A/N: Another long chapter! My usual average is about 6.5K and this one's over 8K. But I wanted to fit the Deep Roads all in one chapter and, well, it still ends on a cliffhanger, because I am evil and delight in torture. :-) Of course I have the conclusion chapter already done...so...if you want it sooner than Tuesday...well, let me know and I may be convinced. ;-)

Nine

Lyrium Mines and Varric's Wager

The frilly cake wasn't sitting well anymore and Ellana decided if she never saw one again it'd be too soon. She'd spent a restless night, plagued with heartburn and then nausea until in the morning she gave in, leaving Solas sleeping as she crawled from their enormous winter palace bed and grabbed the chamber pot to heave into. Afterward she sat on the floor beside their bed with her knees drawn up, groaning as she tried to ignore the spittle and stomach acids in the chamber pot to one side of her.

Solas, usually a heavy sleeper, stirred a few minutes after her, inhaling sharply as he shifted. One arm wormed over the bed, searching for her, and when he didn't find her Solas shot upright in the bed, blinking blearily. "Vhenan?"

"Here, emma lath," she answered, grimacing at the acrid taste of bile and acid in her throat.

"You are unwell," he observed, leaving the bed and sitting on the floor at her side. His warm hands brushed over her shoulders and then combed her hair from her face. "How can I help?"

Still shaky from the nausea, Ellana leaned into his touch. "Josephine summoned an elven physician for me. I meant to ask you if she was one of your spies."

"No," Solas admitted with a small smile. "But I may seek to recruit her."

"Should I trust her?" Ellana asked.

"I will find out, but be cautious until then." He rose to his feet, striding to a dresser crafted of a black-brown wood and trimmed in pale gold where he'd left the pack he often wore during their journeys. After rooting through it he returned and offered her a pouch of herbs. Ellana recognized the crisp scent emanating from it: mint and ginger.

"Thank you," she murmured, taking it. As she chewed on a mint leaf Solas began quickly moving about the room, grabbing her robe and bringing it to her. Ellana took it wordlessly, exhausted and sluggish. Then she watched as Solas busied himself again, pulling on his tunic, overcoat, and the lacquered jawbone he always wore. When he'd finished dressing he headed for the door and Ellana called to him, "Where are you going?"

"To summon breakfast for you," he replied, pausing a moment to regard her, his hand on the doorknob. "Do you have anything in particular to request?"

She thumped her head backward onto the wall behind her, groaning. "Eating is the last thing on my mind right now." She tucked the mint leaf into her cheek, glad that at least that was sitting well and tasting pleasant for the moment.

"Vhenan," he said, a gentle note of reprimand in his voice. "You must eat regardless."

"And how many expectant mothers have you attended?" she asked, smirking.

"You would be the first," Solas said, a small smile on his lips. "But I hardly think one needs extensive study in this topic."

"The Dread Wolf guides me," she said, chuckling hoarsely. "More than that, he's acting as my midwife now." She grinned, despite the ongoing foulness still churning in her stomach. "What would my Keeper say?"

Solas returned her grin, flashing his white teeth like his namesake. "It is the least I can do. I am, after all, the one responsible for your illness." Was she imagining it or was he beaming at this declaration?

She snorted, laughing. "You're enjoying this."

Frowning, Solas made a noise of displeasure in his throat. "I do not enjoy seeing anyone suffer—least of all you, vhenan."

Shaking her head, she explained, "I wasn't referring to me feeling wretched. I meant…" You're excited. You're proud. They hadn't meant to create a child together and she didn't know how they'd managed to conceive it—the anklet charm her Keeper had made her still had enough magic in it to make Ellana's fingers tingle, so it hadn't failed completely. But with the shock of it over, Solas had accepted the news with open arms. Staring at his concerned look, she felt a warm rush of affection for him that seemed to work magic over her stomach—transforming nausea into hunger.

"Vhenan?" Solas asked, his concern deepening.

"Suddenly I am hungry. Starving in fact," she said and groaned, thumping her head against the wall again. "Ow."

"I will have the servants send tea and breakfast. And draw you a bath." He'd opened the door and left before she could object. She didn't have time for a bath.

Well, maybe a quick bath.

A new Inquisition scout stood at the entrance to the guest wing and Solas guessed she would be his shadow today, Leliana's eyes and ears on him. It'd be a boring assignment for her as Solas merely caught the attention of the nearest elven servant and began outlining instructions for food to be brought to Ellana's room. He also asked for them to bring hot water to run a bath for her. The servants, looking bleary-eyed at the early hour themselves, hurried to do his bidding. One of them was his spy, the other unknown to him. Neither knew of his true identity, only that he was Inquisitor Lavellan's lover and Fade expert.

And father of her child.

The thought shouldn't have made him happy, shouldn't have sent the excited zinger through his chest, but it did nonetheless. Of course that joy took a nosedive when he remembered her stubborn determination to place herself in mortal danger by fighting the Qunari…and his own cowardice when he'd lied to her.

Standing outside Ellana's closed door, waiting for food, tea, or hot water to arrive, Solas rubbed at his face and frowned with self-revulsion. The memory of the fear and fury in her gaze as she glared at him in the study, accusing him of working with Corypheus outright rather than tacitly using the darkspawn magister still made him shudder with horror. How could she think so little of him, that he would actually betray his own morals and ally with a monster like Corypheus?

You have no right to be irritated with her for not seeing the truth, he scolded himself. The Dread Wolf was the villain of the Dalish and Ellana could not help her upbringing, just as he could not escape his own, which had been shaped by the assumption that magical talent determined one's worth. Of course she would be inclined to assume the worst about him. And Solas, determined to be better in her eyes than he truly was, spun a tale of half-truths.

His uthenera location had been ransacked at some point. Artifacts had been stolen, his attendants murdered with their bodies left to rot away until they were only bones and dust. Solas would have died if his uthenera had not been so deep, so complete that magic alone sustained him. His orb would have been stolen and he killed just as he'd told Ellana, but he slept with it clasped in his hands and his chamber had been magically sealed. He had only survived, only woken in fact, because of the orb. Only when it had amassed enough power over the centuries to tear down the Veil did it finally jolt him awake.

By then he'd been barely alive, too weak even to walk more than a few paces before collapsing. It was luck that he'd woken in high summer and discovered edible mushrooms and fruit trees just outside. That had provided enough energy to rejuvenate his body out of the frailness of near-death. He still would have died from starvation and thirst, being too weak to travel far. There was also the threat of forest predators, human bandits, or Templars too as he could not defend himself in his feeble state. His physical form could not sustain any significant magic use, leaving him virtually Tranquil. But in dreams he had reached out and found the slumbering minds of a nearby Dalish clan and drawn them to him. They had given him safe harbor without ever knowing exactly who they'd rescued from the forest ruins.

Lying in the ruins of his uthenera chambers, his mind frantic and aware while his body failed him, had been the first time he felt the deep chill of terror close over him at the prospect of dying alone, his purpose unfulfilled. Considering it now sent a shudder through him, making him sweat and his heart pound as if he were in the middle of a battle. Wrapping his arms around himself to feel the reassuring shape of his recovered body, filled out with healthy muscle, Solas controlled his breathing, keeping it slow. He directed his thoughts to the upcoming day and the ongoing challenge of keeping Ellana's stubbornness from getting her killed.

From somewhere down the hall Solas heard servants whispering as they lingered just inside another chamber, out of sight of him and the guards by the door. "Did you see the bald elf man in the hall?" one asked, hissing the question.

"Yes," the other replied. "Isn't he the Inquisitor's jilted lover?"

"Hardly jilted, I should say," the first one said with a snigger. "They share the same chambers. But everyone says the Inquisitor prefers her commander—the pretty one."

Solas sighed, glad for the distraction even if it irritated him.

"Then her commander is the one who put a babe in her belly?" the other asked with a scandalized gasp.

"Keep your voice down," the first one shushed the other, hissing.

Damn you, Vivienne, Solas thought.

When he smelled the rich, sweet scent of food he raised his head, his stomach clenching with anticipation. "Ah, excellent," he greeted the servant—Lanya—when she neared, carrying a tray on her shoulder. "Come inside."

"Here's you, yeah?" Sera greeted her, grinning at Ellana as she stepped past the guards and into the storage room where the eluvian waited. The elven girl was already wearing her armor, with her bow and arrow quiver on her back. "Heard you burped up your bits in the Crossroads. Woulda liked to see that! Wonder where it comes out?"

Ellana scowled, glaring at her. "I'd rather not talk about it." With her eyes she tried to tell Sera what she wanted to say was I'd rather not talk to you.

"Right," Sera said, rolling her eyes. "The thing that everyone saw is not something we talk about. Ugh." She put her hands on her hips. "You're no fun."

Ellana ignored her, moving to where her own weapons and armor leaned up against the opposite wall. She began strapping everything on, again trying to push aside the suspicion that it already felt tighter around her middle. But that might have more to do with the ridiculous amount of food Solas had insisted she eat that morning. She scanned the room and saw him already dressed and waiting beside the eluvian like a sentry, his posture tight and his eyes on her.

"Not everyone was lucky enough to see it, Buttercup," Varric said, chuckling as he moved to stand beside Sera. He clapped his beefy hands together and spoke to Ellana, "Am I allowed to congratulate you now on…things?"

Slinging her quiver of arrows over her shoulder, Ellana fought to control the heat in her cheeks. She didn't miss the speculative glance Varric aimed over his shoulder at Solas, who may or may not have been able to hear their current conversation. Dorian and Iron Bull were also in the room, but appeared to be occupied in their own quiet conversation. Was there a point in pretending anymore? Josephine's advice still spun through her head, but amidst their companions did she really need to hide it?

Making her decision, she let a smile curl over her lips. "I'll take all the well wishes and encouragement you can give."

Varric's grin turned sly. "Great! Well then, first of all congratulations. Now we can start betting on it."

"What?" Ellana blurted, freezing in mid-motion as she flexed the wood of her bow and checked the string.

"Ten royals says it's a boy," Varric announced, arms spread wide as he gazed around the room, grinning. "Anyone wager it's a girl?"

Beside the eluvian, Solas scowled, his cheeks blooming suddenly red. He crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at the dwarf. "This is not a subject one bets on."

"Maybe you don't, Chuckles, but I do." Varric laughed when Solas' glowering intensified. "Oh, c'mon. Have a little fun for once."

"I heard it's a girl whenever you can't stop tossing your cookies," Sera said, giggling. "So, girl, yeah. Ten royals." She stuck her tongue out at Solas. "Not like daddy droopy ears can stop us."

Ellana watched the interaction, her jaw hanging open and her cheeks aflame, still holding her bow in one hand. Mythal's mercy, what have I unleashed?

"I'm with Sera on this one," Dorian said. "And I'll raise you to twenty."

"Confident, Sparkler," Varric said, rubbing his hands together as if he could already imagine his coming payday. "I like it. You're on. What about you, Tiny?"

Iron Bull grunted, his single eye roving around the room for a moment before he answered. "I'll have to think it over for a while."

"This is preposterous," Solas grumbled. He shot Ellana a pained look full of sympathy, as if the others were discussing how best to torture her. He started to protest again when the door to the room opened and Cassandra strode in, glowing in her golden armor.

Varric laughed, slapping his knee. "Your Holiness," he said, gasping. "That is some armor you've got there."

Cassandra made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat. "So I have heard. Repeatedly."

"Right, yeah," Sera said, wrinkling her nose as she giggled. "Goldie."

Rainier squeezed in around Cassandra, nodding to everyone in greeting. "Good morning."

"Seeker, Thom," Varric said, grinning as he returned to the important business of setting up his wager. "The rest of us were just placing bets on whether little Lavellan will be a boy or a girl. Care to weigh in? Two to one it's a girl."

"Enough, Varric," Ellana snapped, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"I'm going with boy," Rainier said, chuckling before shooting Ellana a sheepish look. "Sorry, my lady." He shrugged, making his armor clink. "I had to go with my first instinct."

Cassandra groaned, stomping closer to Varric, her steps heavy in her armor. "This is not something you place bets on," she snapped as the dwarf scurried away from her, closer to the eluvian.

"Thank you," Solas muttered under his breath with a huff.

"Are you going to try to stab me again, Seeker?" Varric asked, lifting his hands in a motion to ward her off. "I thought we were past that."

"We've wasted enough time," Ellana said, slipping her bow over her shoulder. "We have a lyrium mine to deal with."

The blue glow from the veins of raw lyrium glittered in the cavern high above, reminiscent of starlight and yet simultaneously alien. Solas could feel the weight of the cavern bearing down on him, countless tons of rock waiting to crush him if and when it collapsed. The strangling effect of the Veil on his magic had been like that when he first woke from uthenera, but over time he'd grown accustomed to the way it throttled his magic use. He'd never understood how dwarves could be comfortable beneath ground.

They encountered signs of struggle—Qunari warriors slain and gaatlok barrel explosions that'd caused cave-ins. Some of these mishaps had happened due to bad luck as unstable tunnels collapsed with Qunari mining activities, but most of the chaos afflicting this mine was due to Solas' own forces. Abelas routinely attacked the mine, sweeping through to ignite gaatlok and kill or harass Qunari. For three months Solas had done the same, sweeping in and out like a bad smell, ruining the miners' day and disrupting their pace.

The night before Solas had contacted Abelas through dreams, ordering the sentinel to bring his people and join them in the assault. So far there'd been no sign of them, other than recently killed Qunari. Where were they?

He found himself as tense as Ellana's bowstring, sweating and fighting the fearful weight of his own worries. He could feel the stray Elvhen magic in this place and knew that even if the Anchor didn't flare up visibly, it would be gaining strength. Though there was little he could do to prevent it, Solas stayed close to Ellana, always within arm's reach if he could help it.

They'd stopped beside some well-reserved elven statues of a pair of twin wolves, howling at the cavern ceiling high above. Ahead the cavern dropped into an enclosed formation, shadowed from the faint light of lyrium veins above. It was a cave within a cave, which made it as dark and intimidating as one would imagine.

For the second time in the last half-hour Varric groaned quietly. "I hate being underground."

"Shut it," Sera scolded him. "You hate everything."

"On the contrary," Varric replied, shuffling his short legs quickly to keep pace with everyone else despite the relatively slow, cautious pace Ellana set fording through the gloomy, rocky cavern. "I enjoy a lot of things—just not dark, damp, unstable places full of giant spiders and deepstalkers." He chuckled. "Oh, and Qunari, of course."

"Quiet," Cassandra ordered, then spoke to Ellana and Solas. "Where do we go now?"

"Solas says Abelas and his people might be here somewhere conducting a hit and run attack on their own," Ellana explained. "I'm worried about running into each other and exchanging friendly fire."

"What are these wolf statues doing down here?" Dorian piped up from behind them. "What were elves doing here?"

"Surface dwarf here," Varric said, shrugging. "Don't look at me. Chuckles usually has an idea, though."

Dorian's eyes found Solas' gaze, glimmering even in the faint light. "Indeed."

The single word carried a weight of deeper meaning and suspicion that made Solas' skin prickle, setting him on edge even further. After seeing the mural yesterday in the sanctuary at Revasan, Dorian had to be thinking along dangerous lines. Why had every place they visited in the eluvian network had something to do with Fen'Harel? Solas knew the smartest option would be to say nothing or very little, but he could feel the others' stares, seeking his usual deeper insight on the past.

With an exasperated sigh he said, "I have never searched the Fade here. I'm afraid I know little of what this place once was." The lie flowed smoothly from his lips and he could almost feel the others accepting it. But Dorian's posture and his challenging stare made it clear he wasn't entirely convinced.

Then Varric shouted, "Shit! Deepstalkers!"

They whipped around as the glinting eyes of the deepstalkers came into view. The bipedal, lizard-like animals scurried forward, hissing as they flowed toward the group, intent on surrounding them and making a kill.

Solas flung an enormous fireball at the three nearest to him and Ellana, making the animals shriek and panic, darting away only to collapse dead as the flames consumed them. Ellana's bow thwacked as she fired arrow after arrow, kicking and dodging the deepstalkers' snapping jaws. Solas cast a barrier over her, moving in step with her to maintain it. When a group of seven deepstalkers encircled them from the cave entrance, snapping at them from all sides, Solas knocked them away with veilstrike.

The others with them made short work of the deepstalker pack, with Dorian covering Sera and Varric as they fired countless arrows and Iron Bull, Cassandra, and Rainier hacking the little beasts limb from limb. Finally the hissing and shrieking died away as the last of the deepstalkers scurried away in panic or perished, bleeding out onto the black stone. Silence descended on the group as they stood tense, watching the shadows, breathing hard after the short, intense battle.

"I hate being underground," Varric repeated, shuddering.

A deep voice cut in from behind them, "How unusual for a child of the Stone."

The group turned as one, ready to fight Qunari, but Solas called out, recognizing the speaker immediately. "Abelas."

The sentinel stepped out of the shadows behind them, lithe and armored but wearing a black cloak over the glimmering metal to disguise its brilliance in the lowlight. Solas saw three other sentinels behind him but couldn't make out which ones Abelas had brought with him. "Lethallin," he greeted Solas with a nod. "Ir abelas. We encountered Qunari in the Crossroads and were delayed."

Sera groaned. "Just great, yeah? More elfy-elves."

"We'll take all the help we can get," Ellana said, diplomatic as always and ignoring Sera. "You know the mine better than we do. What do you suggest?"

Solas had actually been the one to devise a plan of attack while communing with Abelas the night before in dreaming, anticipating this potentially awkward moment where he took a backseat to Ellana and Abelas. Coordinating from the sidelines had long been his preferred method of leading whenever possible. In this scenario he wanted as little attention on himself as possible. He'd told Ellana's advisors he had a leadership position over the sentinel elves, but he hadn't indicated how long he'd held it or why. Leliana and the others undoubtedly had already wondered what gave him the authority to lead the elves from the temple of Mythal. It wasn't a question he wanted them to puzzle out.

Now he saw Abelas' eyes slide to him, glinting in the dimness of the Deep Roads. "The Qunari use an explosive powder called gaatlok. I assume you've heard of it?"

"We have," Cassandra said and Solas could hear the frown in her voice.

Abelas nodded once to her. "They keep charges for the explosives at a central processing location to try and avoid mishaps with the barrels. I suggest we break into two groups. One will cause a distraction away from where they store the charges. The other group will infiltrate the storage spot and take the charges."

"And blow the gaatlok…where exactly?" Ellana asked with a shrug.

"The Qunari have left many of the barrels staged together across the mine. They move them out to strategic spots as needed for mining." His lips curled in a wry smile. "It'd be a terrible shame if someone were to set off a gaatlok barrel in the staging areas."

Iron Bull cursed in Qunlat then, shaking his horned head. "The explosion would probably bury this whole place, Boss. My vote is we just take them down the old fashioned way." He hefted his great-axe up and thumped it on the stone to make his point clear.

"But then the Qunari would only send more people to restart operations," Solas said. "Abelas is correct. We must destroy the mine to keep it and its lyrium from the Qunari."

"Are you sure?" Ellana asked, raising an eyebrow. "It doesn't sound very safe."

He smiled slightly, hoping she would sense the deeper truth underlying his words. "I believe there will be enough time to escape." Hesitating a moment, he lowered his voice. "I would prefer, of course, that you not be here for this as the explosions may cause unforeseen danger."

She frowned. "I'm not leaving that easily, Solas."

Biting back his sigh of frustration, Solas merely nodded. "As you wish."

"Do you know the kind of forces we're talking about blowing even a single barrel of gaatlok?" Iron Bull asked, his deep voice rumbling with disapproval.

As a matter of fact, Solas did know. Over his three months away in the spring he'd interrogated a Qunari specialist who understood how to make and use gaatlok, learning as much as he could before killing the man. He knew the mathematical formulas to describe the force of such an explosion and had worked out how many would be too many based on the stone in the cavern. But there were many variables, making his estimation unavoidably imprecise. As a result he'd hoped to dissuade Ellana from actually participating—but of course, she seemed determined to drive him mad with anxiety.

"We have watched and interrogated Qunari gaatlok specialists," Abelas said, speaking for Solas and doing an excellent job as usual. Solas dipped his chin in approval when the sentinel shot him a quick glance. "We are confident this will work to destroy the mine without bringing the entire cavern down." He motioned at the cavern. "You may have noticed there's an abundance of water here. The cavern will flood before it collapses."

"How comforting," Dorian piped up. "I've always wanted to die by drowning in pitch black darkness. That's much better than being crushed!"

"Inquisitor," Cassandra said. "You really should retreat back through the mirror. I will go with you. We cannot—"

"No," Ellana insisted. "I am not going to ask my friends to fight and die for me just because…" She broke off, scrubbing at her face.

Solas shifted on his feet, struggling to quash the desire to reach out and comfort her. If it'd just been their companions he would've given in, but Abelas and the sentinels needed to see him maintain the cool professionalism of a leader. Of course that was infinitely easier when he wasn't twisting inside with worry and doubt, imagining all the ways Ellana could be killed.

Taking a deep breath in, Ellana looked at him over her shoulder, eyes narrowing. "You're confident this won't blow up in our faces and get us all killed?"

"Literally blow up," Iron Bull added. "Gaatlok is some nasty shit."

"Confident, yes," he answered, pinching his lips together. "Certain? No."

"All right," Ellana said and faced Abelas again. "Let's get to it."

They divided into two groups: distraction and infiltration. The sentinel elves made up the bulk of the distraction team but also took Iron Bull, Rainier, and Varric with them. Solas, Ellana, Dorian, Cassandra, and Sera formed the infiltration group. After making their way through the dark cave ahead, stumbling on the cylindrical column-like rock formations, they reached an overlook and paused to stare at the structures off in the darkness. Lyrium glittered blue in the ceiling and distant walls of the cavern, but long ago the first miners had constructed an enormous series of bridges to span the gap of the abyss and now orange fire torches quavered on those structures like distant campfires.

Abelas and his group split off, moving to cause the distraction that'd allow Ellana's team to reach central processing with minimal resistance. Solas waited with the rest of Ellana's group, lingering on the overlook, waiting for the moment they heard Abelas' attack begin. Tense silence reigned as they watched the distant shapes of Qunari warriors patrolling the bridge. Solas ran the plan through his mind again, contemplating the raw math behind the explosions and trying to consider every variable for anything he'd missed and coming up empty.

Finally they heard shouting and saw distant flashes of fire from mage attacks. They left the overlook and headed for the bridge. Cassandra took the lead with Solas and Dorian in a secondary positions and both archers close behind them with their bows ready, arrows nocked. The bright gold of Cassandra's armor made Solas wince at its conspicuousness, shimmering and glinting against the torches on the bridge. It might as well have shouted their position to the first Qunari archers they came across.

The attackers yelled in Qunlat—a language Solas had spent the last few years learning whenever he had a spare moment—and immediately began firing. Solas cast a barrier on Ellana and Sera as they returned fire while Dorian protected everyone else. Spearmen charged over the bridge from the Qunari central processing storage area as the first archers fell dead, their bodies bristling with arrows and scorch marks.

Cassandra blocked an incoming spear with her shield and then lunged, bashing the warrior who'd thrown it at her. "Maker take you!"

After again casting a barrier over Ellana and Sera, Solas summoned firestorm, grunting with the effort of shaping and hurling the greater spell with the constant throttling grip the Veil placed over his magic. Fiery projectiles rained down on the remaining five spearmen, setting them alight. Three died outright, a fourth met Cassandra's blade, but the fifth fled screaming in Qunlat: "Saarebas! Saarebas! Help us!"

"He's calling for a mage," Solas shouted a quick translation, gritting his teeth.

"Oi," Sera yelled back at him, her nose wrinkling. "You understand that piss?"

Oops, Solas thought and didn't answer or look at her for more than a heartbeat. Unable to stop himself, Solas did glance behind him at Ellana to check her reaction. She wore a smile, her green eyes sweeping over him with appreciation. The orange torches on the bridge lit her Dalish scout armor a brilliant yellow like the sunrise. Any trepidation he'd felt before became a shot of warmth through his chest—affection and desire. Unlike Sera, Ellana prized knowledge and was apparently unbothered.

"Forward," Cassandra yelled, recapturing his attention. "Let's meet this Qunari mage."

"How about we just kill him?" Dorian quipped. "I think one Qunari in my life is more than enough."

They hurried across the bridge to the structure where Solas knew the Qunari stored the gaatlok charges. Two more archers fired on them as they entered and in the center of the room stood the saarebas, bulky and thickly built. As they approached he tossed aside a syringe still gleaming faintly blue—lyrium.

Solas cast a barrier over Ellana and Sera at once. Arrows bounced from it, falling away harmlessly as their own projectiles shot through unhindered. One of the archers went down, Sera's arrow lodged in his throat. The other stopped shooting when Ellana put an arrow through his side, clawing at it as his blood splattered on the stone floor.

Solas flung fire from his staff in basic attacks, aiming at the saarebas rather than the spearman—who was already staggering back from Cassandra's shield bash. The saarebas shrugged most of the fire off, his body infused with the pain-numbing and caution-destroying effects of lyrium enhancement. Dorian let out a shout as he cast one of his necromancy spells on the Qunari mage, but it had no effect.

"Die," the saarebas roared at them, hurling fireballs from both meaty fists. "Agents of Fen'Harel!"

"Whoa," Dorian said, gasping as he ducked and rolled to evade the fireball. "Temper, temper!"

Solas Fade stepped to dodge the fireball aimed for himself. Ellana and Sera were quick to leap away as well; both yelping with alarm as it smashed through the degrading barrier Solas had cast over them. Panic grabbed at Solas' throat with icy hands. "Vhenan!"

Ellana thrust her left hand up and the Anchor glowed a bright, intense green. A sphere of green energy encircled her for several meters—Aegis of the Fade. Solas gritted his teeth in a humorless grin of relief just in time to see and hear the saarebas launch another massive fireball at him. Solas pivoted to dodge while casting an enormous veilstrike blow. The force blew the fireball out of the air, smashing it against the stone in a rain of sparks and charred stone.

The saarebas roared with frustration, switching to electricity and slashing through the air, flinging the crackling purple energy every which way. Cassandra, bearing down on the Qunari mage, let out a warbling cry as it impacted her, crawling through the metal of her armor to shock her. The saarebas slammed into her shield, knocking her back, but an arrow—Ellana's—plunged into his shoulder.

Solas sent a chunk of Fade stone smashing into him. The saarebas stumbled but refused to fall despite the force of it. His shoulders heaved as he shrugged off more fire attacks from Dorian and sidestepped Sera's arrow, his wrath turning toward Solas.

As the saarebas launched another fireball at him and at Dorian, Solas Fade stepped out of its path and flung the Qunari mage to the ground with another powerful veilstrike. This time the saarebas collapsed with a cry of surprise and pain. Solas summoned another firestorm, using both arms to aim and bring the full force of it down on the Qunari.

Fiery rock pummeled him, singeing his clothing and then his flesh. His screams were high-pitched and bloodcurdling for only a few moments before Solas clenched one fist and closed his eyes, killing the mage by petrifying his head. The stink of charred flesh made Solas grimace, edging away form his handiwork and hoping the others wouldn't notice the odd way the saarebas' head seemed to have turned gray in a way that wasn't like burned flesh upon closer inspection.

As the firestorm spell at last quieted, Solas strode to Cassandra and helped her to her feet. "Thank you," she told him, a few muscles in her face twitching with the lingering effects of the shocking spell the saarebas had used on her.

"Fenedhis," Ellana cursed, still near the entrance. Her hand covered her nose, her face twisting with revulsion. "The smell. I think I'm going to be sick."

"Bout to toss up breakfast?" Sera asked, giggling. "You're so growing a girl."

"Let's get the fuses and get out," Ellana said, groaning. The sound of her discomfort made something twist inside Solas, painful with sympathy—especially because he had been the one to char the Qunari so badly.

Sera jogged ahead, searching for the gaatlok fuses while Ellana maintained her distance from the corpse with Dorian nearby. Certain Cassandra was all right, Solas hurried to join Ellana and his chest constricted with horror when he saw her left hand glimmering green.

"Vhenan," he said, gesturing to it. "Are you in pain?"

Still grimacing from the smell, Ellana opened her left palm, appearing perplexed. "It's just a tingle."

Dorian's brown eyes had narrowed to the point of almost glaring at Solas, as if he somehow knew everything. The idea was paranoid and foolish, but Solas found his blood suddenly pulsing in his ears anyway. But then Dorian smiled and cleared his throat, "I'll go make sure Sera finds those charges."

He walked away, leaving Solas and Ellana a little privacy just out of earshot of the others. Immediately she frowned at him. "I'm fine, Solas, really." She shook her left hand. "It's just from using aegis."

Reaching for her, Solas embraced her, cradling the back of her neck with one hand. "Please, vhenan, do not use it again."

She sighed, sounding irritable though her body against his relaxed, easing into his embrace. "You're going to drive me crazy with all this babying."

"I found them," Sera announced from the front of the room.

Ellana shifted in his arms and Solas reluctantly released her. With the charges in their possession Solas resumed his position behind Cassandra as they started out, but felt a quick zinger of alarm as he realized Dorian was still standing near where the saarebas' charred body had fallen. The Tevinter mage was staring down at it, a scowl on his face and one hand on his chin.

Catching Ellana's eye, Solas jerked his chin backward to wordlessly indicate Dorian. She followed his gaze and called out to the other mage. "Dorian, we have to leave."

"Yes," he said and whipped around, moving back into a position near Solas.

Solas pretended to be focused on the way ahead as they left the structure and returned to the bridge, but he felt hot and clammy, his stomach loopy as though he'd swallowed snakes that now wormed around inside him. The saarebas had called them all agents of Fen'Harel. That was now the fourth time Fen'Harel had come up in the last few days around Dorian. First the sentinel elves had nearly called Solas by his Evanuris name, then Dorian had seen the mural at Revasan, and now twice in one day he'd been reminded in the Deep Roads—first by the wolf statues earlier and now by the saarebas.

They're going to find out, the voice of panic taunted him. They will turn on you. Solas quashed it with the iron fist of his willpower and resolve. He'd escaped detection in this modern world for years and deceived the Evanuris and the Forgotten Ones repeatedly in the past all by refusing to panic and thinking on his feet. He vowed to himself he could handle this too.

They crossed the bridge, encountering little resistance. Solas took the lead now, guiding their group to the first gaatlok staging area. A small band of warriors sat around a campfire nearby and Solas attacked aggressively, Fade stepping into their midst and launching ice and fire magic. By the time Cassandra, Dorian, Sera, and Ellana had caught up the Qunari warriors were already heavily wounded. Solas let Cassandra, Dorian, Sera, and Ellana finish them off while he set the charges.

When he'd finished he lit them with a little flare of fire from his fingers and then Fade stepped away, coming out of it beside Ellana. "Run," he called out, one hand on the small of her back.

They hustled through the dark, gaining as much distance from the gaatlok barrels as they could before the blast went off. The cavern shook with the force of it and Cassandra halfway toppled over into a nearby stone pillar. Solas caught Ellana around the waist when she stumbled at another tremor. The roar of water pounded the rocks behind them, sloshing as it broke through from the ceiling due to the shockwave, glinting blue from the reflection of the lyrium.

"Somewhere on the surface I'm sure there are peasants panicking as their lake drains away," Dorian commented, huffing. "I really was hoping you were joking about the flooding bit."

"Blow up some shite, that'll fix it," Sera grumbled. "Brill plan, yeah? Except not. Shite elfy-elves and their shite-arse plans."

Shouts in Qunlat echoed through the cavern, competing with the constant low roar of the water. A pair of warriors intercepted them on their way to the next gaatlok staging area and after casting a quick barrier over Ellana, Solas Fade stepped to fight beside Cassandra. He knocked the warriors prone with veilstrike, then hammered them with Fade stone. Cassandra made the killing blow to one, stabbing him through a gap in his armor at the throat, and then Ellana or Sera shot an arrow into the other warrior's eye, dropping him instantly.

After the second charge went off more water gushed into the cavern, flowing in long waterfalls that hissed and splattered on the stone. The earth quivered with tremors, jostling all of them as they struggled over the uneven, stepped stone formations. The water made the rocks slick, sending Cassandra and then Dorian sprawling.

"Keep going," Solas yelled, raising his voice to be heard over the din of water. "We must hurry!"

They found the third staging area devoid of Qunari as by now most of the miners and warriors had probably fled. Solas left the others several meters away, Fade stepping to move faster. He set the charges and then they were running again, Solas in position with Ellana like a shadow as she scrambled over the rocks, nimble despite the near-constant shaking from the cavern now.

Solas barely heard the third explosion over the mind numbing roar of the water. When he peered over the ledge of the precipice as they raced back to the overlook, he saw the frothing water below, churning and bubbling as it rose. It glinted blue, lit by the lyrium in the cavern ceiling. Rocks fell from the ceiling with one of the larger aftershocks, careening down with eerie slowness and silence. The splash they made was lost amidst the cacophony of other water sounds.

And this is how Mythal's lyrium mine comes to an end, he thought.

By the time they reached the overlook Ellana and the rest of the group were all completely soaked, dripping wet. Somehow, paradoxically, Ellana found her throat and mouth were bone dry. She tried not to see the rising water in the depths of the cavern or to consider they could find themselves trapped by a cave-in and still wind up drowning. She focused on Solas' warm hand on the small of her back or on her shoulder, encouraging and protecting her.

They found Abelas and the others waiting tensely at the overlook, not much drier than their own group. Ellana walked sandwiched between the sentinel elf and Solas as they made their way back through the dark cave and past the statues of the howling wolves. A few Qunari tried to stop them, but the terror in their eyes made them easy to fight and with so many mages the warriors quickly died. Most of them had likely been trying to flee the cavern through the eluvian only to be cut down by the sentinel elves and Ellana's Inquisition companions.

It almost made her sad, though she was too harried to give it much thought before they'd reached the cerulean glow of the mirror. Abelas and the sentinels rushed through it first and then Solas ushered her into it. The sudden relative silence after the extreme loudness of the cavern made Ellana gasp. She cringed against the strange, fractured light in the Crossroads, her eyes jumping between the black rock islands floating in the void.

As Solas and the others piled through, crowding the relatively small rock island, Ellana's knees seemed to become rubber. She sucked in deep breaths, trying to calm the reaction, and found Solas at her side like an overprotective parent. "Vhenan?" he asked, cupping her face in his hands and staring into her eyes. "Are you all right?"

Examining his dark blue eyes calmed the press of emotions inside her, letting her breathe slower as she nodded. "I'm fine—just catching my breath after nearly dying. That's all." She smiled, suddenly giddy with relief as she laughed.

"Lethallin," Abelas said from behind Solas.

Solas pulled back from Ellana and turned to face the sentinel. "Abelas," he greeted him. "Thank you for your help."

Abelas' eyes flicked to Ellana once and then returned to Solas. "You will not remain?"

"I will rejoin you when we clear out the Qunari from the library," he said. "Until then I am needed elsewhere."

"…enansal," the sentinel said, his eyes narrowing with something like displeasure despite what he said, which Ellana interpreted as a formal parting to Solas as Fen'Harel. But then Abelas' eyes leapt again to Ellana. This time they stayed there as he gave her a nod. "Inquisitor," he said. "It was a pleasure seeing you again."

Ellana started to offer him a similar remark but already the sentinel had turned on his heel and motioned his companions to follow. They charged past the Inquisition companions, who were still trying to shake the water from their clothes and weapons. Moments later the sentinels were Fade stepping over the void. Ellana watched them go, shivering in her cold, wet armor for a few heartbeats before she sensed Solas' focus on her. He was waiting and watching her like a soldier or a servant, not the lover and…Evanuris…he really was. She knew what that meant.

It was time for her to be the sole leader of their group again.

She squared her shoulders and addressed her companions with a wry smile. "So, is everyone ready to return to Halamshiral to change out of our wet clothes?"

They set off for the island containing the Halamshiral mirror, walking over the stone bridges. Ellana was in the lead as Inquisitor, with Solas immediately behind her. She slowed her pace, changing position to walk beside him. Cassandra was close behind, with Rainier and Dorian after that and possibly within earshot. She kept her voice low as she asked, "You said something about a library?"

Solas shot her a sidelong frown. "I did, yes. But you mustn't go there, vhenan. The library is a construct, much like the Crossroads. It is teeming with Elvhenan's magic even now. The Anchor will not react favorably."

With her left hand no longer glowing or even tingling, Ellana sighed with frustration, staring off into the void for a beat as she wondered if Solas was trying to hide something rather than protect her. He was one of the Evanuris and the Anchor was from his own orb. It was his magic, yet he claimed he could not control it. She wasn't sure if she wanted to believe he was lying because he was Fen'Harel or because it'd mean she didn't have to live in perpetual fear that the Anchor would one day kill her.

"It's fine right now," she insisted, lifting the palm for him to see. "It was only using aegis that made it glow before."

"We have been fortunate in the mines." He smiled at her, somber and sad, the look a parent might give to a naïve child. Seeing it made Ellana's heart twist with pain and the new certainty that Solas wasn't lying to her.

"You really can't control it?" she whispered, feeling her throat tighten with emotion.

"I wish I could, vhenan," he murmured, shaking his head.

"Then I'm going to die," Ellana said, the words shaky with emotion as her mind spun with more questions. "How long would I have if it destabilized?" She laid her right hand over her abdomen and didn't miss the way his gaze leapt to the small movement.

"Forgive me, but I do not know." Solas' expression crumpled with grief. He wrapped an arm around her waist, leaning close to whisper into her ear. "I can save your life, but you would lose much of your arm."

Ellana's throat and chest ached despite the good news that she wasn't walking around on borrowed time. "I'd never draw a bow again."

"Do you understand now why I have begged you not to journey here?" Solas asked, his voice roughening as he drew away slightly. They were approaching the Halamshiral island.

She nodded, sucking in a breath to strengthen herself as they reached the eluvian. Parting from Solas, she stepped into it and immediately felt its cool magic wash over her. Emerging out the other side she shuddered, seeing the rich blue carpeting of the storage room and the closed door. Everything lay undisturbed, exactly as it'd been when they left that morning, but now late afternoon sunshine streamed in through the windows.

And then Ellana felt a hot tingling in her left palm. She swallowed the painful lump of emotion in her throat as she saw the Anchor had started to glow faintly green again. Shaking it out as the eluvian glowed and hummed behind her, Ellana turned to face what she believed would be Solas as he'd been right behind her—only to see Cassandra appear through the mirror instead.

Tucking her glowing green hand behind her, Ellana smiled at the Divine in greeting. "Cassandra—"

"Inquisitor," Cassandra cut her off, the anxious look she wore made Ellana scowl, her heart suddenly pounding. "Please forgive me, but I must speak with you—in private."

"Of course," Ellana said, still frowning. Her stomach seemed to be gnawing on itself, reminding her it'd been several hours since breakfast. "But perhaps it can wait until after—"

"No," Cassandra cut her off, her brow knitting. "I'm afraid it cannot wait." She checked over her shoulder, looking at the eluvian. No one else had come through…

Fear stabbed Ellana, cold and heavy and suffocating. "What's going on here?"

"The others will be along shortly," Cassandra told her, not answering the question. Her position in front of the eluvian, blocking it, registered with Ellana like a slap in the face. "We only needed to get you alone for a moment. It was Dorian's idea…"

Solas, she thought and a mix of rage and horror swept through her, her pulse pounding in her skull as she glared at Cassandra. "What exactly was Dorian's idea?"

Next Chapter:

"He's got a point, Sparkler," Varric put in, chuckling. "I'm hearing a lot of mage envy and not a lot of hard facts."

"Great, it's just a pissing contest between weirdies," Sera said, rolling her eyes. "Can you two just whip out cocks and compare already so we can leave?"

Both Dorian and Solas glared at her as Varric and Sera laughed. Rainier cut off his own laughter and pretended to find the stone beneath their feet fascinating.

"Now I want to see that," Iron Bull said, also bellowing with laughter. "But we all know who'd really win that contest." He paused a beat and then said, "Me, of course."