Chapter 3
They had fought their way valiantly through the courtyard, killing all darkspawn that appeared in their way. They entered the massive gates leading into the keep. Walking into an expansive hallway of the Keep they were greeted with the sight of complete and utter destruction. Despite all of her experience fighting the blight and with the things that she has seen over the past year, Ava was still shocked to see such a sight.
'Oh dear Maker, how did the Wardens not sense this coming?' Mhiari questioned, clearly confused by the situation.
'I don't know, Mhiari.' Ava whispered quietly. 'Do you know how many wardens were here?' Ava couldn't understand it either, the Wardens should have sensed the darkspawn coming.
'I'm not sure, maybe a dozen, but they did bring a contingent of soldiers with them. How were the wardens so easily overwhelmed, how did the darkspawn get in?' Mhiari asked, panicked.
Ava tried to clear her head of troubling thoughts, but, she too was full of questions. However she needed to be realistic, she knew worrying about the situation wasn't going to help. 'I'm not sure, but now is not the time to worry, we will find out, but more importantly, we will defeat the evil bastards.' Ava said trying to reassure Mhiari. Ava was determined she was not going to let the creatures take the vigil, she would die trying if she had to.
Mhiari gave the Commander a small smile, before they were treated to a group of shrieks coming their way. Unsheathing her weapons again, she laid into the shrieks with as much as she could give. Fuelled by the anger that, even though she did not know the people of the keep, they were her brothers and sisters at arms and once again, something has been taken out of her life. After defeating the shrieks they climbed the stairs to their right and entered a small room.
Running into the room, Ava and Mhiari stopped in their tracks at the sight of a mage blasting darkspawn with fire before the creature screeched and fell to the floor. The mage, shaking his hands turned round to look at the two and then turned back round to the devastation in the room. Realising how bad it must have looked to Ava and Mhiari he spoke.
'Errrr...I didn't do it.' he shrugged, hoping that would be enough to explain the bodies in the room.
When neither Ava or Mhiari spoke, he continued.
'I mean, don't get me wrong, you know, I'm not upset they are dead or anything, they make the funniest noises when they die.' he chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand in a nervous gesture.
'So not your favourite group of people, I take it?' Ava said finally finding her voice. She had not expected to find any survivors, let alone anyone that was able to defend themselves.
'Some mages enjoy to be punished by templars, me not so much, but I can introduce you if you're into that kind of thing.' he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, smirking at Ava.
Ava would have liked to mirror his humour, but now was not the time. 'May I ask your name, ser mage?' she asked, folding her arms in front of her chest, leaning all her weight on one hip.
'Yes dear lady, you may call me Anders, circle mage and ...unfortunately a wanted apostate.' Anders said, muttering the last part, clearly ashamed at being branded an apostate, allowing his head to dip and his gaze to drop to the floor.
'An apostate, at vigils keep, how unusual.' Mhiari stated.
Anders, spotting Mhiari, looked over her appreciatively. 'You were not here before, I would definitely remember someone as lovely as yourself.' he said, his voice dropping an octave and giving a suggestive smile.
Ava struggled to keep her temper at bay, she found the older she got the harder it was to control herself. And since the events of the blight, she had got worse. 'What are you doing here?' she snapped out.
'We were on our way back to the circle tower when we stopped here for a rest, and now they are dead, such a shame really.' Anders said, and even though his words were remorseful he did not even attempt to hide his contempt.
'Whilst I would love nothing but to chat all day long, I have better things to be doing with my time.' Ava said, losing patience with the mage. She had learnt the hard way how precious time could be in certain situations and she simply did not have time to waste on idle chatter.
'I like the way you think. Tell you what, why don't I help you take these bastards down and then we talk about what happens later...later.' he said, throwing off another of his winning smiles, hoping that this would help his case.
Ava needed to make a decision. She knew the situation with the templars looked dire. But she liked to think she was a practical woman and after seeing the mage in action decided he would be more of a help than a hindrance. 'I think that sounds like a fine plan, and we could use all the help we can get.' she said returning Anders smile.
Ava had been so pleased to see Oghren. She couldn't believe it when she clasped eyes on the sodding dwarf. She had been rooted to the spot with surprise as she watched Oghren's battle axe move in large arcs above his head, slicing darkspawn in two. And then he'd waved at her, which was so like Oghren to do in the middle of battle, and she let out a hearty laugh. When she finally came to her senses, she helped her companions kill the remaining darkspawn.
'Haha, Warden, there yer are, I've been waiting fer ya. When the darkspawn showed up, I thought, just ya wait until the commander gets here, you'll be wearing your insides on the outside when she finds you. And sure enough, follow the trail of dead darkspawn and I find you at the end.' Oghren said, laughing.
'Oghren!' she cried running to him, not caring what the others thought and embracing him in a hug.
After a brief embrace, he brushed her off and said 'Don't want it getting round that I've gotten soft, although it is nice to see that you have finally come to your senses and want a piece of ol' Oghren, hehe.'
Against all odds, Ava and Oghren had become firm friends. Oghren had been the last to join the group that defeated the blight, At first he was closed off and isolated off from the rest of them, with the rest of the group only seeing Oghren as a drunken lout. But Ava knew that Oghren had also suffered loss which was why he turned to drinking, as a way to cover up his pain. Ava would spend time in camp, talking with Oghren, but it was after Ava helped him to find an old flame that the two became close. On the night before the final march to Denerim, Oghren had told Ava that he had to come to see her as family, and Ava told him she felt the same.
'I've missed you Oghren.' she said with genuine affection. Ava had always struggled to hide her emotions and had therefore given up even trying anymore. It felt good to see someone that she knew.
'Aye Warden.' he said, looking misty eyed. 'I thought I would come to the Vigil and try out this Grey Warden business.' Ava was confused. She knew that Oghren was a general in the Queen's army. She had no idea why he would want to be a Grey Warden, she would need to question him further.
'You two know each other?' Mhiari asked clearly shocked at the familiarity between the commander and the dwarf.
'Well, if it's not the Warden with the great rack.' Oghren said, gesturing with his hands on his chest.
'Yes, a prize for the wardens to be sure, thank you.' Mhiari said dryly, disgusted with the dwarf's attitude.
'Yer welcome. And who's the mage, boyfriend of yers, should I be jealous?' Oghren chuckled, leaning casually against a pillar, folding his arms and ankles.
'Wow, what a rarity, a dwarf who smells like a brewery.' Anders replied sarcastically.
'Alright sparkle fingers, keep your skirt on.' Oghren said.
'Hey, it's not a skirt, it's a robe, all mages wear them.' Anders said defensively, looking at his attire, patting it down to make sure there was nothing wrong with it.
'Suuuureeee, you just keep telling yourself that sweetheart.' Oghren grinned, clearly enjoying antagonising the mage.
Suppressing the urge to laugh at the pair, Ava thought she should put an end to the banter and finally said 'Oghren, you do realise there are risks to the joining?' letting her voice take on a serious tone to let Orghren know joining the wardens was not a matter to be taken lightly.
Oghren stopped leaning on the pillar and stood up, straightening his back. He seemed slightly offended that Ava thought that he didn't know how important this was. 'Bah, what's life without a little risk in it, you know me Warden, I piss on risk.' Oghren said.
'Lovely, I'm sure risk really appreciates that.' Anders retorted.
But Oghren didn't rise to the bait, he knew the commander well enough to know she would soon lose her temper. 'Shall we be on our way, I'm itching to introduce the darkspawn to my axe.'
And with a nod from Ava, the small group were on their way. Even though the situation in the keep was awful, Ava found herself enjoying listening to her companions chatting amongst themselves. She could hear Anders and Oghren bantering with each other, before finally ganging up against Mhiari and making lewd comments to her. Ava allowed herself a private smile at the group. They reached a slim corridor and as they were making their way through it, they saw a body slumped up against a wall.
'Roland!' Mhiari shouted, anguish in her voice and ran off to the side of the solider on the floor, taking his hand.
'Mhiari, is that you?' the soldier asked, pain etched across his face. Ava looked at the man with pity, he didn't look like he would like he would last much longer. She gave Anders a questioning look, but he just shook his head.
'Yes, it's me Roland. What happened to you?' Mhiari asked gently, rubbing his hand in her own, in a soothing manner.
'We were attacked by darkspawn, they came from nowhere. Seneschal Varel ordered the counter attack, but we were soon overwhelmed. The darkspawn who talked took the seneschal up to the top of the vigil.' Roland managed to splutter out, his face grimacing.
'What, a talking darkspawn?' Ava asked in disbelief, thinking the lad to be delirious, already dismissing what he had said to the back of her mind.
' You're the commander.' Roland said, more as a statement than a question.
'Yes Roland.' Ava said.
'It was an honour to meet you commander.' Roland said, pride in his eyes.
'The honour is all mine Roland.' Ava said respectfully, and even though time was short she was not so shallow as to ignore a dying man.
Roland let out an anguished cry 'There is something in my blood.' And with his last words, he slipped away still holding Mhiari's hand.
'I will avenge you my friend, you have my word.' Mhiari said, showing the first kind of real emotion since Ava had met her.
Ava placed a gentle hand on Mhaiari's shoulder. 'His death will be avenged,' she said softly 'but we have to move on.' She knew how important it was to mourn a loved one, but she also knew they had a duty to perform first and foremost.
Mhiari nodded at her Commander and they continued through the vigil. Battling their way through more groups of darkspawn, they finally made it to the top of the keep. As they were about to turn the corner, they heard voices. Ava hesitated and peered round around the wall. Ava spotted a darkspawn like no other she has ever seen. He was slowly approaching a soldier who was backing away from the creature, glancing behind him, acutely aware of the impending drop behind him.
'It is just as he foretold.' the darkspawn said in a rasping voice and with that, he kicked his foot into the soldier before him and pushed him over the edge of the battlement onto the sharp spikes below.
Ava could not comprehend what she had just heard, Roland hadn't been confused after all. The darkspawn truly was talking, she realised with a sense of dread. Darkspawn do not talk! she thought, fear taking hold of her heart.
'Be taking this one gently, we are wishing no more death than is necessary.' he said to a darkspawn holding a dagger to the neck of the man kneeling on the floor, who Ava could only assume was Varel.
'Necessary? As if your kind has ever done anything else.' Varel ground out bitterly, sweat beading on his forehead.
'You are thinking you know of our kind human? It is understandable. But that will soon be changed.' the darkspawn rasped out.
'Others will come creature, they will stop you.' Varel warned, but Ava could almost smell the fear in the older man.
Unable to watch anymore, Ava led the group on to the battlements to make her presence known to the talking darkspawn, who turned to face Ava. 'It seems your words are true, more than you are guessing.'
Anders stating the obvious said 'It is talking.'
'Well, let's shut it up already.' Oghren growled out, already brandishing his axe in his hands.
'Commander!' Varel said with relief.
'Capture the Grey Warden. These others, they may be killed.' the creature said smiling in an eerie manner that chilled Ava to the bone. She decided that she did not like the sound of the last part. Drawing her weapons, she made for the creature. After a short but tiring battle, the talking darkspawn was dispatched with. Ava still in a state of shock finally paid attention to Varel, who was still kneeling on the floor.
'Varel?' she asked 'Are you okay?'
' I have been better commander, but thank you for saving my life. I would have been dragged off by now if it hadn't have been for your timely arrival.' Varel said with gratitude.
Frowning, Ava wanted to question Varel further, but was cut short by the approaching sound of soldiers marching. Looking out into the distance, she spotted the royal banner followed by the queen and her royal entourage. Fantastic, Ava thought, just to top off an amazing day, Anora is here.