The defenders had underestimated the cunning of the archdemon. The archdemon was intelligent, vicious, ruthless. There was no reason, in hindsight, to think it would restrict itself to open battle. So when a massive dragon descended from the skies to tear apart Teryn Loghain and his captains before taking wing and flying off into the night, nobody had any reason to suspect it was anything besides Dumat, exceeding their expectations for a third time.

Leaderless and demoralized, Ferelden's veteran forces fled the battle in a disorganized rout, scattering across southern Ferelden.

Draconis patches up Malak's hand and head at they walk, waiting for his magic to replenish every now and then. He's pretty much dead on his feet (ha) by the time they come across an old abandoned farmhouse that Aria declares sufficiently defensible. 

They're exhausted, and Malak doesn't seem like she's in great shape to answer questions about where the treaties might be, so they rest for the night and plan to finish regrouping in the morning. 

In the morning Malak's a bit more conscious. "Battle's over? Did we win? Where are we?"

Aria hands her a bottle of small beer that she's been carrying around; it seems important to get some kind of liquid into her. "The battle is over, we didn't win, we're in some kind of abandoned farmhouse. That was smart with the beacon back there. Also arguably kind of stupid, but I like to think the two aren't mutually exclusive."

"It felt smart right up until my hand was on fire, then it felt kind of stupid. I don't know if it worked -

Wait. We're alone here. Where's the rest of the army?"

"Scattered to the four winds, unfortunately. Thorough win for team darkspawn." She looks a bit more serious after this, and quite a lot more tired. "Draconis and Alistair are sleeping still. Given that the rest of the wardens and a good chunk of the army are KIA, we're gonna need to figure out what our next move is from here. You said your mom had warden treaties, yeah?"

"She has them. She probably won't just hand them over, though., we should be ready for another fight if we go to get them."

"How hard a fight, though? If she's controlling the Blight then I don't see a direct assault working."

"I don't know. Harder than the darkspawn at the tower for sure. I don't think she's in control of the Blight, if she could do that I don't know why she's messing around with Antivan princes, I think she just...set it off somehow. As for indirect methods - we should try sneaking in and stealing the treaties, for sure. But be ready for a fight if that doesn't work."

"Yep. Sneaking sounds better. I'm just wondering if we're going to need more resources to even attempt something like that, not that I have any idea where we'd get them. And I don't know the limits of her magic, or whether she has abilities that interfere with normal sneaking."

"I don't know everything that she can do, but I don't think she has any magical perception powers. She's a mage, and can probably do anything you would expect a skilled mage to be able to do. The only things she can do that another mage couldn't are change her shape and live forever. That I know of.

Sneaking in, we should not assume that just because we haven't seen her she isn't watching us, she could be any random lizard or bird or snake we pass. But I think that's it."

"Yeah. I guess I can't think of anything better to do with my life than just sneaking into her house and attempting to take the treaties. Though maybe - if we knew she were going to be in a different place at some point, that'd be something?"

"I can't say for sure, but... now might be our best shot, actually. She's probably out there politicking and following up on Ostagar. And if she's not doing that she's probably moving to avoid the blight and then we won't know where to find her."

"Fair enough. Then we should do it now. You up for going home?"

"We're not going to get a better chance."

"I mean, yeah. Just, you came to us for sanctuary, I don't want to drag you back to steal some treaties from your mom if you were more interested in the sanctuary than in stopping the end of the world. I want you along, but if you'd rather give me directions and head for Lothering then that's your call."

"If Ostagar had gone differently and sanctuary was still a meaningful option I might have taken that. But it's not and you need me. Let's just get going."

"All right then. You good to walk?"

"Think so. My hand hurts, and my side. Not sure if I'll be any good in a fight, but I can walk."

She nods, stands, and offers a hand to help Malak to her feet. "That's good. Draconis patched you most of the way up."

After they've woken the others and informed them that they're going after the treaties, they can follow Malak back into the wilds.

The marsh is eerily silent as they make their way through it. No birdcalls, no buzzing of insects - nothing but the sounds of their footfalls on wet dirt.

In time, they come across three dead Darkspawn, half-submerged in the muck.

"Hmm. More uglies. Wonder what killed these ones."

"Do we suppose it was our apostate friend?"

"Probably. We're close, and I can't think who else would have."

"We're tougher than three darkspawn. Don't wanna have to be, though. Tread lightly."

She follows Malak further into the forest.