threat." He looked down at her, and took a step back. "And for no reason other than a signal Agatha Amell gave me from across the room, I killed him. Without hesitation."

"That's..." She stepped back and shook her head in frustration. "Not really the kind of answer I was looking for."

"I know what answer you were looking for." His voice was quiet.

"Then why..." She gestured. "You just don't find me attractive or something?"

"The first time I saw you, you took my breath away." He folded his arms. "I was twelve, and if I have my calendar correct, it was just over a year ago."

"I..." Agatha frowned, and then nodded. "You tripped over the rug in the trophy room."

"I don't exist, Agatha. Not this version of me, anyway. We succeed in this, I'm going to go back to being a thirteen year old boy, one who will grow up into a different man." His smile was gentle. "I'm just a storybook."

She could feel the tears pricking at the back of her eyes. "That's my luck, isn't it? Everything I've ever dreamed turns out to be exactly that." She shook her head. "Just a dream." She turned, and left the room before she started to cry.

#

"What now?" Kels looked around at the various faces. A night spent in a dusty storehouse hadn't resulted in any of them looking particularly well rested. He was opening his mouth to suggest, once again, that they return to the Inquisition safe house, when Salla spoke.

"Sentinels." She frowned. "What do they want with us?"

"I would think that was obvious." Duncan gave pointed looks at Kieran and Gavren.

"Hey Kieran..." Caleb leaned forward, his expression thoughtful. "If the Sentinels are bound to Mythal, can't you track them?"

"I cannot."

Caleb started to sit back, and Gavren spoke up quietly. "I can."

They all turned to look at him. "You..." Salla raised an eyebrow. "Can?"

"Not in my time, because he is the one who taught me the trick." Gavren smiled. "But here and now?" He nodded. "I can track them."

"Alright." Leandra punched a fist into her palm. "Let's go hunting."

#

"Excuse me?"

Carver glanced down to find a dirty-faced boy of maybe twelve. "Yes?"

"Are you Mr. Carver Hawke?"

He nodded. "I am."

The boy held out a folded piece of parchment. "A man with a tattoo like yours said if I gave this to you, you'd let me touch one of the griffins." He smiled eagerly.

"Happens he was right." Carver took the parchment, and handed it to Greta. She immediately dashed off in the direction of the inn. "This way."

#

Ruya felt her knees go weak. Next to her, Minaeve also sagged, and she put her arm around the young elven woman. Anora sat heavily in the chair behind her, and Merrill accepted a hug from Varric.

"Oh Blessed Stone." Saitada took several deep breaths. "They are alive. I'm going to kill them."

Brehan's voice came over the crystal. "You're in line behind Alistair, Cullen, Hawke, Carver, and Lenore." There was a murmur she couldn't make out, and then Brehan's voice returned. "Now for the bad news. Our expert, Baradies? He is the Formless One. According to what Loghain's letter said, it claims it was behind a lot of things."

"What kind of things?" Leliana asked.

"The name 'Varla' was mentioned."

"Oh." Leliana put a hand on her desk to steady herself.

"That's..." Ruya began shaking her head. "Maker. Brehan, we never accounted for Varla's orb."

"Which explains why the sentinels may have shown up. Solas knows about Varla's orb as well." Brehan sighed. "And that Varla had somehow managed to unlock it."

"The Formless One is interested in the children." Leliana nodded. "And..."

"The orb could have been the power source for the original event." Ruya walked over and leaned on the desk. "We've already seen it do similar." She frowned. "Did the note say where the kids were going?"

"No. And it apologized for it. Caleb apparently suggested we pick two or three locations at random and search there to provide a helpful decoy." Brehan's voice became tinged with amusement. "And Loghain is apparently betting ten gold that if I do so, I'll pick out their destination anyway, and wondering if I hate working with Amells, Hawkes, and Trevelyans as much as he's starting to."

"Dorian is on his way back to Tevinter. Have some of our agents join him." Ruya considered a moment, and shrugged. "They might be able to uncover helpful information in addition to it not being an unlikely destination."

"The University of Val Royeaux is too obvious." Leliana frowned. "You said the letter claimed the Formless One was behind various events. What locations?"

It was a moment before Brehan responded. "Denerim, obviously. Ostagar. The Architect's plans regarding Urthemiel in the first place. And Uldred's actions at the tower."

She felt a chill in her spine. Cullen. "We'll send word to Denerim, and get agents moving to the Fereldan tower."

#

"You have got to be kidding me." Salla shook her head. "Try again."

"I tried twice." Gavren folded his arms. "Same answer both times."

"I have to admit, it's the last place I'd think to look. For them or us." Caleb glanced down at the map. "Do we tell our folks?"

"There..." Salla sighed. "Might be a few hard feelings."

"A few?" Leandra glanced at her.

"Come on. It's been a lot of years. He's even written to Papa a couple times." Caleb gestured at the map.

"You do remember how Inquisition forces helped Aveline kick his ass, right?" Kels sighed.

"Well, shit." Loghain looked down at the map. "Starkhaven."