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[mousestalker]

Journey to Bownammar

Chapter One: Assumptions

29 Kingsway 9:38 Dragon
We saw our new home for the first time. The furnishings were spare to put it lightly. The smells of leather and metal, oil and herbs tinged the air. All manner of weapons were racked along the walls. A truly remarkable variety of arrows were stored in many bundles. I doubt even the king's army had that many. Neatly labeled boxes were stacked against the left wall with a few that were obviously used as tables scattered in the large room.

The elf pointed to where we were to stow our gear as well as where our sleeping spaces were. There was one large back room for men, one large back room for women and one small room in between that she indicated was the “Commander's office”. The porters hurried to obey her directions. They had been rather plodding since we hired them outside the city, but they moved quickly and efficiently to her simple directions.

Our gear stowed away the porters returned to the main room and stood with their palms extended. Palin, Gervais and I stared at them blankly. Clearly something was expected of us but we had no idea what. The elf smiled
slightly.

“In Orzammar it is customary to pay a small gratuity for services. Two silvers for the lot would be moderately generous.” As I was merchant born, I had custody of the common purse. I paid the men. They gave us slight bows, bowed more deeply to the elf, thanked her and left quickly.

Tired and bemused by the whole performance, I started to collect my thoughts. Before they had assembled into anything coherent Ser Palin demanded “Where are the Wardens?”

The elf replied with obvious mildness “Sigrun is visiting old friends in Dust Town, Ser Anders is in the Circle Tower, our assassin associate is in Antiva and the Warden Commander is teaching. The other two are in Bownammar.”

Palin again took the lead “Tell her we have arrived.”

The elf bowed slightly and politely demurred “No need young ser, she knew you were here the moment you passed through the gates.”

“When will she be done 'teaching' then” he snapped.

She remained polite “I'm afraid I have no idea, young ser”.

My curiosity was aroused by her manner. I looked at her more closely. As with many of her race she was older than first appearance would suggest.

We were silent for a bit then Ser Gervais asked “What is she like?

“Sigrun? Rather nice. She's a bit optimistic, but that really isn't a character flaw.”

Gervais looked daggers at her. It was hard to tell, but under her thick veneer of manners, I was starting to think she was amused.

“I meant the 'Hero of Ferelden'”. “She really hates being called that, especially by new Wardens.” The answer came from behind us. A vastly entertained dwarf was leaning against the doorway. She had the most amazing tattoo on her face.

“You have to admit it's rather grandiose. It's as though Loghain didn't kill the Archdemon.”

The three of us spun around again. I'm not normally a dizzy type but two spins had battered my brain a bit. At least that's my story.

The elf, who was apparently Warden Commander Arwen Surana, gave the dwarf a grin and returned her
features to the calm expression we had seen before. Her voice gained an added firmness that had previously only been present when she had spoken with the porters.

“Welcome again to Orzammar. I'm Warden Commander Arwen Surana. For now you may call me either Warden or Commander. Once we've gotten to know each other we can start using first names. This is our staging area for the Deep Roads. We have better accommodations up in the nobles' area, the Diamond Quarter, but we rarely stay there. We spend most of our time either in the Deep Roads or in Bownammar.

I finally found my voice and promptly humiliated myself “Commander, we didn't know... I mean we assumed, that is no one ever told us that you were an elf. We assumed...” My voice trailed off as I realized just how much of one
part of a horse's anatomy I must look right now.

She looked at us with an ironic expression. “It's all right, Ser Perpetua. No one ever mentions when elves are heroes. Only when we are villains. I am also a mage. That tends to get left out as well, I've found.”

Ser Gervais began to look awkward.

The Warden Commander turned to him and brightened. “Ser Gervais, I'm hoping by your discomfiture that you are the templar I requested. Did Greagoir send you?”

He turned a truly remarkable shade of scarlet. “Yes, ser.”

“Excellent! We've needed a templar for the longest time! You are most welcome. All of you are most welcome! Why don't you take some time to get settled and we'll have dinner in a couple of hours at Tapsters. My treat.”

Sigrun laughed faintly behind us. I began wondering what this Tapsters was. It sounded like a tavern.

Dinner was an eye opening experience. Until we entered the bar, every dwarf we had encountered had been the model of deportment and respectability. Even the odd beggar had been polite. Tapsters was a celebration of alcoholic dwarven excess. The dwarvcn ale lived up to its surface reputation of being extremely strong. The food was some sort of meat covered in a fairly tasty sauce. Sauce isn't very big in Ferelden cuisine but it the dwarven sauce was rather good.

A pleasant looking blond man in mage robes joined us soon after we arrived. I remember thinking he was funny, how nice the drains looked and how clean and then waking up the next day in my clothes in my bed. A smithy had apparently opened shop in my head. From the pounding, it seemed that they were doing excellent business.

Modifié par mousestalker, 14 janvier 2011 - 05:16 .

[mousestalker]

 I really like, love and appreciate reviews. There is nothing better than feedback. This is the last of
the set up. Stuff begins to happen next chapter.



Chapter Two
The three of us staggered out of our rooms to see our senior fellows gathered around a map.


“,,,go ahead of us. Send Georg and Vardna back for some rest. I'm taking the junior Wardens on a side
trip to Gavorn Thaig. After that we'll join you.”

Sigrun protested “You don't have a scout. All three of them are plate dancers.”

“What could happen? I can sense the spawn better than you and the thaig is on this side of the trench. The most we'll see are straggler bands. Which is what are needed. Good morning sers! I trust we all slept well?”

Wonderful. We were serving under a tyrant and a sadist and a morning person. I hated her so much at that
moment. The stab of emotion made my head hurt even more. The mage gave a laugh, which also hurt, and walked around the table. Andrus, Anvil, Anvard waggled his fingers and I felt much better. I hadn't been fond of being around one mage, much less two, but I started to reconsider. That he was so good looking didn't hurt either. Gazing at him was very … restful. That was the word, restful. Even the Commander began to look better, but not in that way.

I thought about speaking, decided it would not kill me, and said “Thank you Ser mage. I'm sorry I can't
recall your name. Do you have a memory spell in your arsenal? I'm finding my memories of last night vague.”

Sigrun spoke. “I'm not surprised. About the only thing our ale has going for it is strength. You all
drank your first ones very quickly. It was all downhill from there. You might do as I do and stick to surface drinks or water.”

She was improbable. I remember her saying last night she was already dead, which seemed unlikely. For a
dead person she was both cheerful and kind. Her advice sounded like a very good idea.

The Commander looked at us and motioned us to join the group.

The mage smirked and said “I am Anders, lovely lady, and I am completely at your service.”

That was the name. “I'm Perpetua, but please call me Perry. Thank you.” He had the looks. He had a very
lame line. He also had the awareness to know that the line was lame. “Surely you can do better than that.”

He looked surprised and pleased. “It is early yet. I will devote myself to thinking of better ones, then.”

Gervais coughed and said “You wanted to see us, Commander?”

“Who am I to interfere with young love?” she said laughed. She had the most amazing smile. You
couldn't help but be swept up in her cheer.

“But to business. These two are going to relieve the terrible twosome at Bownammar. We're going to take a
longer route there to check out a report of a small darkspawn presence in one of the lesser thaigs. Once we've dealt with them we'll head directly to Bownammar as well.”

“Did Nathaniel tell you why we are here?”

Palin got in the first word “To fight darkspawn, I suppose.”

Gervais and I had the same thought “To assist the dwarves?”

“Then he didn't. We've been fighting darkspawn since the first Blight. The dwarves have been fighting them even before that. It's possible that the Blights will stop once the last of the old gods fall, but it's also possible that the darkspawn will simply start tainting high dragons. We're here to find out more about the darkspawn. We do this by striking deep into their territory. We also track down broodmothers, which I know you have never seen, and kill them. That's how we hope to interrupt their breeding.”

“Our rules are very simple. Do whatever it takes to kill darkspawn. Never abandon a comrade. Never
ever leave a female comrade alive and helpless. Be adults.”

“You will be here for two years. The twins have already been here a year, they will be leaving in another
year and be replaced by another set of Wardens. Our goal is to help you all be much better at finding, killing and preventing darkspawn. That's what you get out of this.”

“Questions?”

Andrus and Sigrun had already shouldered their packs and were at the door. The Commander hugged
them both and said “I'll join you shortly. Be careful.”

Palin asked “What about personal lives? Is there a curfew?”

She turned and said “No curfew. Your lives are your own. Let me know when you plan to go somewhere and where. Show up on time. And don't make me deal with drama. Other than that, you're on your own. Except today. We're leaving as soon as you get ready.”

Gervais asked “How do we get porters?”

“I doubt you could afford any that would be willing to go where we go. You'd best take just what you absolutely need and leave the rest here. It should be safe enough.”

The three of us exchanged glances. We had a lot of stuff. I had a lot of stuff. We then went back to our
rooms and began winnowing what we had to the simple necessities.

By dint of extreme ruthlessness I found myself looking at one pack. I had a change of clother, two changes of smallclothes, bandages, jerky, water, dried fruits, whetstones, spare daggers, leather strapping, rope and my Ser Cauthrien doll (don't judge!).

To my complete surprise I was the first to pop back out. I could hear the boys arguing about each item, so
maybe being the only female was a good thing. The Commander was female, but she didn't seem the girl chat sort of person. Also, I had never really been around elves. We hadn't many servants and the ones
we had were all human. The only elves I had ever met were the Dalish, once, and they were scary, and the odd refugee family.

The Commander was seated on a bag of something or other that looked to be very squashy and was reading a small book. I decided being nosy couldn't hurt, leaned slightly and looked at the title. She saw my movement and grinned at my reddening face.

“That's banned by the Chantry.”

“I'm almost finished. Would you like to borrow it, later? I have a pretty good collection of banned books.
All pretty steamy, I'm afraid.”

“I've never read a banned book. I've seen one, but the Sister got to it before I could. I'd love to read it.”

She smiled and said “Twenty more pages and it's yours. In fact, I was hoping you could help me.”

I blinked. Hard. “I'd be happy to, but how?”

“I grew up in the Circle. I know mages have a certain reputation, but it really boils down to greater informality and a lot of histrionics. I've only been loose amongst the general population for seven years and most of that has been here. I'd love to know just how true to life this book is. It all comes across as rather confining.”

“Whatever you want to know, Commander.” I was finding it difficult to believe I knew anything she didn't. But discussing relationships, even fictional ones, is always fun.

“Good, that will make for a good conversation on the trip. We could have a contest to see who can make
the templar blush the most.”

She was a cruel woman. I began to really like her. Gervais was a decent fellow, but he had obviously been raised by the Chantry from an early age.

The men finally emerged from their room. Palin had a very small pack. Gervais was staggering under his.

The Commander looked at him and said, “I'm hoping to make twenty miles a day. Thin it out a bit, please.”

Twenty minutes later his pack looked more like mine.

We left the hall, the Commander locked the door, did some sort of finger wave and turned right. A short walk past bored looking guards and we were in the Deep Roads.

Modifié par mousestalker, 31 août 2010 - 03:17 .

[TanithAeyrs]

LOL on the contest to see who could make the templar blush the most. Interesting setup, I like the idea of a Warden encampment in the deep roads dedicated to researching darkspawn and killing broodmothers.



Bangs head on table - I promised myself I wouldn't pick up any new fics to read until mine is done and now you have me hooked.

[mousestalker]

Thank you! I feel honoured.



This all came from a mage I had that went through Origins and Awakening. She romanced Alistair, spared Loghain and was promptly dumped. Awakenings has no romance option so I roleplayed that she brooded. She had been horribly naive at the Circle so it made sense that she didn't see ahead to what happened.

[TanithAeyrs]

My Dalish elf had a similar experience, but she didn't spare Loghain - the slave traders in the alienage were the last nail in his coffin in her mind. Aithne is also rather inept at relationships and completely handicapped by her perceptions of duty and honor. She's off with Zevran now dealing with Morrigan's god-child (and Tevinter blood mages, Crows and interfering wardens from Weisshaupt).



I have to admit that I really look for fresh ideas when I read fics and your story is very unique so far. I'm pretty burned out on OC stories at this point.

[mousestalker]

Chapter Three

The Deep Roads were not what I expected. Everyone spoke about how spectacular Orzammar was, but the Deep Roads were equally grand. The road to our first stop, Caridin's Cross, was wide enough for two wagons to pass each other. I had expected to be holding a lantern, but the path was well lit from above. The ceiling was also higher than I had anticipated.

The road itself was made of smooth travertine of an amber colour. It stretched in a straight line as far as the eye could see. And it was well traveled. Groups of dwarves were coming to and going out of Orzammar. The groups leaving were mostly family groups with a mixture of young and old as well as both sexes. Those coming to Orzammar were mostly men, merchants and teamsters by their look, bringing back goods. Mixed through them all were hard bitten men with the appearance and attitude of warriors.

Once we had walked a few hours the traffic began to thin. Gervais asked the Commander where they were all headed.

She replied, “The dwarves have reclaimed part of their empire up to Bownammar. These people are resettling the thaigs nearest Orzammar. A few are settling a line of new thaigs along the Dead Trenches as well, poor souls.”

I asked, “What's a thaig?”

“A thaig is like a colony. It's a smaller settlement of dwarves established for a purpose. Some thaigs grow food. Others support a mining effort or a manufactory. Before Bhelen became king the dwarves were confined to Kal Sharok and Orzammar. A city can not sustain itself, it needs a hinterland to support and provide population growth. The dwarves have been dying by inches until very recently.”

Palin asked, “What are the Dead Trenches?”

She answered, “Our destination, Bownammar is the only easy way to cross them. They are vast crevasses that split the underworld. There are always Darkspawn down in them.”

She then moved into lecture mode about Dwarven history. My mind drifted. I had once seen a blond man almost as good looking as Anders. Who had that been?

I was happily lost in somewhat incoherent point by point comparison of King Alistair and the mage Anders when the Commander stopped talking. She also stopped walking. Only by sheer force of will did I not walk into her.

Ahead of us was the sorriest group of dwarves I had seen to date. There were five of them , all male, and they all looked as though they had seen better days. They were deep in a discussion about something when one of them, an amazingly crooked little man, spotted us.

The lot of them fanned out in a line to face us. They were all dressed in scraps of leather. They were mostly armed with knives although one man had two large rocks for weapons.
The tallest dwarf puffed out his chest, brandished a stone club and said, “Stop right there! Hand over your valuables and we'll let you live.”

Gervais opened his mouth and then closed it. Palin looked dumbstruck. The Commander was one pace ahead of us. I couldn't see her face very well but her body began shaking slightly. Her arm twitched as though she wanted very much to put her fist in her mouth to keep from laughing.

After a long moment, she drew a deep breath, exhaled and said, “Are you sure you want to commit suicide by Grey Warden?”

The five little men all went white. The man with the rocks dropped one on his foot and began a furious series of hops.

Their leader looked at us again, calculated and replied, “Err, not really, but we haven't much choice, so there you are.”

The Commander grew serious, “If you go past us about three hundred paces there's a turn off. Follow that path a half days travel. There's a thaig there that was cleared but hasn't yet been reclaimed. It was still over run with nugs a week ago.”

“Thank ye kindly. We'll check it out.”

“The legion will still take you, you know.”

“We're desperate, but not that desperate. Not yet at least.”

“Good luck then.”

“Ancestors bless you, Wardens.”

They stood well to the side while we passed. After a minute I turned and saw them walking down the passage arguing.

Palin asked, “What was that about?”

“King Bhelen has been recruiting the casteless to fight the Darkspawn. Sometimes they desert.”

“Casteless?”

The Commander resumed her walk and her lecture. She was going on at length about Brewmothers. I didn't know the Darkspawn made ale. Maybe that was how they spread the taint?

I had come to the conclusion that Anders was fairer than the king. They sounded similar as well, I thought, but it was hard to be sure. I had only heard the king the one time and he was far away. Anders also sounded like someone I had met. For some reason I thought of armour. Who was it?

“Penny for your thoughts?”

The Commanders voice broke through my fog. I realized that the others had stopped and were looking at me with some amusement. Palin and Gervais both snickered. I flushed.

My mother had always counseled boldness. She pointed out I was the third daughter and there was no money or land to go with me. She told me to make my own way. Brazen or not, I needed to know.

“The mage Anders, is he married?”

The Commander smiled slightly. “So far as I know, he is still single. It hasn't been for lack of effort, however. He's a good man. The woman who lands him will have quite the catch.”

We had moved slightly ahead of the men.

“What about yourself?”

“You don't know? Maker be thanked, I guess gossip does die down eventually. I'm single. And not interested in Anders. My choices down here are limited. There seems to be a marked lack of eligible elves down in the Deep Roads.”

I was curious to know what she meant about gossip, but something in her tone told me it was better not pursued.

We were all sensing darkspawn with reliability at this point. Every time we sensed them we would pursue the trail, kill them, burn the bodies as best we could and return to the main road. We ran into six small bands in the three days it took us to reach the crossroads. The commander did none of the fighting. She would appraise the situation, then instruct us in how to go about it. Afterwards she would critique our style and offer suggestions.

The last day of that leg of the journey we came across a band under more unusual circumstances. They were standing in the middle of a fog lit by a dull glow similar to what we had seen in Orzammar. The Commander warned us to beware of the lava, which is what dwarves call molten rock. She then raised her staff and two of the darkspawn, a genlock and a hurlock toppled over. The remaining eight stood in the fog, unmoving. The three of us rushed in and discovered several more lying on the ground at their feet.

The darkspawn did not respond to our presence. We cut the standing ones down and they died without protest.

Palin called, “Commander, there's something odd here.”

She joined us in the fog. A moment later she and Gervais both said, “Lyrium!”

She added, “Out, all of you out. These are lyrium vapours.”

Gervais moved as though he were scalded. Palin and I moved a bit slower.

The Commander then went and carefully stabbed each of the prone Darkspawn until she was certain they were all dead. The last one twitched a bit, caught her foot and she stumbled slightly. I heard her sharp intake of breath and then it too was dead.

Normally she had a resolute stride. She was staggering when she left the fogbank.

“I think I breathed too much of it. I'll need two of you to help me.”

Gervais got under one of her arms and I went under the other. She was lighter than I expected. She was also shorter. We carried her for a few hundred paces and she gasped, “Stop. We'll rest here. My head is too clouded for travel right now.”

Gervais had already pulled a blanket from his pack and was wrapping it around her. Her eyes were blazing and her skin was flushed.

“Why am I always stuck with shemlen and durgenlen?”

Palin started to say something, but Gervais laid his hand on the knight's arm.

He said gravely, “She's lyrium addled. It's a lot like being drunk, but more weepy. We have to keep her warm and stop her from doing magic. Once she comes down a bit, I'll try to draw some of her mana off of her.”


“Magic would be bad right now.” She agreed, “Magic has been bad, is bad, will always be bad. Magic sucks. Whatever you do, don't become mages. You'll have to go live in a tower, even if you don't like heights.”

Palin smirked a little. I noticed Gervais was taking this seriously.

“Is she in any danger?”, I asked.

“It's pretty serious. I don't think she got a lethal dose. But if she does a spell, it could be catastrophic. She has no control right now.”

“Fireballs would be bad. Boom!” Her arms had spread wide and she toppled over. “So would freezy spells. I could freeze everything. I could freeze everyone.” She was making small wind noises.

Gervais told her, “Freezing people would be very bad.”

“People are bad. Especially men. Men suck. Blond men suck. Blond elves suck. Blond men suck more. They ask you to suck their sceptre then get all mad at you for not killing their father in law.”

She looked at me and said with great emphasis “Never get involved with a blond man. They are all bastards. Royal bastards. Royal blond bastards. Big blond bastards. But not as big as he thinks he is.” She snorted at this. “He doesn't know Zev was just as big. Gotta love Crows. I wanna massage.”

I was massively embarrassed. I was positive I didn't want to hear this.
Gervais didn't either. He took a deep breath, did something sparkly with his hands and she toppled over. Her breathing was regular and she was crying, but she was asleep.

A few hours later she rolled, groaned and looked at us.

“How long was I out?”

Gervais answered, “About three hours or so. How do you feel?”

“Like I was lyrium poisoned. Thank you. You did well back there.”

“You're welcome, Commander.”

“Call me Arwen, my name is Arwen. Now that you know all my secrets, we may as well use our first names.”

“You didn't say much that made sense,” I assured her.

She snorted and said “Good,” then stood up and walked around a bit.

“Let's get moving. There's an inn at Caridin's Cross. I'd like to spend the night in a bed if at all possible.”

{A/N: Shout out and massive thanks to Corker who helped make this better. Any flaws remaining are entirely my responsibility}

Modifié par mousestalker, 13 janvier 2011 - 10:50 .

[mousestalker]

Chapter Four


Caridin's Cross was interesting. We arrived late and left early so I didn't get the chance I wanted to see everything but it looked nothing so like a permanent fair. Most of the building looked temporary but there were a few permanent structures, the inn being one.

Arwen, for now we were allowed to call her that, seemed fully recovered in the morning. She was rather gruff at breakfast, so we proceeded in silence down the road. She did say that Bownammar wasn't terribly far but that we would be making a stop along the way to check out a thaig that was supposed to be overrun with Darkspawn.

We walked the rest of the day and most of the next in silence. The pace was a bit faster than before and that discouraged any real conversation. The next morning provided a change of pace.

The dwarves had stone refreshment stations every so often along the road where you could obtain fresh water, relieve yourself and otherwise take care of personal needs in privacy. Most of the ones we had seen up until now were functional but had obviously been repaired at some point.

Starting around mid morning we came across a destroyed station . None of us were feeling any trace of taint. 

“This was repaired last time I came through here.” She said, finally. “All of this was done in the last fortnight.”

The stone work was so thoroughly demolished that the trickle of fresh water poured into the waste channel. The seats were completely smashed. 

We walked on. The next station was smashed as well, as were all the stations we saw for the rest of the day. 

Late in the day we reached the turn off for Gavorn Thaig. We went a small distance down the tunnel and made camp. All of us could sense Darkspawn further in. They were far away, but present in force. I spent a tense watch staying alert, but nothing happened through the night. They neither came closer nor went away. When Palin relieved me I fell into a worried sleep. My dreams were jumbled and confused and filled with Darkspawn.

Early the next day we broke camp. There was a large mass ahead of us and I began to detect traces coming from behind.

Arwen said “We'll continue forward. This tunnel loops back to the main road. The actual road to the thaig is ahead at a T intersection. Even if they come from behind, we shouldn't be trapped. We'll stop at the T and see what our situation is.”

Gervais asked “How will we handle so many? I've never sensed such a large number.”

Arwen replied “And they have emissaries and alphas. I have a few tricks left that should help.”

I think we all remembered then that this was the woman who defeated the Blight and rescued Amaranthine. 

She obviously read something in our faces as she continued “If there are too many, we'll head back to the main road and wait for reinforcements.”

“How long will that take?” I asked.

“We should see someone in a short while, the road isn't all that deserted. If they are headed to Bownammar, there's help to be had there. Likewise at Caridin's Cross. So, not long. For now, let's move forward and be quiet about it.”

That was easier said than done. Arwen in her leathers was quiet enough. Gervais and myself were in mail so we jingled. Palin positively clanked as we moved. She took lead and we followed making as little noise as we could.

At the intersection I could feel the mass of Darkspawn down the road to the thaig. They seemed to be milling around rather than all heading in one direction so I didn't think they had detected us yet.

Arwen set Palin to looking at the approach behind us, myself to looking down towards Gavorn Thaig and Gervais forward down the road. I couldn't see anything. The main road had been well, if dimly lit. This passage was more what I had initially expected from the Deep Roads. The ceiling was just above my head. The only light was provided by Arwen's staff. The air was close, musty and tainted.

Then at once I could feel Darkspawn coming up the passage from my left. They were following us, whether they knew that or not. What made no sense was how they could possibly have been behind us. I had sensed them faintly earlier. But the roads had been taint free our entire journey. We should have sensed their passage if they had left by this tunnel.

“Commander.” Gervais' voice was low and tense. “I think some are coming this way as well.”

“I agree. Well this is awkward. I sense a huge mass at the thaig, a smaller band coming from where we did and a much smaller band ahead. Fighting one group will likely draw the rest. I may be able to handle most of them if we can draw all of them to us.”

“How?” Gervais wanted to know. “we have four blades. We can not kill them fast enough.”

“You're going to use magic.” Palin said.

“Right in one.” She agreed. “I'm going to boil them in their own skins. But they need to be closer.”

She drew a figure on the ground with her staff. The stone glowed white where the point had been. Then she drew a circle around it.

“Stay inside the circle.”

She then drew another figure inside a circle overlaying the first set.

My eyes had wandered from my approach. She noticed.

“Eyes front, please. And draw blades.”

I flushed and resumed peering into the dark. I heard three swords drawn as one.

Because of that I did not see what she did next. I felt it though. A wave of taint, darkspawn sense, pressure, I did not know what, moved through us and went towards the mass of the enemy. They now knew we were here. I could feel the after effects rippling away from us in all directions. All of them knew we were here.

“Now we wait. When they get within range I will be committed to the spell. It's tricky, so I need to concentrate. You three need to keep them away from me as best you can. Each of you keep watch on your approach and we should be fine.”

Still looking down my road, I asked, in a normal voice because silence seemed silly, “What was that?”

“A trick I learned from a very old Grey Warden. It's mostly tied to the taint, but there's some small magic in there as well.”

The Darkspawn were definitely approaching from all three directions. Arwen's trick was working. They were all about the same distance away. I began to hear faint movement down my road.

The light suddenly grew much brighter. I could see further down the road. There were shapes in the distance. I heard hooting from every direction.

Arwen made a small sound. Then the hooting stopped. The Darkspawn stopped their approach. I strained to hear better. Were they whimpering?

From behind me I heard “You've cut yourself.”

“Yes, I know, it doesn't matter. Watch your approach. This is trickier than it looks.”

“Maleficar!” 

I heard the sound of a blade going through leather, then flesh and then as quickly withdrawn. The light died. I hear the thump of a body hitting stone. I spun around, but my eyes were still adjusting from the change so I saw nothing.

Behind me, in front of me and to the side I heard the whimpers change to howls of rage.

Palin yelled “Run!”

Gervais said, “But the Commander...”

Palin grabbed both of us and dragged us away from her body and towards the smallest group. We were committed now. Our only hope was to cut our way through before the other two groups could join the fray.