"There must be records," Ellana begins, her voice sounding slightly faraway as she works things out in her head. "Anything that puts mages in a poor light would be something the Chantry would ensure was written down. I've seen it while reading about the Dales in the library and the way the Chantry has twisted their past with the elves. There must be records on abominations that resulted from Harrowed mages and if we can show this to the Council, we can point out that no system is foolproof and we need to work on our own."

Ellana squeezes her arms tighter around her legs. She hates to think of anything good coming out of this tragedy, as if Lauren's life wasn't important, but this has been a wake up call. Everyone will rush to put their own ideas forward, and many of those ideas will be to return to tradition. A tradition that has terrified mages for centuries, leading them to ask to be mutilated, or die at the hands of a demon unless their resolve is strong enough to overcome the years of fear they've endured.

"Some will want to volunteer to take their Harrowing now after what they witnessed, so we should start scouting locations away from Skyhold. We can't say no Harrowings to those who truly wish to take them, otherwise we'd be no better than the Chantry in giving people no choice."