Dak and Leyla had received an anonymous letter from someone wanting assistance and was willing to provide some money.

They went over to the Wounded Coast with Merrill, Isabela, and Varric, and there they found Thrask standing outside the cave.

"Master Dak and Mistress Leyla," said Thrask. "Arianni tells me you sought a better path than the Circle for her son Feynriel." He hesitated a moment. "I thought perhaps you would be willing to show mages a kindness once more."

"Can I get the details before I agree?" Dak asked.

"There are a number of apostates hiding in these caverns. I was hoping you might speak to the group and convince them to surrender peacefully before my fellow templars arrive."

"Who are these apostates? Where did they come from?" Leyla asked.

"These are the mages of the former Circle at Starkhaven. It burned to the ground, and their templars sent for us to relocate the survivors. Unfortunately, they escaped on the journey. With their phylacteries burned, it has been nearly impossible to track them."

Dak was beginning to see the problem. "Do the other templars intend to do worse than recapture the mages?"

Thrask sighed, then nodded. "Sir Karras is a knight-lieutenant of the templars, a great crony of Meredith. Should he find apostates hiding from pursuit, Meredith will consider him justified in murdering the lot of them."

Dak and Leyla looked at one another and nodded.

"We would not like to see this become a massacre," said Dak.

"Thank you. Your compassion does you credit. These mages have shown they attack templars on sight. You have a better chance than I to convince them they are better off alive in the Circle than free and dead. Sir Karras hunts them as well. If they have not surrendered by the time he arrives, this will be a blood bath."

They hadn't gone far into the cave when an apostate caught sight of them. Almost immediately, the long-dead corpses scattered around the cave got up and drew weapons. They quickly slaughtered the undead and approached the loan apostate.

"Maker's blessing! I thought I was going to die down here in this… this tomb." The young man was clearly terrified, but given the circumstances, Dak couldn't blame him. "Are you with the templars? Please, I need to go back to the Circle. I never wanted to get involved in this." He shuddered. "Not when he started making those… those things."

"Who is 'he'?" Leyla asked.

"Decimus… it was his decision. He kept saying the templars would label us blood mages if we fled—why not use it if it's our best tool?" He shuddered again. "He slit his wrist, and the magic… it rose from the blood and woke the skeletons in the cave." He gestured. "I ran. Decimus is wrong—blood magic is a work of evil, not just a power the templars keep from us for spite."

Upon hearing that blood mages were involved, Dak groaned. Why would any mage think that using blood magic would get them exactly what they want? More often than not, it had the exact opposite effect.

"Decimus is the leader of these mages?" Leyla asked.

"He's crazy. He said with our phylacteries gone, no one could find us. We would be free… I think maybe he set the fire. There must be a demon working through him. No normal man would profane the dead like this."

"The templar Thrask is waiting outside," said Dak. "Surrender to him, and you won't be hurt."

"I surrender. Take me to the templars! I don't want anything to do with this… blood magic." He gestured at the path he'd run down. "The rest of them, they're still following Decimus. He's gone mad. I think he'd kill us all just to take the templars down."

The young mage then ran down the tunnels.

Dak looked at Leyla. "Blood mages, huh? Looks like this might turn into a massacre after all."

"There may be others just like that mage," said Leyla.

"We can only hope."

Deeper in the tunnels, the mages were engaged in a work of ritual magic. A bearded man was directing the others. He let the spell die when he saw them enter.

"They're here!" he announced. "The templars have come to take us back to the Circle."

Dak and Leyla shared a disbelieving eyebrow. Clearly, the man was insane because how could you mistake any of them for eyebrow templars? One of them was a dwarf, and another was a Freefolk elf. Never mind that two of them were wielding staffs. A tattooed woman apparently agreed with his assessment. "Decimus, no. Stay your hand. These are no templars."

"What do I care what shield they carry? If they challenge us, the dead themselves will meet the call."

Leyla quickly responded and raised his staff, unleashing a powerful firestorm on the corpses. A few of the mages joined in, clearly blinded by their leader's rhetoric and began casting spells. Merrill began shooting some lightning, and Varric fired several bolts from Bianca. Isabella jumped in, tossing knives willy-nilly, and Dak, taking advantage of the chaos, quickly struck down their Decimus.

The tattooed woman was the only one that didn't fall back. Instead, she was kneeling before Decimus' corpse. "You killed him. Oh, Decimus, you should have listened to me, love…" She glared up at Leyla. "I saw what you are. How could you murder one of your own just for daring to defy the templars."

Dak considered that to be rather unfair, considering that he was the one that attacked first, not to mention that he was a blood mage.

Leyla narrowed her eyes. "I do not need to be a part of the Circle to know blood magic is unnatural."

"I warned him. I told him once he marked himself as a blood mage, that was all anyone would see." She stood looking at them pleadingly. "Please… we only want our freedom. Without your help, the templars will execute all of us for Decimus's crimes."

Dak looked up and saw dozens of desperate faces looking back at him. Merrill was watching him with huge eyes. "If not in the Circle, how do you intend to live?"

"I hear there are places outside the Free Marches where the templars are not so vigilant."

"You followed him," Dak pointed out. "You should all face punishment."

The woman narrowed her eyes. "If you try to turn us in, do not think your companions' talents will go unremarked. Do not doubt the templars will let extra apostates share our punishment."

"And she shows her true colours," said Leyla

Her face was desperate. "Will you buy us time to flee Huttsgalor?"

Thrask was considerably more innocent than these mages. "Leave it to me. By the time I'm done, these templars will swear the sky is green." He and Thrask would think of something.

"Your confidence almost makes me believe you…" She sighed. "But I spent two weeks travelling with these templars. They strike first and think after. They are far easier to kill than to fool."

When they got outside, they found that more templars had arrived. A man he assumed to be Sir Karras was glaring at Thrask. "Are you trying to tell me this boy is all that's left of the apostates?"

"I ran away when they began to use blood magic, ser."

"They are not in the caverns, Sir Karras." Thrask was already trying to save the people who'd suggested killing him. "I have thoroughly explored—"

Sir Karras noticed them as they emerged from the caverns. "Who are they?"

Dak sighed and then glanced at Varric. "Tell him who we are."

"What's the trouble, Sir Thrask?" Varric kept his voice casual. "I'm astonished that Sir Thrask did mention that Sir Dak, knight-lieutenant of the Order in Midgard, was here at the Knight-Commander's personal invitation."

Thrask blinked and then began to nod. "Uh, yes. Yes, I was just about to tell him."

"We've completed our investigation of the mages in those caverns." Varric shrugged. "There is no one left inside."

Dak nodded. "The apostates resorted to blood magic and ended up turning on each other."

"Their leader fled the battlefield ahead of us," Varric said. "Bloody coward left his own people to die. I caught only a glimpse, but it looked like the back passage led out to the back passage leading out to the coast. I sent your men that way."

Thrask turned to Karras. "We can still catch up if we go around the caverns. That's the faster route."

Judging from the look on Karras' face, he bought it. "The coast, you say? Men, fan out and search the short. We will retrieve these corpses later." He actually bowed towards Dak. "I will commend you to the knight-commander, knight-lieutenant Hawke. It is reassuring that our comrades from Midgard are here to assist us in this matter."

Thrask waited until Karras was out of earshot. "Thank you, my friend."

Dak nodded and watched him go. Once it was safe, the woman appeared out of the cave. "I didn't think you could do it. Truly you must be able to charm a miser out of his last coin." She was staring at them. "I did not think any of us would leave those caverns alive."

"If it makes you feel better, officially, you were 'killed during escape.'"

"I will do my best to seem cold and rotted, then." She held out her staff to Leyla. "Please accept my staff as a reward. It has the mark of Starkhaven on it—I dare not carry it now." She smiled. "It has served me well." She gestured for the other mages to follow her. "Now, we must flee as far as we can before nightfall. Thank you, friend."

"Glad that's over," said Leyla and looked at him. "So, do we have enough coin for Bartrand now?"

Dak counted the coins they had and added them to the amount Thrask had given him. "We've got enough," he said.

"Then we better go and see Bartrand, and let me do the talking when we inform him of this arrangement," said Varric.

"They allowed blood mages to escape?" Cassandra yelled furiously.

"There was no evidence that any of them were blood mages," said Varric. "Dak and Leyla did what they thought was the wisest choice at the time, given the information."

"Regardless, it does not look good to them. Can you imagine how the templars would respond if they caught wind of this?"

"You make it sound like we were on good terms with the templars to begin with. Besides, in case you had failed to listen, Thrak was more than happy that the mages were slaughtered. And I imagine that would have been just as bad if not worse if Dak and Leyla hadn't done what they did."

Cassandra sighed. "Very well, do please continue."

They soon returned to Bartrand, who was his cheerful self.

"Varric!" Bartrand glared at him. "Where did you get off to? And what are you planning."

"Bartrand. So suspicious. I have, in fact, brought us our future partners." He gestured at Soldier and Sunshine.

Bartrand reaction was exactly as Varric envisioned. "What? Partners! You stupid, nug-humping dirt-farmer. Why did you go promising something like that?"

"Because if we don't get this expedition moving, Brother, then we won't have any profits to argue about, will we?"

Bartrand glared, but relented. "Hmph. Maybe you have a point."

"There's so much love here," said Soldier. "It's very comforting."

Varric tried not to smirk.

"What I'd love is the coin to back up my brother's confidence. How about it, humans?"

"We do have your coin, in fact." Hawke gestured at his little brother, and Junior handed over the coin purse.

"You're joking." Bartrand poured the coin out in his hand and just stared at it.

Varric was unsuccessful at trying not to smirk. "What did I tell you, Bartrand? Not bad for a couple of humans."

"All right, partners. A full share of the profit between you two, me, and Varric." Bartrand held out his hand, and they shook it. "Now we just need a decent entrance into the Deep Roads."

Soldier handed over the maps. "These might be just what we need."

Bartrand spread the maps out. "What's this?" The look on his face was great. "Three… four entrances into the Deep Roads, all in the Free Marches? Where did you get these?"

"A wizard did it," said Blondie, and Varric had to fight the urge to laugh.

Varric almost started to laugh at Blondie's deadpan response.

"Well, colour me astounded. We just pick the most promising one and go." Bartrand nodded to Hawke. "Time to wrap up any business you have in the city, my friend. We'll be gone for several weeks at least." He started to walk away. "Let me know as soon as you're ready, and we'll head out."

Dak and Lelya took this opportunity to wander around while they waited for others to arrive. When they passed a couple of dwarven merchants, one of them eagerly walked up and shook their hands.

"Ah! So you are the new partners? A pleasure to meet you!" he said. "Bodahn Feddic, purveyor of goods both common and rare, at your service!" He then moved over to a boy next to him. "And this is my son, Sandal, who is as brilliant an enchanter as you'll ever find! Say hello to the nice humans, Sandal."

"Hello," he said dumbly.

It was clear that Sandal wasn't the brightest tool in the shed.

"We shall be accompanying your expedition and providing the needed supplies. It's all quite exciting, isn't it?" said Bodahn.

"You aren't worried about venturing into such a dangerous place?" Dak asked.

"Not with such fine protection!" Bodahn smiled. "But I digress. Do you wish to peruse my wares? Or perhaps make use of Sandal's unique talents?"

"Entrapment?" Sandal said happily.

"Just so."

Leyla frowned. "You two don't see the sort to hire onto this sort of expedition."

"My son and I have never played it safe, never kept to the tried and true roads. In fact, we have just returned from adventures while accompanying the Hiccup, the Heroic—legendary Grey Warden, vanquisher of the Blight and now King of Midgard!"

Dak looked rather surprised. "So you helped defeat the Blight?"

Bodahn waved his hand precariously. "In our small way, perhaps. We do not fight at His Majesty's side, of course! The Hero of Midgard is a fine man. And I am sure that he will be a fine king as well, along with his beautiful Queen. After all his accomplishments, may he and those who travel with him find even greater success."

Aveline's new duties as guard captain prevented her from leaving with them, and Isabela was having too much fun in Huttsgalor, though her type of fun was deeply disturbing and frightening. He decided to both bring Merrill and Anders along since a few weeks of the city was probably not a bad idea.

Fenris was coming; that was a given. That would give them an extra sword hand apart from Dak's. Two swords, three staffs, and Varric's crossbow should provide more than enough protection from any trouble.

"We've chosen one of the hidden entrances. The Deep Roads there will be nice and virginal, ready for a good deflowering."

"Now there's an interesting image," Varric said.

Bartrand continued his speech. "It'll take a week for us to get to the depth we need, and there are bound to be leftover darkspawn from the Blight." He gestured excitedly. "Big risks, big rewards."

"Risks, rewards—what could be better?" Dak grinned.

"Exactly," Bartrand said. "Now, before we… wait. Who invited the old woman?"

Dak and Leyla spun around and saw their mother had arrived. "I'm sorry to interrupt, sir dwarf, but I need to speak with my children."

Dak and Leyla sighed as they approached their mother, knowing what this was all about.

"Mother, no," said Dak. "We talked about how important this is."

Leandra sighed. "You don't have to do this, I am making headway in an audience with the viscount?"

"That could still take a long time, and we learned quite a bit of attention from the templars as it," said Dak.

"Mother, we're doing this, and you can't stop us," said Leyla. "We'll be fine, I promise."

"It's not fine," said their mother on the verge of tears. "You can't both go. What if something were to happen to you? You are going down into the Deep Roads, and we barely escaped the darkspawn the first time."

"It's not like we're going to look for the darkspawn, and there are a lot more people here for protection than when we were running from them in Midgard," Leyla pointed out.

"We'll be back, I promise," Dak assured her.

"You can't know that," said their mother.

The two of them gave her a big hug before they returned to the expedition.

"Personal drama over with?" said Bartrand. They nodded. "Then let's get underway."

"Been a long time coming, eh, Brother?" said Varric.

"But it has. The Deep Roads await!"

They then began to move out, but no one ever expected what would happen when they stepped foot in the Deep Roads. They could never imagine the horrors awaiting and what fate awaited them.