Meanwhile, Stalas goes looking for Eliana to see if she's awake yet and, if so, ask if her gift arrived.

The door is closed but there is light from inside coming through the crack. Dare he knock?

Hmm.

She did indicate that it would be beneficial if someone brought her meals when she missed them. He can bring her breakfast!

The door opens when he tries it.

Red fluid bubbles and drips through an elaborate series of tubes. Eliana is intently focused on a beaker collecting it all at the end of the process. Every so often she flicks at it, it pulses with soft light when she does.

Stalas can wait until she's free.

She glances up.

"Oh, you're back. Hello."

"Did you get our present?"

"I did! Wherever did you conjure it up from?"

"Rendon Howe's dungeon. So whatever Hesta may have implied, I can't actually take credit for this one. Except in a just-my-luck sort of way."

"In a dungeon? Odd people, these Fereldans."

"From what I can tell, it was just the one particular Fereldan who was unnervingly keen on filling up his dungeons with whoever he could find."

"Well, at least in this particular instance it served a greater cause."

"There is that!"

"Though the Warden did look rather askance at me when I took delivery."

"Yeah, I'm not surprised."

"He did not voice any opinions on the sort of magic I am obviously practicing, though. Some truth to the stories of their single-minded focus leading to greater permissivity."

"Yeah. When your business is saving the world, most other things start to look trivial by comparison."

"I suppose. That must also help with curtailing the desire to seek power for its own sake. That is always the danger of working with blood. The rush can be- overwhelming."

"Huh. I wouldn't know," he says. "...Well. Maybe a little, if it's anything like wearing the golem suit."

"Everything you've ever wanted but never had the strength to take stands suddenly within your grasp, you need only reach out and seize it. And when you do, why, suddenly a whole new horizon of possibility opens, now that you are tall enough to see it. If only you had a little more power." Shrug. "Or that's what it feels like for me, anyway. I understand there is a degree of variation, person to person."

"Well, suddenly the tendency of blood mages to go crazy makes a whole lot more sense."

"A tendency not helped by the fact that it is much easier to draw the attention of demons using blood magic than conventionally."

"Yeah, I've heard that."

"I'm actually vaguely curious as to what a demon would make of you. On the one hand, dwarf. On the other, lyrium in your bloodstream."

"Templars have lyrium in their bloodstream too sometimes and I haven't heard of demons getting particularly excited about them, but I'm not exactly an expert on demons."