Chapter 7: Amgeform

The fighting intensified the deeper they struck into the Carta base.

Hawke and his companions met the dwarves with all their strength and fury. Steel and magic collided with poison and iron. They had yet to encounter a single Carta member willing to tell them why they were doing this. The dwarves simply through themselves at their weapons, the fanatical gleam in their eyes was unsettling.

These dwarves were no longer the Carta that Hawke knew, they were fanatics, and lost to a cause they could not resist, or understand.

He showed them the same amount of pity they would have shown him, none.

Along the way they discovered several messages left by the dwarves who had once manned this place, back before the Carta moved in, apparently the dwarves had once kept soldiers here, men left behind to deal with something they called Amgeform, or Malvernis, the Pestilent one. Apparently they chose one to guard something that had been bound into a…'orb' of some kind, that guard remained here until his death.

Hawke shivered, how many warriors had died here? How long had the dwarves tried to hide this place before the Carta finally took it over?

There was likely no answer.

As for this Malvernis, the writings they discovered suggested that it threatened the very stone that the dwarves worshipped, that it was a taint that poisoned the bodies and minds of whoever came close to it. Carver and his warden companions looked grimly upon those words, words that came so very close to describing the darkspawn taint.

Garrett looked at Carver; he hoped that his brother's time with the wardens would offer some kind of explanation for all of this.

"I'm sorry," Carver had replied, "Some things we must keep for ourselves, it is nothing against you brother, but the wardens do have secrets that must remain secrets."

Both Lin and Arika had nodded at this, had Anders been here, he likely would have agreed as well.

It annoyed Garrett that they did not trust him, but he expected it, given what Anders had told him over the years about the order as a whole.

There were things that Carver could not share with his brother, secrets that the wardens had to hold for the greater good, as well as his duty to the order.

It saddened Garrett that there was a part of his brother's life that he could no longer share, but he respected him too much to pry. Carver was his own man now; he simply had to accept this.

So they pushed on, deeper into the Carta base, Garrett could not help but wonder what this Malvernis was, and if it had anything to do with the attacks on his family.

As they fought the various Carta assassins, thugs, and the occasion maddened bronto, the warden in the group noticed something new, something that they had not heard before.

Beneath the taint that they heard in their blood, there was something else now.

It…it sounded like drumming, similar to what the dwarves had described hearing from this Amgeform thing.

They did their best to ignore it; they pushed on, intent on dealing with this threat.

None of them were close to the end of their lives after all.

A bit of drumming would not hurt any of them.

IOI

The maddened bronto charged, it snorted angrily, pawing at the ground.

Fenris did not move.

The elf had killed several of these things already, they were stupid, charging blindly and not even bothering to try and avoid his blade.

He would sidestep at the last moment and cut deep into the creature's neck, just as he had done with the other two.

The rest of the party were tied up dealing with the Carta, in this, he stood alone.

He waited; his hands gripped his great sword ready to make his move.

He took a step back…

And slipped.

The bronto had time to adjust its charge; Fenris's blade was out of position!

The creature would run him down!

He tried to bring up his sword but it was no use, the creature intended to impale him in its horn.

He did not flinch as his end came.

Then…it happened…

Something struck the bronto in the head, it yelped, its powerful front legs went out from under it. Its head skidded into the ground, the body continued to slide forward under its forward momentum.

It came to rest right at the Tevinter elf's feet.

He looked down, unsure of what had happened.

The bronto was dead, killed by a single arrow, fired into its eye.

An arrow that had been painted black, one of hers, the warden elf, Lin had saved his life.

He looked at her; she had not paused, after she had slain the bronto she turned to aiding the others, her arrows bringing death to any Carta dwarf foolish enough to get in range of them.

A hint of a smile played across Fenris's lips.

She was a most impressive woman.

There had been a time that Danarius, his old master, had tried to buy his loyalty with a woman, offering him his pick of the house slaves, some had been quite beautiful, and likely would have accepted his advances without complaint; some might even have enjoyed it.

For their sake, he had never accepted that offer.

Even before he realized that he wanted to be free he understood that if he took a woman, she would be used as a chain by his old master. Danarius would have used her to insure his loyalty, and if his little wolf had displeased him, the girl would have suffered.

Even back then, he had no desire to see anyone suffer at Danarius's hands.

He had no desire to see anyone suffer as he had.

So, he had remained on his own, alone, for almost six years now. He still carried that old fear inside him, what his old master would do to someone he came to care for.

He never wanted to feel helpless; he never wanted to watch as an innocent girl suffered because she had come to care for him.

Lin…would likely have been different.

Hawke had suggested that she was interested in him; would even Danarius be so arrogant to harm a grey warden? His former master was very proud, but would he be that stupid?

Fenris could not be sure.

Did he have the right to bring his problems into some woman's life? No, he did not. As long as Danarius still drew breath he would never be safe. He would never be able to have a life as long as he had a wolf at his back.

It would be best if he put all thoughts of the beautiful warden out of his head.

Besides, they had much more important things to deal with here, namely the Carta.

Now was not a time to think of new beginnings, only of endings.

Ending these dwarves was all that mattered.

Fenris leapt back into the fray, his sword flashed, decapitating a carta archer.

For him, and the rest of his sick cartel, the end had come.

IOI

Garrett froze the carta assassin solid; he shattered the killer with a single swipe of his staff.

The apostate shook his head, killing these dwarves was starting to grow tedious, and they were no closer to finding out why they had come after him.

It was frustrating.

Isabela bounded up beside him, he could not help but smile at her. The pirate queen was in her element, her cheeks flushed with excitement, her blades stained with blood. She enjoyed fighting almost as she did sex. As a duelist, she enjoyed facing skilled opponents.

"How are we doing handsome," she purred in that sultry voice of hers.

"Still no sign of the rodent in charge," he replied gruffly.

"No worries," she responded, "sooner or later we will find the boss, he went to a lot of trouble to draw us here, I can't imagine that he would not put in an appearance."

Hawke nodded, what she said made sense.

A carta thug charged him, the dwarf howled in rage, Hawke blocked his sword with his staff, he spun it defensively, as the dwarf tried to attack him, he let the criminal exhaust himself trying to break through his defense.

When the dwarf made a mistake, Garrett was there to catch him, he cracked the thug in the head with the crystal ball atop his staff, and as his enemy staggered back he drove the bladed end into the dwarf's chest, he died with barely a sound.

Garrett whirled ready to meet the next threat.

Isabela grinned hungrily at him, seeing him move…it left her breathless.

He is so fast…sweet Maker…how is he so fast?

Her body warmed, she felt her stomach flutter, warmth that spread low in her gut…and went lower.

Hawke…her strong, handsome Hawke.

Garrett met her gaze with a questioning look.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

""Not a thing handsome," she said in a husky voice, "you know it is a shame, if we weren't in mortal danger right now, I would want you to take me, right here, right now."

Garrett gave her an odd look.

Was she serious?

Knowing her, she probably was.

He burst out laughing.

"Maker Isabela," he chuckled, "The fact that I'm considering that shows how far I've fallen since I've met you, not that I'm complaining. We…we are definitely going to have to go somewhere quiet when all this is done."

The pirate queen smiled lecherously.

"I would not have it any other way sweet thing," she replied.

Garrett grinned, feeling tightness in his trousers.

He…he really must have been losing his mind!

Either that or he actually was starting to fall in love with this woman.

Either thing could be bad.

IOI

They finally managed to find a Carta dwarf willing to speak with them, not that what he told them gave them any answers, only more questions.

It was a carta lieutenant, or at least he had been before, he had…done whatever he had done to himself.

The dwarf's eyes were milky white, black weeping sores were visible on his face and hands.

Carver shivered, he recognized the signs of the blight, a year and a half ago, he had had them himself.

"This one is mine brother," he said coldly, preparing to engage the tainted fool.

The dwarf grinned.

"You are here, both brothers, the master will be so pleased!" the dwarf smirked, not even realizing the danger he was in, "Rejoice my brothers, the sons of Malcolm Hawke have come!"

Hearing their Father's name gave Carver pause.

Father? What did Father have to do with this?

"What did you say about my Father?" Garrett demanded.

The thug smirked.

"Blood of his blood, what the Father bound in his blood, the blood of his children will unbind. We will see the Master free. He will walk in the sun again!"

The dwarf lunged at Carver.

"Praise Corypheus!" he shouted.

Arika's blade met him half way; she sliced the dwarf nearly in half.

The reaver glared down at him.

"No one touches Carver but me fool," she growled.

"Thanks Arika," he said smiling.

"Anytime beloved," She responded.

Carver turned to his brother.

"Do you know anything about this Rett? Did Mother ever say anything about Father angering the Carta?"

Hawke shook his head.

"Not that I remember Carv," he replied, "But then again, Father did not like talking about the past. It is possible."

"What about you Varric?" Carver said turning to the dwarf, "Ever heard of the Carta waiting this long to take revenge on someone?"

Varric shook his head, "The Carta has never been that patient junior, if they wanted your old man, they would have come for him years ago. Plus, where is the profit in all this, as I said before…"

This does not make sense," Hawke said finishing his sentence.

Varric nodded.

"Did you hear what he said?" Merrill asked, "He said they needed your blood."

"You would know about blood, wouldn't you witch?" Fenris snarled at the Dalish.

She did her best to ignore him.

"Last time I checked dwarves still could not do magic, blood or otherwise," Garrett said thinking, "And…Corypheus, that is who that thug said he served, that name is not dwarven?"

"It is Tevinter Hawke," Fenris informed him.

Why would a Tevinter want with their blood, and what did this have to do with Father?

Garrett sighed that was all they needed, a blood mage pissed at them.

"This Corypheus might be a demon Hawke," Lin suggested, "Maybe these dwarves worship him."

"That does not explain the taint Lin," Arika added.

"No," the archer agreed, "but at least we have a name now."

Garrett agreed with the elf on that, now they knew who had sent the Carta, and who they had to kill to make them stop.

"Still no sign of the dwarf in charge Hawke," Varric shrugged, "I would have known him if he had come out to fight us."

"This dwarf has a name?" Arika asked.

"Rhatigan," Varric said, "He used to be big in merchant's guild, before he disappeared out here. He might know more about this Corypheus, and why the Carta is so thirsty for your blood now Hawke."

"So we keep moving forward," Carver grumbled, "wonderful."

"We have no choice Carv," Garrett reminded him.

"I know Rett," he sighed "It…it is just…why would these dwarves care about Father's blood, he was no blood mage?"

Garrett did not know, he…Father had hated blood magic, he had always promised that he would tan their hides if he caught either Garrett or Bethany playing around with it.

Father would never have practiced blood magic…

Would he?

He supposed he would have to ask this Rhatigan when they found him.

Maybe he could even tell them where this Corypheus was.

Then…it would be time for some payback.