"Now we are getting properly acquainted," Zevran said, grunting with effort as he slid up behind Idun in the narrow rock passage. There was no more than a foot above their heads, though that was roomy compared to portions they had crept through already. Their only light was from Idun's staff.
"This is what you call stealth? Flirting?"
"Did you not say there were no darkspawn nearby? This is what I call confidence in my Grey Warden."
Idun let out a sigh, then took a deep breath and continued creeping forward.
There were darkspawn somewhere ahead, and lots of them, if not close enough to overhear Zevran's flirting. The Dalish Warden and her assassin companion had decided to make use of a ventilation passage above the main corridor to scout ahead. Their party had come into the Deep Roads seeking the Paragon Branka, to win her support for a new king and thus secure Orzammar's armies for help against the Blight. If there had been a spell that allowed one to disappear and re-appear somewhere far away, Idun would have used it a dozen times over, to be anywhere but these lost caverns. The only reason she persisted was because they had met a dwarven ghoul who had told them the archdemon was also somewhere south, the same direction the signs pointed to for the Paragon. Branka or no, that was a report worth checking out.
As she and Zevran crept forward, Idun began to sense something other than just darkspawn. Her eyes watered and her lungs smarted every time she inhaled the passage air. Behind her, Zevran coughed.
"Lyrium," she whispered back to him. "We are near a lyrium vein." Idun could feel the mana throbbing in her veins, begging to be let out. What an impressive fireball I could create now, she thought. Then she remembered that under the right conditions, lyrium could be an accelerant for explosions, and decided that a fireball might not be such a good idea.
Finally, the pressure in her head was too much to bear. "It's no good, Zevran. I can see the lyrium glowing up ahead. The vein must intersect this passage." Perhaps the passage had not been for ventilation at all, but an exploratory crosscut for dwarven miners. The Warden party would have to scout forward the old-fashioned way, with swords drawn.
It seemed late when they returned, though the ambient light from a ventilation shaft high above told a different story. Their companions had already made a cheerless, fireless camp. Idun added to the cavern's light by brightening her staff's stone.
Alistair stepped over to her, worry evident in his face. "Everything alright? Maker, you look a fright." He helped her brush dust out of her hair and clothing while she briefed him and the others about the situation. They ate their spare dinner and with little conversation settled down to sleep, Idun clasping the hand that Alistair rested on her stomach. It felt like they had been down here for years, and if they ever made it out again, Idun intended to savor a hot bath and hot food and sharing a clean bed with Alistair like nothing she had ever savored before.
When the nightmare came, Idun tried to become lucid in order to knock it back, but a moment later she realized that Alistair was shaking her. The elven mage's eyes opened and she sprung up, reaching for her staff. Darkspawn were coming, many and eager, like dogs who had been put on a scent. The two Wardens, bone-weary from the days of fighting and running, had been sleeping too deeply to sense them earlier. There was no time for regret, however. Her party companions had propped up torches to give themselves more light and prepared for battle. Idun looked at Alistair and wordlessly asked the question: Should we run?
He shook his head. It was too late. They had to fight.
The first wave of them were shrieking genlocks, sword fodder. The Warden party were experienced darkspawn fighters now and knew that the more dangerous enemies, the alphas and emissaries, would come up behind after their expendable comrades had softened up the target. Idun and Morrigan were ready for this next wave. While the melee fighters kept the genlocks busy, Idun sent a hail of fire into the tunnel, knocking the darkspawn flat on their feet. Hot wind was still gusting back on them when Morrigan, arms lifted, called down a hail of ice and wind that quenched Idun's field of flame but also froze the creatures in place. When more darkspawn tried to scramble up over the bodies, they too became frozen, blocking their comrades who were coming up behind.
The ice "blockade" would not last for long, however. Idun heard Alistair shouting, "There are too many! Too many!" It was true. The Dalish Warden's head pounded with a cacophony of darkspawn back-chatter. They would be overwhelmed and it would not take long. Idun fought despair, trying to keep her head clear. As she sent one firebolt after another towards the genlocks in the cavern, an idea formed. There was no time to think about how nutty it was.
In the confusion of the dark cavern she could hear Zevran shouting as he cut down darkspawn. His shouts were so cheerful you would think he was playing a good game of cricket and not battling tainted horrors. With a blast of fire that singed the Antivan's blonde eyebrows, Idun sent the swarm of genlocks around him tumbling backwards. This gave her the break she needed to shout an instruction to him.
To his credit, Zevran complied at once, not wasting time by arguing with her. The two of them fought their way forward to the crosscut passage entrance and Idun stood ground there while Zevran climbed up into it.
Ice, confusion, blood. Idun heard the men shouting, but it was the good sort of shout, not the "you had better heal me now or it could be really, really bad" kind. Their sentient golem companion, Shale, was laughing as it stepped on darkspawn and tore others apart limb from limb. Idun saw Morrigan still standing in front of the ice wall, arms upraised, trying to fortify it. Instinctively, as only another mage could, Idun knew that Morrigan could not keep it up for much longer.
"Hurry, Zevran!" She had no idea if the assassin could even hear her.
They heard a sickening crunching sound, and the ice barrier began to explode bit by bit into red shards. The unfrozen darkspawn coming in from behind were shattering their own comrades in order to make their way through.
"ZEVRAAAN!" Idun's cry was visceral now, but as if in answer to her call, the Antivan dropped down from the passage entrance at just that moment.
"Now, Warden!" He then charged back into the cavern with a laughing battle cry, daggers flying.
Idun pulled herself up into the passage entrance, crawled forward to where she judged must be the right place, and paused there to concentrate. There was no time to wonder if she was about to seal her own doom. It had to be done. Stretching a hand out into the passage depths, Idun whispered, "Sylaise have mercy on me," and sent the strongest fireball she could summon forward into the narrow space.
An explosion shook the very ground beneath the Warden party. It was so powerful that even the attacking darkspawn looked up and around in confusion. Then another, secondary explosion boomed, and there was a great crack, the sound of falling rock, and after that the boom of a tunnel collapse. A wave of dust rushed forward into the cavern, coating the Warden party and their adversaries alike. A few loose rocks from the cavern ceiling pelted their heads, but the main cavern held, and the battle had resumed while the dust was still settling. No more darkspawn entered the cavern, however. The few darkspawn who remained were cut off from their comrades by the collapse and soon lay dead.
Idun was slumped against a pillar, surrounded by darkspawn corpses knee-deep, when Alistair found her.
"Are you hurt?" he called, tossing corpses aside to make a path to her.
"Just... tired. I'll be alright in a moment."
"Leliana needs healing."
Idun nodded and forced herself upright. She was surprised and grateful, after all that, that this was the direst news he had for her. Alistair reached her and put his arms around her, holding her tightly, swaying gently as they convinced each other once more that they both had lived. With his help, she made her way back to where the others were huddled.
Exchanging looks with Zevran, Idun smiled at him. "Well done, Zev. You were right to trade for those fire bombs from the dwarf merchant."
"And you said that we wouldn't need them," the Antivan chided her with a cluck of his tongue. "Not that we aren't all impressed by the fire you create with your mind, dear Warden, but without some Zevran fiuto fiuto, your fireballs would have been good for nothing but darkspawn barbecue."
"We both had help from the lyrium."
The dwarf who had joined them in Orzammar, Branka's ex-husband Oghren, grunted at hearing this. Then it began to dawn on him what they meant, what had actually happened. Zevran had set fire bombs near the lyrium vein. The lyrium had acted as a catalyst for the explosion, an explosion that Idun's fireball had ignited. The dwarf began to chortle. "By the Stone, Warden! You got balls."
Idun had come to know enough of their foul-smelling dwarven companion to recognize this as a compliment.
The cavern collapse meant yet another detour. Idun and Alistair worried that the darkspawn would find a way around, as well; that they had only delayed an attack, but what darkspawn they sensed were scattered and retreating. Idun guessed many had actually been buried in the collapse. Weary from the battle and nursing wounds, the party could not travel far before making camp again. They found what looked to be a mining outpost, and to their delight, the water works still functioned. Eventually they got a basin spigot to run clear water.
Idun's first task was, with Morrigan's help, to change everyone's dressing and clean their wounds. All the non-Wardens got a dose of the precious small supply of taint potion. Burn salve was also getting to be in short supply, a fact that Idun recognized with no small amount of guilt. It was usually her own errant flame that caused it to be needed. In this case there was also some frost burns from Morrigan's ice spells.
When they were finished, the party gathered around a small fire to eat from their dwindling rations. As always, Morrigan lingered away from the others, but spoke up during a lull in the conversation. "If I may make a suggestion, Wardens."
Idun turned to look, and nodded for her to go ahead.
"The next time you need to scout ahead, there is a better way to do it than taking this perfumed dandy with you."
Zevran laughed at the insult, replying, "You are jealous, my lovely lady, but there is no need. I am pretty, it is true, but your beauty is..."
"Save it." Morrigan turned back to Idun and paused, then lifted her hands. Her form shuddered, changed, and the next moment a giant spider stood before them. It shook itself like a dog, then spat forth a stream of webbing that caught Zevran in the back. By the time the Antivan was done complaining about having just washed his hair, Morrigan had shifted back into her usual form with a smirk on her face. She regarded Idun. "Well? 'Tis a thought, no? Or are you truly committed to the strategy of bringing down the cavern walls around us?"
"It could work," Idun admitted, though wary at the idea of she and Morrigan acting as scouts alone. "The darkspawn will still sense me."
"They will sense something, but perhaps the change will confuse them enough that it need not matter. Why could you not simply be one of those corrupted spiders we encountered? They had the taint in them, as well."
Idun wished she had thought of it herself. It was another day before they needed to put this plan into practice, however. Alistair was even less enthused about the idea of the two mages scouting alone than Idun was, but whatever Morrigan had planned for them, Idun did not think she would try anything while there was a chance of winning a dwarven army.
There were other advantages to scouting this way than just disguise. Idun left a web trail so that they could find their way back in the maze of identical-looking passages, and the two mages had both shifted into the form of a night spider so that their eyesight was enhanced. When they had satisfied themselves that the way south was clear for a good ways, the pair shifted back to their usual forms in order to rest and recharge their mana. Both were so practiced in this art that it took very little effort to maintain it, but they could not do so forever.
Leaning back against a wall in the deep gloom, Idun was just shutting her eyes to rest when Morrigan spoke up, sounding tentative. "Did you learn these arts from your parents?"
Without lifting her head, Idun responded dully, "My parents both died when I was a baby. Well, my father died. My mother abandoned me. Then she died." She had not intended to give any but a basic answer, and Idun also found herself surprised by the bitterness in her own voice.
"I... am sorry. You have my condolences." Morrigan hesitated, then added, "That is what one says in such circumstances, is it not?"
Idun lifted her head. What was this? Morrigan was actually trying to make conversation. Her wariness returned, but she kept her voice even. "I suppose. I am never quite certain of human manners or expressions myself. You have heard how it amuses Alistair when I try to curse, for instance."
"Yes." Though it was too dark to tell, it sounded like Morrigan was smiling. The smile had decidedly vanished, however, when she turned the subject back to magic. "Of course, I learned this skill from Flemeth. Learned it at the end of a switch." It was Morrigan's turn to sound bitter.
The admission was shocking, not only for what it told Idun about Morrigan's childhood, but for the fact that the human mage was offering such revelations at all. Idun remembered seeing such a memory acted out by a demon disguised as Flemeth in the Fade, but Morrigan had never spoken of it. Idun's mind turned to the brief glimpse she had caught of the young girl outside Flemeth's hut. She had gone there with Marethari and some hunters, brought to see the witch in return for a promise of her protection. When they turned to leave, Idun had seen the little girl and considered speaking to her, but the desire to be away from the abomination had been too strong.
Apparently Morrigan was thinking of the same thing. "I got a good beating after you came to see us, Warden."
Idun flinched with surprise. In all their months of travel together, the two mages had never before discussed Idun's visit to Flemeth's hut. It had been a sleeping bear Idun preferred to let lie. She was beginning to see why it was not a pleasant topic for Morrigan, either. "She beat you... because of me?"
"Ohh, it was a bitter disappointment to her, yes." Morrigan laughed drily. "The Dalish had a little girl younger than me who could assume wolf form already. Surely you were an obedient sort, not flitting off into the forests, idling away her time as I did. Consider yourself fortunate that you did not end up a captive that day, Warden. Flemeth might have offered me in exchange, perhaps, but I have no doubt that had you not accepted her offer to coo in your ear, that is exactly what would have happened. Had they resisted, all of your friends would have ended up dead."
The Dalish woman could do nothing but sit in stunned silence. A question formed in her mind. It made her sick, sick with fear and with guilt, but it had to be asked. "Why did being allowed to whisper into my ear make her change her mind?"
No reply came for a few moments. Morrigan seemed to be considering. At last she answered, "The visions are always unclear. If I had to guess, I would say that you allowed some pieces to fall into place that had previously looked different to her. Perhaps you gave her hope of gaining something even better than a new daughter."
Sitting up, Idun reached out to grasp Morrigan's arm. "Tell me what it is. You know, I know that you do."
Morrigan shook her arm free and stood. Idun could hear her brushing herself off. Softly the mage replied, "If you kill Flemeth, then the game shall change for both of us. That is all you need to know."
A moment later, a giant spider crept back into the tunnel.