Revelabit

"Land, ho!" The call drifted down on the salty breeze from the lookout's post - crow's nest - Sorana's mind corrected, trying to get comfortable with the seafaring expressions used.

She had taken to trying to assist on board, looking for something, anything to keep the boredom - and the grief - at bay. The gruff sailors had at first laughed at the landlubber woman's flailing, but soon accepted her among them as she practiced tying knots, clambered through the rigging, and even scrubbed the deck. It had not hurt that Leandra started helping in the galley, the quality of meals rising by a significant margin as the older woman put to use the tricks she had picked up having to make do while on the run with an apostate, and secretly grateful for the distraction from thoughts of Bethany.

Sorana finished tying the knot she had been working on and moved to the prow. It wasn't a magnificent galleon as militaries and the elite of society boasted; it was a smaller vessel, with just the right amount of space to carry enough wares to make a profit running the trade routes of the Waking Sea.

She moved along the bowsprit until she was balancing over the water, using the rigging to hold herself in place as the catamaran-hulled ship glided over the surface. She breathed in the salty air, relishing the freshness as the strong ocean winds moistened her face with spray from the waves. It had taken her a day to get used to the rolling sway, the constant motion having forced most of the refugees to empty the contents of their stomachs over the side of the ship. But now that she had acclimatized, she'd never felt as free – the wind pulling at the sails freed her from any ties to Ferelden and the memories that lingered there, the sea air soothed the hurt, a balm as the ocean's otherworldliness made the happenings of the past few weeks seem a bad dream, though every time she wanted to banish it to the back of her subconscious as such, there would be the glaring reminder that there was now one less of them. She would never again feel the soft arms of her sister welcoming her home. Never again hear the peal of her laughter as she found amusement in another trivial thing that annoyed Carver. Never again the questions on magic, and the slightly jealous tone at how easily the Fade bended to the elder Hawke's will. Never again....

Shaking the haunting thoughts from her mind, she looked out over the waves as the dark splotch on the horizon grew; the Free Marches. Her ancestral land awaited her there – Kirkwall. She wondered what it was like, the home of her mother. Part of her was nervous…she'd heard rumours of the Circle there on her travels as a mercenary, none of them good; even Bethany had heard of it in the Lothering Chantry, which caused some minor trepidation among the Hawkes. But from what her mother had told her, the Amells were a family of no small means. Sorana had never pictured herself as anything more than part of the common folk, so the prospect of living with or even as nobility sent her imagination soaring down roads it had never dared to tread.

As the landscape on the horizon became more and more distinct, Hawke came to a resolution. When they arrived in Kirkwall, her family would not be forced to leave their home again as they always had in the past. They would set down roots, and she would protect her own, for little Beth; she would not allow her family to go through another loss as that.

~o~

"Maker, I'd know that voice anywhere...Celestine?" Jowan's voice came from in between the bars of the cell the undead had been trying to get through, impossibly hopeful.

Celestine froze, her mind almost shutting down as it tried to process that the person in the cell might be her former life-long companion and friend, the former life-long companion and friend that had betrayed her trust and used blood magic on her.

At first she felt overjoyed at being able to see him again, to tell him about all the wonders she'd seen outside the Circle, to cry on his shoulder about the events at Ostagar, to have him laugh at her disgust with the undead. But the feeling soon passed, snuffed out by the growing flame of anger. He had lied to her, said he had not used blood magic and then had the gall to use it on her as well! He had, after all their years of mutual support, basically thrown her to the hounds in a bid to save his own neck. What broke her restraint was that he had abandoned Lily as well; after all his professions of love, he had left the poor, defenceless, ignorant girl behind at the mercy of the templars.

"Jowan?" the word forced through her teeth, tight as she tried to rein herself in.

"Thank Andraste it's you! I thought I would die in here." He had struggled to pull himself up by the bars of the cell, his form thin from obvious lack of nourishment.

"Tina, you know this man?" Elisa asked, unsure whether to be repulsed by the state of Jowan, or concerned.

Celestine did not answer the question; instead she moved towards the cell in one quick motion, grabbing the front of the starved mage's robes and pulling him to the bars so that his face crashed against them, which rang softly at the impact, accompanied by a small crack and a whimper.

The anger from a moment before blossomed into fury. "You betrayed Lily and me! Left us to rot with the Templars!"

"Tina…." Alistair started, placing a cautious hand on her shoulder.

"No! This bastard is the reason the sweetest of Chantry sisters was sent to Aonar! Plus he almost got me made Tranquil!" she barked over her shoulder at the more senior Warden.

She turned back to the unfortunate man in her grip. "Tell me Jowan, did you ever care for her? Did you ever care for me?" Her anger was like a pilot flame, low, but intense. "Were all those years of tagging along part of some great scheme to break out of the Circle? Was it all a game?"

"Maker, Celestine...please...stop!"

The Warden mage only laughed, a cold sound that chilled her companions; Morrigan, who had just returned to her human form, shifted uncomfortably, the sound reminding her too much of one very much familiar.

"Oh? You want me to stop? Like you stopped to think about the consequences about using blood magic? I think not."

Jowan whimpered again, trying to push away from the bars, where Celestine's grip on his robes had begun to smoulder and the metal under her other hand glow as she unconsciously funneled her rage out.

Celestine felt a cool cascade wash over her it pulled at her like a heavy current of water would;something within her was picked up by the current like flotsam and carried away. She blinked, surprised. The anger from moments before was gone, replaced with a mild sense of confusion and annoyance.

Jowan managed to struggle out of her grip, backing against the far wall of the cell with wide, fearful eyes. "Maker preserve me its true; t-they were right all along," he mumbled to himself.

Celestine looked at him as if seeing him for the first time. "Jowan?"

"Stay away!" the blood mage whimpered from the corner he had backed into.

The Warden turned around to look at her companions, gaze questioning. Morrigan was giving Alistair a disgusted look, who was down on a knee, panting heavily. He smiled weakly at Celestine and she saw his brow was beaded with sweat. Elisa,on the other hand, was giving her a cold, calculating stare.

"What…" Celestine started, unsure of what to ask.

Elisa gave a pointed look towards where Jowan was mumbling to himself; that was when Celestine noticed that one hand was still on the bar of the cell door. She gasped when she saw how the metal had been molded by her tight grip, the iron having softened enough for even her to be able to form it.

"No…not again."

She collapsed to the floor, legs giving out under the weight of fear that crashed down over her, eyes distant as images of burnt corpses all around flashed before her eyes, the smoking remains of scorched grass sweetening the air just as the scent of flesh marred it.

Alistair moved cautiously towards her prone form, unsure exactly of how to approach. He had barely understood what had happened, only that the air around them had dried up and a malicious sensation rolled off from Celestine in waves, so he had used a Silence. The Templar ability took a great deal of energy to execute, but it had blocked out whatever had been affecting the mage , so he felt it was energy worth spending. Awkwardly, he put a hand on her shoulder, every fibre of his being urging him to console her, but he didn't know where to start.

Elisa made an irritated sound and pushed past him; kneeling down next to Celestine she hugged her tightly, then pushed her away again so she could look into the mage's blue eyes.

"Tina, I don't know what in the Void just happened, but you need to tell us what's going on," she said, voice low. She interrupted as she saw that the mage wanted to say something. "No, not now. First we have to get rid of all the lively cadavers, then we can talk. Until then we need you to carry on as normal. Okay?" She looked at Celestine, grey eyes intense. When the mage nodded, she acknowledged it by mirroring the gesture.

"Alistair, will you help her? I feel I need to have a little chat with this 'Jowan,'" Elisa asked. Facing Morrigan she continued, "When Tina's feeling better you can fill us in on what you saw."

The Witch nodded, moving out of the way as Alistair half-carried Celestine back from where they had come from. Jowan made an almost mouse-like squeaking noise as he tried to back away further from the cell door, which Elisa started trying to unlock with her set of picks. Morrigan leaned back against the far wall of the corridor, raven-like eyes curiously observing the Noble-born rogue.

Fingers that should have been soft from living a life where servants were at her beck and call, were instead rough from years of handling daggers, and doing the work of a thief. Despite the callouses they moved deftly, sensing the vibrations of the tumblers as her picks played at the sensitive components. Elisa closed her eyes, feeling the give and resistance as the brass mechanism let itself be bypassed, one pin at a time. Finally she felt her pins slide through unhindered and she twisted, unlocking the gate.

"Now, Jowan, was it?" She said, making it sound like she were simply asking about the weather as she pushed open the heavy barred gate aside, "why don't you tell us why you're so afraid of our glorious leader?"

The rogue stalked over to the cowering filth-covered man, his robes where Celestine had gripped them giving off the acrid stench of burnt fabric. She stopped once she was looming over his groveling form.

"P-please. Just keep her away! There had always been rumours about her at the Circle, that she's a monster! An abomination! Fade-touched!

Elisa could swear she heard Morrigan's blink at that as she scoffed, "'Tis a superstition of the grossest sort, little man."

It looked like he tried to press himself even further into the corner at the Witch's tone at which Elisa shook her head, "stand up you whimpering fool, and explain." She gripped him by the collar of his robes and pulled him up forcefully, then pushing him against the moist stone wall.

"It's true!" his hands roaming the rock behind him as if searching for an escape. "You saw it! I never saw that in all the years we were together at the Circle, she changed. There's no way she has that power at her fingers and can still be human. She used to be the only one I could talk to, before..." He suddenly blanched. "Oh no…."

"Spit it out man, these half-finished sentences are helping nothing!" Elisa stated, annoyed, she was finding the urge to tap her foot very hard to resist.

"When I escaped the Circle I used a minor spirit eradicating spell. On most people it would just temporarily knock them unconscious as their connection to the fade was dampened. If there were any mental barriers in Celestine's mind that were drawing from the fade to remain in place… that might have knocked them out of place."

"Pff, as if a weakling such as you could have accomplished such a feat," Morrigan scoffed from her position. It looked like he wanted to contradict her, but her eyes cowed any response he might have had. "Regardless," the Witch continued, "if any such barriers were in place they would have been removed by the Joining."

Elisa raised a brow as she looked over her shoulder at the other woman, "you know of the Joining?"

"Enough to know that it involves blood magic, as well as linking you all to the Darkspawn and by extension the Archdemon." When the only reaction that she got was an even higher raised brow she explained further, "My hag mother made sure I knew what I was to expect."

Seemingly satisfied with this Elisa nodded, turning back to Jowan. "Now, since it's been established that you might even be innocent when it comes to our friend, you are most definitely not innocent when it comes to using blood magic, or getting aforementioned friend into danger. So please assume your margin to be small to none." She grinned at him, a predatory thing that showed her teeth. "Before we leave you here, all safe and cozy, please do share what the blazes is happening in this Castle."