1 How I met Amatus

"Times are odd, no? A hole in the sky, Alexius going mad. What else is to come? A thousand pigeons hopping out of a cauldron? Now that... that would surprise me," Dorian laughs, and tends to his note for the Herald.

"Dorian, thank you for coming back," Felix places his hand on his shoulder, "I mean it, I don't know what I would've done without your help,"

"I couldn't just let you do this on your own, this is my responsibility," Dorian looks at the ground. He knows that Felix's time in this world is almost up, he knows that he cannot rest until Alexius is stopped. Maybe find a cure for Felix's sickness?

"It's not your fault, Dorian," Felix looks into his eyes, "This was inevitable, I am going to die and you can't stop it."

"But what if I could, what if I could find a cure!?" Dorian yells, pushing Felix's hand off of his shoulder as he stands up, "You can't just give up, this is your life you're talking about!"

"Dorian, I know!" Felix has heard enough, he knows what's at stake, his life does not matter, "I know that this is hurting you and it isn't easy for me either, but we must stop my father before it is too late!"

Dorian turns away from him and sits back on the bench.

"You're leaving me, everyone always does," Dorian whispers, loud enough that Felix can hear him, "Just like everyone else."

"Dorian, I--"

"Stop, just stop," Dorian commands, "We must get the inquisition's help, the Herald of Andraste is our only hope."

Dorian stands up and starts to walk away.

"Dorian, wait!" Felix walks to him, "I won't give up, I'll keep going, for you..."

Dorian's face softens, he is relieved to hear that Felix has not lost hope.

"I will save you, Felix, I promise," Dorian turns slightly, "Don't die while I'm gone, meet me in the Chantry after you've handed the Herald this note."

He hands the note to Felix and he takes it.

"Come to the Chantry, you are in danger," Felix laughs, "Very creative, Dorian."

"Glad you approve, see you soon, my friend,"

"See you soon, Dorian," Felix nods.

Dorian smiles and leaves the room. He is worried that he won't get the cure in time. For now, he takes his leave while trusting in Felix.

During this time the Herald is coming to speak with Alexius on behalf of the inquisition. Dorian heads to the Chantry.

"What the bloody hell is this doing here?!" Dorian stares directly into the rift with all of his charm intact, "Great, this day couldn't get any better."

He takes out his magnificent staff and prepares for battle. He doesn't know how long he is going to have to hold the demons off. Hopefully not long.

"Come on, Felix, get them here," Dorian whispers, "Fucking demons!"

He hits a Rage Demon right in the face, can't say it's very pleased. It smacks Dorian in the face and he falls to the ground. "Damn it, must keep going!" He picks up his staff once more, hurling ice at the enemy. The Rage Demon falls. It is defeated. If only it was the only foe Dorian would face. Many other demons emerge from the ground to face him. Each one, claiming to know better than the other. They would speak to each other, but not even the smartest mages such as Dorian would know that. Demons aren't exactly easy to study or experiment on.

The chantry doors open, as the Herald and his party walk in. Dorian is relieved, he finishes off his current demon in order to greet them.

"Oh goody, do help me with this, would you?" he says.

The Herald nods. They all fight; Cassandra, Iron Bull, Solas, and they all take the fight to the demons while giving the Herald an opportunity to close the rift. Dorian thinks to himself, "Wow, he is something... Oh, be quiet Dorian!"

The Herald closes the rift, with little to no work. Dorian is honestly pretty impressed.

"Fascinating! How does that work, exactly?" he asks, then laughs, "You don't even know, do you? You just wiggle your fingers and boom, rift closes."

"Who are you?" the Herald asks, not looking incredibly pleased with the response he was given.

"Ah, getting ahead of myself again I see," Dorian chuckles, "Dorian of House Pavus, most recently, of Minwrathus. How do you do?"

"Another Tevinter, be cautious with this one," Cassandra warns. Dorian looks at the Herald, he doesn't seem to really care what Cassandra said, that's a good sign.

"Suspicious friends you have here," Dorian laughs, "Magister Alexius was once my mentor, so my assistance should be valuable. As I'm sure you can imagine."

"I was expecting Felix to be here," he suggests, cautiously.

"I suppose he's on his way, got caught up with his father, I suspect," Dorian replies, "He was to give you the note then meet us here, after ditching him."

"Is something wrong with Felix?" the Herald asks, looking into Dorian's eyes. Dorian tries his best to stay calm.

"He's had some lingering illness for months, Felix is an only child. Alexius is being a mother hen, most likely," Dorian answers, hoping that Felix is actually on his way.

"Why are you betraying your mentor? Because of what?"

"Alexius was my mentor, meaning he's not any longer. Not for some time," Dorian sighs and shrugs, "Look, you must know there's danger, that should be obvious even without the note. Let's start with Alexius claiming the mage rebellion out from under you. As if by magic, yes? Which is exactly right. To reach Redcliffe, before you arrived. He had to alter time itself."

"Well that's, well that's a lot to take in. Why would he do that?"

Dorian continues to explain the situation. Felix comes and explains things as well. Dorian is very relieved about how the conversation went. He takes his leave, knowing that all will be well now that the inquisition is on top of everything. He heads to his little hut, not too far from Redcliffe.

"Oh, home sweet home," Dorian sighs and sits down on his bed, "What a long and frustrating day, reminds me of when Alexius and I argued about him joining the Venatori," Dorian coughs. He gets up to get some water, he hadn't drank anything all day. He thinks about the Herald and how he never got his name. He regrets that.

"I should go to Haven, shouldn't keep them waiting for my dramatic entrance," he tells himself, "Shouldn't keep the Herald waiting."

Dorian gets up and walks out the door and heads to his horse that he borrowed from Redcliffe. He gets on it and starts riding to Haven.

Meanwhile in Haven, the Herald, and his advisors are speaking in the war room about what to do next. The Herald has to choose between getting the Mages help, or the Templars. It is a very difficult decision to make because both choices have something sketchy about them.

Dorian gets to Haven and heads towards the Chantry, he sneaks past the guards, well more of just walks past the guards. For some reason, they were oblivious to his arrival.

"Wow, lucky I'm not an enemy or this would have been unpleasant," Dorian chuckles slightly. He makes his way to the war room door.

"Halt! Who are you and what are you doing here?" a guard calls.

Dorian turns around swiftly.

"Oh, Dorian Pavus, a friend of the Herald of Andraste himself," Dorian announces while bowing, hoping that it would be enough to satisfy him, "I came to aid them in helping stop Alexius and saving the mages from his grasp."

The elven guard looks at Dorian with curiosity and sighs.

"Wow, that's amazing, you should have seen what the Herald did with the breach, it was so amazing!" the guard says with pride, "It is an honor to meet you, Mr. Pavus."

"Oh thank you, glad my charm amuses someone," Dorian says sarcastically, "Well I must tend to the war room, thank you though for the thoughtful words..."

Dorian puts his ear to the door, listening to what the Herald was planning to say next. Would he choose the Mages or the Templars? If he chose the Templars, Dorian would leave and seek help elsewhere.

"What do you decide, Jonathan?" Cassandra asks, looking to the Herald.

"So that was the name," Dorian whispers with a slight smile.

"What are you doing," the guard asks once more, "If you need me to escort you in there, I can do that,"

"Oh yes that would be wonderful," Dorian smiles, "Just wait a minute, I'll tell you when."

The guard nods and returns to his post, beside the door.

"I don't know, maybe we should go to Redcliffe and get the Mages?" Jonathan suggests, rubbing his hands together. He is under a lot of stress because of everything going on.

"It is clearly an ambush," Josephine states, "It would be unwise to do so, without a proper plan." "We can't take the castle by force, it has withstood so much," Cullen sighs, "We wouldn't be able to do anything to it."

Jonathan looks to the ground, and then to the door where Dorian is hidden. Dorian gasps but remains unnoticed.

"I think we should go to Redcliffe," Jonathan announces, "There has to be a way to get in there undetected. We can have some soldiers go in through the servants' passage, while we go speak to Alexius, fair enough?"

Dorian turns to the guard and nods. The guard takes him into the room. Dorian looks at Jonathan, Jonathan looks at him. He didn't realize that he was an elf. Tevinter has a bad history with elves.

"Dorian Pavus, he just came here saying he wanted to help," the guard says firmly.

"Well his help is accepted, welcome Dorian," Jonathan smiles, Dorian doesn't move. He is surprised.

"Thank you, I will do my best," Dorian replies, "Now, let's do this, yes?"

Jonathan nods, and everyone leaves to get a good night's sleep before going to Redcliffe to confront Alexius.

Dorian heads to a spare house, near Solas. It is snowing a lot there.

"So you are Tevinter I hear," Solas says disapprovingly. Dorian turns around to face him. He is well aware of what people think of his homeland.

"I am indeed from Tevinter," Dorian admits, "I'm aware of what you think of us, but I can assure I am not like everyone there."

Solas frowns, he clearly isn't convinced. "Well as long as your intentions are really to help this inquisition then there won't be an issue between us," he whispers harshly. Dorian isn't too pleased with this elf, but he understands his concern.

"I respect your loyalty to this cause, but do realize that I am not the enemy," Dorian turns away, "Nor will I ever be, I can assure you of that."

Solas crosses his arms and turns away. Many elves are often slaves in Tevinter. But a lot of them chose that life, it's either endless poverty or some sort of life as a slave. Most choose life as a slave. But most people don't understand the situation like Dorian does.

Dorian walks into the house and looks around. Not too bad, it's actually quite nice.

"Still could use some tidying up but this isn't too bad," Dorian sighs, "It'll most certainly do for the time being."

Dorian sits down on his bed and takes out a letter that Alexius had sent him a while ago. It was about Felix and his illness, Dorian keeps it close for some reason. He reads it again.

"Dear Dorian, I have some terrible news about my family..." Dorian whispers, "My wife was killed and Felix was infected with the blight, I should have been there to protect them," Dorian whimpers and puts the note away, "Let the past be the past, I can still find a cure, there is still time."

Felix is always on his mind. When he was still an apprentice to Alexius, Felix would always sneak him some treats when he was studying. They always had fun together. Dorian couldn't imagine a life without him by his side.

*Knock* *Knock*

Someone is knocking on the door. Dorian stands up and opens it.

"Welcome, oh-" Dorian says, "Hello Herald, didn't think you'd come to talk with little old me."

"You may call me Jonathan, I just wanted to welcome you to the inquisition," Jonathan says passionately, "A proper welcome, not whatever happened in the war room."

Dorian signals him to come in, so Jonathan does.

"So, you're the Herald of Andraste, what's that like?" Dorian asks curiously, "To have so many people depending on you..."

Jonathan looks taken aback, he can tell that he doesn't like talking about him being the Herald and such.

"Oh, well I don't really believe that I am the Herald," he chuckles, "I'm not really sure what to think about it all, what about you?"

"Well, I'm not sure what to think about most of this, it's a lot to take in," Dorian proclaims, "Can't say I'm looking forward to confronting Alexius, we were friends once."

Dorian looks away from him, not wanting to seem vulnerable in any way.

"Yeah, neither am I, but I'm glad you're here with us, Dorian," Jonathan admits, blushing.

'Is he blushing? Wow, interesting,' Dorian thinks.

"Thank you, for allowing me to help, means a lot that you're doing this," Dorian says sincerely.

"No problem, it's my job to help those who need it," Jonathan says while patting Dorian on the shoulder, "I'm glad to help, and you are always welcome here, Dorian."

"And I am glad to be here," Dorian admits.

"Well, we shouldn't delay, I'll see you at Redcliffe," Jonathan gets up and leaves stiffly. Dorian can tell that he wanted to talk more but just wasn't able to because of his duties. Cassandra meets him before he can pass Solas's house.

"What are you going to do about that Tevinter?" Cassandra asks, crossing her arms.

"Nothing, he's free to stay and help, Cassandra," Jonathan claims, "You will show him some respect,"

Cassandra frowns, "Well that is news to me, you didn't think of asking us before you decided that he could stay?"

"Cassandra, I am not talking about this right now, let us rest and then go to Redcliffe," Jonathan sighs, "Good day,"

Jonathan turns and walks away from her. He doesn't care what she has to say about Dorian, he's made up his mind about him. Nobody can change that.

Dorian opens his eyes from a good night's sleep and gets his armor on. Combs his hair, of course. And prepares to leave for Redcliffe. He goes to the Chantry to speak with Jonathan about the plan.

He enters the Chantry and Cassandra glares at him. He pays no mind to her. He just walks straight to Jonathan.

"So I'm going to sneak in with your soldiers and you go in the other way, make sense?" Dorian questions while fixing up his staff on his back.

"Yes, I wish you luck," Jonathan says. They all head to Redcliffe. Dorian goes with the soldiers and Jonathan goes with his party.

A little while after Jonathan makes it to Redcliffe, Dorian enters with the soldiers who killed the Venitori who were ordered to attack Jonathan.

"Your men are dead, Alexius," Jonathan announces.

"Alexius," Dorian says.

"Dorian," Alexius growls. Dorian steps out of the darkness, staff in hand. Felix looks to Dorian and then to his father.

"Father, stop this madness," Felix begs.

"Alexius this has gone on long enough, you need to end this," Dorian pleads, "Please see reason,"

Alexius turns to Jonathan, ignoring Dorian's plea.

"You walk in here with your stolen mark, that is capable of things that you can't even comprehend!" Alexius yells, "My Elder One is stronger than you can even imagine, you are foolish to come here! You are nothing but a mistake!"

Dorian looks at Jonathan with confusion, he looks back to Alexius with fury in his eyes.

"Who is this Elder One?!" Jonathan asks.

"He is a god, stronger than your little Andraste!" Alexius claims.

Jonathan rolls his eyes, "I've heard this a thousand times, my cult is better than yours or mine is cooler than yours. You're just a fanatic," Jonathan jokes.

Dorian chuckles slightly.

"You never should've existed!" Alexius says, pulling out his amulet, conjuring up a spell.

"NO!!" Dorian shouts, smacking the amulet out of the air. Jonathan and Dorian are pulled into some sort of rift and have disappeared from the room.

Dorian wakes up in some weird prison of some sort. He looks around and sees Jonathan on the ground, it seems he's unconscious.

"Where are we?" Dorian wonders, "Wonder when you're going to wake up?" he says looking at Jonathan, aka sleeping beauty. It looks like they're in Redcliffe but a different version of Redcliffe.

"Ugh... Dorian?" Jonathan gasps, "Whu -where are we? What is this place?!"

"Ah, you've awoken," Dorian lets out a sigh of relief, "It seems that Alexius took us back in time or forward in time."

Jonathan just looks at Dorian with complete and utter confusion.

"What do you mean?" He asks while checking to make sure his greatsword isn't missing, "How could he do something like that?"

"Look, we just have to figure out where we are, more specifically WHEN," Dorian contemplates.

"Okay, well what if we can't get back?" Jonathan asks.

"Well then we get comfortable in our new present."

Dorian and Jonathan make their way through the castle and find some guards that were shouting "hail the Elder One" so that isn't too great. They took care of them with great caution.

"Fiona is that you?!" Jonathan whispers sharply, "Is that red lyrium growing out of you?!"

"It's you? I thought you were dead?!" Fiona gasps, "They mine red lyrium out of us, I will die from it."

Dorian looks to Jonathan who is just absolutely crushed. He never wanted this to happen...

"We didn't die, we were sent through a portal that brought us here," Dorian shares, "What is the date? It's very important!"

"It is 9:42 Dragon," Fiona says.

Dorian jumps, "Oh dear god, we've missed an entire year!" he croaks.

Jonathan started pacing and pacing, "No, no, no! I've missed everything!" he cried. Dorian pitied him, for a moment.

"There is red lyrium everywhere, growing out of the walls, why?!" Dorian questions.

"I don't think you want to know, let's go find the others," Jonathan sighs. They start to walk away and then Fiona says, "Please keep this future from happening,"

They both nod and walk away. Jonathan walks closer to Dorian. Dorian doesn't shy away but doesn't encourage it. He knows that there are more pressing concerns.

They came across Cassandra and The Iron Bull, they both said that they saw them die. That Alexius killed them for sure. Telling them that this Elder One is bad news, Jonathan swore that he would make Alexius pay. Whereas, Dorian wanted to stop Alexius but not by killing him. By convincing him to give up.

"We need to find Leliana, Jonathan," Cassandra commands, "We need to get to her."

Cassandra unsheathes her sword and charges to the torture chamber, with Dorian and the rest of the party following not far behind.

"You will break," the torture master growls, putting a knife to Leliana's throat.

"I will die first!" Leliana whispers. She is all messed up, something about her is off. She's like a corpse but alive. She sees Jonathan open the door to the room where she's being held captive and the torture master turns around. "Or maybe you will!" Leliana cries as she wraps her legs around his neck, snapping it. Jonathan grabs the keys from the man and rushes to her side. Unchaining her.

"You're alive?" Leliana says surprisingly as the Herald gets her out of her chains.

"Yes, I was never dead," Jonathan brings to light once more, "You're tough,"

It was like a darker side to her dark side came to her, "Anger is stronger than any pain," she says, walking away, "Do you have weapons?"

Jonathan and Dorian both nod.

"Aren't you curious about how we got here?" Dorian asks curiously, looking at Jonathan.

"No," she responds, getting her bow and arrows together, "I don't care what happened,"

Dorian just shakes his head and tells her anyway. Rambling on for two minutes. She proceeds to roll her eyes back and forth, clearly not interested. She just wants to make Alexius pay.

"Anyways, we can go back in time and make it so this never happened. Make it so this future is never to come," Dorian says, shifting back and forth.

"I'm sorry for everything you've suffered," Jonathan sighs, looking to Dorian, then to her.

She turns to Dorian and stares daggers at him, "You act like this is just a dream, a reality you hope never comes to pass," Leliana glares, "I suffered, the whole world suffered, it was real!"

Dorian remains silent, Jonathan wants to comfort him but decides to let it go.

"Come on, let's go to Alexius," Jonathan signals. Dorian follows not far behind him. He feels comforted around Jonathan. Something he has never felt before. He disregards it once more.

"What happened to Felix?" he asks Leliana.

She doesn't turn around, just keeps walking, "You'll see soon enough."

"You're not going to tell me?" Dorian replies sternly, along with his fist clenched. Felix matters to him, he's known him for a long time. He doesn't want anything bad to happen to him. All of this has already taken time away from him finding a cure. He needs to find it, for Felix's sake.

"No, as I said, you'll see for yourself soon enough,"

Dorian wonders what cruel things they did to her in that chamber. You don't just look the way she does and not have something terrible done to you. The fact that she is even alive is overall pretty shocking. He knows that she is strong, but how could anyone be that strong. He ignores her and continues to follow Jonathan throughout the castle. They come across a few enemies and they cut them down and continue moving forward.

"Wait, I think I know how to open that door," Dorian says as they enter the grand hall. It seems that they have to find some red lyrium shards, five to be exact, and the door will open.

"Ok, then let's find them," Jonathan agrees. They look throughout the castle and they manage to find all five red lyrium shards. They go to the door and put the shards in the slots. The door opens and Alexius is sitting on the throne. He acts like he is the king of nothing. He doesn't look proud or prideful. He looks devastated. Like he's lost everything. Everyone has lost everything. The world lost a great many things, it looks like.

"I knew you would return," he sighs, standing away from the throne, "I knew I could not remove you permanently..."

Alexius looks around the throne room, probably to analyze the situation. Looking for a way to escape perhaps?

Dorian looks around as well. Looking for Felix, maybe he could be there too. Dorian's eyes widen as he sees Felix, just around the corner.

"Felix?! Alexius! What have you done!?" Dorian cries, "Wha-What did you do?!"

Dorian looks terrified. Understandably so, Felix is one of his closest friends. Jonathan wants to help him but he isn't really sure what to do. He looks like Leliana. All weird and crumpled up. Like his spirit was drained or taken from him.

"You created this," Jonathan sighs, staring directly at Alexius, "All this chaos, and for what?"

Alexius' face drops, "To save my son..." he whispers, "But it means nothing now."

"I will reverse this," Jonathan announces, "This future will not come to pass!"

Dorian admires Jonathan's bravery, fruitful but could be considered meaningless all the same. IF they can't get back, what then? Felix is messed up. The whole world is in shambles. How could it get any worse?

"The Elder One is coming, we are all going to die..." Alexius says, fiddling around with his amulet.

"Who is this Elder One?" Jonathan asks, looking at Dorian. He just shrugs. Dorian had never heard of this Elder One. He had only heard of the Venitori.

"He is a god... he entered the heavens and now he is coming to claim this world," Alexius claims.

Leliana sneaks up behind Alexius and grabs Felix. She grabs him and puts a knife to his throat.

"Felix!" Alexius gasps, "Please... don't hurt my son!"

Leliana stares at him coldly, pulling the knife even closer to his throat.

"PLEASE, I- I- I'll do whatever you want!" Alexius stutters. Dorian is panicking on the inside. Future or past, it is still Felix. His beloved friend. Jonathan reads what Dorian is thinking quite quickly. He will not use Felix to bargain with Alexius like this. It isn't right.

"Leliana, let him go!" Jonathan commands, "He is innocent!"

Leliana just stares at him. Maybe she thought that he would let her kill him. She disregards his wishes.

"No one is innocent," she says as she slits his throat. Felix falls to the ground. Alexius cries in despair and casts a spell pushing everyone to the ground. The whole room shakes. Dorian looks at Felix's body for a second and a tear drops to the floor. He runs to help Jonathan up and hands him his bow.

Jonathan shoots at the rampaging Alexius and hits him in the chest. Alexius continues to fight, ignoring the wound inflicted with poison. Dorian throws a massive lightning bolt at Alexius while The Iron Bull axes his back. Cassandra slashes at Alexius but misses by a lot. She grunts and charges at him once again. Alexius uses his staff to create a whirlwind that engulfs her and throws her to the other side of the room. She hits the wall and drops her sword and shield. Dorian responds with a chant that heals her, gives her more strength to continue the fight. She gets up and hits Alexius from the side, while Bull and Jonathan attack him from the other. Dorian gets the final blow. Jonathan figured he should be the one to do it.

Dorian hits Alexius in the head with his staff, swiftly and carefully. Alexius falls to the ground. He is dead. Drained. Unwanted. Alone.

Dorian walks to Alexius and takes the amulet off of his neck.

"Oh, dear Alexius," he mumbles. Jonathan goes to him to comfort him.

"Look, this Alexius was far too gone, but the Alexius from our time could still be reasoned with," Jonathan smiles, weakly. Dorian nods, he is glad that he cares enough to say something like that. Especially to him, a Tevinter. Some would not be as merciful as him. Some are quick to judge Dorian, like Cassandra, because of where he came from. Jonathan never really cared that he was from Tevinter, he was happy for any help Dorian could give him.

"Okay, just give me an hour and I'll be able to get us back to our present," Dorian says, looking at the amulet. The magic he and Alexius created together was very complicated. It's hard to believe that time travel is even possible.

"An hour? You must go now!" Leliana warns. All of a sudden a large grumble shook the castle. Leliana gasps.

"The Elder One," The Iron Bull says. He turns to Cassandra and they decide what needs to be done.

"We will hold them off of you, as long as we can..." Cassandra says, calmly.

Jonathan starts panicking.

"No, no!" he puts his hands to his head, "I can't allow you to sacrifice yourselves! There has to be another way!"

Cassandra shakes her head, "I'm sorry but this is the only way."

Her and The Iron Bull walk to the Throne Room doors and shut them behind them.

"You have to make it so this never happens," Leliana growls. She turns away and walks to the doors and stands on watch. Bow in hand, arrow in the other.

Dorian starts working on the amulet as enemies start coming. Jonathan hears his party members cry as the doors swing open. They are dead. Leliana is the only one left standing. Jonathan starts to step away from the newly formed portal but Dorian grabs his arm.

"Move and we all die!" he yells. Jonathan listens and watches as Leliana gets torn apart by demons. Dorian grabs him and they hop into the portal together, appearing right in front of Alexius. Right where they disappeared the first time.

Alexius falls to his knees and surrenders.

"You've won, there's no point in continuing this charade..." he sighs, looking at Felix in sorrow.

"You've failed Alexius, just how forgiving is your Elder One?" Joanthan says sarcastically.

"Felix... you'll die..." he whispers dreadfully. Felix walks to his father and kneels down to look him in the eyes.

"Everyone dies," he says sincerely.

Dorian turns to Jonathan with a smile, "Well, glad that's over with."

The doors to the Throne Room open. King Alistair Therin enters the room.

"Or... not," Dorian sighs, humorously. Jonathan chuckles, slightly.

"Fiona, you gave the Arl's castle to a Tevinter Magister?!" Alistair says, disapprovingly, "I've tried to help you but you've made it so impossible."

"My Lord, I swear we never intended to-"

"We are done here, you are to leave Fereldan," Alistair commands sternly.

Fiona gasps, "But, bu-but we have thousands who need protection! Where would we go?" Fiona's elf ears almost seem to start sagging.

"You could join the inquisition?" Jonathan answers, "We could use the Mages to help seal the breach."

"Surely it is a better deal than what Alexius offered you, the inquisition is better than that, yes?" Dorian says. Felix motions him to come and speak to him in private. Dorian nods and walks away but not before hearing what Jonathan says next.

"I suggest you take the offer, Fiona, either way you are leaving my kingdom," Alistair clarifies.

Fiona turns to Jonathan, "And what are the terms of this arrangement?" she asks.

"You will fight as our allies in closing the breach, we in return will protect your people and give them shelter," Jonathan proclaims. Fiona smiles.

"We graciously accept, thank you."

Dorian walks away and returns to Felix.

Felix is waiting for him in the library.

"What is it?" Dorian asks as he walks to him.

"It's about me, Dorian," Felix sighs, "I know you think there is a cure but there isn't."

Dorian frowns, "You promised me that you would not give up, that you would hold on for me..." Dorian whimpers, "I will save you, Felix, I gave you my word."

Felix looks to the ground, he pulls a note out of his pocket and hands it to Dorian.

"What is this?" Dorian questions, taking it from his hands, "The blight sickness... Dear Felix, I regret to inform you that there is no cure for what you have... Felix?"

Dorian looks into his eyes full of sorrow. "You contacted a Grey Warden Mage?

"Yes, I had to, I wanted to tell you before you went to the Chantry but you really wanted to find one so I couldn't afford you to be sad for me..." Felix sighs once again, "It was stupid of me... I-I just didn't want to leave this world, knowing that you... still were blaming yourself for not finding something."

Dorian hugs Felix, tightly. He whispers to him, "Felix, I understand, yes you should've told me but I can't blame you..." Dorian lets go, "Are you sure that this is the truth?" He says, holding the letter in his hands.

Felix nods, "Yes, Dorian... I have two months left at most," he sighs, "I have to go and speak of the good work you've done here with the Herald. He is a good man, you're lucky to be by his side."

Dorian blushes, "I know, never met anyone quite like him before."

They hug once more and talk for a few more moments, then Felix takes his leave and Dorian returns to Haven.

Dorian decided to walk back and think about what just happened. So many things happened at once, he just couldn't wrap his head around it all.

"How could this be happening..." Dorian whimpers while coddling himself, trying to make himself feel better, "I wish I could do something, anything... oh... Felix..."

Dorian kept walking until he got back to Haven.

He saw Jonathan walk into the Chantry but he paid no mind to it. He walked back to his hut instead.

Solas once again glares at him as he enters his borrowed home. Dorian has gotten used to the looks from him and many others. It isn't old news to him.

He sees the Mages enter Haven through the gates. He is confused as to why Jonathan would allow them to just walk freely. Especially after what they did.

*Knock* *Knock*

Dorian rolls his eyes, it never truly ends.

Dorian opens the door hysterically, "What now?" Dorian growls, "Oh, it's you, please do come in."

It's Jonathan. Dorian doesn't get why he loves to talk to him so much. Odd.

"Thank you," Jonathan smiles, entering the home.

"So you are just letting the Mages wander about?" Dorian asks, "Aren't you worried about what they'll do?"

"As long as they're as good as you, I don't care where they go," Jonathan replies, itching his short black hair.

Dorian chuckles, "Few people are as good as I,"

"Haha, as I suspected," Jonathan laughs.

Dorian laughs as well.

"I'm surprised you're so eager to talk with me,"

"Well, I admire your guidance and your charm," Jonathan admits, "it's impressive..."

Dorian laughs once more, "Thank you, not sure what I did to deserve this praise," he jokes.

"Oh, I just like talking with you," Jonathan admits softly, "I would like us to be friends..."

Dorian smiles, "I would like that too,"

Jonathan smiles and leaves the house rather quickly, Dorian just ignores it though he found it odd.

Little did he know what the future had in store for them.

Jonathan went back to the Chantry to plan for the next move. To close the breach.

"How can I help?" Dorian asks.

"Dorian, what are you doing here?" Jonathan questions softly.

"I want to help this inquisition, that is if my help is welcome, yes?"

Jonathan shifts back and forth for a second.

"There is no one I'd rather be stranded in time with, future or present," Jonathan says while blushing.

Dorian chuckles, "But let's not get stranded anytime soon, yes?"

Jonathan laughs, ignoring the annoyed looks from Cassandra.

He wanted Dorian to stay, as long as he desired to, that is...