We walked into the main hall with Perth and his knights trailing us. The scene before us was like nothing I'd ever seen. Isolde was standing on a dais next to a boy whom I assumed was Conner. He was young, perhaps ten years old. He had blond hair like his mother. Isolde looked worn and defeated. A look of shame and regret was on her face. She saw us and hung her head. Teagan was doing some sort of dancing and tumbling performance. Alistair and I looked at each other; worry and questions were in his eyes. I'm sure he saw the same in mine. Conner was clapping and jumping up and down at Teagan's performance. Until he saw us, that is. All emotion fled his face and he waved Teagan off. He went and sat next to Conner like a trained dog, a happy look on his face. And that worried me.

"So these are our visitors?" Conner said. His voice was deep and had a bit of an echo to it. Nothing of what a child should sound like. I knew then there was something terribly wrong. Jowan had guessed that Conner had opened the Veil somehow, but the child was possessed. Conner was what they called an Abomination: a Mage possessed by a demon of the Beyond. I had heard of one of the clans being forced to hunt down and kill their own Keeper because he had allowed himself to become possessed. It was a tale of caution told to the Firsts and any other child born of magic. "The ones you told me about, Mother?"

Isolde seemed terrified. "Y-yes, Conner."

"And this is the one who defeated my soldiers? The ones I sent to reclaim my village?"

"Yes."

"And now it's staring at me! What is it, Mother? I can't see it well enough."

Isolde gave Conner an odd look. "This is an Elf. You... You've seen Elves before. We have them here in the castle."

"Oh! I remember! I had their ears cut off and fed to the dogs! The dogs chewed for hours!" He gave a demented laugh. "Shall I send it to the kennels, Mother?"

I felt Alistair and Leliana shift on either side, ready to defend me. I shook my head at them. I didn't want the demon that had overtaken Conner to think we were hostile. Not that we weren't, mind you, but I wanted to see what we were up against. Although I knew nothing about demons. 

Isolde turned to her son. "C-Conner, I beg you! Don't hurt anyone!"

Conner rubbed his forehead. "M-Mother?" His voice sounded like a child's again. "What... what's happening? Where am I?" Apparently, Conner managed to get control of himself. If only for a moment.

"Oh, thank the Maker!" Isolde fell to her knees. "Conner! Conner, can you hear me?" During this time, Conner had covered his face with his hands.

"Get away from me, fool woman!" The demon had regained control. Isolde stood and staggered back, a look of disbelief and shock on her face. "You are beginning to bore me!"

"Maker's breath!" Perth exclaimed. "What has happened here?"

She turned to us, tears in her eyes. "Grey Warden," she said, clearly addressing me. Neither I nor Teagan had told her my name and she either seemed to know I had been put forth as the leader of our group or she still despised Alistair to the point of not wanting to speak to him at all, even with her son's life in the balance. She must have really despised him to speak to me over him, if our first meeting was any indication of her views of Elves. "Please don't hurt my son. He's not responsible for what he does."

"You've been protecting him all this time," I said. "This is why you wouldn't go into detail when questioned about it."

"Conner didn't mean to do this! It was that Mage, the one who poisoned Eamon. He started all of this! He summoned this demon! Conner was just trying to help his father!"

"And made a deal with this demon to do so?" Morrigan asked. "Foolish child."

"It was a fair deal!" Conner cried. "Father is alive, just as I wanted. Now it's my turn to sit on the throne and send out armies to conquer the world! Nobody tells me what to do anymore!"

"Nobody tells him what to do!" Teagan shouted. He sounded as if he had gone mad. "Nobody!" His laugh even sounded like a madman's.

"Quiet, uncle!" Conner shouted as he turned to Teagan. "I warned you what would happen if you kept shouting, didn't I? Yes, I did," He turned back to us. "But let's keep things civil. This woman will have the audience she seeks. Tell us,...woman..., what have you come here for?" Now that I knew the situation, it was time to resolve this.

"I came to stop you," I said, coolly.

"I'm not finished playing! You can't make me stop! I think it's trying to spoil my fun, Mother!"

"I...I don't think...," Isolde started.

"Of course, you don't! Ever since you sent the knights away, you do nothing but deprive me of my fun. Frankly, it's getting dull. I crave excitement! And action!" He pointed at me. "This woman spoiled my sport by saving that stupid village and now she'll repay me!" Conner ran from the hall as Teagan stood.

"This isn't good," Alistair said, drawing his sword as Teagan drew his. The guards advanced on us as four others aimed their crossbows at us.

"Do not kill Teagan!" I shouted as I drew my own swords.

Isolde ran and cowered in a corner as the fighting began. A punch from Sten put Teagan out of the fighting. He turned on the two guards coming at him and knocked their heads together. Morrigan kept her distance so her spells could work properly. Leliana and I slipped past the guards and went for the archers. A bolt bounced off the shoulder guard of my already injured arm. Soon, everyone but Teagan lay dead. Once the fighting had stopped, Isolde stood and ran to Teagan, who was just coming to.

"Good hit, Sten," Alistair said.

"Thank you."

Teagan shook his head.

"Teagan!" Isolde cried. "Teagan, are you alright?"

Alistair helped him to his feet.

"I am... better now, I think. My mind is my own again."

"Seems Sten knocked the demon's hold out of him," Leliana said.

"More like sense into him," Morrigan said, leaning on her staffed boredly.

"Blessed Andraste!" Relief was in Isolde's voice. "I would never have forgiven myself had you died. Not after I brought you here. What a fool I am!" I wasn't going to disagree with her. She turned to me. "Please! Conner's not responsible for this! There must be some way we can save him!"

One way to free Conner from the demon's hold... was to send the child to the Beyond.

"I'm not about to kill a child," I said.

"Clearly, the child is an Abomination," Morrigan said. "There is... only one way to stop it." I didn't like that option.

"He is not always the demon you saw. Conner is still inside him and sometimes he breaks through!" Conner had briefly broken through during our conversation. "Please, I just want to protect him!"

"Isn't that what started this?" Teagan asked. "You hired a Mage to teach Conner in secret to protect him." So Teagan knew about why Jowan had been here to begin with.

"If they discovered Conner had magic, then they'd take him away! I thought if he learned just enough to hide it, then...," She trailed off.

"What are our options?" I asked. There had to be a way to destroy the demon without killing Conner.

"I wouldn't normally suggest killing a child," Alistair said, his voice full of sadness. "But... he's an Abomanation. I'm not sure there's any choice." He spoke hesitantly, as if he didn't want to be the one to bring it up at all. I was sure it was the Templar talking, but the tone of sadness was Alistair. Then I remembered that Conner was his cousin in a way, after all. Cailan had been his brother which made Eamon his uncle as well. I think. It must have taken a lot for Alistair to speak up about this.

"We can't kill a young boy, demon or no demon," Leliana said. She seemed appalled that the suggestion had even been made. "Please don't say we are considering that!"

"Conner is my nephew but... he is also possessed by a demon," Teagan agreed. "Death would be... merciful."

"No!" Isolde cried. "What... what about the Mage? He could know something of this demon! If he still lives, we can speak to him!"

"He's down in the dungeon," I said. "He was still alive when we saw him last."

Hope dawned on Isolde's face. "Then we should bring him here immediately. I... I do not know how much we can trust him but we must find out what he knows. Teagan, could you find him?"

Teagan didn't look like he wanted to go. "I... will try, though if he resists I will not hesitate to kill him. I'll return shortly."

Alistair went with him. We knew that if Jowan did try anything, at least Alistair would be able to resist. Although, I didn't know if Templars could resist blood magic, even though I'd seen him use his power against dark magic.

~~~

After what seemed like an eternity, Teagan and Alistair returned with Jowan.

"You're lucky to be alive, Jowan, after all you've done," Isolde was still hostile towards the Mage despite the fact that he was the only source of information we had at the moment. Her swings from hostile to frightened to desperate and back to hostile were starting to give me whiplash.

"I didn't summon any demon, Lady Isolde," Jowan insisted. "But I did poison the Arl... and that started all this. I'm... willing to help, if you'll let me. The demon in Conner needs to be destroyed. Killing Conner is... the easiest way to do that, certainly. But there is another way. A Mage could confront the demon in the Fade without hurting Conner himself."

"What do you mean?" Teagan asked. "Is the demon not within Conner?"

"Not physically. The demon approached Conner in the Fade while he dreamt and controls him from there. We can use the connection between them to find the demon."

"You can enter the Fade then?" Isolde asked. "And kill the demon without hurting my boy?"

"No, but I can enable another Mage to do so. It normally requires lyrium and several Mages, but I have...," He hesitated. "Blood magic."

"What difference does that make?" I asked, probably showing my ignorance of blood magic just then.

"Lyrium provides the power for the ritual. But I can take that power from someone's life energy. This ritual requires a lot of it, however," Jowan paused. "All of it, in fact."

"So someone must die?" Teagan didn't sound happy about the idea. Neither was I. "Someone must be sacrificed?"

"Yes and then we send another Mage into the Fade. I can't enter because I'm doing the ritual. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything. It's... not much of an option."

"Is there no other method?"

"The power has to come from somewhere and that means either lyrium or... blood."

"Then let it be my blood," Isolde said quickly "I will be the sacrifice."

"What?" Teagan's voice betrayed his shock. "Isolde, are you mad?! Eamon would never allow this!"

"Either someone kills my son to destroy that thing inside him or I give my life so my son can live. To me the answer is clear."

"Blood magic," Alistair said, sounding as if he couldn't believe that it was even being considered. "How can more evil be of any help here? Two wrongs don't make a right."

"It does seem like a sensible choice," Morrigan countered. "With a willing participant."

I rolled my eyes where she couldn't see me.

"Conner is blameless in this," Isolde said, desperation in her voice. "He should not have to pay the price."

"It...," Teagan sighed. "It's up to you, Realin. You know more about such things than I do and it's your companion going into the Fade. The decision is yours." The joy of being a leader. It falls on you to make difficult decisions. How the hell did I get volunteered into this again?

"There must be another way to enter the Fade," I said. As much as I would have liked to for high and mightiness and what she did to Alistair, I wasn't going to allow her to die. If she died, we may lose Eamon as an ally. Something we couldn't afford to lose.

"You can find lyrium and more Mages at the Circle of Magi," Alistair suggested. "If they would even do it."

I remembered the position of the Tower on the map. "The Circle Tower is not far from here."

"That is an excellent point. One of the treaties is also for the Circle of Magi, after all."

"Two birds with one stone."

"The Tower is about a day's journey across the lake," Teagan said. "You could attempt to get the Mages' help."

Isolde looked worried. "But what will happen here? Conner will not remain passive forever."

"I'm willing to take that chance." I was willing to risk it in the chance that we could get the help of the Mages and save Connor from his demon.

"Very well," Teagan agreed. "I will keep Jowan here as a precaution. He says he wants to help so he will an eye on Conner with us. Go to the tower quickly, then. The longer you are away, the greater the chances of disaster."

"We will return as quickly as possible."

We left the hall and went back into the village. Before we left I made a visit to Owen.

His face broke into a wide smile when I walked in. "My Valena returned to me!" he cried, overjoyed. I hoped he wasn't going to try to hug me. "She told me of your daring rescue! I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am!" It wasn't that daring of a rescue. I was sure Valena had done some exaggerations, but I wasn't about to burst his bubble. Or he'd just think I was being modest. He turned and grabbed some armor. "Take this... a reward for your deed. It's Dwarven made and should serve you well."

"I don't need a reward, Owen," I said.

"Please," he insisted.

"Seeing you reunited with your daughter is reward enough for me."

"You are a good woman, Warden. I will remember this always. Thank you again! I'm forever in your debt!"

"Just stay safe." I turned to leave when Valena grabbed my arm.

"Thank you, my lady. I'd never have been able to return to my father if it wasn't for you."

"Take care of him. And stay safe."

"We will."

~~~

After we'd set up camp, Sten approached me. "I don't understand," he said. "You look like a woman." The comment caught me off guard.

"Um... I am a woman."

"You are a Grey Warden. So it follows that you can't be a woman."

"That doesn't make any sense, Sten." I was completely confused by his train of thought.

"So you understand my confusion then?"

"Why can't I be a woman?"

"Women are priests, artisans, shopkeepers or farmers. They don't fight."

"That's not a universal truth. Some women fight." Dalish women are raised knowing the blade and bow or the staff.

"Why would women ever wish to be men? That makes no sense."

"They don't wish to be men. They wish to be women who fight."

"Exactly." Now I was more confused then at the beginning of this conversation.

"I'm a woman and I'm fighting." And we had just gone into a complete circle.

"One of these things can't be true. A person is born: Qunari or human or Elf or Dwarf. He doesn't choose that. The size of his hands, whether he is clever or foolish, the land he comes from, the color of his hair. That is beyond his control. We do not chose. We simply are."

"But a person can choose what to do."

"Can they? We'll see." With that he turned and went to his tent. Of all the odd conversations, that was perhaps the oddest.

I shook my head as Alistair joined me. "Another odd conversation from the Qunari?"

"You too?"

"He has some strange views, don't you think?"

I nodded. "Indeed," I turned to him. "Since we're back at camp... I need to ask you something."

"I have a feeling I'm not going to like this."

"Why did you keep your birthright a secret?"

"Because you didn't ask?"

I glared at him. "That's a cheap answer."

Alistair sighed. "All right. If you want the full explanation, I'll give it to you. The thing is I'm used to not telling anyone who didn't already know. It was always a secret. Even Duncan was the only Grey Warden who knew. And then after the battle when I should have told you... I don't know. It seemed like it was too late by then. How do you just tell someone that?" Duncan knew? And he still allowed him into the Wardens?

"It's come up, Alistair. And you've been avoiding it."

"Yes, well... I suppose part of me kind of liked you not knowing." Ouch.

"Why? What happens when people find out?"

"They treat me differently. I become the bastard prince to them instead of just Alistair. I know that must sound stupid to you but I hate that it's shaped my entire life. I never wanted it and I certainly don't want to be king. The very idea of it terrifies me."

I felt my expression soften. "It doesn't sound stupid at all." My father had been Keeper before Marethari. It had shaped my life to be the Keeper's daughter. He and his First had died when I was still young, but many had thought I would choose to follow his path, but instead chose the life of a Hunter. Of course, I never understood why they had thought I would since I wasn't a Mage. My mother was proud of me either way. She'd always told me to follow my heart.

"For all the good it does me. My blood seems certain to haunt me no matter what I do. I guess I should be thankful that Arl Eamon is far more likely to inherit the throne. If he's alright. I hope he's alright. For all it's worth, I'm sorry for not telling you sooner. I... I guess I was just hoping that you would like me for who I am. It was a dumb thing to do."

I smiled at him reassuringly. "Don't worry about it, Alistair. No harm done." I actually understood what he meant. I didn't think they others in our little group would.

"I guess it's kind of a relief that you know now."

"For all it's worth, you're still the sarcastic Grey Warden from Ostagar."

Alistair smiled. "Well, thanks for that."

Later that night, I heard him talking to Tristan. "I once heard this really old legend about how the Hound warriors in the days of the old tribes would feed their mabari the flesh of the vanquished."

Tristan cocked his head and whined.

"Well, that's what I heard anyway."

I crossed my arms and watched the two.

"It would sometimes be human flesh."

Tristan made gagging noises and air heaved. I grinned.

"Oh, like you can tell the difference. For all you know, maybe you've already been fed something... someone."

Tristan's ears went back and he gave a scared whimper.

I shook my head and walked over to them. "Don't listen to Alistair," I said. "He's full of rubbish."

"Hey!"

I grinned before tossing Tristan a crunchy treat. "We have a long journey tomorrow," I said. "Go get some sleep. Tristan and I will take the first watch."

Alistair looked like he wanted to protest, but a look from me told him he better not. "Sten and I will take second watch," He disappeared into his tent.

The truth was, I didn't want to go to sleep. It wasn't the Archdemon I was afraid I'd see in my dreams, but Tamlen. He haunted them as much as the Darkspawn.

"Come on, boy." My hound and I began our watch.