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Although you’re tempted to stop and play with the little cat, you know you’re on a deadline. You also know that, no matter what the cat might have seen, it won’t be able to tell you anything useful, so you pass by without giving in to temptation.

As you pass, the cat hisses at you—a horrible, guttural sound—and you notice that its narrowed eyes are glowing an unnerving shade of red. Are cats’ eyes normally red? You’re pretty sure the others you’ve seen around Minrathous aren’t. In fact, the only other place you’ve seen eyes like that is in the catacombs once when you ran into some darkspawn you weren’t expecting (and promptly ran back the way you came).

Briefly, you wonder if you should tell someone about the blighted cat, but it probably won’t be there much longer—and whom would you tell, anyway? Cats are pretty low on the Grey Wardens’ list of priorities.

Instead, you just congratulate yourself on avoiding the blight and head back to the candlehops to see if they’ve brought any news.

• Turn to page 30.