Ser Emeric got to me before Meredith did. His armor looked like someone had gone at it with a sledgehammer, and he was more shuffling than walking, but he was alive. So was Ser Hound, the mabari keeping one paw raised as he awkwardly hopped along beside his master.

"Lady." The old man tiredly pulled his helm off, a relieved gasp escaping him. "You're wounded."

"I noticed." I let my head fall back against the building I was leaning against. "But they didn't get an artery or I'd be dead already."

"You should sit."

"Can't move my legs." I admitted. "They're locked up. And the one in my calf went all the way through."

He glanced down, wincing. "Ah."

"You two all right?"

"I doubt an inch of my body shall not be bruised tomorrow." He replied, "But I am otherwise all right. Ser Hound is merely being dramatic."

The Mabari puffed out its cheeks, limping over to the apartment's doorway where he collapsed in a dramatic heap. I smiled a little at the war-hound's behavior, then asked more quietly, "Thrask?"

Emeric shook his head. "I have not seen him... Knight-Commander."

I turned just enough to see Meredith approaching, two other Templars with her. One must have been her squire because they were both extremely short and carrying her sword, while the other had the same rank markings on their armor as Thrask did. Emeric drew himself up, thumping his fist on his battered chest plate. She seemed about to return the salute when I forced my back to straighten as well, grinding my teeth against the pain.

Something like approval flashed in the woman's features when I forced my shaking left arm to bring a fist to my chest in salute to her.

"Ser Emeric." Her fist struck her chest, "Auxiliary Captain. You both seem the worse for wear. Where is the Knight-Lieutenant?"

"Missing, Commander." Emeric replied. "I last saw him engaging a Maleficar who sought to flank us."

Her head snapped around us, a quick sweep of her eyes covering the square and streets. "I do not see his body. Knight-Lieutenant! I want a full sweep of the Alienage from here to the breach!"

"Commander!" A male voice came from the Lieutenant's helm, the man rushing off to bark more orders. Other Templars promptly began racing in every direction, forming up into kill teams before vanishing down side-streets.

Behind them a small coterie of City-Guard was arriving as well, escorting what looked like half of the city's Revered Mothers and Chantry Sisters. I didn't seen Brennan among them, but I did spot Aveline giving orders.

And everywhere there were bodies. Many just wounded, most utterly still.

Meredith took a step closer, blocking my view. When she spoke again her voice was... not soft, but she was clearly making an effort not to sound as harsh as usual. "Alexis, find a healer at once. Captain Maeve? Your report. What happened tonight?"

I shook my head against a dizzy moment, finding my voice. "Payback for helping the Templar Order. This was... a raid and a hit all at once."

"Explain from the beginning."

"Uh, yes, sir. Messere, I mean." I cleared my throat, "I was with Deshyr Tethras at the Hanged Man when another of his runners alerted us that a bounty had been placed on my head by persons unknown. We decided to cut the night short, and I headed home with my roommate and another companion. The Flint Company ambushed us a few blocks out."

She nodded once, "You eliminated them?"

"Yes. Then we returned to find more of the company trying to force their way into the Alienage. We killed the group pinning down Ser Thrask and Ser Emeric, and hit the mercs from behind at the same time they ran into the Night's Watch on the stairs."

I ran her through the rest of the battle, avoiding any mention of Merrill at all. Told her the rough formation we'd assumed, the abomination and mercenaries that had attacked us. The follow up mages who'd arrived to join in the fun, and the arson that the Flint Company had started on before the Templars had arrived.

Petrice arrived just as I finished recounting the archer that had shot me, at the way he'd let Isabella kill him just for the chance to finish me off. No idea what that had been about, and I wasn't sure I wanted to.

"My lady!" She rushed past Meredith without even acknowledging her, "By the most holy Andraste, why are you still standing!? Someone get me a cot at once! A dry one!"

The pair of guards who'd apparently been told to escort her shifted awkwardly, looking around as if they wanted to find someone else do it.

Meredith's glare sent them both fleeing without her needing to say a word.

"...really wish I could do that." I mumbled, feeling a little loopy. Blood loss probably. "Have to admit it's pretty badass. You just glare at men and they piss themselves. I'm seriously jealous."

A gray-blonde eyebrow rose... and Meredith's lips twitched at the corners. "I am needed elsewhere, the fires must be brought under control. Send a runner as soon as the Captain is cognizant once more."

Petrice said something in reply, but things got a bit fuzzy for me after that. At least until I heard a snapping sound, and two hands grabbed my shoulders. I looked down in time to see Petrice setting the tip of the arrow aside... and yanking the rest of it out of my leg.

I think I called her mother something unpleasant in German when she did that.

I definitely called her father something a lot worse in English when they got me down onto the cot, and she pulled the one from my hip.

"Shhh..." She rested a hand on my forehead as I panted, "They're both out. Drink this, my lady."

The potion tasted like stale, syrupy mints, but it made the pain fade away quickly. I barely felt it as she dabbed at me my wounds, pouring something else over them when she finished cleaning them out. She gave me a second potion before she got started with the needle and thread, and I made very sure not to watch that part.

Shina arrived somewhere in there, and Emeric departed with Ser Hound. She passed something over to Petrice when none of the Templars were near, the Sister making my Dream-catcher vanish into her robes.

The rain had stopped by then, leaving everyone damp, but drier than we could have otherwise been.

Petrice let me sit up, but insisted on a pile of blankets and pillows being shoved behind me to stop me from straining myself. When I tried to start asking questions, maybe give some orders, she further insisted I drink a full cup of water, and eat a bowl of potato soup that someone had grabbed from a nearby apartment.

Only then was I allowed to try act like a failure of a leader again.

"How bad?" I asked Shina.

"Bad." The older woman replied quietly. "We won't know the full count until morning, or maybe the day after tomorrow. Hundreds are dead, at least. The Templars and our archers say the Flints and Mages killed everyone they could between here and the Western Wall."

"...shit." I whispered. "Who... who was supposed to be on watch for that wall tonight?"

"Fiolya, Atrith, and Yerion. We haven't found them."

...fuck. Not Fiolya. Not another teenager killed because I'd fucked around with canon, and I'd found out what happens to idiots that did that.

They got a whole lot of people killed.

"Officers?" I asked quietly, too weak to weep for the girl. I had to keep it together until I was alone. Then I'd have a total collapse.

"Alive." I was ready to sag in relief before she added more quietly, "Mostly. Elowen lost her sword arm just below the elbow. Zatris is unconscious, he was knocked from a roof by a spell. Broke an arm and a leg landing on them, but he should live. Nethon's trying to count how many of the Watch are still alive, but our best guess is less than half. Nearly everyone who is alive is wounded in some way."

...shit.

Shina took a deep breath, then let it out. "Elder Leras refused to leave his home. It was one of the ones torched, and the fires could not be doused. The roof collapsed while you were being stitched... we don't believe anyone could have survived. Especially not an Elder who couldn't walk without aid."

"...fuck. Fuck!" I closed my eyes. The old man hadn't deserved death. Especially not like that. "Motherfucking..."

A hand found mine, Petrice squeezing tightly, saying nothing.

"They found Thrask." Shina went on. "He's alive and should stay that way, but they gave him very strong herbs to deal with the pain of a blood-magic spell. Several Sisters are tending to him now. He'll need a long time to recover."

Okay. Okay. So, my friends and hand-picked officers were all still alive. If a little maimed. That was good. That was... something, against all of the other deaths.

"Apart from that, the fires are mostly under control." She finished quietly. "Only a few dozen homes went up, but most were empty. Everyone fled east and north, but came back when the Templars arrived. We put out the flames on the Vhenadal, and hope that it is merely scorched rather than dead."

Good. That was a good hope to have, especially with how fucked everything else was. Hundreds of Elves were dead, all because I'd been so arrogant I'd thought I could help improve things. That I could use the deaths of bastards that Hawke killed in canon to make the Chantry and Templars help us out a little.

I'd succeeded there, and earned the loathing of the city's Mages. Of the lower-class citizens of the city who were determined to keep us on the bottom of the social order. Fuck. There was probably a giant hole in our wall to the west. An easy way in the next time the mobs of Lowtown decided we needed to be put back in our place.

Hundreds were dead. Hundreds more might be joining them.

"Hundreds dead." I heard myself whisper. "Leras. Fiolya. God damn me. How did I fuck up this-"

A hand covered my mouth before I could finish, Petrice's voice hard. "My lady, you still stop that self-pitying speech this very moment."

I opened my eyes, staring into hers.

She didn't remove her hand. "You have done nothing but serve your people since you arrived in this city, despite the fact that you had no duty compelling you to do so. You have fought, killed, bled, and nearly died so that the Alienage might be a safer place for the Elves of this city. Tonight's events are not your fault."

Yes. Yes they were. They literally would never have happened without my interference. I knew that in a way she couldn't.

"Tonight is the fault of those too ignorant and stupid to understand something the simplest of truths." She went on, "That they are not the only ones who suffer in an unjust world. That all must strive to walk in the merciful light of our Maker together. That it is no competition over whether Elves or Mages are more oppressed."

Couldn't argue that part, though. I may have had the lion's share of the blame, but I could definitely find a lot of anger for the Mage Underground right now. Bastards had probably used all of the gold Anders had taken from the Thaig to pay for the mercenaries. Gold that was supposed to have been used to help Mages escape, to live better lives, had instead been wasted on... what?

Slaughtering Elves who had nothing at all to do with the oppression of Mages? Just to intimidate the rest of us into not coopering with the Templars?

"It is not. Your. Fault." Petrice finished more gently, leaning in to kiss my forehead. "Remember that, my lady."

It was at least eighty-five percent my fault.

I was ready to continue that fight when she removed her hand, at least until Meredith returned, her squire beside her, still carrying that big damned sword.

"Is she stable?" The Knight-Commander asked, clearly speaking to Petrice.

The Sister nodded, though continued to crouch at my side, Shina standing guard on my other side. "She is, Knight-Commander. She has been told of the losses."

Meredith nodded slightly, eyes on mine. "A hard won victory is often as demoralizing as any defeat, Captain Maeve. You must not allow your men to see you weak."

Heh. What a fucked up world I'd created. One where Sister Petrice was my spiritual advisor, a Spirit of Desire was my psychologist, and Meredith mother-fucking Stannard was trying to buck up my morale.

"Chin up, Captain." She said firmly, if quietly. "Your people held against nearly twice their number of professional mercenaries, backed up at least seven maleficar. Take pride in what they did. Without your leadership and their courage, this entire Alienage would be aflame, and we would need weeks to count the bodies."

Without my 'leadership' this attack wouldn't have happened.

"Trying, messere." I let out a sigh, already tired of people trying to 'help' me. "Petrice? Can I get up? I need to see how bad the wall is."

And get away from Meredith before she tried to touch me. Magical exhaustion and the Dream-catcher were evidently suppressing my magical aura, or whatever it was that Templars picked up on, but she'd be able to tell if she actually touched my skin.

The sooner I was away from her the better.

"You," Petrice said very firmly, cutting off my attempt to cleverly flee. "Are not going anywhere, my lady."

"Indeed not." Meredith turned to her squire, "Trevelyan! I want a full report for myself and the Captain on the damage to the wall. Go."

Trevelyan? My lips parted in shock. No, there was no fucking way-

"Yes, Commander!" Ah fuck. Yeah. That was the British sounding voice actress all right. If younger. A lot younger. "I'll be back at once!"

She paused just long enough to hand her master's sword back, then raced off in a clatter of armor.

Meredith clearly noticed the way my mouth had opened. "You know of my squire?"

"No, it's just..." I shook my head. "...she sounds like she's twelve."

"Thirteen."

I blinked. "You're joking."

The leader of the Templars shrugged. "It is a common age to begin as a squire. The girl is raw in her skills, but devout, dutiful, and loyal. She will make a fine Knight when she comes of age, and a better Templar than most of the recruits I am forced to hammer into shape."

Petrice let out a quiet huff, "And getting the girl out of Ostwick did her a great service. I have met her family, she will not miss them."

"Indeed." Meredith replied, a momentary look of distaste crossing her features before they smoothed out again. "But we can discuss my squire later. Tonight we still have much to do. I am told that the Alienage's leader was among those slain. Who now rules within the walls?"

"Don't know." I glanced to Shina. "You?"

She shook her head. "Probably Elder Tamnar? But they would only be temporary until all of the Elders could vote among themselves on a replacement."

That news made Meredith scowl, though not as deeply as I was.

"Odds they'll pick one of the ones who hate me?" I asked.

"High. Especially after tonight." Shina admitted, "We can tell them how much worse it would have been without you all we wish, but they will certainly use our losses to cast blame on you."

Meredith cleared her throat, her scowl upgrading to something even darker. "I am unfamiliar with Alienage... politics. Educate me."

"It's a mess." I told her bluntly. "Elders have all of the political power. A third of them hate me for demanding a Chantry be built, more than half of them hate me because I oppose arranged marriages, and even the ones that like me think I'm holding out because I can't teleport them all to my homeland."

Shina coughed quietly, "They also hate that Elder Leras was blocking them from forcing you to marry one of their sons to get access to your tremendous wealth."

I grunted, "That too."

"I see." Meredith crossed her arms, looking around as the Guard and Templars began carefully pulling bodies around. Arranging the Elven dead under the burned Vhenadal, and simply piling the mercenary corpses near the stairs. "And yet your position is secure?"

"I'm rich enough to leave if I want, and they know it. So they can't push me, at least for now." I shrugged a little. "I think they were waiting until I bought and paid for the full set of arms and armor for the Watch. Once that was done, Leras and I were pretty sure they were going to try and arrange for my dismissal or ambush me with a marriage."

She hummed again. "If this... new Elder opposes you, what shall that mean for your cooperation with the Templars?"

I thought about it, trying not to think that I was talking to Meredith from a cot while I lay wounded. "Uh... short term? I think you saving us tonight's going to keep the cooperation going. Harder to say long term."

"I see." Her fingers drummed on her own armor once, then twice. "How long it will it take order to be restored? Both before and after this... vote is to occur?"

I could only shrug. "No idea. Days or weeks?"

"Weeks." Shina supplied.

Meredith pressed her lips together. "...no. That will not do."

Well. That was depressingly ominous in all kinds of ways. I was trying to think of the best way to ask what the hell she meant, politely, when a serious of shouts and curses came from across the square. Men and women were still dousing embers, tending to the wounded, or hauling corpses, but all of them seemed to turn just as we had.

Then several of them were swaying in place as if jostled, jumping back with startled calls as someone ran through them.

Shina started to step that way when a woman emerged from the chaos, sprinting right at us. My self-appointed bodyguard started to move to intercept, but locked up on realizing that the other woman was completely bare above the waist, and only had a tattered skirt below there. She was absolutely covered in bruises, and her head was shaved, making her pointed ears stand out.

I didn't blame Shina for freezing. Even Meredith seemed taken aback, at least until the girl threw herself at me.

"No!" Petrice barely managed to grab her before the impact, grunting with the force of it. "She's wounded! She-"

The girl burst into tears, and I finally recognized her features under the damage. "Fiolya!?"

She somehow twisted free of Petrice's grip, half-falling on me as she sobbed. I managed to get my arms around her, feeling her burying her face into my neck and shoulder just as I often did to Isabella or Merrill.

"Fiolya." I felt my racing heart slow as a wave relief came over me. Considering I'd practically lived with her for a few weeks, I barely knew the girl, but... I should have. I'd given her my room, yet I'd hardly spoken to her.

I would be better than that in the future. I had to be better than that.

"You're alive... thank God. We thought you died at the Wall." I murmured, hugging her as softly as I could.

She kept sobbing, her body wracked with the harsh breaths of it.

"It's all right." I tried to sooth her, reaching up to stroke her head, feeling for any burn marks, or whatever had scorched off the hair she'd been growing in imitation of my old style. "There was too many of them, and they had abominations with. You couldn't have stopped them."

"...Lady." Shina's voice was very quiet.

I glanced to her.

She licked her lips, swallowed, then nodded to the girl she was standing behind. "She... has blood on her thighs. The inside of them."

I froze in place, my heart feeling like it stopped with the rest of me. "What."

"There's also..." Her voice faltered. "...you can guess."

"Maker." Meredith murmured, politely turning away. A second later her voice rose in a sharp bark, an arm rising to point at someone. "Templars! Seize that man! Now!"

I jerked my head around, still holding Fiolya's against me in time to see several Templars drop bodies and salvaged swords to lunge for a young man in the armor of the Watch. He flailed for a moment, then a sharp punch to his face with a gauntlet left him limp.

At Meredith's command they hauled him over, forcing him to his knees a few paces away.

"Yerion." Shina took a step closer to him, frowning between him and the Knight-Commander. "He's alive as well? He should have been on the western wall with Fiolya and Atrith."

"His armor is clean." I heard myself growl. "Draw his sword. Check it for blood."

One of the Templars did, yanking it loose, holding it high for us. His voice was hard. "It is clean, Messere. There are no notches of battle either, and the quiver on his back is full of arrows. This man never engaged the maleficar or their mercenaries tonight."

My fingers twitched. "Petrice. Please take Fiolya. Shina? Give me your spear."

Petrice was quiet when she spoke, "You shouldn't stand."

"I don't care." I growled, not looking away from the young man. "Fiolya? Sister Petrice is going to help you, all right? I'm going to take care of this."

The girl's sobs didn't stop, but she didn't resist when Petrice came around, gently pulling her away. Shina returned quickly, offering me her weapon. I took it, and began taking deep breaths to prepare myself.

Meredith started to move forward, and I just as swiftly held a hand up, palm out. "No, Knight-Commander. My men must see me stand on my own."

That look of approval returned, her chin lowering in a small nod. "Yes. They must. Stand, Captain."

I did... and it hurt like an absolute bitch. My first step sent pain throbbing up from my calf. The second step made my hip throb. I ground my teeth, ignoring the pain, leaning heavily on the spear as I limped over to the man of the Watch.

Yerion had recovered enough to see me coming, and all of the blood drained from his face. "I... Lady, I-"

"Shut. Up."

He did.

His silence let me realize that most of the sounds around us had died off. Humans and Elves alike were stopping everything they were doing, staring at us. Unblinking and silent even as the great mass of the clean up continued behind them.

"Where is Atrith?" I asked, my voice deadly earnest and not at all quiet.

The young man swallowed, eyes on my feet. "Dead, Lady."

"How?"

"...Fiolya killed him."

I nodded slowly. "Why?"

"I... please, Lady, I didn't mean for this to hapen! I didn't know it-"

"Why!?" I did my best Meredith impression, "Why did she kill him!?"

Yerion couldn't have been much older than Fiolya. He didn't have the spine to stand up to me, not when I was screaming in his face.

"We took her to her family!" He whimpered, "They brought her intended from Starkhaven! Said we had to bring her, to fulfill the pacts their families made! Atrith said we had to, that Fiolya had to understand her duties as an Elf. She... she fought us. Struck him with her dagger before her intended and I could subdue her."

I nodded absently. "And where is in her intended?"

"He is her husband now. They said the old words to marry them."

"Where," I raised my voice again. "Is her intended?"

"He is... with their family, Lady."

"And he was the one who raped her?"

The man flinched. "He... is her husband, Lady. It... was his right."

"I see." I told him. "Templars? I would consider it a very great favor if you would strip this criminal of his vestments. They belong to the Watch, and he sure as hell isn't a member anymore. Then tie him, and leave him at the base of the Vhenadal until I return with the other criminals."

Yerion whimpered, "Please Lady. Mercy."

I don't remember lashing out with the spear. Only that I nearly fell, and had to plant it hard on the ground to stay upright, and that the boy's cheek was red from where I'd struck him with the back end of it.

"You," I snarled, "Were on the Western Wall! I put three people on that watch every night because it's right up on the street, where anyone can try to climb or breach it! The same wall that's now in fucking pieces, with hundreds of our people dead beside it!"

Tears began to run down his face. Pain or shame, it didn't matter.

"How many of those hundreds might be alive if you'd been there to warn them?" I spat, venting all of my self-loathing into fury at him. At the sheer fucking idiocy that had added gasoline to the fire of my mistakes. "How many people might be alive if you hadn't been holding down your own fucking comrade so someone could rape her?"

How many fewer deaths would have been on my conscience?

Yerion shook his head, mouth working soundlessly.

Meredith spoke for him. Her voice as cold as mine. "Templars. Obey the Lady of the Alienage in this."

"It shall be our pleasure, Knight-Commander." One of them growled, already reaching down to start ripping the teen's armor off. Yerion didn't resist. He just cried as they stripped him of everything that marked him as a member of the Watch.

I started limping past them before they finished, Shina falling into step on my right. She must have spoken to Petrice while my back was turned, because my Dream-catcher was now hanging from her belt. Stopping who knew how many demons from whispering to me.

We moved together, though Meredith stayed behind for some reason.

"Everyone in the Watch who can stand!" I shouted, both hands on the spear, trying to keep a steady pace. "Up and with me!"

They rose. Many were as unsteady on their feet as I was, leaning on their weapons. Here and there Templars stepped up, offering arms, half-carrying exhausted Elves forward. Others were frantically held down by the Sisters treating them. I saw one woman whose leg was so badly mangled it would certainly have to be removed try to get up, and it took a Templar practically sitting on her to stop her from rising.

Nethon appeared on my left, his bow in his hands, his voice loud. "Clear a path!"

Everyone got out of the way. Elves of all ages stared at us as we walked past. Old, young, it didn't matter. Many still held buckets for water, quietly passing them along, tossing them over the buildings nearest those that had burned to make sure no embers caught. Others held arms full of damp blankets, pausing their delivery to the wounded to let us pass.

A Templar with a helm in the shape of a lion's head gave us a deep bow, inspiring others to do the same.

Cullen spoke as I limped past, "We shall clear space around your tree for the trial, Lady Maeve."

I nodded without saying anything. Just led my procession down the eastern street, heading toward their home near the Eastern Wall. As we drew closer, Shina began giving orders to those behind.

"Spread out. I want two people at each street leading away from the home in case they try to run for it." She ordered, "If they do, one warning, then loose your arrows."

Someone, another woman, growled behind me. "One warning is more than they deserve."

"Quiet!" Shina snapped back, "The Lady will see justice done tonight! Do as you're ordered, now go!"

People darted past, bows in hand. Half were Night's Watch. The others were Templars. I followed them far more slowly, turning the corner onto the street where Fiolya had once lived with her family. The streets here were quiet. Everyone was out helping to fight the fires, to tend to the wounded, to count the dead.

Everyone but the fifth home on the right, whose door was open.

"-he'd better bring her back!" A man shouted.

"He will, he will." Another replied, "Yerion is a good lad."

"He'd better be. Your daughter certainly wasn't the dutiful wife you promised! I'm still bleeding from her nails on my arm."

"We will speak to her! It's just a phase, she'll understand her position with time. I promise!"

"Good. I want to leave for Starkhaven as soon as your man returns her."

I let some of the fury in my chest out when I shouted, "You are going nowhere!"

Fiolya's father scrambled into the doorway in time to catch the side of my spear to his face. I didn't hold back on either. I swung the damn thing like a baseball bat, aimed right at his cheek. Something cracked in a way that was far too satisfying, a choked off scream coming out as he recoiled back inside.

Of course I'd fallen flat on my face if not for Shina grabbing me, holding me up.

"Nethon!" I called, as if I wasn't being held up by anyone. "Get them out here! Bring them to the Vhenadahl!"

He surged forward, two of the Watch and five Templars following him in. Within a minute they were out, two people each holding on to the arms of Fiolya's father, mother, and rapist. The others emerged with torn clothing, gagging all three before they could scream more than a little.

I watched as they were hauled off... then took a deep breath, nodded once, and tapped Shina's arm. She let me slowly return my weight to the spear, stepping back once she was sure I wasn't going to fall again.

"They have to die, Lady."

I took one step, paused, then looked at her.

She held her chin up, and repeated herself. "They have to die, Lady."

I considered her words in silence... and then I turned, and began shuffling my way back to the square.

Shina followed, saying nothing more.