Filing out of the war room an hour or so later, Fae was stopped at the bottom of the stairs by Vivienne gliding forward and stopping right in front of her. "It is time to imbue you with some real training, darling."

"What, now?"

"Time is of the essence, my dear. Come along."

Fae reluctantly followed her down to the sparring ring in the courtyard. There were soldiers already training in it, but Vivienne simply walked in, arms folded neatly, and waited. One of the soldiers hesitated and was rewarded with a blow from his sparring partner's training sword, but they both stopped eventually, waiting for Vivienne to speak. She simply smiled, and the two soldiers looked at each other, then back to Vivienne and Fae. They decided on a tactical retreat. "My lady, my lady," they both mumbled as they passed.

"We couldn't have waited?" Fae asked, unlatching her staff from her back.

"We did wait. No no, daggers first. I need to see for myself how helpless you would be in combat when your mana is spent."

"Alright." Fae pulled one dagger from a sheath on her belt and another from the leg of her boot.

"Good. Let us begin."

Two hours later, Vivienne finally called for a short stop to rehydrate. Fae collapsed to the ground where she stood, panting. Vivienne handed her a glass flask, and she sat up to drink, before lying back down again. She wanted to disappear into the sight of the endless sky above, but from the corner of her eye, Vivienne stared down at her disapprovingly. Fae closed her eyes.

"You are tragically out of practice, my dear, but you have some basic skill, your muscle memory alone can testify to that."

"Thanks. I lived with a duellist for four years. Wasn't allowed to use magic."

"Ah yes, the so-called pirate queen Isabela. An apt tutor, I'm sure. And when you found lodgings with the Champion of Kirkwall, did she tutor you in magic use at all?"

"She did, yeah. Not for long though."

"Then am I correct in assuming you have at least attempted to conjure ice before?"

"It doesn't come as naturally, but I have."

"Impressive. There are many a mage who may only rely on a single element to the exclusion of all others; a talent of its own, to be sure, but a limited one. Might I ask you another question?"

Fae bristled internally. Sure, why stop now? "Sure."

"Am I correct in assuming your lack of regard for me is related to your opinions on the Circle of Magi?"

Fae opened her eyes and sat up quickly, and was surprised to see Vivienne perched somehow elegantly on a wooden crate, ankles crossed, hands folded.

"Am I correct?" Vivienne repeated.

Fae leaned back on her hands. "I mean, yeah, kind of. You haven't exactly hidden your opinions, and neither have I. And… you remind me of people and places I don't like to think about. But that's my problem, not yours. We're allies, we don't need to agree on everything."

"Perhaps it does not matter now, but it undoubtedly will in the future, when we mages must decide how to govern ourselves without the security of the Inquisition. So, let us be frank with each other." Vivienne placed her staff neatly on the crate. "You are against the Circle, and I will do whatever it takes to restore it."

"I'm against the Circle as it was," Fae corrected. "Stealing people, usually children, away from everything and everyone they know and love, never to be seen again."

"For their own safety and the safety of those loved ones, you do understand?" Vivienne explained with all the honey-dripping sweetness of explaining something very simple to a small child.

"I do. But maybe mages would be less inclined to run away and hide if being a member of a Circle didn't mean life imprisonment, or being suddenly snatched away in the first place."

"Most Circles allowed for excursions outside the tower—"

"And yet every Circle fell apart," Fae interrupted, to Vivienne's chagrin. "From what I've heard, Ostwick was the exception, not the rule. And you got luckier still in finding powerful political friends. A lover, even."

Vivienne smirked. "Darling, if you mean to repeat Lord Dorian's implication that I simply used my feminine wiles—"

"That is not what I mean," Fae interrupted again, quickly running out of patience. "Even if you had, I wouldn't judge you for doing whatever it took to get the freedom it offered, especially without hurting anyone in the process. What I mean is that you had choices and chances most of us would never have had, and so did I. But unlike me, even after everything that has happened, you're still trying to take away the freedom of the mages who've been loyal to you. The ones you have influence over. I know you asked Ellethir to help you locate their missing phylacteries."

Vivienne raised one manicured eyebrow. "Which she refused."

"Because she didn't understand what exactly you were asking of her. Eventually the subject came up and I told her what they are. Dalish mages might not see blood magic the same way that the Chantry does, but at least she knows what freedom is."

Vivienne laughed lightly. "And how free are the Dalish, scurrying around the Dales, always on the run?"

"And you would know freedom better?" Fae scoffed.

"Rising the ranks to become First Enchanter of the Ostwick Circle and the arcane advisor of the Imperial Court granted me great freedoms indeed."

"Really?" Fae said incredulously. "Do you think if you had started to say no to Empress Celene, or leave Orlais, she would have allowed you to just walk away with everything she might have told you in confidence? Of course not. She wants to stay in power and in control as much as you do. That kind of motivation is not the kind that would create a Circle worth its existence."

"And you know what the right motivation is, I take it?" Vivienne offered a hand to help Fae up, which the elf ignored, getting to her feet on her own.

"Not really," Fae admitted. "A place for mages to care for each other, to learn and teach regardless of who they are or where they come from? One where they can still be a part of the world without being shunned by it? That doesn't sound evil to me. But that wasn't enough for the Chantry, and it's not enough for you."

"Well, when I re-establish the Circle, I will ask for your sage advice. For now, if you will allow it, I will endeavour to improve on your limited training." Vivienne swung her staff into position, and Fae did likewise.

"I'm grateful," Fae sarcastically mirrored Vivienne's smile. "Oh, and you'd probably be interested to know, we did locate a few of those phylacteries."

"Do not allow the ambient to magic to—yes, just like that," Vivienne parried the blast with her staff. "Please tell me you did not destroy them yourself and draw every nearby demon in the Fade to a newly-opened Rift, now when the Veil is so thin?"

"The veil is fortified every time Solas finds an elven artefact that serves to strengthen it. But no, I didn't. I took them to Grand Enchanter Fiona and asked for her advice."

"Grand Enchanter Fiona?" Vivienne alone could make someone's name alone sound like an insult.

"As it happens, there are Tranquil among the mages who followed her to the Inquisition. Demons won't target them, so they were able to destroy them safely, but we haven't found them all yet."

"That is because I have them," Vivienne said matter-of-factly. "The phylacteries of children, every one of them orphans in all but name without Circles to provide for them. With their phylacteries, we won't lose them in this chaos."

"…Oh. That's good."

"I am glad you approve, my dear."

"Where are they? The kids."

"Somewhere safe, being cared for by fellow mages. These last few years have proven just how dangerous apostates can become, regardless of age—" She gave Fae a pointed look, "—Or motivation. That was better, try again."

Fae shook off the frost gathering on her staff. "Are you trying to tell me I shouldn't have fled the Circle?"

"It will surprise you to learn that I am not. The Ferelden Circle failed you the moment it disobeyed the protocols set by the Chantry," Vivienne tsked. "Taking actions that would make a martyr of you was a foolish decision which proved in the eyes of their dependents that they were unworthy protectors. What is worse is that Knight-Commander Meredith made the same mistake in Kirkwall, albeit on a much grander scale. Such catastrophic failures will not occur again when the Circles are re-established."

Fae summoned and sent a shard of ice in Vivienne's way. "Unbelievable. You still think that Chantry-run Circles are the answer?"

Vivienne repelled the shard with ease. "And you still don't know any better. Mages and the mundane will always require protection from each other. Anders killed hundreds in mere moments, and started a war that killed hundreds more."

"Do you know what they did to him?" Fae stomped over to Vivienne and dropped her voice. "The templars turned his lover Tranquil against their will. Anders found out right after it happened, his lover only had enough time to beg Anders to take his life before his mind was wiped bare, and he did. His hurt wasn't even the worst, not even close." Fae stuck the bladed end of her staff in the ground. "I hate what he did, I wish he hadn't, I wish nobody would have died or got hurt but sooner or later, someone would have answered violence with violence. We might be mages but we're still people, and there's been violence as long as there's been people."

Vivienne stood up, pulling Fae's staff from the ground and handing it back to her, motioning for Fae to prepare for another attack. "Indeed. Which is why we need protection from each other."

"Right now, the only person I need protection from is you," Fae danced around a flurry of sharp-edged icicles.

Vivienne used Fae's distraction by the icicles to trap her foot in a sheathe of ice erupting from the ground. "Don't be silly, dear, I am not your enemy. I would, in fact, appreciate your friendship."

"No, you wouldn't." Fae melted the ice with a controlled blast of fire from her palm. "You would appreciate what I could do for your own standing. You see a mage people are paying attention to and see an opportunity to add my power to yours."

"So you admit you are a powerful mage, and not a fragile little victim of the nasty templars?"

"I'm aware. And as I said, I am already your ally. But I'm no more a mindless power source than you are. If you really want my friendship, you'll have to care about me, not my power. I have no interest in your Game."

Vivienne corrected Fae's posture. "And yet you are already playing it."

"I appreciate your interest in my training, I do… and your good intentions for all mage-kind, I guess, but you can't ask me for more than that." Fae swung her staff over her shoulder. "We're done for today."

"I have not granted you leave."

"You are not the First Enchanter here. I'm granting myself leave." Fae waved goodbye as she left, not looking back. "We should do this again sometime, Madame De Fer. Maybe we'll stumble across common ground eventually, discover a mutual love of fancy perfumes or something."