Notes: Thank you once again.

Song: Lorde – "Yellow Flicker Beat," for the first Mockingjay film.

Readers, the Siege of Kirkwall begins.


Chapter 75: The Start of How It All Ends


The Grand Cathedral of Tantervale, Firstfall Dragon 9:39.

Elthina, Divine Fidelia of the Orthodox Chantry, had gathered her Templars and lords to the war table. It was time to act. She had hoped that the attempt on the false Divine's life would succeed, because the next step would have been to swiftly take advantage of the chaos and call a Sacred Conclave to reunify the Chantry with her as Divine—excluding the apostate-sympathizing Grand Clerics of Kirkwall, Ferelden, Markham, Rivain, and Hercinia from voting, as punishment for their actions. But Justinia had survived.

Sebastian had been shocked when he had learned of the event in Val Royeaux, Elthina reflected as the prince took his seat. He had given her a look of disappointment that he had never directed at her before.

"I regretted the necessity of it," she had told him, and that had not been a lie. "But do you believe she is a heretic and an anti-divine?"

"Yes," he had said reluctantly. "She has expressed views perilously close to the Tevinter heresy about Our Lady's words regarding magic."

"You know the punishment for heresy," Elthina had said pointedly. "How else is one to carry it out when a heretic occupies the Sunburst Throne itself?"

She had managed to convince him, and in any case, the attempt on Justinia had failed. Hawke's reputation had taken a tumble from it, at least. Even if people in Orlais and the other unaffiliated nations did not believe Hawke had conspired with Jeannot, the violent, unruly conduct of a radical mage had given them second thoughts about supporting Hawke's cause, in spite of Justinia's interrupted speech. It had not been a total waste. But the time had now come for something bigger—something definitive.

Elthina gazed across the table. "My friends," she said, gesturing widely over a war map studded with figures. "The time has come for us to end this war, and we have the forces to do that now. Prince Sebastian and Chancellor Orrick have implemented drafts of all able-bodied youth and fielded a large force of common soldiers, numbering twelve thousand. This force will crush the apostates and rebels at Kirkwall. The city cannot stand against it."

Knight-Vigilant Trentwatch spoke up. "Your Perfection, I have to voice my misgivings about this. The reason for the disaster at Hercinia was that the Margravine sent her whole army to Markham. Months ago, you yourself urged the prince against throwing an entire army at Hawke!"

"My objection was not to Prince Sebastian's idea itself. The problem was that we did not have our special forces rebuilt yet. We do now."

"But..."

"The regular armies of Starkhaven and Tantervale are greatly increased. Hawke, to our knowledge, has not done that, and she will pay the price. The Templars and Red Templars are close to what they were before the harbor battle at last. What are these soldiers for, if not to fight for the Maker's will?"

Joffrey Orrick spoke up. "I instituted a draft as my allies and Divine wished, but we have to face some facts. We cannot send a force twelve thousand strong without it being seen. Markham's army may only be three thousand, and Hawke's forces only a couple, but as she has proven, she is very effective at killing! She destroyed Hercinia's army in an open field."

Samson agreed. "She uses magic like a magister and does not hesitate to enhance traditional war machines with it too. Twelve thousand troops, plus our elite forces of Templars, would certainly give her a fight in an open field—and we might win—but she is ruthless. I know. I used to serve in Kirkwall. I was there the night she ordered 'no quarter' for civilians!"

Sebastian shot the Templar a derisive look. He knew what Samson meant. They call it the Satinalia Massacre, he thought. I think Hawke should have offered mercy to those who surrendered, but what that mob did—what you did, Samson—was wrong. It was not an honorable way to deal with her.

Elthina was answering Samson. "There will be no interception of our army in an open field where Hawke can use those massed spells without fear of damaging her own city. Those who go to Kirkwall will go by the Deep Roads."

Sebastian looked up from his reverie, gaping. He had not known that part of the plan. "All the way to Kirkwall? Do we know the way through the Deep Roads for such a distance?"

Elthina's lips thinned smugly. "My priests have made contact with a pair of sympathetic Grey Wardens in Tantervale, and they have provided maps."

"But they could be slaughtered by darkspawn! They could be Tainted!"

Elthina dismissed that. "Red Templars are effective against darkspawn. Marching through the Deep Roads is a tactic that the Fereldan rebels used to sneak across their country during the Orlesian occupation. In any case, I don't mean to use all twelve thousand to attack Kirkwall. I have two more targets in mind." She pointed to the map, moving a figure to the Wounded Coast. "First, that settlement of theirs—Lighthouse Point. It is crucial to their defenses. We are going to take it and hold that ground. Otherwise there is every reason to suppose that Markham will send its militia to Kirkwall's aid by land and fight the besieging army, just as Hawke did for Markham itself. Kirkwall apparently can communicate via raven, like the University scholars. We must assume they will get messages out that way. We cannot count on shooting down the birds. We need a more reliable way to fend off Markham."

Sebastian considered that. It was true that Markham's three thousand forces could come to Kirkwall's aid—unless they were cut off. "So we send perhaps four thousand to take Lighthouse Point?" he guessed.

The Orthodox Divine nodded. "And from there, keep aid from Kirkwall."

"What is the other target that you mentioned?"

Elthina smiled. "Hasmal. We should not need more than two thousand forces to take it, if that. I do not mean to deploy until Kirkwall is firmly under siege, but Hasmal is ripe for conquest. It will strengthen our hand to add that city's forces to our own, and it will demoralize the apostates to hear of it."

Knight-Captain Denam studied the map. Their nearest neighbor on the river was indeed a soft target. But the Red Templar felt obliged to point out a glaring flaw in his chosen Divine's plan. "This may besiege Kirkwall and cut off aid by land," he said, "but what about by sea? Ferelden is also their ally."

"We are going to blockade the Kirkwall harbor, of course."

"That didn't go so well last time, Your Perfection."

"It wasn't a blockade. This time, we will stay too far out to sea to be in range of the apostates' spells. And Denam—Lighthouse Point is due north of Highever. The only Fereldan port of any significance west of that is West Hill. Ferelden won't be able to send anyone. We have the ships to annihilate that patrol, and they will have Loyalist mages and Red Templars aboard."

The Knight-Vigilant, Red Templars, and Marcher lords considered the map. It fit. It all fit. Sebastian's heart thumped.

"Now that we have rebuilt our special forces and fielded a massive army, the time is ripe to attack Kirkwall and do it hard," Elthina said confidently.


Lighthouse Point.

Fenris enjoyed his life at Lighthouse Point. Greenery, fresh air, the crashing of waves in the distance, a small but growing community of people who were hoping to make happy and prosperous lives for themselves outside the cramped dirt of Kirkwall... it was Fenris's kind of place.

And the Free Mages of Thedas were not encamped here. Only a handful of mages were serving here: a village Healer, two half-Chasind from Ferelden who were helping the farmers with their crops, and two force mages assisting with repairs and construction. No battlemages. No one using magic to wound or kill, to control or enslave.

Fenris had to admit that most of the Free Mages had not done any harm. The ones who had were those Maker-cursed supremacists, who had attempted to plot a coup and assassinate Hawke herself for not going far enough, in their idiotic opinion. Fenris was glad that his friends had emerged mostly unscathed, and he supposed it was just as well that he was here at the Point when it happened instead of in Kirkwall, because he might well have looked Hawke in the eye and said something along the lines of "I told you so"—which would have gone badly.

But, he reminded himself again, other than the assassination attempt, the Free Mages of Thedas had not actually harmed anyone off the battlefield. For Fenris, the presence of hundreds of battlemages—over a thousand mages in total when children and other noncombatants were counted—simply brought back anxieties with which he could not live comfortably. That was all that there was to it. Going to Lighthouse Point was a good choice.

He had also heard some rumors from Kirkwall traders that Hawke was slipping into a tendency to abuse her power. She had cracked down extremely hard after the attempt on Divine Justinia, and then again after the attempt on herself. Fenris had long known that she had a strong inclination to use force, and it did give him pause for a mage with such a tendency to be a head of state. But, he supposed, if the law allowed for it, anyone could have done what she was doing. The problem wasn't magic; it was the law letting it happen.

Maybe that is what is wrong with Tevinter too, bad laws, not magic... The unwelcome thought, but one he could not argue away, flitted through his mind.

Fenris snarled to himself and tried to get back to his work. He had joined the City Guard and was a First Lieutenant now, equal in status to Brennan Evighan the lighthouse-keeper, reporting directly to Aveline back in Kirkwall. He had a great deal of autonomy over things here. He oversaw the harbor, and so far, this harbor did not have the problems with corruption that Kirkwall's own did. Fenris showed no mercy to corrupt officials.

He was discussing the proper disposal of an impounded crate of stolen liquor when the clatter of horseshoes on wood interrupted him. An official from the lighthouse approached Fenris and the harbor officials, pulling on the reins of his horse to halt the animal.

He dismounted rapidly. "Lieutenant Fenris!" he barked in alarm. "The Lighthouse-keeper has seen a large fleet approaching from the east!"

Fenris was instantly on alert, the crate of contraband forgotten. "Does she think it's an attack?"

"She does," the man said grimly. "They don't look like merchant vessels. The Kirkwall fleet has been dispatched to support the patrol."

"If this is an attack," Fenris said slowly, "and it, Maker forbid, overpowers us... could Kirkwall hold?"

The messenger looked grim. "Hold? Probably, Lieutenant, but it's Firstfall. Kirkwall doesn't have that many trading vessels anchored in its harbor right now that the Viscountess could commandeer for defense. Other than what we have here, we're pretty naked. We need to try to defeat this if it's what the Lighthouse-keeper thinks it is."

Isabela! Fenris's thoughts suddenly flitted to his off-and-on lover. Currently "off," but they were always friends, and he was fond of her. The Siren's Kiss was the fastest ship in Kirkwall's entire fleet, including Hawke's ship Vengeance. And of course Isabela would want to take on the attackers—if attackers they were. But his heart pounded in fear for her.

He turned back to the harbor officials, who had listened to this conversation with fear mounting in their faces. "Ready the harbor's defenses in case anything gets through," he barked.

"Yes, ser."

Fenris grimaced at the docks. As Hawke had pointed out when she had first visited nearly three years ago, the harbor was not very defensible. A ballista and a trebuchet were now here, and perhaps they could get off a lucky shot or two if enemy ships approached, but most of the defenses Hawke had ordered were at Kirkwall itself.

Fenris steeled himself for the command he was about to give. "Those five mages," he said, "find them and bring them here. If they know any fighting spells at all, they may be needed soon."

The messenger's and the harbor officials' eyes widened. They knew about his issues with battlemagic. "Yes, ser," they said, fully cognizant of how dire this had to be for him to give such an order.


Kirkwall.

Caitlyn, Aveline, Anders, Merrill, and Petra were locked in a serious discussion about the two ongoing investigations.

"The mages are still none too happy about the forced search," Petra said, "but... credit to you, Viscountess Hawke, we did find twenty more supremacists that we hadn't known about."

Caitlyn gave Anders a pointed look. He stared back impassively. "They probably could have been found by questioning the supremacists that you did know about," he insisted.

Petra did not want to take a side in a disagreement that appeared to have spread from the public realm to the Viscountess and Consort's marriage. But Anders was correct. "Their correspondence indicated that," she said carefully, avoiding Caitlyn's eye.

Anders returned the pointed look his wife had given him. She glared.

Petra spoke hurriedly. "Their letters indicated other things, too."

"Tevinter," Merrill spoke up.

Caitlyn's eyes widened momentarily. "Sketch suspected that, and I did wonder. There were letters from Tevinter in their belongings? Definitely?"

"Oh, yes," Petra confirmed. "Tevinter names and Tevinter seals."

"So Tevinter was aiding these assassins to try to overthrow me?" Caitlyn felt a headache. "That is an act of war... but... Tevinter..." She trailed off. The Qunari couldn't defeat Tevinter. She knew very well that she couldn't.

"No, actually—not that we can confirm," Petra said. "The content of the correspondence is completely anodyne. We obviously don't have the letters sent by the locals, but the Tevinter correspondents were interested in things about how the Free Mages are living. The Council, Evelina's day school, the public services, and so on. The only noteworthy thing is that the only supremacists with Tevinter letters are Restorationists, not Potentatists."

"Not quite the only noteworthy thing," Merrill corrected coolly. "It seemed to me that there are a great many more Restorationists now than before."

"That's true," Petra said. "They began as the most extreme of extremists, the ones who wanted to recreate Old Tevinter's empire, but now they seem to be the majority of mage supremacists."

Caitlyn sighed. "But nothing to prove foreign aid for the plot?"

"Not a word. There were some letters confirming what Grace said, that Lady Harimann worked with local slaver gangs. But when we cleaned out those gangs and confiscated their letters, it was like it usually is: Their only contact with Tevinter nationals was routine, if vile, business correspondence with slave-brokers, not treasonous schemes with magisters."

"I wonder..." She trailed off. "A few years ago, before the war began, my friend Fenris's old master—and his sister, and another mage—came to me to offer a crooked and wicked deal. I would let their chosen slavers operate, and in turn they would aid me against all my other enemies. They called themselves..." She frowned, trying to remember. "I forget. But I wonder now if that group, whoever they are, made contact with the supremacists at some point, persuading them to become Restorationists if they weren't already."

"It is far from impossible, but we can't prove that from these letters."

"They were called Venatori," Anders interjected. He frowned. Where did that come from? It didn't feel like a normal memory recall. It felt like Justice was telling me... but... why?

"Oh, well in that case, we definitely did not see that name in the letters. But we will be wary," Merrill said sincerely, distracting Anders from his musings.

Caitlyn sighed again and turned to Aveline. "Any word on the Coterie?"

"I am nearly certain that the Coterie commissioned that seditious play," she said. "But this investigation is also stuck. No one has given up Harlan."

"Keep working on them. They're serving sentences for sedition anyway. Make their prison terms... useful. Offer them the possibility of leniency if they are able to give us Harlan," she added grudgingly.

"This is the difficulty of cracking the Coterie," Aveline said with a sigh. "Harlan is a murdering thug before anything else. He has elite assassins of his own who will ruthlessly take out any 'traitors,' no matter how low. I'm pretty sure now that that's what happened to the playwrights' relatives."

"Me too," Caitlyn said darkly.

"And of course, most Coterie employees are given information on a 'need-to-know' basis, so it's very hard to tell who is protecting Harlan out of real loyalty, who is afraid of Harlan, and who truly does not have information."

A loud knock on the chamber door interrupted this meeting. "Hawke! I'm sorry to interrupt, but this is urgent and crucial!"

Caitlyn was certain she recognized that voice—and there were very few people who would call her "Hawke" instead of "Your Grace" when interrupting a closed-door meeting. "Is that—"

"Fenris." Anders definitely recognized it.

Aveline went to the door and opened it. Before them stood Fenris and Isabela. They were exhausted, battered, bruised, and covered in blood.

"What in the Maker's name happened?" Caitlyn burst out, horrified. Her heart was thumping rapidly. What had gone wrong now? Why were they even here? Why was Isabela ashore? A dark, terrifying fear filled her mind.

"Lighthouse Point was attacked," Fenris said. "The docks were burned. The Point has fallen."

Gasps burst from everyone in the room. Caitlyn's heart sank. It was just as she had feared. She rose to her feet unsteadily. "Then we will prepare the harbor," she managed, leading the group out of the room. "Aveline—execute your battle plan. You too, Petra; rally the Free Mages."

"Wait!" Isabela exclaimed. She looked desperate. "Sorry, Hawke, but it's worse than that."

Caitlyn turned desperately to her old friends. For the first time, she noticed that they had not come to the Keep alone. A group of refugees had come with them, waiting and guarded behind them.

"This isn't everyone," Isabela spoke up. "The mages from the Point wanted to be left at the Gallows. They've probably already sent up the alarm. But they and these folks are everyone we could get onto my poor battered ship."

Caitlyn breathed deeply, steadying herself. "What happened?"

"The enemy attacked by sea first," Fenris said. "The enemy fleet came."

First? Caitlyn thought in despair. "How many ships?" she managed.

"At least thirty warships and converted merchant vessels," Isabela said. "The patrol between here and Highever fought, but..." She broke off, clearly upset.

"We've lost our fleet." Caitlyn could not believe it. Thirty ships of war? Orlais could probably field that easily, but Starkhaven and Tantervale? What had the schism, Templars, and Prince of Starkhaven done, beggared their cities?

Do they really hate mages this much? She knew the answer and despaired.

"Some of the ships looked like they could be repaired, but others... yes."

"They had mages aboard," Fenris said ominously. "No more than one or two per ship that I could see, but they were there. And they did damage."

"Loyalist mages," Caitlyn said, practically spitting the fraternity name in contempt. "Though I'd say traitor mages myself." She glowered.

"They also had those Templars aboard who use red lyrium."

Anders glared. "Figures."

"They did a lot of damage, Hawke," Isabela said mournfully. "The Siren's Kiss barely got away. I wanted to fight the bastards, but Fenris said that we needed to rescue anyone we could and get the word to you as fast as possible."

"You did right," Caitlyn assured them. She turned to Fenris. "You said the enemy attacked by sea 'first.' There was a land attack too, I take it?" Dread filled her voice.

"Yes, there was. At least three thousand soldiers, I would estimate, and likely closer to four. We had no chance. I thought we had a chance when I learned of the naval attack. But then the army appeared..."

Caitlyn's heart momentarily failed her. Four thousand to attack Lighthouse Point? "Maker's blood!" she cursed, appalled and terrified.

Anders was furious. "How could they have sneaked up on you?"

Something genuinely horrifying suddenly occurred to Caitlyn. Oh, no, she thought. No. Surely not...

Anders was still angry and confused. "The Vimmark Pass sentries are located north of Kirkwall, it's true, but there are Dalish and ex-Carta scouts..."

"We think they traveled through the Deep Roads."

The horrible fear was confirmed. "And that means they could have split their forces!" Caitlyn burst out. Sparks were shooting from her palms. "There could be more on the way to the gates of Kirkwall even now!" She turned to Anders in panic. "And we wouldn't see them coming until they had crossed under the mountains!"

"What do you want us to do, Hawke?" Aveline said, trying to force calm and professionalism into her voice.

Caitlyn tried to calm down too. She took deep breaths. "Aveline, activate the Kirkwall Militia and the City Guard for battle. Don't open the gates, but prepare the troops to defend the city. Go with her, Fenris."

"Can we create a rockfall in the mountains to block the Deep Roads entrances?" Fenris suggested.

Caitlyn considered it for a moment before shaking her head regretfully. "It'll take too long to get a trebuchet big enough for that set up there, and to make matters worse, they had Loyalist mages on their ships. They could have them in the army too. Mages can move rockfalls." She sighed. "All we can do is be ready for them, and we know they can attack by land from Lighthouse Point. Isabela, Petra, and Merrill, if the Free Mages don't already know, make sure they do. Get them to the harbor to prepare for the enemy fleet."

As her friends scattered to prepare for battle, she felt herself close to collapse. She swayed on her feet.

Anders' arms enveloped her. She turned to face him, but instead of finding comfort in his eyes, she saw fear.

"It may be time to send Mal, Jo, and your mother to Highever," he said grimly.

She could not argue with him or ask him if he really thought it was that bad. It manifestly was. Thirty ships of war and over four thousand soldiers. She drew away from him. "And we don't have a moment to lose," she agreed.


The children were terrified, Mal especially, since he understood exactly what was happening and what the danger was. They had little time to gather up their most precious possessions. Anders caged Ser Pounce-a-Lot. He hated to part with his cat, but the animal would be safer in Ferelden with family.

Leandra had nothing to say. She was shocked, her face ghastly pale and drawn in lines of stress. She simply gathered her possessions—and insisted that her brother Gamlen do so too. She knew it was hopeless to expect Charade to flee instead of fight.

They were cloaked, their chests carried behind them by staff, stepping out of the inner Keep into the bustling great foyer of the outer Keep, when someone else came to her with a grim expression: Varric.

"Enemy's at the harbor, Hawke. I'm sorry. They can't get out safely now."

Leandra let out a cry of despair, followed by Mal's shriek of fear. Jo burst out crying.

Charade turned to Anders. "What about the Mage Underground passages? The ones that your friends used to smuggle mages out years ago?"

Caitlyn's expression was one of utter devastation. "Blocked off and closed up with rockfalls after I liberated the Circle here and those passages became security risks rather than doors to freedom."

"Security risks," Varric repeated ironically. "And now we're as secure as prisoners awaiting—" He broke off at the murderous glare from Anders and Caitlyn, and the look of shock and horror on Mal's face.

It was too late for Anders, though. He was already provoked. Caitlyn could only watch as he grabbed Varric's arm and hustled the dwarf into a nook, blue light flashing in his eyes.

"Do not joke like that in front of my children," he growled, half in the spirit's voice.

"Whoa, Blondie and other guy," Varric said, hands up. "You're right. I was just trying to..." He trailed off. "Never mind. It was a stupid idea."

The men emerged from the nook. "Your father says that I was being an idiot and that we're going to defeat them just as we always have," Varric lied to Mal and Jo.

The almost-twelve-year-old boy gave him a hard look, but did not contradict Varric in front of his little sister—or terrified grandmother.

Caitlyn took charge. "Ready horses for Anders and me," she said to a servant. "We're going to the harbor to rally the Free Mages. We did defeat enemy ships once. There are more of them this time, but mages do not run out of arrows or break their blades! We'll do it again!"


The situation at the Gallows was—tense. Caitlyn and Anders immediately noticed the difference between this attack and the Battle of Kirkwall Harbor over a year ago.

"The ships are too far away!" Anders exclaimed in dismay.

He was right. The enemy fleet had moored outside the range of the Free Mages' spells. Alain, Petra, Sketch, and Merrill were leading the mages, but their spells were not reaching the enemy. Even as Caitlyn stared, a fireball from a valiant mage lofted through the air... and fell short, striking the water and dying.

"They learned their lesson well," Caitlyn said grimly.

"Look!" Anders pointed at a cluster of battlemages under Alain's command. They were clearly trying to muster a massed spell like the ones that had won the harbor battle and aided in the Battle of Markham. He and Caitlyn spurred their mounts to ride closer, hoping to motivate the mages to cast their spells farther than any they had ever managed to cast individually.

They watched in dismay as the mages' combined spells created a powerful lightning storm—significantly short of the fleet. The battlemages collectively groaned, then fell away, discouraged, as their storm crackled harmlessly over the sea surface. It almost looked to Caitlyn like the Templars aboard the nearest enemy ship were laughing at the mages.

"Can you get it farther out?" she pleaded, though even as she did, she realized that they could not. The ships were well beyond her own spell range and Anders' too. They were simply too far away for a mage to strike.

"I'm sorry, Your Grace," Alain said. "It's just too far."

Caitlyn nodded, a lump forming in her throat.

"If we could just get one of the trebuchets out here!" she mourned. "Load it with a big stone and have force mages extend its range..."

"The causeway is too narrow."

Caitlyn and Anders whirled around to observe that Aveline had joined them, looking as grim as everyone else. "I thought about it too," she said, "but the only devices small enough to get across the causeway wouldn't be able to loft very large rocks. And mobile trebuchets are inherently less stable, since they can be moved fairly easily. They can't support heavy stones either without collapsing or tipping over."

Caitlyn sighed. "Elthina, or whoever, learned from their defeat last year," she said savagely.

The real fighting was occurring at sea. The handful of surviving Kirkwall-Highever patrol ships had pursued the enemy. Caitlyn and Anders did not even need spyglasses to see what was happening.

With the Siren's Kiss disabled from combat, Teyrna Haelia, a warship of Highever, was leading the counterattack. The sailors in that ship and the other remaining ones had occupied the aftcastles to rain arrows and bolts upon the enemy. There were also ballistae aboard certain ships. Some of the sailors even appeared to be armed with exploding flasks, including firebombs. Occasional blasts flared in the distance as the battle continued.

But they had no mages aboard. The only mages at Lighthouse Point were the five who had come back with Fenris and Isabela.

"All the mages are here," Caitlyn groaned.

And the enemy did have a mage or two aboard each ship. The Templars and Red Templars could not put out fires; they could not note as the Kirkwallers moved the sluggish ballistae and put up arcane shields in front of the guessed impact point of a ballista bolt. But the Loyalist mages could do those things, and they did. Caitlyn and Anders watched as the Loyalists thwarted attacks.

Maker damn them, Caitlyn thought in a surge of fury, they are fighting us to defend their captors. She wondered for a moment if they had been forced to, as the Hercinia mages had, before deciding that she doubted it. With just one or two aboard each ship, this would be only a third of their combined Circles at best, likely much less. These had chosen this mission. As she stole a look at her husband, she saw fury and betrayal in his face too.

Then she looked back toward the city and its docks. There was the state ship Vengeance. There was the battered Siren's Kiss. But other than that, there were no large ships.

There are no large ships in our harbor. The awful truth sank in for Caitlyn as she realized just how bad their situation really might be. There were a handful of fishing boats and two merchant vessels that happened to be docked, nothing that could engage this fleet with a chance of winning.

The schism chose its time after the big trade sendoff of the autumn harvest, she realized, hoping it would mean that the harbor was largely bare. It was.

"Can Ferelden come to our rescue?" Merrill asked quietly.

Caitlyn had not noticed that she was even there. She glanced around and saw that several of her friends had joined her and Anders. Everyone was somber and grim—and the answer she had to give Merrill did not help.

"Ferelden's navy isn't as big as Tantervale and Starkhaven's combined," she said reluctantly, "and if the enemy controls Lighthouse Point now... The only noteworthy port in Ferelden west of Highever is West Hill." She rubbed her eyes. "As for our other allies, Markham doesn't have a fleet, but Hercinia does, and they face the same problem: getting past Lighthouse Point."

"They're leaving!"

At Alain's words, Caitlyn instantly put a spyglass to her eye. The enemy fleet was indeed starting to leave, heading west in a broad arc. The Teyrna Haelia began a ponderous turn to pursue the departing ships. Apparently the captain believed that the enemy was fleeing. That made no sense to Caitlyn. They had no reason to flee. Why...

Aveline drew her breath sharply. "This is not good. Hawke... how many enemy ships do you count currently?"

A sinking feeling filled her as she counted. There weren't thirty. That was clear. Not even close to it.

"Fourteen," Anders said. His face was drawn in fear, and his eyes were wide as he stared at Aveline. "You don't think—"

"I do."

The Teyrna Haelia had sailed far to the west when the group saw it.

The other half of the enemy fleet approached from the east.

Kirkwall's harbor would be surrounded on both east-west entrances, any escape due south blocked by the islands and the tumult of the Waking Sea. The ship that had attempted to pursue the first wave of attackers would be trapped—the biggest ship remaining to Kirkwall.

Caitlyn sprang into action, some deep reserve from within overcoming the fear and despair that were threatening to overpower her. "Free Mages! They're trying to cut off our friends from Highever! Are we going to allow that?"

"No!"

"The Templars and heretics are too cowardly to approach you, because they know what will happen—the same thing that happened before, that we did before!" She tried to motivate them. "So we'll take the fight to them! Our friends at sea are doing their best, but they don't have mages aboard. Who will volunteer to fight the Templars from"—she hesitated only a moment before taking the plunge—"your own leader's ship, the Vengeance?"

"Hawke! Are you sure that's wise?" Isabela hissed, taking her aside.

"She's the best ship we currently have available," she said stoutly. "What kind of leader am I if I demand that they risk their lives but I'm not even willing to risk my ship? What message does that send them?"

Isabela had no response.

Aveline was also stunned by Caitlyn's order, but she did see the possibility that it held. She and the mages' leaders quickly organized the volunteers: the best elementalists from the previous battles.

"You are not getting aboard that ship yourself," Aveline warned her when she left the mages' boarding in the hands of their own Council. "You or Anders."

Caitlyn's gaze narrowed.

"You're not doing it."

"I agree with her." Anders' voice was hard. He gave his wife a look. "If you want to board that ship, you'll have to fight us both to do it."

"I wouldn't have put it quite like that, but... yes," Aveline said.

Caitlyn scowled at them both. "Fine! The last thing we need is the mages seeing their Viscountess fighting her husband and her general." She headed over to the mages who were preparing to board the ship.

There was no time to lose, and they were wasting none. Isabela, with Caitlyn's permission, took command of the Vengeance. There was no one she trusted more.

"Don't let the Templars and heretics take out the ship!" Caitlyn urged the elementalists. "We are mages! We can do things that others cannot." Ideas came to her like raindrops falling in a storm. "If they breach the ship, use a force field to keep water from getting in. Use force spells to loft patching over it, and hold that in place while it's affixed! If their traitorous mages attack you, counter them. And you know how to do massed spells. Follow Petra and make them count!"

The twenty-odd elementalists boarded the ship quickly, and Isabela took them out to engage the ship that was currently attacking the Teyrna Haelia.

"If they can get the Teyrna Haelia into port safely, we could load a lot more mages into her," Anders murmured, squeezing her hand. "She's much bigger than the Vengeance. We might be able to wipe out the enemy fleet if we could get mages and war equipment on that ship... stones, whatever else..."

That was the idea. Caitlyn desperately hoped that it would work.

The Vengeance reached its target, a massive carrack whose name—Sister Amity—was painted on its side. Caitlyn, Anders, and the others at the Gallows put their spyglasses to their eyes to get a better look.

The elementalists mustered their spells. Caitlyn could see the energy rippling through the air around them. They were going to cast a firestorm. That, she thought with excitement, would be very effective multiplied twenty-fold, even against such a large ship as Sister Amity.

She was not watching the countermoves on Sister Amity, but Anders was. "Oh no!" he exclaimed.

She turned to look. A large group of... what were those things? Red Templars? But they did not resemble humans anymore. They resembled, more than anything else, the Templar corpses that she and Anders had discovered underneath the Chantry in Hercinia: overtaken and eaten up by red lyrium, the vile substance melding with flesh to varying degrees, some much worse than others. Except that these were, in some way, alive. They were alive, they were powerful, and there were enough of them to match the elementalists' numbers.

They raised their hands and brought down an enormous Smite, super-charged by the vile lyrium that they took.

The mages' blooming firestorm went out like a snuffed candle.

In the next moment, a ballista bolt from the Sister Amity ripped through the mages, killing at least two immediately—Caitlyn felt sickened at the huge splash of blood, visible through the spyglass—and scattering the rest.

Anders lowered his spyglass, looking ill. He appeared ready to vomit.

Then an even greater disaster struck.

The first strike happened in less than a second. A large, lethally sharp chunk of red lyrium broke off the massive torso of one of the things and shot through the air, aimed directly at the captain of the Teyrna Haelia. He had no time to dart away. The lyrium chunk, as large as a breastplate and as sharp as a sword, struck him, a large spike going all the way through his chest. A horrific explosion of blood ensued as his body was ripped apart and his head and limbs were separated. Where there had been a living man one second earlier was now nothing but a pile of gore and dismembered body parts.

Caitlyn clutched Anders' arm, gaping in horror through the spyglass. "Maker's fucking breath!" she burst out, sickened, nauseated, and appalled.

In the next second, the Vengeance was struck by another chunk of red lyrium. This chunk did not strike anyone directly, but it blasted a hole in the hull, just above the waves. The Red Templars continued the assault mercilessly. Another chunk of lyrium struck the ship.

Then a ballista bolt made an incredibly lucky hit on the Vengeance's mainmast. The wood fragmented in a burst of splinters as the tall pole crashed down, smashing the aftcastle and sending the ship bobbing. A rush of seawater entered the hold through the gap that the first red lyrium chunk had made.

Anders had lowered his spyglass after the horror on the Vengeance's deck and did not have the detailed view of the violence that Caitlyn did, but he could tell well enough what had happened with the naked eye. Turning aside, he took the spyglass from her and brought her into his arms.

But only for a moment. She was still the Viscountess of Kirkwall, and she could not collapse in front of her people. She pulled away from him and commanded, harshly, "Get them out of there! Tell Isabela to pull back and not engage!" Aveline instantly signaled to the captain from afar.

"Cait," Anders said, eyes wide in concern, "you don't want to—"

"They can't fight that," she said. "If anyone gets close enough to attack those things, it'll be close enough to be attacked." She grimaced. "It is simply too dangerous to engage them at sea. We could lose the best elementalists we have, and with an army of thousands still to fight. That's not an acceptable trade-off. We just don't have the kind of ships that stand a chance against theirs. Not even the Vengeance... and she's damaged now. We've got to find a way to destroy them or drive them off from here."

"The mages can't reach the ships with spells powerful enough to do any damage," he said quietly, looking down. "Not unless the enemy gets closer... and they learned from the first naval attack not to do that." He groaned as he realized something. "This is a siege, not a direct assault. They're going to blockade and besiege Kirkwall."

She knew he was right, but the thought was deeply discouraging. "We'll figure something out. We have to."

The Vengeance, under Isabela's skilled captaining, had broken away from the fight and was heading back to port with no... additional... damage. The hold still contained seawater, but a team of mages had put up—and maintained—a force shield that kept any more from rushing in. That, at least, had succeeded.

But the other ship was unable to retreat. In a matter of just two minutes, the Teyrna Haelia was surrounded. Several more Red Templars appeared on deck of the Sister Amity and began to bombard the Teyrna Haelia with chunks, blasting holes in the hull. The enemy mages added to the assault with force spells to fold in the edges of the holes, increasing their size. The warship tipped, taking on water, and began to sink. Crew dived into the water, but were quickly shot down.

Caitlyn, Anders, Aveline, and the rest of the officials onshore watched in misery and horror as the flagship of Highever slid beneath the waves.


A messenger's horse clattered down the causeway to the Gallows, where Caitlyn, Anders, Aveline, Isabela, and most of the mages' leadership stood. After the sinking of the Teyrna Haelia, the enemy ships had done exactly as Anders predicted, and stayed at sea, entering into a blockade formation. They lined up in a semicircle around Kirkwall's harbor. Nothing could get in or out.

The messenger halted and dismounted, his face dour and desperate. "Your Graces!"

"Donnic!" Aveline rushed for her husband.

Their armor clinked as they hugged briefly, but he turned quickly to the others. "The rest of the enemy army has arrived. It's a lot larger than we thought."

Caitlyn suppressed a curse at this news. "Fenris reported that it could be four thousand that attacked Lighthouse Point."

"The army at our walls does not appear to have seen combat, and they number, we estimate, nearly six thousand."

Caitlyn almost collapsed in shock and horror. "Six thousand?"

Donnic nodded gravely. "I'm afraid so. Tantervale and Starkhaven certainly could field an army ten thousand strong between themselves, and it looks as if they split it, sending four to take Lighthouse Point and six to attack us." He glowered. "They appeared from the Deep Roads entrances."

Caitlyn felt sick. She turned to Petra, who was very shaken from her experience aboard the Vengeance but at least had survived it. "We have to leave some mages here—and I'll have reinforcements come from the Guard and Militia—but we need to defend the walls."

"I understand," Petra said quietly.

Caitlyn turned back to Donnic Hendyr. "We're under siege. We will endure it and break them. They have numbers... and they have those Maker-forsaken things that they have made of some of their Templars... but we have nearly a thousand mages, most of whom can fight. And we have already harvested our food for the winter. They chose to make this attack in early winter when the harbor is nearly empty, so we couldn't commandeer and outfit many merchant vessels, but the downside to them is that we have food stored and they don't."

"They could have convoys bring it to them from the outside," he pointed out. Caitlyn grimaced; she had not wanted to think of that. Donnic continued, "The numbers are daunting, and with their capture of Lighthouse Point, they've cut off any aid from our allies that could come from the east."


The Kirkwall Militia had readied ballistae atop the city walls and mounted trebuchets on guard tower rooftops. The scattered Arcane Guard mages were already waiting beside their crossbowmen and longbowmen comrades-in-arms. After the Mages' Council and Aveline determined deployment of the rest of the Free Mages, the numbers of mages at the walls increased rapidly.

It was not a moment too soon. Aveline would not hear of allowing Caitlyn to stand atop the walls and look, making herself a target for a well-shot arrow, but Caitlyn and Anders did go to the north guardhouse to listen to Donnic's description of the forces and their capabilities. The enemy had brought their siege equipment too, and they were already readying stones to be launched from trebuchets with the aim of shattering the gates.

"Free Mages!" Caitlyn commanded. The mages listened closely. "We're going to do something that hasn't been done outside Tevinter: We're going to show Thedas the capability of magic for defense against a siege. Everyone knows what you can do offensively. Now we're going to prove what we can do to protect a city against those who would destroy and invade it."

The mages who had been deployed to the wall cheered somewhat listlessly.

"I want wards kept up to repel their stones and other projectiles that they'll be flinging at us. To deflect them right back into their own ranks if you can manage it!"

Sketch spoke up. "We can do that, Your Grace. Wards, definitely, to absorb the damage into the Fade instead of the material world. They'll need to be reinforced all along..."

"Do so. I'll make sure everyone operates in shifts so that they can rest, and"—Caitlyn winced at the thought; what if the siege goes on so long that we run out? But she plowed ahead—"gets their lyrium."

"For deflection back at the enemy... we can do that if a force mage catches an incoming boulder with a spell."

"Good!" she approved, smiling back. "Make them pay if they try to hurl rocks at us! Send their accursed boulders right back where they came from. Make them think twice about trying it! And of course, if they get close enough to be hit with elemental and entropy spells..."

"Certainly, Your Grace. They're dug in out of range, just like the blasted ships, but if they break ranks for any reason, we'll make them pay for it."


Mal, Jo, and Leandra were worried and upset when Caitlyn and Anders returned. Seeing their faces, and realizing that their lives likely depended on outlasting the siege, Caitlyn could not help but feel that she had failed them.

The enemy came by the Deep Roads by land and overwhelmed the patrol at sea, she tried to reason. I couldn't have stopped the naval attack. But I could have had sentries watching the Deep Roads entrances. I could have had patrols down there. I didn't even think of the Deep Roads. Even if we hadn't been able to stop the attack, I would have had enough warning, perhaps, to get my children and my mother safely to Highever.

She expressed this guilt to Anders in private. He instantly comforted her with an embrace.

"We don't have enough forces to have had them on permanent deployment there," he said. "And if we had, they likely would have gotten Blight disease eventually. Other than dwarves and Grey Wardens, most people who stay in the Deep Roads long enough do, unless it's a place that has been purged of Taint."

Caitlyn's gaze hardened. She remembered what had happened to Carver. "Then maybe the enemy army will have an outbreak of Blight disease."

Anders was more doubtful of that. "They'll probably have a handful of cases, but I wouldn't count on it spreading. They're an army. They'll do what... must be done." He scowled at the floor. "And they clearly have supporters in the Grey Wardens, to have even been able to navigate the Deep Roads all the way from the Minanter here. Someone gave them a map. They might just make any infected people Wardens."

That consideration infuriated Caitlyn, but she knew he was likely correct. The Grey Wardens did have a permanent posting in Tantervale. And the repressive religious extremist culture of that place could easily have influenced some of the Wardens' own thinking, to the extent that it overpowered the Warden tradition of having mages in the ranks as equals.

"Anyway," Anders continued more comfortingly, "this wasn't your fault. You've done the best you can. I don't think the siege will endure against the power of defensive magic."

"I hope you're right." The worried faces of Mal and Jo entered her memory again. She burrowed into his arms. "I can't fail them, love."

He knew exactly whom she meant. "You won't."


After the shock of the attack and the tragic loss of the Teyrna Haelia, the city of Kirkwall fell into a weird state of altered normality surprisingly quickly. They had been at war for almost three years, after all, and a sense of fatalistic inevitability had developed in many people's minds about a siege. It would come someday—and now it had.

And at the beginning, it did not alter daily life that drastically.

The farmers between Kirkwall and Lighthouse Point had gathered the autumn harvest. The city had already stockpiled grain and preserved meats and vegetables for its own food kitchen. Caitlyn gave an order to grocers, who had stockpiles of food as well, that they were to ration sales. No individual customer was allowed to buy up food for a private stockpile. Widespread hunger would not be an issue... for a while, at least. There would be rationing, but Kirkwall was in a state of war and had become grudgingly used to scarcity.

The mage merchants, both the Lucrosians and the collective, were the first to see a severe decline in business, since they mostly sold luxury goods, mage goods, special liquors requiring magical distilling, and curiosities. For the time being, the rivalry between those groups was gone entirely, as they closed up shop temporarily and found places defending the walls or in the armory to create enchanted weapons and defenses. Some non-mage shopkeepers grumbled about the fact that the mage competition had an alternative that they themselves did not, but for now, it was only a simmer.

The Free Mages stationed at the walls did their duty, reinforcing their shield wards with each shift, preventing boulders from smashing through the defenses. Aveline and the mages' own leaders were fiercely disciplined, making sure no one was overtaxed and each shift got only the lyrium that they actually needed. The battlemages also stood guard, ready to put out any spell from the enemy mages that happened to make it past their wards. Most of the Loyalist mages were aboard the blockading ships, but there were a smattering in the army too, as Kirkwall learned.

The people of Kirkwall were initially afraid of the enemy war machines, but when it became evident that the Free Mages were keeping their boulders at bay with defensive wards and repelling spells, they accepted the existence of the enemy army as a part of this odd new daily life. It was a menace in the background, but not a direct threat to them—yet.


But the Viscountess and everyone close to her could see that this state of affairs did not need to last too long. A fortnight after the siege began, with both Kirkwall and the enemy locked in a bitter staring-down stalemate, Caitlyn called a meeting of the War Council to discuss their options.

"I have not heard from Markham," she said. "Has anyone else received a raven from them?"

"I have not either," Aveline said. "I would expect to hear from them eventually, but I would not expect them to come to our aid. They're our ally, and they owe us for pulling their own chestnuts out of the fire... but I don't think they can help us this time."

Cullen had managed to drag himself to the meeting, despite the look of bleary-eyed lyrium withdrawal in his face. Caitlyn was not sympathetic. Indeed, she had given Ser Thrask the order to reduce the lyrium supply for all his Templars, and had asked Grand Cleric Petrice to do the same for those who were serving her heretic-hunting Suprema. If everyone else had to sacrifice, they bloody well did too. And the mages needed the lyrium now.

But despite his pain, Cullen was able to reason and speak his mind. "I agree with the General," he said. "I'm sure they want to help us, but their army is only three thousand strong... and isn't part of it deployed to Hercinia to help that city rebuild and stay safe?" When Aveline and Caitlyn nodded, he continued. "A thousand-odd soldiers, no mages... they would have to travel overland, and they'd be annihilated by the four thousand at Lighthouse Point."

Caitlyn knew they were correct. Markham's forces would never even get to Kirkwall. Hercinia had no army to speak of anymore. And Ferelden...

"Ferelden has a large army," she said bitterly, "an army that brought Orlais to its knees forty years ago, but they would have to send it by sea and then fight their way through the force at Lighthouse Point. They'd need to send at least six thousand people, too, to have a good shot at winning. Otherwise it'd be the same as what Markham faces, sending a small force into a pointless massacre. And I'm not sure they have the ships to send that many soldiers."

No one disagreed with her assessment.

She sighed. "Do we have enough food to withstand the siege?"

"We do," Aveline confirmed, "if we ration it carefully. I've had people make a strict rations plan for that. We'll get through the winter. The problem is... spring." Her expression turned dark and sour.

Caitlyn understood exactly why. "The enemy would then control the farmland. They'd be able to grow things and we... would not."

"Exactly. If the siege goes on until spring, we're in serious trouble."

"Any ideas for new weapons?"

Cullen spoke up. "There is a team of dwarves and mages who have a plan for a lyrium bomb," he said.

Anders interjected. "I heard that the Grey Wardens in Amaranthine used those against the darkspawn forces. I didn't see them in action, but they were apparently powerful."

Caitlyn did not miss the hunger in Cullen's eyes at the mention of lyrium. She gave him a repressive stare, one that indicated "I know why you're interested in that project, and don't you even think about it." He took the message and gazed down at the table. "How much lyrium would it take to build enough of these bombs to blow the enemy army to the Void?" she asked.

Cullen did not want to give the answer. "The dwarves on the team think... all of it. All of the supply that we have in the city."

Caitlyn considered. That's a gamble, she thought bitterly. If it worked, it would break the siege. If it didn't, I would have hobbled the Free Mages. "And could we deploy these bombs safely to the enemy ranks?" she asked.

"I... don't know. These bombs are set off by collision, and apparently it does not take much. It'd be a big risk to use a trebuchet, for instance."

"That's true, from what I heard from Warden Sigrun," Anders admitted.

Caitlyn instantly made up her mind. "Then we're not risking it. It sounds like there would be a pretty decent chance that we'd blow up our own walls instead."

"There's one more thing I should warn you about, Hawke," Aveline said darkly. "Kirkwall is the sole safe point at this general longitude of the Waking Sea. South and southwest of us is the Storm Coast, named for good reason."

"I know that."

Aveline looked gravely at her. "My point is that this blockade has cut off all legitimate trade across the Waking Sea—except for those who decide to ally with the schism in order to keep coin and goods flowing."

Caitlyn and Anders exchanged horrified looks. That had not occurred to them.

"You will also likely meet with pressure to capitulate if the siege goes on," Aveline warned. "From Orlesian nobles and merchants in particular, I would expect."

Ire rose in Caitlyn like volcanic magma. She slammed her palms on the table. "I will not!" she shouted. "I will not betray my city, my fellow mages, my children, like that! We can outlast a siege regardless of what a lot of self-absorbed, arrogant Orlesian elite think! They haven't even allied with us! If Orlais did ally with us, that could end the war! They should consider that if they start to have difficulty getting expensive spices from Antiva and think that means I should surrender!"

"I am not saying you should," Aveline snapped. "I am saying that you will meet with pressure to do so. I am warning you, as an advisor. I know you're angry and frightened. We all are. But I'm not your enemy, Hawke."

Caitlyn softened, feeling bad for lashing out at her friend. "I know."

Aveline softened as well. "And as for Orlais, they haven't allied with us because they're getting ready to fight their own war."

"Right. They're too busy taking sides to determine who sits on a throne."

"Too many wars are about that sort of thing," Aveline agreed sadly. "It's usually an appalling waste of resources and life. Not always; sometimes there really is a tyrant who needs to go, but usually. And certainly in this case."

"To the Void with Orlesian nobles, then," Caitlyn declared. "I have met with pressure to do many things that were wrong. I met with pressure to give up the fight, surrender Fenris to a slaver, surrender Isabela to the Qunari, share power with Meredith Stannard—remember that, Anders?" she asked in an aside. He squeezed Caitlyn's hand supportively, giving her strength to continue. "Even surrender myself, Anders, and our children to Meredith's Circle. I'm not going to bow down before a siege. We will outlast them."

"I will do everything in my power to see the city and the armies through this," Aveline vowed. "We can hold them off at the walls, and we have a clear advantage—during the winter—as far as food is concerned. The bigger problem for now, as I see it, is that blockade. It has cut off trade, and there will be talk among neutral nations about allying with the schism to have passage granted—or, worse, to crush us and end the war in their favor."

"Then it sounds like we need to get rid of the ships fast," Anders said.

"That would be the key, but is there any conceivable way to do that other than magic?" Aveline asked. "Which would return us to what we tried the day the siege began, and we nearly lost the Vengeance that way."

Anders sighed, rubbing his head. No one had an answer.


Notes: Starkhaven is the most populous city in the Free Marches and has the best natural defenses (its high, thick walls are canon; Tantervale's granite walls are my idea—I think it would be defended well too though). Their population and wealth have been a dagger ready to strike for a long time.

A blockade of Kirkwall's harbor would have seriously negative impacts on international trade. Everyone would have to go by land or brave the dangerous parts of the Waking Sea. That will be a major problem next chapter.