The room was bathed in sunlight as my eyes opened and I was shown just how well I had cleaned the windows. I rolled onto my side, away from the blinding, clouded rays.

I stretched and then my mind turned back on, already busy recalling the night before as my eyes opened for the second time.

Hopefully this day would hold fewer surprises than the previous.

Mabs clicked his way into my room and stood next to my bed, licking my hand in greeting.

"Hey boy."

I could not lie in bed any longer so I stood and dressed, Mabs beside me, looking to start the day with an adventure of some sort. Or perhaps just breakfast.

I did not put my armor on but instead just my every day clothing. There was no need since we were not leaving today. I walked towards the door and kicked something across the floor, causing Mabs to charge after it.

"What is it?"

Mabs sniffed at it and looked back at me, letting me know it was of no threat.

I bent down and retrieved the item and instantly recognized it from the night before. It was the pouch that Leliana had set on the bed before her and Morrigan had...

I shook my head to avoid any further remembrance of those events and pocketed the pouch to give back to Leliana when I inevitably saw her today.

Mabs followed me down the hallway but I was not yet sure where I was going. I thought it would be best to simply wander the fortress and see what I would stumble upon. Maybe I would discover something fascinating that would consume my thoughts instead of complications with women.

Just stop it.

I needed to feed Mabs his breakfast and he whined, pushing against my hand.

"Come on, boy."

We made our way into the kitchen and I threw some boar and vegetables into his bowl, setting it on the floor in front of Mabs before he wasted away to nothing.

As I watched Mabs eat quickly, I heard snoring noises come from the other side of the table and investigated.

Oghren was fast asleep on the other side of the bench, one arm hanging off the side and quite a few mugs on the table where I guessed he had celebrated last night. I shook my head, wondering how he was able to do it and how long he'd stayed in that uncomfortable position.

After Mabs had finished, we pushed forward into the fortress and I was glad to not come across anyone else. I was not in a chatty mood after all that had happened. There was still so much of this place to explore and there was so much area we had not yet even set foot in.

Mabs sniffed ahead of me, sneezing quite a few times and shaking his head.

"I know, I know. It's dusty."

I rubbed Mabs' back as he sneezed again and then a noise made me jump.

Mabs came alive, growling and charging towards a bookcase that lay ahead of us and I heard a startled yelp as he rounded it and I followed right behind him, wishing I'd had my weapon with me.

"Mabs!"

Behind the bookshelf I found a startled Levi and Mabs both staring at one another and I was instantly relieved as Mabs had stopped himself before any damage had been done.

"Levi... We had no idea you were in here."

Levi regained his composure and his breath, letting his arms fall loose at his sides again.

"Thank the heavens it's you, Warden. I thought I was done for."

"Sorry about that. Mabs is very efficient."

Levi nodded and slid the volume in his hands back on the shelf.

"Are you finding anything of interest, Levi? Anything about your grandmother in all of this?"

I lifted a crusty volume up from the table and found it to be about magic and then I let it fall back where it had been. I had no use for it.

"Not anything, no. I keep looking for some sort of journal or anything, but all there seems to be are magic books."

"By the looks of this place, it was someone's laboratory I believe. You probably won't find much here in this room."

"I wonder if this was..."

Levi trailed off.

"What is it?"

Levi walked towards a set of small stairs and climbed them.

"What if this room is where that mage did his dirty work? You know, opening up all those holes in the... What was it... the Veil?"

I walked with Levi up the stairs and we began investigating.

"It could have been. Let's look around and see if we find his name anywhere."

We dug through piles of dusty and corroded books and supplies and what looked to be human bones for quite awhile but came up with nothing, at least with Avernus' name on it.

"I really cannot tell whose notes these are, but it seems they were researching augmenting Grey Warden powers. I would think that Avernus would attempt just such a task."

Levi came to the piles that led me to my discovery, looking them over.

"A lot of it is illegible, but some bits and pieces point to research done on human subjects, trying to fortify strength or power, I think. I'm not really the magic expert at all. I should get Wynne's opinion on all of this. I am sure she would understand what all of this means."

"So this mage was trying to give more power to the Wardens then? Experimenting on... people?"

I nodded grimly.

"It reads that way."

Levi shook his head, dismayed.

"Magic... bah. I have never trusted it in my life. Always those with power just seek to gain even more, not even careful of those they might hurt in the process."

"I agree. I have never found magic to be that helpful and have heard many stories of corrupt mages. There must have been some good ones over time, but you never hear the stories of them. But at least Wynne is one such mage. I can tell you that for sure."

Levi didn't respond but kept sifting through the items in front of us, his face sullen.

"I thought for sure I would find something vindicating my grandmother, but there is nothing here... Nothing."

I touched Levi's shoulder, sensing his grief.

"Listen, we still have a whole fortress to go through, don't give up hope yet. You never know what's just around the corner."

Levi tossed a book back onto the table, turning to me.

"You really think we'll find something here? There is more here that I don't want to know it seems."

"Well, I don't think this is the room to search in as I believe it belonged to Avernus. We'll find nothing but malfeasance in his quarters. We should move to another room and keep looking."

"I wonder if my grandmother knew what Avernus was doing with all this... research. If she knew he had... test subjects."

"From what you told me, she seemed to have no idea of what he had been doing."

"Yes, Warden, but that was simply a story. Anyone could have changed the lines since before it was told to me... I am here for the truth."

I nodded. Levi could be right.

"Sometimes I question the stories I hear too, most of them are too fantastic to have ever taken place. But I guess there are some things we'll never know for sure."

Levi turned from the morbid research and I followed.

"I just want to know what happened here, what steps my grandmother really took and what was said. I don't think I'll find any written record of it though. I'll probably just have to go with what I would think she would do."

Levi's mood was very dismal and only getting worse. I felt sorry for him as it was almost as if this trip had been a waste for him. A horrifying waste at that, seeing as how he had to witness his grandmother in that cursed state before we had slain her and put her out of her misery.

"Let's just keep looking. There has to be something here."

Leliana found herself out in the cold once more, pulling her coat around her tighter, the hair on her neck spiking with the temperature change and she verbally shivered.

I really dislike Ferelden and this weather. I must go back to Orlais soon or I might freeze to death.

Leliana paused in her thoughts and smiled, her eyes glowing.

But it is worth it.

"Come on, Shmooples. You have to help me find those flowers."

Leliana's pink shadow bounded out into the snow after they had reached the end of the stairs and the little nug was in his glory getting to play in the snow again.

Leliana frowned a bit, worrying about his being hairless again but she could tell that he was so happy right now and she didn't want to interrupt him.

"Just a few minutes, sweetie. Then I'll have to take you back up."

Shmooples continued dancing about in the snow banks and Leliana moved toward the direction of the flowers she'd seen days ago.

There were two buildings near the entrance and one of them looked to be guards' quarters but there was a lock on the door. It was not a very strong one but Leliana did not have her lockpick kit on her so she moved onward, wishing she could have hidden in there, even if only for some temporary warmth.

"Where are those buggers? I swear they were here..."

Leliana was getting agitated as all she saw around her was snow and her boots were wet and freezing and her mood was declining rapidly. She resigned herself to her hands and knees, now sifting through the snow pile in front of her.

"Not here...where then? I remember seeing them over..."

Leliana's thoughts to herself trailed off as she realized she no longer heard or saw Shmooples and this worried her again.

"Sweetie? Where are you?"

Leliana stood up and moved towards the trail he had left in the snow and saw him finally, moving about near the other unfinished building. When Leliana saw what Shmooples was doing, her eyes widened and she moved through the snow quickly.

"Shmooples! Noooo!"

Leliana's heart sagged in her chest as she watched helplessly as the last bit of yellow flower disappeared into Shmooples' hungry little mouth and he bounded over to her, heeding her call.

Leliana sighed and shook her head, sinking to her knees. The search had been such a waste. She wanted to chastise her little friend for eating the flowers but she could never fault him for doing what came naturally to him- devouring everything in sight.

Leliana's thoughts went askew with thoughts of a suitable replacement as her knees grew damp and chilled but nothing came to her mind but words now.

Maybe words would just have to do.

Levi and I had walked to the end of the hallway past Avernus' quarters but the door was hopelessly sealed shut so we had turned back, moving through three more rooms before settling on one that appeared to be someone's bedroom, perhaps a servant's.

"We might find something in here, Levi."

Levi entered behind me and we set out digging through some more piles of books and rubble before coming up empty handed. There was not much to go through in this room though, the bare floor further in alluding to that fact.

Levi's hands went into the air.

"I just...I don't know what I was thinking coming here. I'm not going to find anything."

"I understand you're frustrated but you must remember how long it has been since all of this happened and how much time things have had to waste away. With the size of this fortress and the estimate of Wardens that were here, we are bound to run across something. It will just take time."

"Well I'm glad that one of us has such faith we'll find something. I've about given up."

I nodded, understanding how he felt.

"Sometimes faith is all we have left."

We moved onward down the hall, into more servants' quarters, even some storage areas but nothing had revealed itself yet.

I was beginning to tire of all the bending over and moving of items but I was not going to give up, for Levi's sake. He needed something to reclaim his belief in his grandmother and I would try my hardest to help him get it back.

Pulling a thick wooden box from the bottom of a decrepit shelf, my interest was piqued. Hopefully there was something of interest or at least value in this box and I discovered a tiny lock on the clasp. Just a slight effort broke it open and I lifted the cover to find an assortment of trinkets and personal items, all yellowed and clouded with time.

About to give up, I moved a piece of moldy silk to find a small book underneath and my heart stopped- a potential journal. Removing it very carefully, I tried not to get my hopes up too quickly until I opened it up and saw that quite a bit of it was still legible, due largely in part to the box that had kept it safe all these years.

My eyes pored over the pages and my throat closed up a bit as I could actually decipher Commander Dryden's name and immediately called Levi over.

"Levi...Levi! Your grandmother... She is in here!"

Levi immediately froze and started at me in disbelief and then abandoned what he had been doing and dashed over to me.

"Truly? And it can be read?"

Some of the pages were stuck together due to moisture accumulation but most of it was intact and ready for Levi's keen consumption and I handed it over, warning for him to be careful.

Levi devoured the first page where his grandmother's name was mentioned and I watched him for a bit, glad we had finally found something to make this trip anything but a failure for him.

Perhaps I should have read further to avoid anything negative that may be written.

It was too late now and I continued around the room, still searching as Levi began to read some of the journal out loud to me. His pronunciation of some words and his usage led me to believe he had been schooled publicly, if at all. My tutor at the Cousland Manor would never have let me get away with such mistakes.

"So this woman... she is an elf and her name is Fidessa. She had just came to the Peak and... she talks about... shamlins? What are those?"

Now how could I get that book away from Levi so that I could continue the reading? I could not bear to hear such mistakes made as he read but I did not want to offend either.

"Levi, I've read quite a bit about elves and I would not mind to read this if you would like. That way I can explain these words that are unknown to you."

Levi seemed okay with that and gingerly handed the delicate journal over to me and I smiled victory to myself.

"All right, let's see... Shemlens are what elves call us humans, the ones they don't like anyways. As with any race, they have their own words for different things."

Levi nodded understanding and I continued scanning the pages, summarizing what I had read as I could.

So she was an elven servant named Fidessa who had just arrived at the Peak, unsure of shemlens and is mostly afraid of even her own shadow. She talks about meeting other elves and finding them to be happy there and that made her feel safer. Day to day entries let us know she becomes more comfortable as time went on but eventually she begins to complain about certain mages making racist comments and a couple of merchants give her problems because she seems to be so beautiful of an elf, everyone wants her or wants to be close to her. She never mentions names, perhaps because she didn't know them. Elven servants were rarely engaged in conversation unless demands were being made or you happened to work for one of the few who were not so abusive.

She sounded a bit full of herself to me but I left that opinion out of what I was reciting back to Levi as it didn't matter.

Several entries down the line mentions that one day how she met a 'strong woman' in her travels from the market and the shemlen woman smiled kindly at her and told her what a great job she was doing.

"I think...she says in here that she believed it was the Warden Commander because of her armor. That she had been told of what it looked like and she thinks this was her."

"Really? Then what?"

Levi was excited for more and hung on my every word now.

"Hmmm... that's all she mentions about your grandmother. Now she's back to speaking about the merchants."

There were several more entries in which this Fidessa spoke of what she would do if the offending parties did not leave her alone and how it made her life miserable, to have to avoid them. More entries down the line revealed a savior, another elf she called Nereo. He apparently stood up to a shemlen who was bothering her and they became fast friends from that day on. From then on, she spoke continuously of Nereo, her want for more than a friendship most obvious.

Levi groaned displeasure.

"Oh no, she's in love with this elf? Now that's all she'll write about."

I could not help but laugh in agreement with Levi and he was proven correct by the next twenty entries or so where Fidessa talked of marriage, moonlit walks and how wonderful Nereo's hair is.

I quickly sifted through those entries, still laughing about Levi's comment.

"She's still talking 'bout him? Maker!"

"Levi, just be thankful she had a journal at all. At least you got mention of your grandmother and it was positive."

Levi nodded slightly, waiting for more.

I continued poring over the pages and panic stopped me.

"Wait...now she's speaking of trouble at the Peak."

"And?"

"She says that Nereo has spoken of people leaving the Peak in a hurry and that something was happening within the Wardens but they don't know what."

"Yes? What happened?"

I was tolerant of Levi's excitement and more scanning came up with another entry, made several days later.

"Next entry has her fearing for her life and Nereo's and describing that the wardens are going to be at war with King Maric's men!"

"Maker! This was the start of it!"

My heart beating quickly, I continued.

"She's writing now that the wardens suggested they leave the Peak the day before and seek refuge elsewhere but she is upset that she has nowhere else. That's why she had come to work there in the first place."

I hesitated, what I saw further along in the pages wasn't good.

"Oh no,"

"What is it, Warden? What?"

"There's not much more, Levi. The entries suddenly end."

Levi moaned loudly again.

"After all of that? There must be something else."

I moved closer to Levi, pointing to the words that finished the journal as I read them out loud.

"I pray to the Maker that Nereo and I make it out of this alive, I cannot bear to lose him. The Wardens say the King's knights will be here in three days. I will pray every day that we will..."

The print is smudged further on but we can see that this was the last entry. The rest is of the journal was blank save for dirt smudges and some mold.

Levi is speechless for a moment or so and I am not sure what else I can say.

"Well, something is better than nothing like you said before, Warden. I have to take what I can get."

"We can continue looking as well."

My words were interrupted by my stomach growling so loudly that I knew even Levi heard it.

"Have you eaten at all today, Warden?"

I shook my head, suddenly aware that I hadn't and laughed.

"No, I just remembered as my stomach reminded me."

Levi pushed himself back to his feet off the wall and helped me up as well.

"Let's get to the kitchen then and get you something to eat. It's not good to be on an empty stomach if you don't have to be. I don't think we'll find anything better than this book. Not today anyways."

"I agree."

We found our way out of the maze of corridors and got on track to the kitchen from where we could already smell dinner.