Amy Dallon, Herald of Andraste

[Kylia Quilor]

Author's Note: A short chapter compared to most chapters lately, but conceptually it was a great spot to end the chapter, and it had some structural advantages.

---

Someone did end up burning the balls of Darkspawn Taint, and Amy checked on Felix's biology. She'd used up a lot of his fat cells... she'd rushed the process of getting the Taint out both times, to make a point. If she moved slower, she could...

The Taint spreads if I just put it somewhere, but if I gather more of it together, I can still get it out faster, right, and use fat to... Amy's mind raced with possibilities. She had more ideas to improve white blood cells to resist the Taint for even more seconds - not for long, no matter what she did, but every second of life counted if it allowed her to use less of Felix's own biomass.

Alexius, apparently sincere in his commitment to switching sides and throwing the Venatori under the bus, told them that there were more Venatori in the 'Upper Wing'. There was a brief discussion of having him order them to surrender their weapons, since they might not know until it was too late he had betrayed them, but it was decided that it was unlikely to work - telling the cultists to stand down in any form would probably be proof he'd betrayed the cult.

So Ser Trevelyan and his men - along with Iron Bull and Sera were sent to go deal with the Venatori. Bull was apparently feeling downright nostalgic about getting to kill 'damned Vints' again.

"I suppose it's hard to find a Qunari warrior that doesn't have experience fighting my people," Dorian mused, watching Iron Bull leave. Then he walked up to Alexius, "You're making the right choice, Alexius," he told his mentor softly. "But I think you should probably get rid of the amulet, so you aren't tempted to try to erase Amy here from time again, in an effort to win back this Elder One's favor after this failure."

"ERASE ME FROM TIME?!" Amy demanded, then she flushed as she realized she'd screeched the words out. "That - you can - you - what?!"

"In theory, it was a possible application of our research. Like with the time travel itself, we could never get it to work, but I would imagine it's been the Breach that allowed it to work, correct?" Alexius nodded slowly, mournfully, handing Dorian a cubic pendant on a silver chain. "Which would be why you couldn't just prevent things going wrong with whatever insane ritual this Elder One planned, or stop Felix from getting Tainted in the first place."

"Erase me from time." Amy said again. "That was your plan?"

"Mages. They can never just kill you." Varric muttered.

"Killing you wouldn't change the fact that whatever you did stole the Elder One's mark." Alexius explained. "But if you were never at the Conclave, if you never existed..." Alexius trailed off. "But I failed, and in failing, I have earned the Elder One's wrath."

"I'm not even from Thedas?! How could it - go back much further than whatever the fuck I did to mess with this Elder One's evil plot to become God," Amy couldn't even beginto imagine how she said that one with a straight face, "and I'm not on Thedas at all! I'm from another world you -" Amy cut herself off as...

Would the magic even work on Earth-Bet? What if it - what if it had happened and I just... never came to Thedas? What if it undid the Bakuda Bomb and I was home and I still had Vicky and -

Amy tried to force back on the longing, and the tantalizing, insane possibility that it would work. But... more likely it wouldn't. She had no idea how this shit worked. Maybe it would have done that, erased her from everything. What would happen then? Would Vicky have died in the mall? Would she have even been there? Her sister would have been reckless and gotten hurt sooner or later and -

On the other hand, not existing... it -

It wouldn't be dying. Amy didn't want to die. She just...

For the first time in years, Amy realized it wasn't as enticing to linger on the idea of just... not existing for a while. The idea was - it - she still almost liked it but - but not as much? She shook her head violently, trying to force herself to focus on the moment, on what the others were saying.

"What exactly do you plan to do with that?" Cassandra gestured to the amulet in Dorian's hands.

"Much as I'm loathe to undo years of research and work, under the circumstances, destroying it seems to be the best option," Dorian admitted. "It's dangerous, and it's the cause of the time-altering rifts opening up. And as long as the amulet exists, someone might be tempted to use it."

"As I understand it, you worked with Alexius in the first place to make this magic, did you not think it would be dangerous in the first place?" Solas asked curiously, leaning on his staff.

"Dangerous yes, this dangerous, no." Dorian admitted. "Mostly we worked on it to see if it was even possible. All the theory and underlying principles said it should work, and yet, we never could manage it. Finding out the only thing we needed was a massive tear in reality is... almost a letdown, really." Dorian sighed. "Destroying this safely will take some time."

"Would assistance make that go faster?" Cassandra asked. "The sooner that is destroyed, the better."

"I'd drink to that if I had anything handy," Katerina agreed.

"Seconded," Amy muttered.

"I'm not sure. When we made this amulet in the first place, we didn't spend a lot of time on figuring out how to destroy it safely." Dorian sighed. "Rather reckless of us in hindsight."

"Quite a bit more than reckless, dear,": Vivienne observed, "But nothing more than I would expect from a Tevinter. Unrestricted, mad, dangerous experimentation is but the least of your people's barbarisms."

"Ah yes, insulting my homeland. And Orlais is far better, caging their mages and murdering someone because they put too much salt in the soup," Dorian quipped back. "Perhaps we can save this discussion for another time?"

"That would be a good idea," Cassandra agreed quickly.

"As for help - I'm happy to find out if assistance would make destroying this safely go faster. Before I start on that, however, there's more I'd like to know about this Elder One, Alexius."

"As would I, but there is still much to do, and a few things that should be done first." Cassandra turned to Fiona. "Your mages are now free from their bondage to Alexius and Tevinter. Would they still follow you, after what you did?"

"My people agreed with me that the choice we made was the only one that presented at the time. We were desperate, and returning to Circles or laying down and dying were not options." Fiona was defiant, but then she inhaled and looked down, "It was not the right choice, but it was the only choice."

"Right, and Alexius here decided his only choice was joining the evil cult." Amy snapped. "There's always a choice, and the better choice is to not sign on with the evil slave-owning empire. Desperation isn't a goddamn excuse." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm healing Felix, so you're free. You should probably tell your people they don't have ten years of working for Tevinter ahead of them. We still need your help with the Breach, so don't go far since we need to talk about all that."

"Were you sincere when you told Alexius what you originally came here to negotiate? The terms you had in mind - the resources of the Inquisition, bent towards securing support for our freedom?" Fiona asked. Amy started to nod, but Vivienne, being Vivienne, had to chime in.

"Those plans were drawn up before we knew what you'd done. Letting Alexius drive the Arl out of his own castle, and swearing yourselves to him - when word of this spreads, it will destroy the sympathy too many in the south feel for your mad cause, Fiona."

"And when the mages help close the fucking Breach, that will probably improve their sympathy," Amy ground out. "You don't fucking speak for me, Vivienne. Or the Inquisition."

"You've seen what they will do when they're left to their own devices without supervision, Amy,": Vivienne said calmly.

"That they did something stupid like this doesn't change that the Circles are fucked up, Harrowings are insane and inflicting Tranquility on people who don't ask for it is evil," Amy snapped. She wasn't sure how she felt about people choosing it either, but that was - slightly less evil, at least? Maybe not evil? "What they did was wrong and stupid, but forcing them back into the Circles is even more wrong and evil." Maybe if the rebel mages had done something for Tevinter - oppressed anyone, put down rebelling slaves or like done blood magic or anything, then Vivienne would have a point, that the rebel mages have proven they couldn't be trusted.

"Let us hope, Amy, that the cost of realizing your naivete does not prove to be too high." Vivienne said primly, Amy rolled her eyes and looked away from Vivienne, turning back to Fiona. She always has to have the last word, doesn't she?

"So," Amy said to Fiona, "Yes, that's the offer. Help close the Breach and the Inquisition tries to get everyone - or enough people anyway - to support mages being free from the circles, or as close as you can get. I can't make promises it will take, but," Amy inhaled and thought back to all the preparations she'd made for the negotiations, "Right now, the Chantry is leaderless, and Thedas is all -" she gestured expansively, "A mess. So now's the time to renegotiate terms." This was more familiar ground.

"You paint an attractive offer," Fiona said softly. "And the entire Inquisition agrees with this?" She looked from Vivienne to Cassandra, "And will keep its word after the Breach is closed?"

"The Circles as they existed failed," Cassandra said after a moment. "Returning things to as they were cannot be done, nor should it be done. And we need your people's help to close the Breach. We will keep our word."

"Even as Right Hand of the Divine, your reputation was always honorable, Seeker Pentaghast," Fiona admitted. She looked back at Amy, "You offer the best deal we are likely to get. I will tell my people. I have little doubt they will accept. It will take a few days for us all to make ready for the trip to Haven, especially given the children and the elderly."

They had children they were protecting. Amy had known that - apprentices and stuff - but being reminded... It made Fiona's fear for her people and her willingness to take any way out available like... slightly less bad, but -

It was still so fucking stupid. And still wrong! And -

The Templars weren't even close to Redcliffe to attack it. (Yet. Best to make sure that didn't happen, once they were done here).

"You have like... four hundred and some mages here, right?" Amy asked, trying to remember what she'd heard. FIona nodded. "Do we - does Haven even have room for all of them?" Amy asked Cassandra. "The village was packed and new homes - log cabins - were being built as quickly as possible, Amy knew, but a lot of people were still in tents. Fur-lined tents and with really warm bedrolls and stuff, so at least people weren't freezing to death but - Haven was cold up in the mountains, and even if it wasn't as cold as it could be during the day - it could get very cold at night.

Thanks to Amy's abilities, and the fact that alchemists could make good medicines for a medieval shithole world, there hadn't been any major outbreaks of disease with people packed in together in the cold, but sticking four hundred more people, including a bunch of kids and old people into the village? That would have an impact.

And - and like, I'm not going to be there all the time, and hopefully once the Breach is closed we can find a way to get me back home and - It was better to just not do that, right?

"More structures to house people are being built as quickly as possible but... no, I don't think we will have enough housing. Distributing some of your people to the outposts and positions across the Hinterlands under the Inquisition's protection might be the best option."

"And Haven's really cold at night and packing people in tight leads to illness, especially among children and old people." Amy added.

"You make a fair point. And the trip up the mountains to Haven would take a toll on many of my people. But we must leave Redcliffe. I..." she hesitated, swallowing, then, "I doubt King Alistair will allow us to stay here. He might even try to remove us from Ferelden entirely, given..." she trailed off and gestured to Alexius, who was still slumped in the 'throne' and staring blankly at nothing.

"If the King wants you out of Ferelden, he can wait." Amy muttered. "Isn't a King supposed to protect their people? Where the fuck was he when there were bandits and extremists running around the Hinterlands attacking refugees? There's a reason the Inquisition has soldiers stationed all over the place, right? So fuck him, he can wait."

"Amy..." Cassandra started, and Amy shook her head.

"I don't care. I don't give a shit about a King's tender sensibilities." Amy countered. "I have no bandwidth to give a shit about a King that is apparently too busy doing nothing to do anything about shit here in the Hinterlands."

"Ferelden is still recovering from the Fifth Blight." Fiona said, defending Alistair apparently. "The Kingdom has few soldiers and fewer funds to raise more."

"Excuses, excuses," Amy rolled her eyes.

"It is unlikely that the King and Queen will be happy about what happened here, but I believe Josephine Montilyet and Leliana can prevail upon him to not expel you from Ferelden entirely as long as you leave Redcliffe and stay under our auspices until the Breach is closed. As for the logistics of securing your people in Haven or elsewhere, we can discuss that tomorrow."

"Very well. I shall take my leave and discuss with my people." She nodded to Amy and Cassandra, and departed, very pointedly not looking at Vivienne - who did the same to her.

Amy let out a breath. Dorian had been about to ask Alexius questions about the Elder One and the Venatori before Fiona had spoken up, and Cassandra probably wanted to know about that too, and... Amy couldn't help but be curious but she also had other things to deal with.

"I get there's a lot of stuff going on, but I have a lot of work I need to do to get Felix completely free of the taint. So you all can ask Alexius questions about the Venatori," she took in a breath, "but I need to get Felix to the kitchen and start him eating as much as possible."

---

Amy had already had the thought that having Fugly Bob's - or any fast food really - handy would make Amy's life much easier when it came to healing people in Thedas. In the long run, probably not worth all the other health problems if full scale fast food caught on, but... still.

Failing fast food...

"What I wouldn't give for a blender and some protein powder. Or maybe a pile of protein bars." She muttered under her breath as she walked through the well stocked larder of Redcliffe castle. Wheels of cheese, encased in wax, smoked and dried and salted meats, preserves and jams and hard dried bread, beer (lots of beer), pickled vegetables and more.

After an explanation to Alexius about why she needed Felix to eat a lot, Cassandra let Amy go to see to that, with Katerina and Varric in tow, along with Felix of course.

"What are those?"

"Food from back home," Amy answered Varric absently, picking up a jar of weird looking vegetables in what Amy figured was brine. The glass was thick and opaque, making it even harder to tell what kind of vegetable it actually was - long, thin and purple? "Well, a blender is a tool for preparing food." If she needed to get someone a lot of calories fast and didn't have fast food or a bunch of IVs handy, milkshakes and smoothies were a pretty good option. And if need be, sticking a funnel down their throat.

"Good food?" Katerina asked. "Like those fries you asked Lady Montilyet to have made?" Amy had told Kateirna about them, and apparently Flissa, the owner of Haven's tavern and sort of the Inquisition's head chef, sort of, had made them a few more times for sale in the tavern and some people had liked them. Including Katerina.

"Not really," Amy shook her head. She'd protein shakes and protein bars as a thing to eat when she needed to rush to the hospital, and they did the job, but the taste was never good. "But they have the advantage of being nutrient dense. We need to get as many calories into Felix as possible as fast as possible to replenish the fat in his body that I use up to get rid of the taint."

"I don't think Felix has any fat on his body." Varric suggested.

"Calories?" Felix asked at the same time.

"Everyone has a bit of fat, at least, unless they're literally starving." Amy explained. "Calories are... they're basically a measure of how much energy food gives you. The body uses the energy to - you know - live and also to do things. That's why you're gonna be hungrier after doing a lot of physical activity and stuff. The body stores excess calories you don't need as fat." Amy was oversimplifying, but that was the basics, and that's all Felix needed. "Which can make you fat and also why eating less and exercising makes you not fat if you are."

"So the plan is for me to eat foods that have more of these calories? I may not be familiar with the term, but it's not as if I don't know what food would make someone fat if they ate too much of it."

"It's not just calories, but the most calories the fastest. Sure, we could just have you chow down on a whole wheel of cheese a day, and - you might as well grab one of those, Katerina because it'll be good for him to eat a good chunk of that - but if we want to pack as much into you as possible, we want stuff that won't make you feel full, but will have a lot of calories. Sugary foods. Sugar if you have it here, honey... do you guys have maple syrup or anything like that handy?"

"Maple syrup?"

"It's a very sweet thing you make from the sap of the maple tree. Don't know how. It's tasty on pancakes," Amy shook her head, "Not the point." She grabbed a jar of what appeared to be blackberry jam. Not her favorite, but there was a lot of it, so it would do. Then she grabbed a jar of honey. "Grab those sausages," she pointed to a whole string of smoked sausages. If those were fried up in oil, that would help too.

And... well, french fries were a great way to eat a lot of calories easily. If only Flissa was here to do it.

Katerina grabbed a wheel of cheese - it had to be at least ten pounds - and the sausages, and then they all heard out of the larder and into the kitchen. Some of the castle's servants had fled when Alexius took over, most just going into the town, refusing to work for a Magister, though some had left with the Arl. The rest had stayed, even if they weren't happy about cooking and cleaning for Alexius and his Venatori.

Felix, at least, had apparently been nice and polite and never tried to order people around much, so the kitchen staff were less angry with him than everyone else, and when Amy had let them know that the Venatori were dead or imprisoned and Alexius had surrendered and the mages would be leaving Redcliffe soon, they were thrilled.

She'd half-expected the head chef, a tall, barrel-chested man, to hug her given how pleased he'd been, but thankfully he had not. The staff were also happy to help the Herald of Andraste, so she was pretty sure no one was going to poison Felix's food.

She'd be touching him as he ate to make sure. Plus, she wanted to monitor him carefully even when she wasn't expelling the Taint from him. She was worried it would... react to what she was doing, grow faster, somehow overwhelm Felix all at once, if she didn't keep an eye on it. Probably stupid - and she wanted to see if she could get an idea of how the powders Alexius had developed worked to slow the progression of the Darkspawn Taint down in the meantime - but she wasn't going to take chances.

Leaving aside how Alexius would react if his son suddenly died, Amy was not going to let the Darkspawn Taint win. That evil shit was going to lose.

I'm fucking Panacea, and even if I can't actually cure you like I would anything else, I will save people from you, you disgusting vile shit. She hated the Taint on so many levels, and it offended her that she couldn't cure it. She was Panacea, the miracle healer. She could affect literally any biology, as far as she could tell and yet, somehow, this fucking nightmare shit was immune.

Fuck that.

So she asked the kitchen people to slice up and fry up the sausages, explained the basic idea of french fries to see if they could at least make something that would work, and got a few more things, including bread, plates and utensils. Beer was brought out as well for the others. Water for her.

It had calories, so she wasn't going to stop Felix from drinking any if he wanted.

"Most of this food is for Felix, but since we did kind of skip lunch," Amy had just had some dried fruit and nuts as a snack , "to come to the Castle, we should eat too."

"Thank the Maker, I was hoping you'd say that." Katerina grinned.

Amy sliced off a thick slice of the bread - baked this morning - and spread some of the thick blackberry jam on the piece, then spooned some honey onto the bread, and handed it to Felix. "Eat." she told him, putting a hand on the back of his neck. "I'm going to keep an eye on you and make sure nothing goes wrong."

Katerina started to break the wax around the cheese and Varric was spreading some jam on a slice of bread for himself.

"Now that you've got the mages on side, and... faster than it might have taken, you don't really need to go to the Templars at all, Amy," Katerina suggested. "We can just go back to Haven and -"

"Are you trying to get out of our bet by convincing Amy not to go meet the Templars?" Varric accused with a chuckle, before taking a bite of his bread and jam.

"What?! No," Katerina shook her head, "Fuck, Varric, I'll give you the win and the ten silvers if you help me convince Amy not to go to Therinfall-"

"It doesn't matter if Varric tried, I'm not changing my mind," Amy spread some jam on another piece of bread for herself. It was easier said than done to do one handed - no hand on the plate to stabilize it - since she was keeping one hand on Felix.

"Here, let me," Katerina reached over the table and pried the knife out of Amy's hand pulling Amy's plate towards herself, ignoring Amy's protests. "You have what you need to close the Breach. Just leave the Templars to rot in their hole."

Amy felt Felix swallow a large mouthful of food and then take a breath, preparing to say something.

"Less talking, more eating," Amy interrupted before he could say anything, using her free hand to snatch her plate back now that Katerina had spread the jam. She took a bite from the bread - even more than blackberry jam usually was in her experience, this stuff was tart. But it was food, she was hungry, and she should eat while she could.

"I think I can eat and-"

"Abupupup," Amy interrupted again. "The more you eat and the faster you eat the faster I can get the Darkspawn Taint out of you and the less likely there's some unexpected complication that does serious harm or kills you."

"That's - that's possible?"

"I have no fucking clue, the Taint is almost entirely a mystery to me, it's evil nightmare shit, I half expect it to burst out of your chest and try and eat my face," Amy muttered. "So eat." Felix hesitated, and Amy rolled her eyes. "It's probably not going to, and if it did, I'd probably - probably - be able to save you. Maybe." It would depend on if his heart exploded when the Darkspawn Taint burst out of his chest and how fast she could get to him and...

"And you said I wasn't allowed to try and make you feel better, PanPan,"

"Shut up Varric," Amy muttered again without heat, and then, "Anyway, if we could be sure the Templars would stay in their hole and rot there, I'd think about it," she admitted. The concern about the Lord Seeker lashing out if he lost his chance at glory was the biggest reason Amy wanted to get the Templars onboard. The injustice of their treatment when it came to Lyrium and the addiction to it was definitely a reason too, and... there was the fact that Cassandra wanted a peace to be forged, and she had given Amy her trust, asked Amy to prove that she could do it, given Amy a chance...

Amy wasn't going to fail Cassandra. She wasn't. She was going to -

"Stay in their hole? What do you mean?" Felix asked before Amy could repeat the 'no talk, eat' instructions.

"The Lord Seeker is crazy and thinks he's the main character of a story." Amy answered, sighing. "I mean it - no talk, just eat. Have a few spoonfuls of the honey straight." She instructed.

"I think the kid can be trusted to eat a lot of food without you giving him instructions," Varric said with a chuckle. Felix was older than Katerina - mid twenties if she guessed right without checking closer - but that was still a kid to Varric apparently.

"Again, most food possible as fast as possible is the idea here. We don't want Felix to feel full too fast." She rolled her eyes, "Anyway, the problem with Lord Seeker "I am the Hero of This Story and You Are All Bit Players " Lucius is that if we don't give him a chance to save the day by helping with the Breach, he'll probably attack us at Haven now that we've brought on the mages."

"And so your solution is to walk into an obvious trap, invite the crazy bastard to come to Haven with all his Templars and then hope that maybe you and Commander Cullen and Lady Montilyet can convince enough Templars see reason. Great plan, Amy."

"I dunno," Varric shrugged, "I've met a few reasonable Templars."

"But not that many. Because there's only been a small handful of reasonable Templars to ever exist." Katerina popped a small piece of cheese into her mouth and washed it down with a sip of beer.

"I can't say. For some reason most Templars don't seem to like me."

"I can't imagine why they wouldn't like you, Varric." Amy muttered.

"Eh, I think they just don't have much sense of humor. How did you manage to escape that horrible fate, Red?" Varric asked Katerina, finishing his own piece of bread and jam after asking.

"I never took Lyrium. Pretty sure that's what makes most Templars so fucking dour and personality-less," Katerina offered with a grin.

That... kind of tracks, I think, with what I've heard, Amy considered

"There's a theory. Hey, kid," he gestured at Felix. Amy let out an exasperated sigh and dropped her head into one hand, "The Templars in Tevinter - they don't take Lyrium. Do they have a sense of humor?"

They have Templars in Tevinter? At almost the same time she had the thought, Katerina had an outburst saying the exact same thing.

"Yes. We were once part of the same Chantry as you here in the south," Felix said, sounding as if he was reminding her of something he felt like she should know. Maybe a little exasperated. "Templars were part of the Chantry well before we split."

"Yeah, but I mean, I assumed you got rid of them. Your Circles are just schools for magic, not prisons. I can't imagine a magister taking orders from a Templar about what magic they can and cannot do."

"Circles in Tevinter are the most prestigious academies for mages, not just 'schools'," Felix corrected. "And...you're not wrong about magisters not taking orders from Templars. It is the other way around - officially they investigate and prosecute abuse of magic - demon summoning, abominations... in practice, they're tools the members of the Magisterium use against one another or to make sure lesser mages without political connections toe the line. Only the truly egregious abuses that can't be hidden will be punished. One of the many things my father always tried to push back against before I was Tainted." Felix exhaled slowly, clearly upset, looking at the partially eaten piece of cheese on his plate. It was a large piece.

That's kind of the opposite of surprising. Based on what she knew about Tevinter - evil, slave-owning, mages running the place - she wouldn't have expected them to let the magic police actually police them, and using them as corrupt cops to attack each other or like, keep the lesser mages down made perfect sense. Don't let outsiders into their clubhouse.

The Tevinter and Empire 88 comparisons continue. If there was one thing E88 loved almost as much as dealing drugs, running protection rackets and brutalizing minorities, it was cracking down on other gangs. More than one minor gang had arisen over the years with cape at the head, tried to claim territory and Empire 88 would fall on them sometimes before the PRT or BBPD even heard about them.

And as for backstabbing and treachery... well, whatever the official statement from Kaisar about Allfather's death - and he had put out one, a recording released onto a friendly news station and everything - Carol and Uncle Neil had always believed that Kaisar had killed his own father to take over the gang. Iron Rain had been out of the picture for a few years, and then Allfather...

Amy believed it. Why wouldn't a Nazi piece of shit commit patricide for power?

"As for their sense of humor -" Before he could finish, one of the doors to the little room adjacent to the kitchen they were in burst open, crashing against the wall next to it and Cassandra's voice rang out, harsh, loud, furious.

"Varric, you lying little shit!" Amy turned in her chair to see Cassandra storming across the room, the fury in her eyes and voice, something Amy hadn't seen from Cassandra since the day she'd woken up in that cell.

"What are you talking about?" Varric barely had time to put his beer down before Cassandra had pulled him from his chair and shoved him against the wall, hands on the collar of his leather jacket. "What are you blaming me for this time?!"

"You told me he was dead!" She ground him against the wall a bit, getting in his face. What the - what is she pissed about? What's going on? Seeing Cassandra like this against an ally - she didn't really trust Varric much and she could totally see him lying but -

She was talking to Alexius about the Venatori. He must have said something about someone Varric said was dead? Who could make her so angry? Why is she -

"I've said a lot of people are dead, who are you talking about this time?!" Varric wasn't trying to escape Cassandra's grip - probably because he couldn't - but he was matching her volume, yelling back at her.

"Lady Pentaghast!" "Cassandra!" Amy and Katerina both said at the same time. Amy stood, no idea what was going on, no idea what to do, but she couldn't just stand here and -

At the very least Cassandra had to explain what she was angry about, not just yell? Heart pounding in her chest, she moved to Cassandra's side.

"Cassandra - what - what are you doing?"

"I don't think slamming him against the wall is the way to get answers from him, Lady Pentaghast," Katerina offered.

"Did you know?!" Cassandra demanded, apparently ignoring them both.

"Cassandra, stop!" Amy grabbed at Cassandra's shoulder, but there wasn't much she could actually do to pull the other woman away from Varric without using her power on her and she - she wasn't going to do that. She looked at Katerina, pleading with her to do something with her eyes, hoping Katerina got the message.

Would she even - Katerina had a near hero-worship for Cassandra, enormous respect for her, would she get in the way? She'd let stuff happen before and this wasn't the same but-

"Lady Pentaghast, forgive me, but you should let him go," Katerina said firmly, pushing her way between them, prying Cassandra's left hand off of his collar - Cassandra let go with her right and stepped back, turning away, fuming, breathing heavily.

Varric didn't fall into a heap once Cassandra let him go, but he might have stumbled if Katerina hadn't caught him and helped him stay up.

"Did you know, Varric?" Cassandra demanded again, not lowering her voice.

"Know what, Seeker?" Varric demanded, glaring at her.

"The Venatori's Elder One! It is Corypheus!"

"Corypheus? No. No. He's dead. He's dead." Varric insisted. Amy blinked.

Was that - is that fear? Is Varric afraid of this - Amy didn't recognize the name, and Katerina and Felix didn't either, from the looks of them.

"So you claimed," Cassandra growled. "And yet, he is the one who leads the Venatori, who promised Alexius a cure for Felix."

"He was dead," Varric insisted firmly, flatly, "I've killed a lot of people in my life," - words that should have made Amy do or say or... something, but she doubted Varric was actually a murderer. Just killing people in fights, probably to defend himself most of the time.

I - this - how am I becoming so okay with killing? Amy pushed down on her nausea - if she let it rise up too much she'd throw up again and that was the last thing she needed to have happen if she wanted Felix to eat more...

"I know dead. He had no pulse, no breath, he was covered in stab wounds, charred to a crisp and filled with bolts from Bianca. Hawke kicked the body's head a few times! Maker's breath, we even tried to loot his corpse, not that he had anything to take. He was dead!"

"Who the Fuck is Corypheus?" Amy said the name slowly, trying to make sure she got it right. Of all the names she'd run into in Thedas so far, it was one of the few that really sounded like a true 'Fantasy' name. The jumble of random syllables she'd come to expect from mid-grade fantasy novels. "I'm going to assume he's not in your book," Katerina not recognizing the name pretty much solidified that.

"If I'd put Corypheus in the book nobody would believe me." Varric shook his head, "Andraste's ass, I lived through it all and I still barely believe it happened. Until you showed up and we got a massive hole in the sky, I thought it was the craziest shit I'd ever have to deal with." He looked back at Cassandra, "He's dead, Seeker," Varric repeated. "Just because some power hungry magister with delusions of godhood is using the name doesn't mean I lied."

"A tall Darkspawn capable of coherent speech, possessed of powerful magic and who claims to be one of the Magisters who breached the Golden City?" Cassandra hissed. "Lyrium embedded in his face, just as you described him."

"Shit." Varric said simply, dropping into his chair, staring ahead. "He was dead, Seeker. I - are you sure Alexius wasn't lying?"

"How would he know of him to lie? I did not even tell Leliana about the story you told me. I cannot imagine Hawke or your other companions spread the tale much. Corypheus lives, Varric. You did not kill him, and now the Divine is dead at his hands! All the dead at the Conclave are his fault. And you did lied about killing him!"

"I thought he was dead! Again, his body was charred to a crisp and full of holes! We nearly died taking him down, we wanted to make damn sure he was dead." Varric shook his head. "If he survived somehow - I don't know it, but... shit."

Magisters who breached the Golden City. The whole - the guys who brought the Blights and shit? One of them is alive? A Darkspawn? And - he's -

"You didn't fight one of the Magisters Sidereal. You didn't - there's no way one of them is running around Thedas leaving a Tevinter cult," Katerina said, giggling, "That's impossible."

"If he wasn't one of them, he did a damn good impression of one, and he'd been in that Grey Warden prison for long enough to one." Varric countered. "Maybe he's just crazy, but he sure believes he went into the Fade and went to the Golden City, and he had enough power to nearly kill Hawke, Merril, Bethany and me."

"Can you fill me on on - Okay, how - okay, so I remember the whole 'Magisters brought the Taint from the Fade' thing and I hate that it feels believable given a look at the Taint, but who - how - when did you fight some ancient evil super wizard from a thousand years ago?! And - you killed him, but he's alive now and -" Amy blinked. "Well, wait, if he's the one who was doing some kind of sacrifice with Divine Justinia, then he was at the Conclave, but alive enough after to go to Alexius and make the deal - undo me doing whatever the fuck I did - then he survived the explosion that killed everyone but me. So..." Amy exhaled slowly. "Some kind of unkillable supervillain?"

Great. Just what Thedas needed.

"Maybe. Or maybe we just need a bigger explosion." Varric muttered. "Or a ring and a volcano."

"Fun-ny," Amy growled. She really fucking hoped it wasn't that. Or maybe she did. That would be simple. "Let's get back to how you and Hawke fought this ancient super wizard bastard and Jesus Christ this is my fucking life now. How is this my life?!"

"It's a long story. But I'll try and trim it down," Varric sighed. "Sit down," he gestured to the chairs. "You as well, Seeker."

"I'll remain standing." Cassandra said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Suit yourself." Varric sighed. "Okay, I don't think you've gotten to this in my book, Amy, but suffice to say, the Deep Roads Expedition was a massive success, but Bethany was left in Kirkwall and ended up being found out and forced into the Circle in Kirkwall. She actually did pretty well there, and Hawke was able to use the funds from selling all the loot we found to buyback her grandparents' mansion, secure her old family titles back - some of them - and basically never have to worry about money again, for the most part, unless all her investments tanked at once."

"She had a mostly quiet few years - quiet for Hawke anyway, which meant the occasional assassination attempt, doing the occasional mercenary work just to break up the monotony, and of course, making eyes at Merrill because she couldn't just tell Daisy how she felt about her. While all this was happening, one faction of the Carta suddenly got very persistent about trying to capture her. A few attempts in a row, all failed, and they even snuck people into the Circle to try and do the same for Bethany."

Katerina laughed, "Someone tried to break into the - Andraste's ass, how stupid were they?"

"Incredibly," Varric answered deadpan. "I was able to track down where the people behind the attacks were - this old fort in the Vinmark Mountains - and the Templars actually gave Bethany permission to go with Hawke and find out what was going on." Amy saw Katerina open her mouth and Varric shrugged, "I know, I can't believe it. It was before Meredith went especially crazy, so things were tough, but not as bad as they got. Hawke being a rich noble meant Bethany had some extra protections and could even visit her family from time to time, or vice-versa, but permission to travel days outside the city? I did not expect that."

"What's unusual about the Carta trying to kill Hawke? Hadn't she pissed them off more than once?"

"Sure, but these attacks were sloppier than usual, and all the dwarves involved fought to the death. And they kept trying and went after Sunshine. Carta usually leaves the Circles alone - smuggling Lyrium in for the Templars is too much of their business for them to risk it.:" Varric explained. "So we went to the fort, but there was no reason for the Carta to be there. No good smuggling routes, in the middle of damned nowhere, not good safehouse material... the attacks were coming from there, but the rest of the Carta had no damn idea what was going on there. Carta is always spying on itself, so they should have had something."

"You're building up to something." Amy sighed, "Do we need the drama?"

"I'm a storyteller, Amy. If you want the boring two-minute version, ask Cassandra." Varric shook his head. "Hawke, Merrill, Bethany and I went in, and got attacked pretty constantly from the moment we went in. The Carta were... fanatical. And apparently after Hawke and Bethany because they were the children of Malcolm Hawke."

Amy blinked. "This was about their dad?" Amy blinked, trying to remember what little Tale of the Champion actually ever mentioned about the man. He had died before the Fifth Blight, he was a mage but he'd also taught Hawke and Bethany's twin Carver how to fight with regular weapons, because he'd been good at swords and spells. He'd been a mercenary before meeting Hawke's mother and she'd run off with him. "Some old enemy from his mercenary days?"

"That's what Hawke figured at first, but no. They mentioned that someone named 'Corypheus' wanted their blood." Varric snorted after a moment, "Hawke made a joke about it - 'With a name like Corypheus, he's bound to go mwa-ha-ha at any moment'. But jokes aside, we had no idea who that was, so we kept going. We should have just killed the Carta in the fort and left, but instead, we followed them underground, to figure out what was going on. Like idiots."

Well, anyone who has delusions of godhood definitely would go mwa-ha-ha, and yeah, that name does have villain vibes, I have to admit. Since apparently this Corypheus was the goddamn Dark Lord of the insane story that was her life now... Hawke was coming off as downright prescient.

"Turns out, the old fort was the top of a massive prison, built by the Gray Wardens back before Andraste launched her Exalted March. And by following the Carta in, we'd locked ourselves in there with them. Only way out was to break all the locks... which was what the Carta wanted anyway. Turns out, the Grey Wardens had forced Malcolm Hawke to use his own blood to renew some ancient magical wards on the place, because the blood of their own mages wouldn't work. Which was why they wanted Hawke's blood - the blood of his children could undo the wards."

"I can guess why..." Amy could only assume the thing that separated the Grey Warden's blood from normal people's blood was the Darkspawn Taint. If Corypheus was a Darkspawn who was a prisoner, non-Tainted blood being the thing to help keep him imprisoned kind of made sense? As much of any of this did anyway.

Felix was here, listening - still eating at least - and Katerina didn't know about the Grey Wardens and the Taint either, and they were kind of supposed to keep that all under wraps, so... she didn't say more.

"Does this have anything to do with that conversation you had with Leliana about Blackwall I wasn't allowed to hear most of?" Katerina asked, and Amy blinked. Right. She had been there for the start of that...

"Yes." Cassandra said quickly. "And do not discuss it further."

"A whole bunch of fighting Darkspawn who had wandered in from the Deep Roads - called by Corypheus's presence, we later figured out - later, and we ran into a half-mad Grey Warden, named Larius. He wanted Hawke to open Corypheus's prison so she could kill him for good, to put an end to Corypheus's whispers in his mind - he was trying to get free. It was also the only way we could get out, and the only way we could get him to stop sending people to try and capture her and Bethany for their blood."

"So you unlocked the prison of the ancient evil." Katerina snorted, "Varric, you're a writer, you had to know that wasn't going to end well."

"Didn't exactly have a lot of choice - rot in the prison with the Darkspawn, or open the locks and kill the guy behind it all. It was just a Darkspawn. We killed plenty of those during our trip to the Deep Roads." Varric countered.

"And now the Divine is dead, and Thedas is in Chaos, and there is a Breach in the Veil." Cassandra growled. "By releasing Corypheus, you may have doomed us all."

She's not wrong. Was all of this Varric's fault? Well, Hawke's fault?

Well, I mean, the Carta were going after her anyway, and Bethany... they might have nabbed her eventually, right? And -

It wasn't all their fault. The Mages and Templars were doing their shit anyway and Hawke saved a bunch of lives there apparently and she killed Knight-Commander Meredith who Cullen thought had been as crazy as Lord Seeker Lucius was now by the end, so...

Fuck.

"I'll be the first agree it wasn't a great plan, and if Corypheus really is the leader of the Venatori, then it didn't fucking work, but would you have just stayed and rotted there forever if you didn't know the prisoner apparently can't be killed?!"

Amy blinked.

Victoria probably wouldn't have volunteered to stay locked in a cell with a bunch of nightmare monsters either under those circumstances. She would have agreed if she knew, but...

"So, Hawke used her blood to open the locks one by one, technically not her doing any blood magic herself, for the record, and deeper and deeper into the damn place we went. We found some old records that said the Grey Wardens had found that even after they killed the Archdemon of the First Blight, there were thinking Darkspawn who could lead portions of the Horde - they trapped the most powerful one, Corypheus in this cell." Varric exhaled slowly.

"Given what I'm about to tell you, I always figured they trapped him to use him. If he really is still alive, and survived the explosion of the Temple of Sacred Ashes... maybe they imprisoned him because they couldn't kill him." Varric paused, took a drink of his beer, and then continued. "Finally, we got all the way to the final part of the prison, and ran into another Grey Warden - Janeka. She was a mage, and she didn't act as crazy as Larius, but... it turned out she was the one who had gotten the Carta into this, had sent the Carta after Hawke in the first place, because she wanted to wake Corypheus and use him to put an end to the Blights forever."

Amy blinked again. "Seriously?" She thought back to Victoria telling her stories about the people who had tried to Master the Endbringers, back when they were new. She supposed if people were stupid enough to try that... She looked at Cassandra. "You weren't kidding when you said the Grey Wardens are obsessed with ending the Blights if they were stupid enough to try that." Amy was a stranger to Thedas. She didn't really understand magic. And she'd never experienced a Blight or fought Darkspawn, but she'd gotten an intimate look at how fucking horrible the Darkspawn Taint was.

And no matter how horrible it was, she knew it was just a fucking stupid idea to try to use the ancient sealed evil 'for good'. It was like Boromir saying that they could use the ring against Sauron, and everyone else pointing out that wouldn't work, because duh.

"She was also stupid enough to try and kill Hawke when Hawke decided that her plan was a very, very bad idea. It didn't end well for her." Varric explained. "Larius claimed that Corypheus had spoken in her mind, whispered or planted ideas. I don't know if it was that coherent... because Corypheus didn't really seem to understand what he was or where he was when Hawke finally opened the last seal."

Varric took another sip of his beer, swallowed, took a breath. "Corypheus woke up and came out of the sarcophagus he'd been locked in and yeah, like Cassandra said - tall gangly bastard, claws for hands, Lyrium embedded in his face. But... he didn't know where he was." Varric paused, thinking, "He said something like 'Be this some dream I wake from? Am I in dwarven lands? Why seem their roads so empty?' He was confused, demanded to be brought to the temple of Dumat, thought we were acolytes, demanded we kneel."

"Dumat was one of the Old Gods of Tevinter," Cassandra supplied, and Amy nodded. The ones who went into the Golden City were the high priests, right?

Smiling, Varric went on, "Hawke, being Hawke, cracked a joke," he pitched his voice a little, making an attempt at what Amy assumed was Hawke's voice. Probably not a very good impression, but, " 'You're a darkspawn. Daaaarkspawn. Ravaging the Deep Roads, spreading the Taint... does this ring a bell?' Then Corypheus started calling for Dumat to give him answers, said they sought some sort of 'golden light' and the power of the gods themselves... and that the light was black and corrupt. He said 'the city' was supposed to be Golden. I've read the Chant of Light. Hawke had, Bethany had... we all knew what that sounded like."

"Turning the Golden City Black with their sin... the Second Sin," Katerina murmured. "But - that -" she opened and closed her mouth several times. "That - even - One of the Magisters Sidereal? Still alive? After so long? That - that doesn't seem... it's impossible! It has to be!"

"Why?" Amy shrugged. "It makes about as much sense as all the rest of the insane crap we've dealt with." Amy started ticking things off, "I got sent here thanks to a tinkertech bomb, a world where the elves and dwarves of fantasy stories are real, magic is a thing and no one has powers. There's a massive fucking hole in the fabric of reality in the sky. Demons are running rampant. I somehow survived the explosion that created that hole, I have this mark on my hand because I interrupted some kind of ritual to sacrifice Divine Justinia, a Tevinter Magister used goddamn time travel to get here and set a trap for me... ancient sealed evil in a box being behind everything seems totally plausible." Amy covered her face with her hands.

I hate every word I just said so much.

"Because -" Katerina went silent, gabbing wordlessly and then, "Well..." she exhaled slowly. "Maker... because I don't want to believe it's real." She finally said softly. "I don't want to believe one of the Magisters Sidereal, who sacrificed hundreds of slaves and brought the Blights to Thedas could be walking the world now. And I... I don't want to have to fight him if he comes for Amy personally." Katerina shook her head slowly. "I will if I have to, to keep Amy alive but..." Katerina looked over at Amy. "Go ahead, call me a coward," she accused.

Oh come on, I wouldn't - I said she was a moral coward, not a... too scared to face the bad guys in a fight kind of coward! Clenching her jaw a moment, Amy relaxed and exhaled slowly. "No... I think not wanting to have to fight the ancient evil wizard who unleashed the nightmare virus on the world is understandable."

"We'll all be better off if the leader of the Venatori turns out to be just using the name and running some insane con job," Varric shook his head. "But... it makes too much sense. The echos, we saw at the ruins of the Temple... the memories of the final moments before it all exploded. That didn't sound like Corypheus, but... the shape of him - remember? Tall, misshappen, clawlike hands...Andraste's ass, I don't want to believe it, but... it's possible, and that's a fact that scares me shitless."

"But you did beat him, at least." Katerina said.

"Nearly died in the process, but yeah. Like I said, no pulse, no breath, he was dead. And Larius seemed... more coherent. Said he couldn't hear Corypheus's whispers in his head anymore. He said he'd tell the Wardens about Janeka, about Corypheus being finally dead... Everything seemed resolved. It seemed."

"And so you went back to Kirkwall, and assumed none of it mattered." Cassandra finished.

"You did too when I told you the story while you were busy holding me at knife point, Seeker!" Varric protested. "If you thought there was any reason to think he'd survived, why didn't you say anything!"

"You were the one who was there, who saw it all, and it never even occurred to you!" Cassandra shouted. She started to lunge at Varric again, but before she could reach him, she stopped herself, hands outstretched, fingers half-bent and she exhaled, dropping her hands by her side and turning away. "I suppose you told the truth. And I would not have believed it possible he could have survived what you did in that fight."

Amy furrowed her brow, thinking.

Intelligent Darkspawn. Can't be killed. Larius suddenly coherent. Damnit, Amy needed to talk to a Grey Warden. Archdemons were reborn unless killed by a Grey Warden. So Darkspawn - or at least, the leaders of them, which the intelligent Darkspawn Corypheus had been one of were, had the ability to cheat dying under the right circumstances. How a Grey Warden landing the killing blow mattered was an open question, but...

"This Larius. He was just mad because of Corypheus's whispers in his head?" Amy asked slowly. "Nothing else?"

"That's what he said." Varric answered. "But Janeka did call him 'half-darkspawn already'. Said that his insistence Corypheus needed to be killed was because of that, because the Taint in him didn't want her to end the Blights by using Corypheus." He cleared his throat. "Where are you going with that?"

The whole thing where Wardens go into the Deep Roads and go down fighting? Amy didn't doubt for a second that the Darkspawn Taint should be present in a Grey Warden's body. But if Wardens all eventually had it go too far, and left to go down fighting, then that meant Larius was probably experiencing that? The Taint could turn people into ghouls, consumed by it, mindless. She'd asked about the term after Felix had mentioned it in the Redcliffe Chantry yesterday. Apparently they would be so far gone to fight alongside Darkspawn and Darkspawn recognized them as one of them, and didn't attack them.

"I have a theory." Amy pinched the bridge of her nose. "Back home, there was this villain. The Butcher. He was just a standard villain - he could make you feel pain pretty much at will, if you were in range. Like, crippling pain. He formed a gang of psychos, freaks and monsters - the Teeth. Complete with wearing the bones and skin of people they killed, supposedly." The Teeth in Brockton Bay were before her time and Thank God for that.

She swallowed.

"Run of the mill villain. But one day, one of his minions kills him, takes over. Calls himself Butcher II. Starts claiming he can hear the voice of the first one in his head." Amy exhaled. "Nobody believed him about that, but he did have the pain blast power of the first guy, in addition to his own, but then a while later, a hero accidentally killed Butcher II in a fight. Got the pain blast, got II's power - I don't remember what it was. He went insane within days - the voices of Butchers I and II. He returned to the Teeth, got killed, and suddenly there was a Butcher IV with the powers of the last 3. There's been 14 Butchers so far. Each one kills the last, gets all the powers... and all the voices. Absolutely insane freakshows, murdering, raping, stealing... some of the Teeth eat people, they say. The point is -"

"What if... Corypheus possessed Larius after he 'died'?"

As Amy finished, there was a silence in the room that finally made Amy understand the 'you could have heard a pin drop' proverb. It wasn't even just silence. It was a stillness.

"Well. Shit." Varric finally said, breaking the silence.