Dragon Age: Fall Of The Bride
[A/N: So, here's a new book. It is one of two I have planned, and is something I did because I could. I love Dragon Age (Origins is the best game I have ever played) and I wanted to make my own contribution to the world of Thedas. Characters will be mentioned, used, as will my own created characters. This is what happened to the Warden after the defeat of the Architect and the Mother. Enjoy!]
Chapter One
"Ready," I whispered to my troops. Finally, after months of hunting, we finally caught the last Disciple.
"Sodding chatty bastards end today!" Oghren, my most faithful friend, chuckled to himself as he wobbled in the brush behind me. I glanced over to Velanna, a questioning look in my eyes.
"Do not look at me. I cannot get between him and a cask of ale." The Dalish elf sniffed. Despite her attitude I knew she liked Oghren. They would watch each others backs. I looked back to the clearing the darkspawn had stopped in. The Disciple we were hunting, self-named The Last, stood in the centre. It waved it's arms and growled at the few hurlocks and genlocks surrounding it. I glanced to the other end of the clearing, where Sigrunn waited with another twenty men, four of which were Wardens. I got her attention through a mirror, reflecting light on her face. When I was sure she was watching I raised my fist and clenched it twice. Sigrunn nodded, obeying the order to wait. I turned back to my own squad, Velanna, Oghren, two newer Wardens and eight Amaranthine soldiers. I grinned to myself. It was nice to actually have my own soldiers, instead of just a motley group of seven or eight.
"Commander, we're done!" Two more soldiers appeared from the darkness. The buckets that had once held a very flammable substance were now empty.
"Excellent." I held their shoulders and gave them a quick shake. "Get ready for the charge."
"Val, we have a problem." Oghren grabbed my forearm. The dwarf spun me around and pointed to the edge of a clearing. My eyes widened as I saw what he did. An ogre, not the biggest I'd fought but big nonetheless, marched out of the darkness near Sigrunn's group. I saw writhing bodies in the monster's hands and my heart fell. How had I not even heard the fight?
"We need to get Sigrunn out of there!" I hissed to Velanna. She shook her head quietly.
"It is not Sigrunn." She whispered. I looked back and saw that she was right. Instead of armoured soldiers or a dwarf, both figures were unarmoured farmers. A man and a woman. The Last grunted at the ogre and the farmers were set down in the centre. Another genlock waddled up to them and deposited a girl of no more than thirteen. She had a torn dress and her face was caked with tears and mud. Her parents didn't look to much better. The Last stared hard at them. Then he turned on his heel, drew his massive warhammer and roared at the forest, almost looking directly at us.
"WAAAAAAARDEN! I know you are out there! I can sense you! Come out, or watch them die!" The Last beat his chest, guttural screams coming from the rest of the darkspawn. The farmer had a look on his face that chilled my blood as I saw it. The fool moved in front of his family and spat at The Last.
"If the Wardens are truly here, they'll kill you." He nearly whimpered as The Last turned to face him. "Talking darkspawn or not." He gulped.
"Really?" The Last's voice slithered out of his throat like a serpent. "Perhaps your bodies might be a better message?" I didn't wait to see if The Last raised his blade. I let out a battle cry, unslinging my shield and drawing my sword, Vigilance. Velanna took this as her signal, spinning her staff and letting a bolt of fire fly towards our trap. The darkspawn watched in puzzled awe as the small comet flew over their heads. The awe turned to panic as the liquid I bought from the Nevarran merchants ignited, a massive wall of fire spreading to encase the darkspawn.
"No! Fight!" The Last screamed. I ignored the heat as I rushed forwards, my blood boiling. I followed Oghren's advice in my rage, turning it into a weapon to wield against my enemies. I felt a small amount of pride in the back of my head, hoping the berserker was watching. Through the slits of my warhelm I saw the farmer and his family scramble away from he as I launched myself through the wall of blazing death. Thinking back on that moment, I can realize the mistake I made. I panicked and tried to save the family, but in my haste I rushed in like someone possessed by a demon. My armour, once worn by the Anderfels soldier who slew Dumat, exemplified the flames with it's black and red colouring. My shield had been specially crafted by Wade, the greatest armoursmith in the land of Thedas in my opinion. It shared the material and colouring of my armour, the only difference in that I had the symbol of the Grey Wardens blazed on it. What I remember from that fight was a catastrophic slaughter. I had signaled Velanna to early in my haste, so only Oghren and I had made it into the circle of flames. Only about three of my soldiers, two of them Wardens, had brought bows, so they and Velanna rained as much death as they could upon the darkspawn. They had once outnumbered my warband by about eighteen, but they were quickly whittled down. I remember Oghren rushing towards the ogre, spinning that giant axe of his in a ring of destruction. He cut down a huge crowd of darkspawn in the time it took for me to close the distance between myself and the guards of The Last. Oghren hammered at the knee of the last darkspawn in his way, bringing the grotesque head down to his level. Not breaking stride, the dwarf dove into it headfirst. His momentum and weight crushed the darkspawn's skull, leaving a disgusting red and pink goop of Oghren's helm. Unfortunately, the ogre had waited for just an opportunity as Oghren slowed. The beast swung it's massive fist, catching Oghren in the side of his head. I watched my friend sail away past me and I screeched to a halt. Raising my shield towards the darkspawn I watched with horror as Oghren slid across the dirt towards the barrier.
"Stop!" I shouted fruitlessly. But apparently the Maker had a plan for the angry dwarf. A darkspawn was blasted in the chest by a strike of lightning from Velanna and it's smoking body fell directly in the path of Oghren. I almost didn't see the darkspawn stop Oghren just before he hit the fire, because The Last had chosen this time to push past his guards and attack me.
"DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!" He nearly squealed with delight as he hammered on my shield. I hated the Disciples. I was going to be very happy when there were no more talking darkspawn.
"You first!" I roared back. I rushed forwards and swung my shield up with all my might. Just as I'd hoped, The Last had stepped back and left his chin open. The edge of my shield slammed squarely into his neck. The Disciple went reeling back to his guards, choking on his own blood. Smelling the blood of their own, the genlocks shouted their own war cries and rushed me. The first one came at me from the left while the second ran headlong towards the right. Using the skills I had learned from Zevran during the Blight, I slipped out a small thin dagger and spun it towards the retreating genlock. The throwing knife planted itself cleanly into the creatures spine, sending it to the ground. This allowed me to focus on the first genlock. It had no shield and only carried a small, jagged sword.
"Too easy." I barked out a laugh. As the genlock came in range I swung my leg out in a wicked kick, made worse by the fact that my boot was made of solid metal. I caught it full on the the chest, and I heard a very distinctive cracking sound. The little thing fell to the ground and made a squishy wheezing sound.
"Stop that!" I growled, shoving my sword into it's brain. Just as I pulled Vigilance from the bald green head a shadow loomed over me. I had just enough time to think 'Oh shit!' before I leapt to the ground. The ogre's fist, meant to swipe me up and most likely deposit me into it's open maw simply swept over my head safely. I slashed at it quickly and missed. The ogre roared again and lunged. With an expression of panic etched on my face, I dove to the side, letting the ogre slam into a hurlock that had snuck up behind me. The darkspawn went down under the blue mass with a sickening crunch. Taking my chances I jumped in and stabbed and slashed, withdrawing quickly when the ogre stood tall. We repeated this process several times, but the ogre was too strong to go down with only a few pinpricks. Finally, after the ninth or tenth time the ogre stayed dow longer than usual. With the ogre slowly picking itself up I saw my chance. Rushing towards the opportunity, I dropped my shield and charged the ogre. I neared the monster leapt up, jamming Vigilance into the beast's meaty thigh and using the ogre's subsequent lurch of pain to pull me off the ground. As I flew up, I hooked my feet on top of it's knee and pushed off, sending me up towards it's head. 'Thank you Wade,' I thought as I sliced Vigilance through the ogre's head, going through bone and flesh. Vigilance cut clean through it, and it fell to the ground in a heap. A very inglorious and quick kill, but I had no time for stories. I'll let Oghren make up a story of me killing it next time he get's drunk in Amaranthine. I landed as gracefully as one might expect a heavily-armoured man just launched from an ogre might. As in I crashed. Hard. I heard a snapping sound and felt pain in my right forearm. I rolled to a stop not far from the farmer and his family.
"Gah!" I gasped as I pushed myself up. "Fractured, not broken. Ooh, yeah, like that's any better." I moaned. Looking at it, I could clearly see that my shoulder had become dislocated. Hating what I was about to do, I reached up towards it.
"Rrrrgh!" I growled as I felt the cold rush as I shoved my arm back into position. "Why did I ever have to learn how to do that?" I asked myself as I sat up. My self pity was over when I heard the woman cry out and the man scream in pain. I spun to face them and saw The Last holding the girl, the woman kneeling over the man. The Last had taken my knife from the body of the genlock and shoved it into the man's thigh.
"That was your last mistake." I growled, reaching to my back and drawing Starfang. I had once offered this blade to Alistair, but he refused and said his father's blade was good enough. I often wondered if it was a statement to a dead man about Alistair's worth. It hurt to hold Starfang in my right arm, and I wasn't as skilled in duel wielding as I liked. While I started as a left-handed fighter and used it to surprise many enemies, I was now ambidextrous. It was still a great challenge to force myself to fight right-handed.
"I'll kill girl! I do it!" The Last's speech betrayed it's rage and panic. I knew he would though, and he and I began circling each other. I couldn't go near for fear of him killing the child and it couldn't leave because of the wall of fire. Luckily, I didn't have to solve that problem. Cander, a Marcher and one of my newer Wardens who was skilled in archery solved it for me. An arrow with his special white feather tail spat out of the darkness and embedded itself into The Last's arm holding the girl. As it lurched back in pain the girl was dropped from it's grasp. With a look of fear at both the darkspawn and myself she scurried off.
"Now you die." I grinned evilly under my helm. I stopped grinning when The Last shot forwards and punched me in the chest, knocking me to the ground and sending my helm flying off.
"Hate Wardens! Kill Wardens! Kill! Kill elf!" The Last spun his warhammer over his head and shrieked his war cry again.
"What elf you bastard!" I shouted back. The only elf I had brought with me was Velanna. I had three elf Wardens, all of them women. I didn't want to try and risk losing the fight and therefore dooming them to a life of birthing darkspawn, so I had ordered them to stay. I needed Velanna's magic though, so when she had demanded to come I had caved. Sigrunn had also used my surrender as an excuse, so now I needed to win.
"The elf!" The Last put emphasis on the word 'the', as if I would know who he meant. "Kill him, and you!" With that, The Last charged.
'Blast!" I cursed as I dodged an overhead strike. I could not parry or block, as I had no shield and it would break the rest of the bones in both my arms. But as the darkspawn and I met with ferocious blows I noticed something. The Last had white foam dripping down it's mouth, like rabies. It's eyes betrayed panic and fear. When I saw an opening to behead the monster I took it. Unfortunately for me The Last saw it coming and gave me a quick kick to the groin.
"Thank the Maker for armour!" I groaned as I stumbled back. The darkspawn roared again, the white foam flying out of it's mouth towards my face. It splattered full on, it's smell and taste disgusting.
"Darkspawn spit." I gagged. During the Blight I had almost been eaten by an ogre, and was halfway in it's mouth when it was killed. I had a far too intimate meeting with darkspawn saliva then, and I never wanted to again. But then it hit me. It wasn't a disease. The Last was spitting. This was not The Last that I remembered. The strongest of the Architect's Disciples, and a cunning one at that. It had more control than I'd known some humans to have. Something very bad must have happened for him to be reduced to a slobbering maniac. I was forced back yet again by the monster, swinging his hammer in a way no sane warrior would. Unfortunately I stepped right into the remains of a genlock, and the darkspawn body tripped me as The Last shoved forwards. I hit the ground softly, surprisingly. I rolled slightly to take the impact off my arm, and that left me open.
"Shit!" I screamed in pain as The Last crushed my right arm under his warhammer. It raised it well over it's head with what I thought was a sneer. I couldn't see clearly, tears forming in my eyes and pain bringing stars into my vision.
"KILL!" It thundered. Before he could bring death down on my head, I kicked out towards where I hoped it's legs were. I connected with something soft, hard. I saw the shape of the darkspawn fall back with a small cry. I wiped my eyes quickly and saw The Last scrambling on the ground towards it's warhammer. I looked down at my feet and grinned.
"Not so tough now eh!" I laughed at it. The Last stopped his scraping on the ground and glared up at my. I pointed down in the most comical way I could. It looked down, and saw me standing on it's weapon. It looked back up to my face and grinned back. My grin vanished when I saw a wickedly serrated darkspawn sword in one hand and Starfang in the other. I stumbled back when it jumped to it's feet, swinging Starfang over it's head and pointing the darkspawn sword at me. I scanned the battlefield for Vigilance. I couldn't fight with the warhammer or any of the incredibly small genlock weapons. Luckily, I spotted my sword. Unluckily, it was three feet behind The Last. And every good sized sword was even further than that.
"Damn." I whispered. I tried to stand tall, but a spike of pain put me back into a slouch. I held my broken arm, seeing where my armour was damaged. To my intense and forever-lasting gratitude, the Sentinel's Plate was not bent in the least. Wade had done his work well. I on the other hand, was still doing my work.
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaarden," The Last cackled. "Come!" The darkspawn stalked towards me, a predatory gleam in it's eyes. I glared back at it, letting go of my broken arm and kneeling down. Just as I expected, The Last took this as a surrender and ran headlong towards me like any mindless hurlock in the Deep Roads.
"Archers!" I roared towards the darkness where I knew Sigrunn would have positioned her men. They hadn't fired so far, most likely orders not to so that they wouldn't hit me. But at my own personal order, three arrows flew straight and true out of the forest, pinning themselves into important parts of The Last. I raised my hand and made a zero, signaling them to stop.
"Still want to go?" I asked smugly. The Last had an arrow in it's ankle,it's waist and it's left shoulder. The darkspawn dropped Starfang, most likely losing feeling in it's arm. It had a defeated look for just a moment before a snarl replaced it.
"I AM NOT DEFEATED!" It screamed to the heavens, the first coherent words it'd spoken the entire battle. The Last spun back to face me and charged yet again. Thinking quickly, I hooked my foot under the warhammer and flipped it up into my hand. I would not be able to use it in battle, but I could use it as a distraction. Once the long handle was in my hand I spun in a circle, like I'd seen the massive tree-throwers do. Those burly men had taken entire logs and picked them up like they were nothing. They would then spin in a quick circle and hurl the log as far as they could. I'd seen one throw it nearly fifteen meters. I didn't have the throw it that far, I just had to throw it at The Last. Finishing my spin I let go of the hilt, allowing my momentum to send the warhammer crashing right into the stomach of The Last. The darkspawn stopped immediately, flopping into the air like it'd run into a bar. The Last fell back onto the ground, and with a wet squeaking sound the arrows in it's waist and shoulder were pushed up through it's body. I watched with no feelings whatsoever as the metal points shot out of the monster's flesh. For a moment there I honestly thought it was dead, but the thing lurched back up to it's feet.
"How many damn times do you have to go down before you stay down!" I yelled at it. It merely hissed and waddled over to the centre of it's camp. The farmer and his wife had taken refuge there, and when they saw The Last coming towards them they shrieked and rushed towards me. The Last grabbed a blanket covered in blood and a bucket full of water. It was only now that I saw the dead body of a man in leather armour lying dead on the ground. This was his camp, that was why the darkspawn had so many things. I stumbled after The Last, intending to kill it once and for all. Before I could, the darkspawn tossed the water over the fire, momentarily putting it out. But before the liquid could re-ignite The Last tossed the blanket over it, the wet blood stifling any flame.
"Velanna!" I called out. Sure enough, the mage sent a spike of ice spiraling towards The Last. The shard tore through what was left of the darkspawn's wounded arm and sheared it from the main body entirely. The Last screamed an ungodly sound and broke into a sprint. I followed suit, grimacing in pain. We easily stripped past the soldiers and onto the road The Last had been attacking. I knew I had to kill him now, but I was quickly running out of energy and losing blood from my wounds.
"No . . ." I croaked as I fell to my knees. I hadn't noticed, but my crushed arm was also bleeding far heavier than I had realized. I watched The Last stop on the road and look back at me. He was only three meters away, but that might as well have been an entire league. The darkspawn opened it's mouth to laugh . . .
And immediately started choking on blood as a long, thin blade stabbed through it's neck. The Last scraped at it's throat for few futile moments, then slid to the ground in a heap. Standing over it was a very familiar sight. An elf with long blond hair, deep brown hair and brown facial tattoos. The signature leather armour with white symbols stood out on the dark night.
"Now now now, my friend." Zevran Arainai chuckled as he strutted towards me. "What would the Archdemon say if he knew the man who killed him could not even outrun a fatally wounded hurlock."
"Shut up Zev." I chuckled as he helped me to my feet. My Wardens had finally caught up.
"We left the soldiers to clean the mess. We brought Dorin." Sigrunn said breathlessly. Dorin was another Warden, a mage being trained in the art of healing by Anders.
"Good." I grunted, letting the boy focus on my arm. "We have a lot to discuss."