[Author's Note: More blood magic, and blood in general]

"They sent her here? Why did they send her here? I thought you asked—"

"I did," Adara said, trying to keep her voice soothing as she watched Jowan pace back and forth. "I asked them to send her to a chantry. Not here."

"It's a show of pettiness, nothing more," Nathaniel said, arms crossed over his chest. "Granting your request rankled him, so the Knight-Commander made sure to do it in the way you least wanted. That's all it is."

"I'll try to find the nastiest way to say thank you in my letter to Aeonar, then," Adara said.

Nathaniel smiled, a little half-smile that always sat like a smirk on his face, whether he meant it to or not. "See, I told you that you would catch on quickly to politics."

Nathaniel served as her warden-constable, though he kept out of the business of running the arling. He said it was to make sure that no one mistook the Warden-Commander as ruler in name only while the Howe family continued to pull the strings. Adara had a feeling it was mostly that he wanted no part of it in the first place, but she never pressed him. As a human born into nobility, whatever help and counsel he wanted to give were invaluable.

"It is strange that her escort left with barely a word, though. If the Knight-Commander was trying to antagonize you, surely he wanted a witness to report your reaction to him. Something doesn't feel right," Nathaniel said.

"Have we found any sign of the other messenger?"

"None."

Adara frowned.

"Has Lily said anything?" Jowan asked. His face was a storm of emotions that Adara could only begin to pick apart: guilt, anguish, a kernel of hope, and anger at himself for the hope part. It was painful to see.

"She asked to sit in the chapel, but that was all."

"Should I—should I talk to her?"

Adara opened her mouth and closed it again, at a complete loss. "I don't know, Jowan."

Nathaniel looked between the two of them and sighed. "I will write to Mother Leanna in the city; she's known me since I was a boy. If the Chantry of Our Lady Redeemer won't take her in, I'm sure she'll find a chantry in one of the bannorns." With that, he left.

Once they were alone, Jowan covered his face with his hands and made an anguished keening sound. Adara closed the distance between them and put her hands on his shoulders. "Listen to me. This is a good thing. I know we weren't expecting her here, but what matters is that she's free now." Maybe with Lily's freedom, Jowan could find some form of it for himself. "Everything else is behind us. You have to let it go."

"I ruined so much. I ruined—"

She reached up to pull his hands away from his face and force him to meet her eyes. "It doesn't matter. It's done. Lily is alive, and you're alive. We can't change the rest of it. You're a Grey Warden now. Whatever debt you think you owe the world will be paid and then some."

He nodded and lowered his head to her shoulder. Adara wrapped her arms around him—he's still too thin, she thought—and felt him shaking with the effort to keep from crying. After a moment, he found the effort too great. One sob tore out of him that was like a dam breaking, and Adara could only hope that hugging him somehow made it all hurt less.

She held him until he quieted, then they left the study together.

The plan was for Adara to speak with Lily first. If she seemed amenable to it, then perhaps Jowan would have the opportunity to say his piece before Lily left for a more peaceful life. According to Garevel, Lily hadn't left the chapel since she arrived. Adara planned to meet her there, but she found herself stalling for time. What was she supposed to say exactly? She had only known Lily for a few hours before all of their lives were turned upside-down.

Adara picked at a letter for the Knight-Commander of Aeonar. She wanted to make sure he knew just how pissed off she was while also saying thank you. Or maybe she should sound pleased instead? That would probably annoy him far more.

She was so deep in thought that she didn't hear the first quiet knock at the door. The second knock was a forceful bang that startled her. "Come in," she called.

Adara did not expect to see Lily open the door, and she leapt to her feet. Maker, she wasn't prepared for this conversation. "Lily! Is everything alright? I asked the staff to see to anything you might need, did—"

"I don't need anything," Lily said, her voice barely above a whisper. The former sister looked so frail. How had she made the trip from Aeonar without falling to pieces? Adara hurried around the desk to take Lily's arm and guide her to a chair, noting that the sister was trembling.

"I was on my way to see you, actually," Adara said. "Nathaniel is writing to the Revered Mother in town, and then we'll send you someplace quiet. I'm sorry. When I asked for them to release you, I never meant for them to send you here." She felt like she was babbling.

Lily looked confused. "You… asked?"

"They didn't tell you? Maker, I'm sorry." Had they really dragged Lily halfway across the kingdom with barely a word as to why? "Jow—we—I—" Adara drew in a deep breath, trying to get her thoughts in order. "You never should have been there in the first place."

To Adara's surprise, tears began to roll down Lily's cheeks. "It doesn't matter. I needed to see you, and I can't wait any longer."

That didn't make any sense. "Um. Okay. I'm right here. Everything is alright. Let me get—" Adara looked to the teapot on her desk, which sat cold and empty. "Damn."

She turned, intending to go to the door and call someone to bring tea. She nearly crashed into Lily instead, who had risen from her seat with a sorrowful expression still on her face. "I'm sorry," Lily choked out.

That was a dramatic apology for simply being in the way. Adara started to say that it was fine before she got the sensation of being punched sharply in the ribs. Both women looked down at the knife sticking out of her chest, Lily's hand still on the hilt. "B-b-blessed are they who stand before the corrupt and the w-wicked and do not falter," Lily whispered.

Lily withdrew the long knife, the blade shining and wet with blood. Shocked, Adara reached up to touch the place where the knife had entered. It hurt to breathe, and the wound itself was burning. She reached out to the Fade for her magic to close the wound and was horrified to find that it felt too far away to reach. Her stomach dropped with the sickening feeling of reaching for a handhold and discovering it wasn't there. Magebane? It had to be. She had only run into this poison a few times before. How and why would Lily have it?

Lily watched her with wide, terrified eyes. "Lily, what—" Adara started to say. The words hurt coming out; she couldn't catch her breath.

"I have to, I'm so sorry," Lily whispered. "I'll finish it." She raised the knife, and Adara lurched forward to grapple it from her hands almost without thought. Even now she didn't want to hurt Lily, but she didn't want to die here either. The women crashed against the chair, which toppled over and sent them sprawling to the floor in a bloody tangle.

"Lily, stop," Adara wheezed out. She was clumsy as she struggled to gain control of the knife, her limbs not responding as quickly as they should. Shock, maybe, she thought distantly.

Adara managed to grab the knife by the blade. She did not have her magic, but her spilled blood was screaming out with another solution. All Adara wanted to do was make Lily stop and no more, and the distant whispers in her head agreed that there was nothing unreasonable about that. She was likely going to die here otherwise. You've killed dragons before. Dying here would be embarrassing, the whispers said. Even malnourished, Lily was still larger than Adara and had the advantages of both being in a desperate frenzy and not bleeding out.

Pushing back against Lily with her hand still wrapped around the knife, Adara reached out for the power she could feel in the blood steadily oozing from her chest. It was nowhere near as strong as it would be if she drew the blood herself, with intention. With a pained noise, she pulled her hand down the blade and away, releasing it to Lily's control. Another cut, more power. Would it be enough?

"Lily, I said stop," Adara said. The words came out painfully, one at a time.

It was enough. Lily froze with the tip of the knife just pressing into the flesh where Adara's jaw met her neck.

Make her slit her own throat. Was that a demon in her head, or just her own rage? It would be so easy to do, and Lily would deserve it. How dare she, the whispers said. Both women stayed motionless, save for their ragged breathing, for a long moment while Adara's flagging resolve was pitted against her growing anger.

"Put it down," she finally whispered. The whispers stopped, and it felt like they took the rest of her strength with them.

The knife pulled away from her neck and clattered to the floor. Adara released her control over Lily because she had nothing left with which to hold her. Lily still remained motionless in horror, and Adara struggled to crawl out from under her before she could regain her wits and go for the knife again. Her ears were ringing, and she was getting lightheaded.

Distantly, Adara heard the door crashing against the wall as it was shoved open. Lily screamed as she was suddenly pulled away and out of Adara's shrinking field of vision. More shouts and crashes. They were muffled, like everything was underwater. Adara managed to pull herself to a sitting position. She couldn't get enough air but breathing deeply felt like being stabbed again. She tasted blood.

Someone was kneeling in front of her, touching her shoulders and then her face. It took a few moments for her to make out that it was Carver. Oh, good. "Hey, 'Dara, are you alright?" Very stupid question, honestly. "Shit. Fuck!" Maybe he had noticed the blood all over the place. She was probably going to have to throw away the rug, Adara thought vaguely, but she would deal with it when she woke up. Right now, she just wanted to sleep. Maybe everything would hurt less after that.

Hands patted her cheeks. "Hey, hey, no, look at me." It was Carver again, sounding frantic in a way she hadn't heard before. She tried to smile at him reassuringly, but she had forgotten how. "Stay with me, alright? You're not going anywhere."

His face and his voice grew farther and farther away until she heard nothing, saw nothing, and felt nothing.