Solas was waiting beside his desk when Siara arrived, clearly doing his best to look like he hadn't been slowly getting more annoyed at how tardy she was being. In fact, it almost looked like he'd completely forgotten she was supposed to be meeting him. So instead of greeting him like a normal person, Siara announced her arrival by calmly dropping another book on his already rather large pile. Solas didn't even jump, simply regarded the book for a moment before straightening with a sigh and looking around at Siara with an unimpressed expression.

"Was that really necessary?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at her. Siara smiled back, arms folded across her chest as she shrugged.

"I thought it was."

"Of course you did," Solas sighed, shaking his head. "I suppose I should be grateful that you're in a good mood, at least."

"Oh, I'm sure you're going to ensure that doesn't last."

That brought a smile to Solas' face.

"Indeed," he agreed. "You're not the most patient student I've ever had."

"Patience is a waste of time," Siara shrugged.

"It's an important skill. I'm surprised no one has told you that before."

"Oh, they probably have. I'm just not very good at listening, either," she grinned. "Now, when are we going to actually start the lesson, and where? Jacquelyn's been watching me like a hawk," Solas gave her a withering look, and Siara held her hands up. "Hey, it's not my fault this time. Cullen broke things off with her and she likes to blame me for everything that goes wrong in her life."

Solas stepped around his desk, removing the book Siara had tossed on the pile and placing it off to the side, picking up the next three books.

"I believe you're reaching a point where we should be focussing on more practical skills," he told her.

"Yes!" Siara wilted slightly under the withering look Solas gave her. "Sorry."

"Your reaction is just surprising, considering your dislike for your magic in the first place."

"Maybe it's growing on me slightly," Siara shrugged. "It's part of me now. Might as well accept that fact."

"You still want to keep it a secret, though?"

"Well, of course. I still don't understand why I'm suddenly able to throw fireballs at people or freeze them. I don't want to become a study-nug."

"It would be useful to have someone for you to practice combat with," Solas muttered, motioning for Siara to follow him towards the door. She fell into step with him as they made their way through the corridors.

"I asked Barris if he'd be willing to. I did him a favour and he agreed to help me. He won't be able to help for too long, though. He's visiting his family soon."

"Isn't it good we're going to the templar barracks, then," Solas half smiled, and Siara looked at him in shock.

"Wait, what? Why?"

"It's the perfect place for our lesson to take place."

"Yeah… aside from the templars who will see me blasting barely controllable magic around the place."

"So there'll be people who can step in to control the situation if necessary," there was a twinkle in his eyes that told Siara there was something he wasn't telling her. She sighed, shaking her head. He'd tell her when he was ready, there wasn't any point in getting worked up about it now.

None of the templars seemed to pay them any attention as Solas and Siara made their way through their headquarters, heading straight to the office that Barris had taken as his own. Siara looked around, taking everything in. She'd never even considered heading on to templar ground. Even though she wasn't viewing them with quite as much negativity as she used to, she still wasn't their biggest fan, and the sickeningly sweet stench of lyrium wafting in the air put her on edge. She hated to admit it, but just being in this area made her want to run off and throw up behind a bush somewhere. But Solas had purpose in his stride, and he didn't even seem to notice Siara's discomfort. All she could do was trust that he knew what he was doing and follow him as he pushed open the door.

Barris was walking around the office, shifting books to shelves and tidying piles of paper, making sure that everything was in order before he headed off on his trip. He looked around as Siara entered, closely followed by Solas. Siara paused just inside the room, glancing around at Solas as he brushed past her, offering the books over to Barris.

"I'm here to return these," he explained, Barris holding out his hand to take them before adding them to his pile. "They were quite the interesting read."

"Did they have any useful information?"

"Some," Solas nodded. "It remains to be seen just how much applies to this situation, though."

"Sorry to interrupt, but what exactly are you talking about?" Siara butted in before Barris could say anything else, the two men turning and looking at her with completely different expressions on their faces. Barris looked surprised, but Solas just smiled knowingly at her.

"Solas didn't explain?"

"All he said about coming here was that it was the perfect place to train," Siara grumbled, glaring at the pesky, egg-head elf. He still looked far too pleased with himself, and it was getting on her nerves.

"Barris and I had some interesting conversations while you were away," Solas finally began, "and we thought that there might be some information in those books that could help with your situation."

"In templar books? Not likely."

"Not all the books us templars have are about the Order," Barris smiled, turning back to the bookshelf and putting the books away. "Understanding magic can also help with containing it."

"Controlling it, you mean."

Siara almost felt bad about her comment and the bite behind her words as soon as they left her lips, but Barris didn't seem to take it too hard. The smile left his face, however, and he turned to face her. There was a softness in his eyes, and Siara couldn't help but feel worse.

"Yes. Templars need to be able to control magic. But not all templars want to control all mages. Only the worst of us."

"I know," Siara muttered. "Sorry."

"Now that we've worked that out," Solas interrupted, heading over to one of the bookshelves on the far side of the room, "we should get to business."

"I wouldn't really recommend training Siara in my office," Barris said, rather hesitantly, and Siara pointed at him.

"Yep. Exactly what he said."

"It's a good thing we won't be in Ser Barris' office then, isn't it?" Solas smiled, reaching out for the torch beside the bookshelf and pulling it. A moment later, a section of wall slipped away, and an empty section of wall stood in its place. Solas looked far too smug, enjoying the shocked looks on his audience's faces.

"Delrin. There's a hole in your wall."

"I can see that."

"And there's a secret passage behind it."

"Yes, I can see that, too."

"How long have they been there?"

"I have never seen them before," Barris muttered, shooting Siara a tired look. "I don't exactly make a habit of looking for secret passages in my offices."

"Well, clearly you should," Siara muttered back, heading towards Solas with a suspicious look on her face. "Now, how did you know it was there?" she asked him.

"Skyhold is an ancient place. There's much that hides beneath its face. When I walk in dreams, spirits tell me of its secrets."

Siara sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. Naturally, a bunch of ghosts told him about the secret tunnel hiding in Barris' study. It was about as normal as the rest of her life, so why not. She did her best to ignore the feeling creeping up inside her that something didn't feel right about Solas' explanation.

"Shall we?" Solas asked, motioning to the rather dangerous looking steps leading into darkness.

"If I break my neck falling down those things, I'm coming back to haunt your arse," Siara muttered, accepting the torch that Barris offered her and taking the first steps down into the seemingly endless abyss.