Kathan headed down the flight of stairs. Kas was on a tear again, and the last thing he wanted was to be within earshot. They were not getting paid enough to be around this many people wanting to kill each other. At least nobody had been set on fire yet. That he knew off. It was the temple of ashes, right?

He was debating sneaking out of the temple and finding a tavern when he heard voices. That jackass templar was looming over a slight elven lass, who was backing away, her face scared. He took a couple steps forward and caught the man by the shoulder. For a moment, he considered putting him through the wall. "There you are, sis. Been looking everywhere for you."

The girl gave him a surprised and relieved look. The templar started to try to pull away. "Sister?"

Bones ground beneath his fingers as he tightened his grip. "What, you don't see the family resemblance?" He dug his nails in, making the templar gasp in pain, and then glanced at the girl and rolled his eyes. "Templars."

The little brown elf girl smiled. "I got turned around on that last staircase. There are entirely too many staircases."

Frankly he'd like to find whoever built the place and bang them around a bit. "And low doors." He moved the templar out of the way, and gestured at the girl. "Come on, let's head back up."

The templar sputtered a bit as Kathan led the girl out of the hall, and Kathan gave him a pointed look. The man subsided.

They hadn't gone far when she looked up at him. "Sister?"

He shrugged. "Cousin didn't sound quite threatening enough." The girl might weigh a hundred pounds soaking wet and wearing a suit of plate mail.

"Appreciate the help."

"You good from here?" Skulking about in dark corners was going to get her in trouble. He thought about offering to accompany her, but Kas would get pissed if she thought he was taking another job.

"Should be."

He hesitated. He could hear Kas's voice now, yelling at him about adopting stray cats. But dammit, the girl'd been in trouble and she was only tiny. "You get caught spying again, tell them you're with Valo-kas."

"Who says I was spying?" She actually looked surprised.

Kathan winked at her before walking away. This is why people should leave it to the professionals. Maybe he'd look her up later, see who'd sent her. Had to pay better than their current work. Might even be a good fight or two in it instead of all this sitting around while people talked at each other.

#

He stuffed the last bite of the flatbread roll into his mouth and dusted his hands off. Chipmunk, the little Dalish girl, certainly could cook. Maybe he'd see how she felt about taking up the mercenary life. If he had to eat Ashaad's 'Ferelden Surprise' one more time he was going to stab the man. And if he had to listen to Kaariss while eating it, he was going to mutiny.

#

"Kathan." He turned at the sound of his name being called.

"Hey there, Chipmunk." He nodded, and gestured for her to sit with him.

She did so. "I saw you sparring with some templars. I want to know what they're talking about when their superiors aren't around." She met his eyes. "And so do you, which is why you were holding back and letting them win. Making them overconfident."

A slow smile came to his face. "Well now, ya might actually be getting better at this spying gig."

"And you aren't as big a knucklehead as you pretend." She answered his smile. "You share what you've learned, I'll do the same."

"Deal." He held his hand out, and she shook it.

#

"Hang on..." Kathan shook his head. "Who are you and what the hell are you even talking about?"

The elven man narrowed his eyes. "I am giving you a polite warning. Quiyala is not prey for your Qun."

He rubbed his horns, and looked down at the smaller man. "Alright, just for the sake of clarifying..." He tilted his head. "Are you trying to threaten me?"

"Stupid oaf." The elf turned and stalked away.

"Yeah." Kathan nodded as he watched the elf go. "Pretty sure he was trying to threaten me." He shrugged, and started for the stairs. Sounds of a scuffle caught his attention, and he walked into a corridor to see a woman in templar armor and a woman in mage robes starting to square off. He narrowed his eyes. "Hey."

"What?" The templar spat when she turned towards him.

"Is this foreplay, or something I need to break up?" Kathan waved a hand.

"What?" It was the mage who asked this time, her face utterly scandalized.

"Cause if it's foreplay, I'm gonna have to ask you to wait a bit while I go get popcorn." He gestured haphazardly over his shoulder. "And maybe sell some tickets."

The templar snorted. The mage rolled her eyes and then laughed. "Apologies, good ser. Tempers are..." The mage sighed.

"Maker watch over you." The templar gave him a small bow before walking away. A moment later, the mage was walking away in the opposite direction.

Kathan waited for them both to vanish, then went to go see what Chipmunk was up to.

#

"I can't believe you're actually drinking that dwarven stuff."

The blond man laughed. "Puts hair on your chest. You could use some." The man gave him an appreciative look.

Kathan smirked. "You know they actually put fungus in it."

"The deep mushrooms give it that special 'who or what did I do last night' kick."

"What's the fun in not remembering?"

"Good point."

He was about to order himself another glass of the Fereldan when he saw his sister enter the room. "Shit."

She stalked towards him. "You're supposed to be working."

"Shokrakor relieved me an hour ago."

"Then you should be sleeping." Kas folded her arms and glared. "Not lolling about a tavern getting drunk. Get back to your post."

"I'm going, I'm going." He started to get up as she stalked off to go yell at Kaariss and Taarlok.

"I'll walk back with you." The human paid for their drinks. "Your boss?"

"Worse. My big sister."

"Wow."

"Tell me about it."

#

"So if I did want to hire your group to..." The blond man cut off. "You hear something?"

"Someone shouting." Kathan tilted his head. He was pretty sure the sound had come from the staircase, but... "I'll take the stairs, you check the corridor."

"Er..." The blond man hesitated. "Okay."

#

He came down the corridor, and saw a familiar face coming his way. "Chipmunk."

"Knucklehead." Quiyala nodded. "Did you hear..."

There was another shout. They looked at each other and then headed in opposite directions.

#

Someone was waving a sword at him. He fumbled, trying to find his blades. How did he get outside? And what was that smell? The soldiers moved towards him and he tried to pick himself up. A wave of nausea hit him, and then everything went black.

#

He stared up at the two women. "Ya think this is my fault?" What the hell were they even talking about? How could the Conclave be destroyed? What had been in that beer?

The dark haired woman with the scar grabbed his hand, showing the strange mark. "Explain this."

Kathan all but growled in frustration. He'd been hoping they could explain it. And where the hell was Kas? "It's my hand."

"I know it's your..." The woman glared at him. "The mark."

For a moment, he thought she was going to go for her sword. "I dunno. Ain't seen it before in my life." This all had to be some kind of misunderstanding. Any minute now, Kas was going to walk in and start yelling at everyone.

"You're lying."

The red haired woman stepped forward. "We need him, Cassandra."

He was in trouble. He knew trouble when he saw it, and this was definitely trouble. Or maybe she was definitely trouble. Same thing at the moment really. "So now what?"

"Do you remember what happened? How this began?" The red haired woman looked down at him.

Coming back from the tavern. He'd sent the blond guy down the corridor. And then... "I remember running. From, not too. Something or things were chasing me and then..." Bits and pieces blended together, and none of it made any sense. What had been chasing him? "A woman?"

"A woman?" Well, that got interest out of both of them. Something was going on here. Bits and pieces of memory danced tantalizingly out of reach. If that was Cassandra, the other one must be Leliana. But what the hell did they want with him?

#

They chained him up, pointed swords, and yanked him around. And now the dark haired woman... Cassandra... was asking for his help. And the sky was green. He wasn't sure there was enough black powder in all Thedas to turn the sky green. He took a deep breath and nodded to Cassandra. "Alright."

"Then...?" She looked at him as though she barely dared to hope.

"I'll do what I can." He got back to his feet. Kas was going to kill him. She was going to stab him to death with his own horns. "Whatever I can." Maybe he'd get lucky and the green sky would kill him before his sister found him.

Kathan followed Cassandra out of Haven. People were staring. That much he was used to. Cassandra cut his hands free. "There will be a trial. I can promise no more. Come, it is not far."

Trial. Kas was going to kill him for not demanding up front money, and they thought he was worried about a trial?

#

She yelled at him to stay back. He'd was doing exactly that when a second demon climbed from the ground and headed towards her back. Shit. He looked around and saw part of one the weapon racks that had been on the bridge. Kathan let out a shrill whistle as he dove for it, and saw the demon turn towards him. He came up with two long knives in his hands and grinned.

#

Cassandra pulled her sword out of the demon and turned to see where the other one had gone. The qunari man kicked it to free the knife he'd found, and wrinkled his nose as it disintegrated. He then turned towards her, a weapon in each hand. She stepped towards him, pointing her sword at his heart. "Drop your weapons. Now."

He gave her a disbelieving look. Then he shrugged, flipped the knives in his hands, and offered them both to her hilt first with a somewhat cheeky smile. "Yours if you want them."

It occurred to her that if he'd wanted to put up a fight, he'd had plenty of opportunity. His sheer size alone made him formidable. "Wait." And she might have been in trouble without his assistance. "I cannot protect you, and I cannot expect you to be defenseless." Had he chosen to run while her back was turned, he could have been half a mountain away by now. "I should remember you agreed to come willingly." And he'd made no attempt to use the weapons on her.

Both knives twirled back, and were stuck into his belt. "After you." He gave a half bow. She nodded, and started up the path.

#

More demons. A half dozen soldiers. A dwarf with a crossbow. And a guy shooting bolts of lightning out of a staff. The woman beside him lifted her shield and charged. Kathan followed. He flung his dagger into the face of a demon coming up behind the mage, then caught the hilt as he passed and stabbed it into another. Free to move, the elven mage gestured, and lightning arced between the demons.

The last demon seemed to melt away. The elven mage turned and grabbed his hand. "Quickly, before more come thorough."

Kathan let the smaller man pull him forward and press the mark up against the rift. Something just... happened. There was a rift... and then there just kind of wasn't. He looked down at his hand. "What did you do?"

"I did nothing. The credit is yours."

He was pretty sure that was at least part bullshit, but hey, magic wasn't exactly his strong suit. "I closed that thing? How?"

"Whatever magic opened the Breach in the sky also placed that mark upon your hand." The elven man shrugged. "I theorized the mark might be able to close the rifts that have opened in the Breach's wake - and it seems I was correct."

Cassandra approached, sheathing her blade. "Meaning it could also close the Breach itself."

"Possibly." He nodded to Kathan. "It seems you hold the key to our salvation."

"Good to know." Kathan was interrupted from forming his next question by the dwarf joining the conversation. "Here I thought we'd be ass-deep in demons forever." He smiled and gestured at himself. "Varric Tethras: Rogue, storyteller, and occasionally unwelcome tagalong."

"That's..." He was pretty sure he'd heard that name somewhere before. "A nice crossbow you have there."

"Ah, isn't she? Bianca and I have been through a lot together." The look the dwarf gave said crossbow was disturbingly tender.

"You named your crossbow Bianca?" Kathan rubbed at one of his horns.

"Of course. And she'll be great company in the valley."

Cassandra immediately began arguing with Varric, and lost rather quickly when he pointed out they were outnumbered and facing demons. Both of which were rather good points. The elf mage was Solas. And he was apparently the only reason Kathan was still alive. Nice to know somebody knew something about this mess. Maybe.

#

"So none of you are actually in charge here." He was really starting to feel like headbutting something. Or someone. Several someones. Mostly this chantry fellow. Arguing over elections while there was a hole in the sky? Seriously.

"You killed everyone who was in charge." The guy in the robes actually waggled a finger at him. "Call a retreat, Seeker. Our position here is hopeless."

And now they were all arguing about how to get to the giant hole in the sky. He was about to sigh and take up knitting when the situation got much, much worse. They all started looking at him to make the decision. Well, shit.

Rule seven. When in doubt, charge.

#

He drove the knives into a shade, then twisted to fling one into another demon. Kathan recovered the dagger as he headed in to the next rift. Soldiers were already there, fighting. He moved in alongside Cassandra, his blades backing up her sword.

The last demon vanished, and Kathan lifted his hand. It felt really weird, but it did the trick. "Lady Cassandra." A man who had the look of somebody in charge walked towards them. "You managed to close the rift. Well done."

"Do not congratulate me, Commander." Cassandra nodded in Kathan's direction. "This is the prisoner's doing."

"Is it?" He gave her an appraising look. "I hope they're right about you. We've lost a lot of people getting you here."

"You ain't the only one hoping that." Kathan caught a glimpse of a smile on Solas's face before the man returned to his normal polite expression.

The guy leading the soldiers nodded. "We'll see soon enough, won't we?" He nodded and pointed. "The way to the temple should be clear. Leliana will try to meet you there."

"Then we'd best move quickly." Cassandra nodded, and took a deep breath. "Give us time, Commander."

"Maker watch over you." He nodded. "For all our sakes."

Kathan shrugged, and fell into step behind Cassandra. Lot of folks weren't going home tonight. He glanced down at his hand. Hopefully, it would be worth it.

#

"This is your chance to end this. Are you ready?"

"I hope you've got really long ladder. Maybe a trebuchet?" Seriously, how tall did these people think he was, anyway?

Solas gestured at the rift in the area below them. "No. This rift was the first, and it is the key."

Kathan nodded, and started down the path. The entire place smelled like burnt ass. Idly, he found himself wondering if the blond guy had made it out, and then he stumbled slightly. The blond guy might have, but there was no way Chipmunk had. Shit. He wanted to stab something.

#

A version of him floating in the air. The Divine. Some creepy glowing eye guy. And the creepy glowing eye guy was ordering someone to 'slay the qunari'.

Cassandra immediately whirled. "You were there. Who attacked? And the Divine, is she..." It was clear the woman couldn't bring herself to say the word. She took a step towards him. "Was this vision true? What are we seeing?"

Damned if he knew. Last thing he could recall clearly was running into Chipmunk in the hallway. Fortunately, Solas seemed to know something about it. Fade bleeding or whatnot. He really just wanted a problem he could stab right now.

#

That... was a really big demon. Kathan drew both his knives and grinned. The thing did some kind of magic, pulling from the rift, and then their blades were just barely scratching it. That didn't seem fair at all. And worse, it was going to get people killed. A thought came to him, and he glanced down at the marked hand before using the energy to disrupt the rift. "Ha." It worked.

He brought his daggers back into the fray, flanking the beastie for Cassandra. He had to disrupt the rift a couple more times, and there were some other demon-things. But it went down. Cassandra signaled him, and he turned towards the rift, letting the energy flow once more.

The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was the rift sealing.

#

He was waking up with a headache again. That was better than one alternative, at least. Maybe. He heard footsteps and looked up expecting to see Kas. An elven girl dropped the box she was holding and squealed.

"Why are you frightened?" He sat up in the bed. "What happened?" And where were his knives?

"That's wrong, isn't it? I said the wrong thing."

"I don't..." What was he wearing? Where was he supposed to keep knives in this thing? Were these supposed to be pajamas? Who'd dressed him? And what the hell were they smoking? "Think so." The girl fell to her knees and started rambling about forgiveness and blessing and a lot of other things that made no sense at all. He rose and offered her a hand back to her feet. She took it hesitantly, and kept talking. He was apparently back in Haven and the breach had stopped growing. "So you're saying..." He glanced down at the marked hand. "They're happy with me?"

"I'm only saying what I heard. I didn't mean anything by it." She backed away, nodding. "I'm certain Lady Cassandra would want to know you've awakened. She said, 'at once.'"

Maybe he'd get paid for this shit after all. "And where is she?"

"The Chantry. 'At once,' she said." The girl fled.

Kathan looked down at himself. He looked like a fool, and not in any kind of fun way. With a sigh, he went looking for his gear.

#

Crowds were gathering and starring and muttering and some of them were bowing and it was creeping him the fuck out. He headed for the Chantry just a bit shy of actively running.

#

"So I'm still a suspect, even after what we just did?" What the hell more did they want? Probably for him not to have horns. Or maybe some tap dancing. Juggling? He could keep four daggers in the air now.

"You absolutely are." The Chancellor Roderick guy started to take a step towards him. All Kathan had to do was straighten to his full height, and the guy couldn't get on the other side of the table fast enough.

"No, he is not." Cassandra glared at the chancellor. The red haired woman, Leliana, also came to his defense, though her method was to turn around and start accusing the chancellor. He had to make himself not laugh at the man's aghast expression upon finding himself a suspect.

And then they were looking at him again. And spouting something about the Maker and providence and... Oh shit, this was... "I'm not the only one that hit my head in that demon fight, am I?" Kas was going to kill him. Nobody got paid for holy shit.

The chancellor guy sputtered some more before rushing off, giving Kathan a wide berth. Kathan watched him go before turning back to the two women who had recently taken him prisoner. "When I woke up, I certainly didn't picture this outcome." The whole 'clasp him in chains and drag him off' thing had been a little bit closer, actually.

"Neither did we," Leliana said.

Cassandra held out a hand. "Help us fix this before it's too late."

Rule number two. Do the job, get paid, move on.

Rule number one. Don't get involved in the cause.

He met Cassandra's eyes. And then he took her hand.