"What, by the Maker's ever-hairy ballsack, are you doing here?" Siara demanded, grabbing Anders by the wrist and quickly guiding him to a more quiet area where, hopefully, none of the members of the Inquisition would spot them. Or at least, not Cullen, not Cassandra, and not Leliana. And preferably not Jacquelyn. Siara wasn't entirely sure how many of the people here would be able to recognise Anders, and she wasn't in a hurry to find out.

"I see you haven't changed at all," Anders chuckled.

"I mean it, Anders. You're on the extremely wanted list, so many people I know want your head for the pretty price that I can't even count how many people have put on it."

"It's okay, Siara. I'm perfectly safe here. No one would dare to hurt me."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because I'm Empress Celene's advisor in magic matters."

"You WHAT?" Siara quickly checked her volume, getting a few shocked glances from some of the other guests. She cleared her throat, shutting her eyes for a moment before raising her chin and forcing a smile to her lips.

"Do I have nug shit in my ears or something?" she asked, "Or did you just say that you're an advisor for the empress?"

"You didn't mishear," Anders assured her, "I've been here for a few months."

"Does she know what you did?"

"She does, but she's letting it slide because I helped to save her life. Not many people know this, but she got quite sick a little while ago. I managed to cure her. Turns out it wasn't a natural illness, but luckily I knew how to help her."

"Oh goodie. And as a sign of gratuity, she made you her advisor?"

"Advisor in magical matters, yes."

Siara didn't know how to reply, turning away and running her hands over her hair, struggling to stay calm. Anders was busy looking over the crowd as Siara tried to gather her thoughts, scanning through the people as though trying to spot someone.

"Is Jacen here?" he asked eventually, "I haven't heard from him in a while. I tried to get in touch with him, but he hasn't gotten back to me. I suppose he's still angry with me for what I did in Kirkwall."

That stopped Siara's anxiety. She froze, slowly lowering her hands and turning to Anders again.

"You haven't heard?"

"Heard what?"

"Shit," she muttered, rubbing her left eye, feeling the slight raise of the scar through her eyebrow. "Anders, I'm really sorry. I'm far from the best person to be telling you this, delivering bad news was never my forte."

She could tell from the way the blood drained from his face that Anders was already assuming the worst. For a moment neither of them said anything. Anders broke the silence.

"Where is he, Siara?" he asked, almost too quietly for her to hear him above the chatting of nobles around them.

"He's gone, Anders. He's dead."

It shocked her how matter of factly she said it. Shocked her that it wasn't hurting as much as it had in the past. Somehow she was coping better than she had been even just a few days ago. Maybe her visit to Denerim had done her more good than she had initially thought. Anders, however, obviously didn't know how to react. He froze. It was obvious to Siara that he was retreating into his head, at least for the moment, and all she could do was stand there as his eyes began to glow with an ethereal blue hue.

"Justice, do me a favour and don't draw attention to yourself, please."

"You have nothing to worry about, Siara," the spirit, now so much closer to being a demon, replied. Siara knew that Justice was now closer to being Vengeance than Justice, that he needed to be free of Anders' body and return to the Fade. But no one knew exactly how to manage that. Or at least, that was what they used to think. Now Siara was beginning to wonder, her thoughts briefly flicking to Solas.

"How is he coping?" she asked, pushing those thoughts to the side for the moment. "How are you coping, for that matter?"

"Anders will be fine, he's just taking a moment. He always did care for Jacen more strongly than I did." Justice paused, "I can't say that I'm not saddened by the news."

Siara looked away, glancing around the room. She was a bit on edge, knowing that there were plenty of people from the Inquisition who would hate to see Anders. Or maybe they'd love to see him, so they could kill him themselves. Cullen, for example.

"How did it happen?"

It was Anders again. His eyes were no longer glowing, and he just looked sad.

"The way it usually happens for people like us," Siara shrugged, "A job went wrong. There wasn't anything I could do. Oh, and then the Conclave exploded, so even if the job hadn't gone bad I suspect not much would be different."

That caused Anders to frown.

"You say it like you were there."

"That's because I was."

"Then how did you survive?"

Siara didn't say anything. She still didn't know. She wasn't sure she wanted to know. Her thoughts turned to the growing marks on her sides, then shrugged.

"Not sure," she admitted, "but since the explosion - "

Her head snapped around as she noticed Jacquelyn making her way through the crowd towards her, Anders noticing and looking following her gaze.

"A friend of yours?"

"Not even close," Siara muttered, "but she is kind of my boss. Just pretend not to be an abomination for a few minutes, would you?"

Anders rolled his eyes, stepped back to look out a nearby window as Jacquelyn approached. She looked questioningly at Anders, but shook it off.

"I require your assistance."

"With what?"

"As much as I hate to partake in breaking and entering, I need a lock picked."

Siara couldn't help but half smirk.

"My lady," she said, "whatever has become of you? You've been around us degenerates far too long, I fear."

"Is now really the time for making jokes?" Jacquelyn asked, rather tersely.

"There are very few times when making jokes isn't suitable. Now, where's this lock?"

"Follow me."

Siara glanced back at Anders with a look on her face that said "don't go anywhere" and followed Jacquelyn. Anders gave her a smile, then went back to the window, a small, sad frown on his face as he closed his eyes, thinking about Jacen.

That look on his face…

Jacen frowned slightly and leaned his head slightly to the side. The man, Anders, looked sad. Because of Jacen. Because Jacen was dead? But Jacen knew that he could somewhat sense him. Because of the spirit inside him. Or was it a demon? Was it Justice, or Vengeance? Jacen couldn't quite tell, but he knew that there was a moment that it had seen him. Maybe not clearly, maybe it couldn't make out who he was, but he knew that it had seen him.

And it made Jacen uncomfortable. He was now so used to not being seen that having someone notice him was a sensation he didn't enjoy. But the spirit also made him feel almost closer to home, though with a touch of something resembling discomfort. Maybe fear. Apprehension might be the word to best describe how he felt around the man possessed by a spirit-turning-demon. Jacen felt like something could go wrong at any moment, like the man was a loose canon. Like the smallest misstep could send him over the edge.

Like it already had sent him over the edge, and that Jacen still hadn't forgiven him for it.

Not that Jacen could remember what it was that Anders had done. He just knew that it wasn't good, and that it had led to Jacen leaving. They had once been very close, or Jacen thought that. But he couldn't remember exactly how close. He thought maybe he could remember some shared jokes, some late nights at some sort of clinic. Maybe a kiss. But he wasn't entirely sure. But he definitely felt something when he was around Anders, even if he couldn't identify exactly what. It confused him. Confused him enough that he lost track of where Siara and Jacquelyn were, and that made him feel uncomfortable. But he figured that Siara would return. She hadn't seemed like she was finished talking to Anders.

"Ah, yes. Five Inquisition members climbing up a trellis in the middle of a ball. That doesn't seem suspicious at all," Siara smirked, slipping past Vivienne to get to the door and crouching down to get a closer look at the locking mechanism, closing her left eye so she could better concentrate.

"We do not require any of your… humorous comments."

Jacquelyn and Cassandra looked less than impressed, Vivienne giving the appearance of not having heard. Only Dorian seemed somewhat amused. Siara just half shrugged, pulling a selection of lockpicks out of her hair. She put a couple in her mouth, inserting another two into the lock.

"Have you figured anything more out about what we're looking for?" she asked through her mouthful of lockpicks.

"Just a couple of things," Jacquelyn admitted, "Briala has some agents around the place, mostly in lower areas. And Celene has a couple of apostate advisors. Leliana knows one of them, but she has not gathered as much information on the other one. She has not yet told me much about the woman, and knows less about the man."

Siara kept her eye trained on the lock. Two apostate advisors? Anders hadn't said anything about sharing the role with anyone. Not that it particularly surprised her. There was a lot that Anders didn't tell her. The important thing at that moment was that Siara didn't give away that she knew one of the advisors.

The lock gave a small click, and Siara stepped back. The door didn't open. She sighed, looking around to Jacquelyn.

"Done my part. Needs something else, though. Looking at those gaps, halla statues."

"Like this?" Jacquelyn produced one from somewhere and showed it to Siara, who nodded.

"Yup. Exactly like those. Have fun exploring."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm going to head back to the ball. I suggest Dorian, Cassandra, and Vivienne do the same. Or perhaps one stays to keep watch. Either way, the fewer of us missing, the less attention will be drawn to you."

"Are you in a rush to return to that man you were speaking to?"

There was an almost teasing note to Jacquelyn's voice, and her companions all looked varying degrees of intrigued.

"A man, you say?" Dorian asked. Siara rolled her eyes.

"Nothing like that, but sure. I want to get back to a rather important discussion."

"I'm sure you do."

Siara looked incredulously at Cassandra, taken aback that even the seeker was taking part in the teasing, then just shook her head again and walked away. It wasn't really worth her time.