This is part of a multi-post. Please be sure you've read from "The Fade" before continuing. 

"Tell me again why I'm letting you rope me into this?" Baekhyun seethed. 

The returning chuckle did nothing to appease the elf's disgruntlement, but the hand holding his, and that slight pressure of encouragement, did actually work to make him relax. 

"You're doing it for an old friend from your adventurous days," replied Jongin.

"Hah," said Baekhyun. "Since when were you the snarky one in this relationship?" 

"I've always been funny. You were just too busy running your mouth, and singing songs, and shooting at bears and... and taking off my clothes to let me get a word in edgewise." Jongin's retort had no sting. 

Shoulder to shoulder they sat on a clifftop looking down on the valley below where a small family of Dalish elves were making their way through an overgrown, lush forest. The roads hadn't been great for years, not since the Orlesian Civil War which, typically, had been fought right on top of Dalish soil. The aravel below, an elven boat on wheels, was on its side, two wheels stuck in a great rut from which the family could not seem to unstick it. Part of its sail was misshapen and bent. 

"Come on, Baek, let's go be heros again."

"Since when did we already stop being heroes?" Baekhyun scoffed. 

"Since Sehun's father gave us that bag of gold and released us from his employ ten years ago today," said Jongin fondly. 

"Oh, right," replied Baekhyun. "Gee, I almost forgot you were that sentimental. Also, I forgot we used to be rich." The elf huffed, tugged his hand from Jongin's, and folded his arms across his chest. He was still watching the struggling aravel below.

Jongin could tell he was close to caving. He smiled. "Sorry I lost the coin."

Baekhyun sniffed. "S'okay. Who needs gold anyway? That spider den can keep it for all I care. At least we still have all five limbs, something those cursed spiders won't ever have again." 

Jongin cocked his head. "You mean four limbs?"

"No, Jongin, I mean five." He turned his head, winked a couple times, then reached for Jongin's lap. 

"Woah! Not now, not now, Baekhyun!"

With a loud and seething whine, Baekhyun sighed and returned his hands to his own lap. The elves below who presumed they were alone were still not making any progress with their aravel. Jongin reached for Baekhyun's hand and held it between his palms. He knew the reason Baekhyun didn't want to help. Those weren't just any elves down there; that was his clan. The ones he ran away from so many years before. He also knew that Baekhyun had been running for far too long. 

"You can do it, Baek."

"Do what? Spend another decade wandering the world with the best adventurer out there?"

Jongin laughed. "Well, you can do that too. But No, I meant... you can meet them again." 

There was silence for a little while. Then he asked, in a voice so soft it was almost lost to the wind. "You think so?"

Jongin squeezed his hand. "Yeah." 

Baekhyun still didn't move. "Hey, you think we can go hit up Chanyeol for another mini adventure first? I heard there were phoenixes terrorizing civilians in the Western Approach! Chanyeol loves phoenixes... We can--"

"No, Baekhyun. This first."

"But! ... Okay." 

Not terribly far away six different elves were unpacking their meager rations and settling in a for a night in the barn outside of a modest human community. Tao stretched his arms above his head and yawned. His new friends, recently cured of their lupine illness, copied him awkwardly before lying down. They were still unused to their human bodies, but given a little help adjusting Tao was fairly confident that Doojun, Junhyung, Kikwang, Yoseob, and Dongwoon were actually going to be alright. They'd lost of one of their members who preferred to go solo, but the rest were perfectly happy to take the invite so surprisingly conveyed to them by Kris, the once mercenary qunari. The lumber mill where he'd been working to a help a family by the name of Seung had lost some of his workers over the past few years. 

Someone knocked on the barn door. Tao opened it gladly.

"Kris. Good to see you again."

He had to look up quite a ways, and the qunari's face was shadowed, but he swore Kris smiled. For the qunari at least, that meant a small adjustment of the lips. 

"Your pack doing okay these days?" asked Kris by way of greeting. 

"Better yes, now that Minseok persuaded his brother to heal them the same as he did with me."

Kris snorted. "Heard that wretched maleficar was going by a new name these days."

"Xiumin the Great? Yes, I heard." But Tao made no other comment. "Thanks for the opportunity though. These guys have spent way too long on the road. They're ready to settle down, plant some roots. None of the other human villages though will take them in, and the elves they once knew generations ago are dead now."

"Well, it's no problem. I can understand all that. Even in my blood, the wanderlust has faded. Logger Seung's a good man, and fair. Good family too. He'll treat your boys right."

"Heard these parts were hit pretty bad when the Red Templars came through."

Kris snorted. "Not here they didn't. Not with me around. And I thought Luhan was bad with his lyrium addiction. That was nothing, nothing in comparison!"

"You're a good qunari, Kris. Shall we get some ale now? Reminisce about the old days?" 

Kris's chuckle was more of a rumble. "I guess that'd be alright. Speaking of Luhan, have you heard from him or the old gang recently?"

"No. Not since he hung his robes and left the Circle. And that was before the war." 

"I got a letter six months months ago from Jongdae."

"Yeah? Tell me about it over a fire. I'm freezing!"

Two souls stood and stared at the great dwarven barrier, the door through which so much had happened so many years ago. 

Suho gulped. "I changed my mind. I'm not going in."

Jongdae elbowed him in the head. "Too late, my love. It's now or never," he quipped, a wide grin on his face and growing wider as they watched the great entryway to Orzammar open up before him. They'd only barely managed to attain entry, courtesy of some shady patron Jongdae had managed to acquire in the Diamond Quarter who wanted him to do a job.  

Suho's legs trembled. His voice grew faint. "Nah, we can just turn around. Forget the whole thing, and go home."

"Ahh, come on," said Jongdae, already stepping forward. "You can do this. We've trained for years, years! You're a master bludgeoner now, this is gonna be a cinch!" He indicated the spiked mace intricately hidden in the folds of Suho's garments. "Tell me the plan. Say it slowly, repeat it. Master the plan, Suho."

The dwarf swallowed heavily and took a step forward with Jongdae. "We go in. We do your job. We bludgeon a few extra people, say it was an accident, free my sister, take my house back .... Jongdae that's too much, it's never going to work."

"It'll work."

"It's not gonna work."

"It'll work! You've got an Antivan assassin by your side." 

"You're not actually Antivan."

"Close enough though. Come on, the door's not going to stay open forever now."

Again Suho's legs seemed to falter and he couldn't go on. Jongdae nudged him once, and he stumbled. Finally, he got up the courage. Three times now had he walked through these doors, once when he left the Stone, twice when he came back in, ten years ago undercover with the best set of traveling friends a dwarf could ever find. Now, again, but still incognito.

"Explain to me again why I'm dressed up as a girl."

Jongdae tittered hilariously and whispered loudly, "Because no one needs to know just yet that Lord Junmyeon of House Kondrat is back in Orzammar, here to avenge all wrongs. Wooo!" 

Also in Ferelden, near the southwestern region where the arling of Redcliffe ends and another arling begins, the heir of West Hills awoke from a nightmare. 

"What! Stop! No!" he cried, actually falling out of bed. He landed in a heap on the floor, bare legs colliding with cold, hard stone. He thrashed even more until becoming fully awake and then he just sat there for a second, wrapped in a blanket, observing his surroundings. His hair stuck up in a mess. His heart thundered in his chest. It took a good while for him to calm down and realize he was not in fact in the Fade, but actually in his room. 

Someone knocked on his chamber door. Without waiting for an answer, Chanyeol strode right in. 

"Good morning, ser. How is ser today, is ser ready for his breakfast now, or would ser prefer to wait an hour while he goes gallivanting off without telling ser's favorite servant and bodyguard where he's off to? Ser? Ser?" 

Sehun scowled. "Stop it will you."

"What was that, ser? Does ye young Lord of West Hills actually speak to such a servant as I or does he only tell riddles."

Sehun pulled himself to his feet, the blanket still heavy around his body and frowned some more. "I said quit it, Chanyeol. I told you yesterday I was sorry, you don't have to browbeat me to death today."

The bodyguard's posh expression faded into a softer touch, practically radiant. Chanyeol beamed at him. "Your father's been up for two hours already. He's expecting you after breakfast. Try not to annoy him too much today. I'm still working to his approval for another vacation and if he thinks I'm not a good companion for you he'll probably deny me, again."

Sehun smiled. "Are you so ready to run off on me again, see your friends and do all the fun stuff behind my back?"

"They're your friends too," replied Chanyeol. "Also, you seem to do plenty of fun stuff all on your own, without me." He glanced briefly towards the bed, where on the other side of Sehun's pillow was another one, semi-mashed. "How's he by the way?"

The smile dropped quickly from Sehun's face. He raised his chin. "I don't know to whom you're referring to?" 

"Ser's such a little liar," said Chanyeol fondly. "Hurry now. Sun's already halfway up the sky. Tell Kyungsoo hi for me, I'll be out making inspections for the rest of the day."

"Who? I don't even know that name."

Chanyeol paused on his way out the doorway. "Did I say tell him hi? How lame. Give him a hug instead."

"He hates hugs, and he doesn't like you," said Sehun before he could stop himself.

Chanyeol grinned. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"Go!" shouted Sehun, his lips ringing irritably into a smile. Blasted man for Sehun to be saddled with for a lifetime of lordly things. Could be worse though. After all that excitement a decade ago, he could have just been left alone. Instead, he had Chanyeol, and some old friends who visited from time to time, Baekhyun and Jongin, sometimes Jongdae and Suho. Luhan sent him letters and drawings of Alistair. And then there was him, Kyungsoo, who visited sparingly and stealthily and stole him away for days at a time. 

Sehun was the future arl of West Hills, and who know where that role would take him. But in the meantime, he had a secret. 

He wasn't the only one though. Deep in the Wilds another mage roamed free, and alone. Animals scattered at his footfall, and the birds grew silent in the trees overhead. Shadows lingered wherever he passed and stayed there for days, weeks, years. 

For so long he'd been searching for a source of power unknown, finding nothing but echoes, and traces. 

He stopped for a time beside the ruined shack where decades ago an entire family had died. He'd never heard their screams, but their bodies he knew well. His fault, all his fault. But after all this time he could not feel any remorse for the events he'd let slip into such a destructive fate. 

"Two boys played in a wood," he chanted softly, one lone delicate finger tracing a pattern of magic in the soot covered floor board overgrown with weeds. "The saint and the demon. They played with no toys, but one glass bottle..." 

He began to dig, first with his hands, and then with magic. Deeper than a grave he went, twice deeper than that, seeking that precious trace of evil. 

"Ahh, finally, at last," he said to no one but the shadows. "My phylactery." And then he was gone.