Dorian is faring better than the Bull in this small space. Dorian is by no means a small man, but he's managing comparatively well; the walls don't grab at him quite as insistently as they do the Bull, and Dorian has space enough to maneuver with only a little difficulty.

"We hit a wall," Dorian says slowly. He presses his lips together, remembering how ragged they had both felt in those last few days, how thin their tempers had become. "Alexius and his family had been abroad, but Alexius returned home earlier to attend to business. His wife, son, and their retainer were attacked by darkspawn. His wife was killed, and Felix was sickened with the Blight.

"We were making remarkable progress until it we couldn't. We had bought Felix weeks, then months, maybe a year or two, but nothing more. Alexius and I had been working nonstop, and we were both exhausted. Our failures weighed heavy upon us, and even when it became clear that an outright cure for the Blight was beyond us, Alexius insisted we continue.

"In return, I was... unkind." An understatement, admittedly, but the heaviness in his voice will surely give him away, regardless. "We argued, and in the heat of the moment, I ultimately told Alexius that we needed to give up this fool's errand, that he needed to accept that Felix was going to die."

Dorian pauses when the light of the wisp illuminates the edge of a crack in the wall. He listens intently for any signs of movement, but when he hears nothing, he continues.

"Needless to say, Alexius did not take that well. We yelled a bit more, and I flounced away."