The ball of your foot barely touches the carpeted step before the stairwell becomes a whirling hell of dark, hungry shades. You beat at them with fists, blood splattering them, but unlike the runes, they do not crack apart. They are blood magic incarnate.\n\nIt feels like you're suffocating.\n\nBreath....\n\n ...difficult.\n\nA choked voice whispers, [["I am going to die here."|Day One]]
You close your hand around the sharp edge of the slate shard. Sssssss! It stings, but as you draw the shard across, you're rewarded with a line of blood. Good thing you're not squeamish.\n\n[[Open the door.|Open Door]]\n[[Uh, maybe this was a bad idea...|door]]
There's a sound at the door. A scuffing noises, as if feet on the landing.\n\nYour heart catches. Absurdly, your brain starts hollering about a rescue.\n\n<<display 'A Certain Man'>>
The door is a heavy wooden structure, set flush with the wall. There's no doorknob. Parts of it glow curiously.\n\n[[Examine the door|Door Closeup]]\n[[Bang on the door|Door Knock]]\n[[Leave it Alone|Day One]]\n
It takes a lifetime and a half to cross the room. You close your eyes. The names from the journal are scratched on the inside of your closed eyelids, standing out red against the black.\n\nMharen\n\nNinette\n\nAlessa\n\nMharen\nNinette\nAlessa\n\nMharenNinetteAlessa[[Leandra!|Veiled and Wed]]
You pound on the door, and holler at the top of your lungs. Just as you thought, no one answers. <<if $day eq 1>>At least the screams seem to have stopped... you try not to let yourself follow that thought to its natural conclusion.<<endif>> <<if $day eq 2>>After a few ear-splitting screams, the couple has quieted down considerably. You don't anticipate them coming to help you.<<endif>><<if $day eq 3>>Just as you suspected, the eerie home keeps its tomb-like silence.<<endif>><<set $action = $action + 1>>\n\n[[Go back|door]]
<<if $light_on eq true>>The carpet on the floor is good wool, with a beautiful, if threadbare, pattern of birds in ivy. Here and there you see tiny mice clinging to the vines.<<endif>>The carpet feels good on your feet, thick and soft.\n\n[[Lift the carpet.|carpet]]\n[[Go back.|Day One]]
<<silently>><<set $light_on = false>>\n<<set $water_drug = false>>\n<<set $water_gone = false>>\n<<set $food_drug = true>>\n<<set $food_gone = false>>\n<<set $bed_made = true>>\n<<set $clothing_on = true>>\n<<set $key_found = false>>\n<<set $drawer_locked = true>>\n<<set $lilies_fresh = true>>\n<<set $shard = false>>\n<<set $day = 1>>\n<<set $action = 0>><<endsilently>>\nBehind your eyelids, your eyes flick back and forth while you dream. Go back, go back. A tentative romance, fingers touching across a rough wooden table. \n\nBack.\n\nA healthy daughter, no blush or stain of the spreading grey taint about her mouth and eyes. Home with you, where she belongs.\n\nGo back.\n\nA tall, handsome son. The image of his father, save for the sword clasped about his waist. Whole, unbroken.\n\nA voice whispers, go back. Remember...\n\nA home to call your own. Three children to keep you busy during the day; a living husband to keep you warm at night.\n\nYou try and go back, but there's a dark [[wall|Day One]] stopping you.\n
You fall asleep against your better judgement.\n\n[[Wake up!|Wake1]]
At the cost of a couple fingernails, you pry up the stone shard. The floor must be some kind of slate, because the shard is very ragged and sharp along the edge.<<set $shard = true>><<set $action = $action + 1>>\n\n[[Go Back.|Day One]]
<<if $key_found eq true>>You remember the key that came out of the mattress. Maybe it would work here? For once, things are in your favour and the key fits, opening the little [[drawer]].<<set $drawer_locked = false>><<set $action = $action + 1>><<else>>The drawer on this little side table is locked. You wistfully wish you'd had your daughter's friend teach you some of her tricks with lockpicks. But you can't open drawers with wishes, and besides, all of your hairpins have been taken.<<endif>>\n<<if $journal eq true>>The drawer is empty.<<endif>>\n[[Go Back|Day One]]
The carpet isn't nailed down, so you get on your hands and feet and go around the edges of the room peeling up the carpet and looking for items. In the corner opposite the bed, you find a piece of the floor chipped and coming loose. You think you can pry it up, if you tried.<<set $action = $action + 1>>\n\n[[Pry up the stone.|Stone Shard]]\n[[Go Back.|Day One]]
<<if $key_found eq true>>You check under the mattress to see if anything's different, but it's empty today.<<endif>><<if $light_on eq true>>You marshal your strength to flip over the bed mattress, but it's surprisingly light. A feather bed! It makes you briefly reconsider what you're doing in favour of crawling back into bed and sleeping forever, but you steel your nerves and flip the mattress off the bed. [[Something|Small Key]] goes shooting off into the corner, striking the wall with a small pinging noise.<<else>>The mattress is soft when you sink your hands into it, and you think you'd like a little light to do any serious furniture rearranging.<<endif>><<set $action = $action + 1>>\n\n[[Go Back.|bed]]
<<if $light_on eq true>>You pull the comforter and sheet off the bed, shaking them all out to see if anything is hidden inside. When nothing happens, you drop them in a [[crumpled heap|Comforter]] on the floor. <<else>>You'd feel more comfortable doing this with some light on!<<endif>><<set $action = $action + 1>>\n\n[[Go Back|bed]]
<<silently>> <<set $day = $day + 1>>\n<<set $food_drug = true>>\n<<set $water_drug = true>>\n<<set $light_on = true>>\n<<set $lilies_fresh = false>>\n<<set $action = 0>><<endsilently>>\nOpen your eyes. Something's [[different|Day One]].
<<if ($action lte 9) and ($light_on eq true) and ($day eq 1)>> You can see a bedside table with [[food]] and [[water]] on it. <<if $clothing_on eq true>>Your [[clothes]] cling to you with sweat.<<else>> You're naked.<<endif>> There is a small [[window]]. Under the window, a table with a [[locked drawer]] and some [[lilies]]. There is a plush carpet under your [[feet]]. You were lying down on a [[bed]]. Next to the bedside table is a [[door]]. The headache you've got makes you leery of trying to do too much - you don't want to wear yourself out.<<endif>>\n\n<<if ($action lte 9) and ($light_on eq false) and ($day eq 1)>>You come awake in a [[dark]] room. You think you're [[lying down]], but your head aches and it's hard to tell vertical from horizontal. <<if $clothing_on eq true>>Your [[clothes]] cling to you with sweat.<<else>>You're not wearing any clothes.<<endif>> There's a scent of [[cooked meat|food]] on the air, underlaid by a [[flowery odour|lilies]]. Somewhere beyond your room, a woman's screams can be heard, punctuated with a man's pleading voice. The headache you've got makes you leery of trying to do too much - you don't want to wear yourself out.<<endif>>\n\n<<if ($action gte 10) and ($day eq 1)>><<display 'Exhausted'>><<endif>>\n\n<<if ($day eq 2) and ($action lte 5)>>Light shining into your eyes. You sit up, unsure if you've just [[slept|bed]] through the night or longer than a day. Sunlight streams through the window. Someone has replaced the [[food]]. It smells warm and inviting. There's fresh [[water]].Your [[clothes]] are starting to crease with dirt and sweat.You hear people having sex, loudly. They sound close. Far from making you hopeful, you feel just a little more frightened.\n\nThere are [[lilies]] and a [[locked drawer]] below the [[window]]. The [[door]] is still closed and locked.\n<<endif>>\n\n<<if ($day eq 2) and ($action gte 6)>><<display 'Exhausted'>><<endif>>\n\n<<if ($day eq 3) and ($action lte 2)>>It's dark again. This time, the candle has been lit for you. You're getting tired of this [[bed]], comfortable as it is. You're wearing [[new clothes|new dress]], stiff and scratchy with lace. There is no food and water; instead, there's a large [[basin]] and a small linen [[towel]]. You're almost thinking of the [[door]], the [[lilies]] and the [[drawer]] as old friends. The [[window]] watches you without comment.<<endif>> \n\n<<if ($day eq 3) and ($action gte 3)>>There's a sound at the door. A scuffing noises, as if feet on the landing.\n\nYour heart catches. Could this be a rescue?? You're far too pragmatic to believe so, but still, your heart yearns to see someone - one of your daughters, Gamlen, even that silly elf mage your daughter gads about with.\n\n<<display 'A Certain Man'>><<endif>>
Using the small towel, you scrub your face and arms as vigorously as you can. It's not much but being clean certainly makes you feel a tiny bit better. <<set $action = $action + 1>>\n\n[[Go back.|Day One]]
Pressing your face as close to the glass as you can, the bars digging into your cheeks even with the padded fabric, you scream for help until you're panting and exhausted.<<set $action = $action + 1>>\n\n[[Go Back|window]]
You take the lilies out of the vase, and put them on the table. The stems are cut, as if with a knife, but dry. There's no water in the vase, which is made of turned wood, and polished with wax. <<set $vase_empty = true>><<set $action = $action + 1>>\n\n[[Smash vase|Vase]]\n[[Go Back|Day One]]
<<if ($day eq 1) and ($water_gone eq true)>>There's no water left.<<else>>You pick up the glass and drink it, trying to pace yourself. There's no telling when, or if, you'll get more.<<set $action = $action + 1>><<set $water_gone = true>><<endif>>\n\n<<if ($day eq 2)>>You lick your lips thirstily. The water feels good sliding down your throat until you start feeling sleepy. Damnit, not [[again!|sleep]]<<endif>>\n\n[[Go Back|Day One]]
You attempt to smash the vase against the stone wall, but it's solid wood and it won't break. <<set $vase_empty = true>><<set $action = $action +1>>\n\n[[Go Back|Day One]]
There's a window at the far end of the room. When you get up to look through it, you see the bricks of the building next door, very close. The window itself is sealed with thick paned glass. Access to the glass is blocked by iron bars, covered in padding.\n\n[[Shout out the window|Shout Window]]\n[[Break Glass|Break Window]]\n[[Go Back|Day One]]
You flip through the pages, looking for more prose, but the rest of the journal appears to be mostly spellwork, and horribly, illustrations of cadavers. At least, you hope these women were dead before the drawings began.\n\nHe's even named them. Here, a drawing of a pair of slim hands, an excellent likeness, were it not for the tendons and veins drawn out, and labeled. Underneath, in a fine printed script unlike the rest of the journal's feverish scrawl: Mharen.\n\nAlessa. Soft and shapely legs, in a variety of poses - sitting cross-legged. Running. Balancing atop a stool. \n\nWorst of all, the torso. Alone among the drawings, it is rough and crude, not only for its hastiness, but also for the raw, frantic sexuality imbued in such a sorry, headless trunk. Her name, jotted in as an afterthought - Ninette.<<set $journal_read = true>>\n\n[[Go back.|journal]]
You read on, as if possessed.\n\n [here the words lean right, as if leaping into the future]\n All this time, I had been seeking to reverse time, reverse her death. Go back. Each day, decay and entropy would encroach a little more, and my goals slipped away. My magic, her science - these things cannot break the laws of death.\n But...\n There is a way to unlock the chains binding up the secrets of life...\n [the next few pages are covered in runes. <<if $door_runes eq true>>They seem familiar, somehow.<<endif>>]\n\n[[Turn the page|Page 4]]
Some of the pages are torn out. Others are made unintelligible by the archaic notes covering over entries here and there. You recognize the archaic marginalia from Malcolm's frenetic, self-led studies. He would spend a fortune in candles to work late into the night, devising ways to learn the limitations of magic that would keep him - and later, Bethany - free from the Circle.\n\n [A series of interlocking runes create a border around the following passage]\n All of my experiments thus far have failed, but I have been relying on the imperfect scholarship that my love laid her own faith in. Deep in despair, and drink, I would often wake among scribbles stained with vomit and I knew I could not continue in this manner much longer. \n Angry at my failure, I swept the empty bottles to the ground. One shattered on my bare foot, and I barely felt the pain as I watched fat drops of blood well up and run along the creases of my toes. As the sun crept along the wall, and my blood clotted, the answer came to me in such a great rush, I felt faint...\n [the scrawls loop wildly towards the end, spilling out through a break in the runes, onto the next [[page|Page 3]].
Remains of the Day
The water is still slightly warm, making you wonder how long ago someone was in here. It has a fruity smell, and in the candleight you can see oils floating on the surface of the water.\n\n[[Wash yourself.|Wash]]\n[[Leave it alone.|Day One]]
<<if $vase_empty eq true>> You pick up the empty vase and give it a few good whacks against the window, but it's too thick to fit through the bars, and the wooden vase just bounces out of your hands.\n<<else>>You're leery of trying to break the glass with your empty hands.<<endif>><<set $action = $action + 1>>\n\n[[Go Back|window]]\n
Welcome to Dragon Age 2, where everything is made up and your choices don't matter!
The object from the mattress appears to be a small iron key. Functional, not decorative.<<set $key_found = true>>\n\n[[Go Back|Day One]]\n
The flowers have soft, thick petals, and the stamens leave a faint blush of pollen on your fingertip. They make a soft sighing sound as you stir them around in the vase.<<set $action = $action + 1>>\n\n[[Take the lilies out of the vase|Pick Lilies]]\n[[Smash Vase|Vase]]\n[[Go back|Day One]]
Are you an Amell or not? Maybe Malcolm was the mage of the family, but the thready pulse of magic runs through your veins too. Taking a deep breath, you probe your mind for the opening to the Fade, and ever. so. carefully. draw out a wisp of light. You gently place the magic sphere of light on the table next to you.<<set $light_on = true>> <<set $action = $action + 1>>\n\n[[Go Back|Day One]]
You dribble the blood across the winking blue glow of the runes set in the door. You're not sure if you need any special magical spells, but you pray with all your heart that it'll work. \n\nWith a grinding rumble, the runes surrounding the heavy, smooth door wink out. You put your whole hand against it, and push. \n\n[[It swings open...|Go out]]
<<if $light_on eq true>>On the bedside table, next to the candlestick and the water, is a wooden platter of food. Meagre fare - a roll, some grilled meat and some slices of potato - but it's still warm.<<endif>><<if $day lte 2>><<set $food_drug = true>><<endif>>\n\n[[Eat|Eat]]\n[[Leave the food alone|Day One]]\n\n<<if $light_on eq false>>You smell meat but it's hard to tell where, or what, without some light to see by.<<endif>>\n\n[[Go back|Day One]]\n
You take out the journal. The leather is smooth and worn, the pages yellowed. It's small enough to fit easily into a pocket and it seems the journal's owner carried it around constantly prior to leaving it here. Stains and ink blots mar the cover. A piece of loose paper is also tucked into the pages. Despite its size, the book feels weighty. It sets your bones on edge, like you're holding angry bees.<<set $journal = true>><<set $action = $action + 1>>\n\n[[Read the paper.|letter]]\n[[Read the journal.|Read Journal]]\n[[Go back.|Day One]]\n
C.E. Taillefer\n
Next to the food and the candle is a cup, with cool beads gathering up and rolling down the sides onto the bedside table. It leaves a tempting looking puddle, and you remember how thirsty you are.\n\n[[Have a drink|Drink]]\n[[Leave the water alone|Day One]]
You pull out the loose sheet of paper. It's a letter, written in poor quality ink. \n\n"Gaspard,\n\nThank you for allowing me to use your home as a storage facility during these difficult times. You're a true friend. A warning: a man named Emeric has been asking questions about you. We may need to hasten some of our preparations. He has enlisted the help of a well-known young [[mercenary]] and the captain of the city guard, so be cautious.\n\nSincerely,\nQ."\n\n[[Go back|journal]]
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<<if $day lte 2>>You peer cautiously out the door, but the way seems clear. Your prison was a room in what was once a gorgeously appointed mansion, but it's fallen to ruin, like so much of Kirkwall has since the days of your mother.\n\nHope sets your heart to beating a cautious tempo in your throat. You haven't heard any noise for hours, but you don't want to take any chances. You come to the landing, where two curved staircases lead down. Breathe a sigh of relief that this seems to be a standard home layout.\n\nYou set your foot on the first [[step...|ghouls]]<<endif>>\n\n<<if $day eq 3>><<display 'A Certain Man'>><<endif>>
The first few pages paint a litany of grief. The weightiness of the book is contained in these passages. \n\n I would beseech the Maker - cast me on Andraste's flames, for their searing heat would be but a fraction of the pain I feel now. Yet the Maker also took her from me, sent living tendrils of death to coil around her heart and eat her from the inside out...\n\n[[Turn the page|Page 2]]
This room is so dark you can hardly see your hand in front of your face. If you want to take a full accounting of your situation, you'll need a light of some kind.\n\n[[Maybe there's a candle?|Candle]]\n[[Try and conjure a light|Magic]].
<<if $light_on eq true>>Someone has set some fresh lilies on a table underneath the window. In the small light of the room, their white petals seem to glow.\n[[Inspect lilies|Lilies Look]]\n<<else>>Somewhere in the room are fresh flowers. They're the only thing that cuts through the smell of meat and dust.<<endif>>\n[[Go Back|Day One]]
The towel is a small square of linen, enough to pay yourself dry with but you don't think you could make a useable rope or anything out of it.\n\n[[Go back.|Day One]]
This dress is brand new, and stiffed with embroidery along the hems and cuffs.\n\n[[Go back.|Day One]]
Inside the drawer is a little leather bound journal. There's nothing else that you can see, even if you pull the drawer all the way out.\n\n[[Take the journal.|journal]]\n[[Leave it alone.|Day One]]
Your actions wear you out and you can't fight the wave of exhaustion, despite the concern that you shouldn't [[fall asleep|sleep]].
<<if $light_on eq true>>You're wearing the same clothes you left the house in, but someone has removed your bodice, stockings and shoes. Your underwear remains, thank the Maker.\n<<else>>It feels like you're wearing the same clothes you had on to meet your... your thoughts trip over thinking his name in this place. Your paramour, then. However, you are lacking your shoes and your bodice.<<endif>>\n\n[[Strip naked|naked]]\n[[Go Back|Day One]]
<<if $light_on eq true>>You are lying on a narrow bed with a thick comforter, sheets and a single pillow. The fabric is very soft and of good make. The bed is pushed against the left side of the room. There is a [[door]] to the right.\n<<else>>The edges of the bed are very close, and you bark your knuckles against a stone wall to the left. The bedding you're lying on, and under, feels very soft and rich to the touch. There's a pillow under your head.<<endif>>\n\n[[Strip the bed|Strip Bed]]\n[[Flip over the mattress|Flip Mattress]]\n[[Go back|Day One]]
<<if $food_drug eq true>>There are no utensils that you can see, so you dig into the food with your hands. It's only a few bites before your chewing starts to slow down and your limbs feel leaden. Almost exactly the way you felt before, when you were...\n\n ...on your way...\n\n ...home.\n\n[[You fall asleep.|sleep]]\n<<else>>You eat the food with little enthusiasm. There are no utensils, so you have to eat with your hands. The food is technically quite good, but it might as well be ashes for all you can taste.<<set $action = $action + 1>><<set $food_eaten = true>>\n\n[[Go Back.|Day One]]<<endif>>\n
Panic fluttering in your ribs like a frightened bat, you quickly strip all your clothes off. <<if $light_on eq true>>You shake your clothes out, looking for spots or stains. You don't find anything, so you decide to put your clothes back on.<<endif>> You inspect all the seams carefully with your fingers, seeking for anything suspicious. But you don't find anything. You put your clothes back on. <<set $action = $action + 1>>\n\n[[Go back|Day One]]
Your pulse jumps wildly in your throat, and the paper trembles in your fingers. Please... not your daughter too. The screams you heard earlier take on a terrible resonance. Taking a deep breath, you put her away, safe in the little hole in your heart that she's occupied since you first saw her, and go back to the [[letter]].
When you return to the man, lilies clenched in a fist, dying petals as soft as a child's kiss on your hand, he draws out a wisp of fabric from behind his back.\n\n"It's not proper for a man to veil his own wife," he said, "but I couldn't wait to see you in it." \n\nTears wet the fine gauze as the veil floats down to cover your face. The man kisses your cheek through the veil, causing it to stick to your wet face.\n\n"Ah, women and weddings. They always cry. Come! Time is too short."\n\n[[fin]]
The comforter is thick, and resists being twisted into a rope. You fare a little better with the sheets, but you're not sure what you can do with them without opening a [[window]].\n\n[[Go back.|bed]]
With your hands, you grope blindly around the space you're lying, looking for something useful. After some gentle exploration, your fingers touch the waxy side of a candle. You almost weep with relief to find a match by its side. You light the candle.\n<<set $light_on = true>>\n\n[[Go Back|Day One]] <<set $action = $action + 1>>
You appear to be lying on a [[bed]].
A man stands on the other side of the door, fist raised, as if to knock. "My dear," he says, smiling at you. "You're radiant!" He looks past you to the room, and a frown touches his brow. "You forgot your flowers, though. That's not like you." He doesn't budge from the doorway, only looks at you expectantly. His eyes are wholly lost to the Fade.\n\nHe's a thin scarecrow of a man, eaten by grief. All the same, you find resistence impossible. Moving forward is like walking through a thick tar. His eyes hold you tight. Swallowing hard, you [[turn to retrieve the wasted lilies.|Quentin]]
On closer inspection, the cracks between the door are filled with a slow-roiling, blueish glow. Some kind of magic keeps this door locked tight, tiny links finer than any lock and chain.<<set $door_runes = true>><<set $action = $action + 1>>\n\n<<if ($key_found eq true) and ($drawer_locked eq true)>>You look for a spot to use the key on the door, but the door is entirely smooth!<<endif>>\n\n<<if ($journal_read eq true) and ($shard eq false)>>These runes look similar to the ones in the book. What if there was a way to break them? Maybe the door would open.<<endif>>\n\n<<if ($journal_read eq true) and ($shard eq true)>>It's a long shot but you think you have an [[idea|Cut Hand]].<<endif>>\n\n[[Go Back|door]]