Chapter 7 - Joining Forces
"The vaults of the Chantry museum," Fiona repeated, a stunned expression on her face. "But how are we ever going... We might need Sebastian's help to get in. If he can be persuaded to take part in this."
Shepard realized he was trembling with excitement. "He has to help us. Ash, he seems to like you. Maybe you can convince him to help?"
"What do you expect me to do, Shepard? Use my feminine wiles on him? I'm not an Asari dancer." Ashley sounded frosty.
"That's not what I meant. But honestly, Ashley?" He was beginning to lose patience. "If that's what it takes, then yes, I expect you to do all you can. This is more important than your pride."
Ashley's face turned red as she opened her mouth to answer, but Fiona cut her off with a gesture. "Now please, let's not get too worked up." She put a calming hand on Shepard's sleeve. "I'm sure Sebastian will see reason. And if he doesn't, we will find another solution. But what in Andraste's name do you mean by conjurer's blood? If you are suggesting-"
"Should be easy enough to procure," Fenris growled, throwing a sidelong glance at Anders.
"Ah, no, I think I can help you there, messere." To everyone's surprise, Bodahn came to the fore, wiping his hands on his apron. "It's not actually blood, you see. That's just dwarven miners' slang for lyrium in viscous form, found in some sections of the Deep Roads. Practically impossible to mine unless you know the secret, but they say its power is easier to access. The Tevinter magisters used to pay a high price for it."
"Bodahn!" Fiona threw her arms around the old dwarf, hugging him tight. "You are the best! And where can we find it?"
"There are a number of places." Bodahn blushed furiously. "I can mark them on your map, and Ser Varric can easily put together a small expedition. But you'll need someone who can actually recognize it. Why don't you take my boy with you? He'll find it for you and help you extract it."
"Sandal?" Fiona smiled, obviously touched by Bodahn's eagerness. "Would you entrust his safety to me, Bodahn?"
"To you, messere? Always." The old dwarf looked at her fondly, and Shepard felt his chest tighten. What does she do to inspire such loyalty?
"This conjurer's blood, it's not... dangerous, is it?" Fiona sounded worried. "This whole thing reminds me a bit of the idol we found, you know, when we went to the Deep Roads with Bartrand."
"Nothing of that kind." Bodahn's tone was almost fatherly. "You just need to know how to handle it. Not something we usually tell surfacers about, but Sandal will know what to do."
"Thank you, Bodahn." Fiona shook his hand, her face earnest and sincere. "I'll try and be worthy of your trust."
"Be that as it may, it will be a while until we've got all the stuff we need." Ashley's strident tones took them back to the present. "And once the portal is set up, we need to make sure we won't end up killed the moment we return. Remember that thresher maw, Shepard?"
He nodded. "True. It won't do us any good just to go back there if we can't reach higher ground in time."
Anders' eyes narrowed. "You'll have to tell me more about this. Let's talk later. There may be a way."
Another week passed, with all of them busy with their various tasks. Fiona collected information about the Chantry museum, while Varric assembled what they needed for their trip to the Deep Roads. Shepard and his companions got more restless with each passing day, though. The situation was beginning to wear them down. Not knowing what was happening back home, unable to speed things up, they were caught in a limbo.
Fiona did her best to keep them busy. "Shepard? Care to come to the market with me? I've got a number of things I need to buy, magical supplies and the like. And I need to speak to Hubert."
For a moment, it seemed as if he wanted to snap at her, but then he relented. "Sure. Why not? Who's Hubert?"
She sighed. "My associate. It's complicated."
On the way to Hubert's stall, she tried to explain about her share in the Bone Pit, and how she had come to own it. Shepard listened patiently, even though he seemed a bit absent-minded. He did become slightly more attentive when she mentioned the dragons she had fought at the mine, though.
"Dragons? Really?" He seemed almost amused. "You're sure they weren't just mutated lizards of some kind?"
Fiona frowned. "I don't know what you mean. They were definitely dragons, though fortunately rather small ones. Most of them. The last one we fought was almost fully grown." She shuddered.
They had reached Hubert's stall, and she mentally braced herself for her conversation with her fellow mine owner. As usual, Hubert was concerned mostly with his profits, but what he told her had her really worried. A whole caravan destroyed, no survivors...
She sighed. "I will go out and have a look, Hubert. This doesn't sound good."
Shepard glanced at her sideways as they were making their way back to the house. "Do you want to leave straight away?"
"I might as well. There's nothing we can do about your problems right now, and this shouldn't take too long. I can probably be back in a few days." Fiona's mouth set in a firm line. "I'll ask around who is up for a trip to the Bone Pit."
Most of her friends turned out to be less than enthusiastic about the idea of travelling to the mine.
Isabela flat-out refused to go. "Honestly, Hawke, you should have gotten rid of the place years ago. If there ever was a cursed place, it's that blighted old hellhole. I'm not setting foot in it again. By the way, did I ever mention there's a brothel in Antiva City called The Bone Pit? Entirely different place, of course."
Varric and Merrill both claimed to be too busy with the preparations for their trip to the Deep Roads, and Aveline was completely caught up in guard duties. In the end Fiona asked Fenris, though she knew he detested the place. He, for one, didn't need to be convinced that there was a curse attached to it, with so many slaves having died a horrible death there. She knew he would tag along for her sake, though. Sebastian agreed to come when he heard Fenris would be there, and of course Anders couldn't let the other two men get the better of him.
They were all set to leave on the next morning, but to Fiona's surprise, Shepard stopped her when she set off for her room to have an early night.
"Fiona. Would it be alright with you if we joined you?"
"We?" She tried to hide her surprise.
"Vega, Ashley, and me. We might be able to help you. And we will probably go mad if we just stay here and wait for another week."
Fiona closed her eyes for a moment, trying to collect her thoughts. Her first impulse was to say no. She and her companions were a well-established team, for all the differences between them. Taking others along would only complicate things.
On the other hand, what Hubert had described sounded bad. They might well end up being grateful for another fighter or two. Isabela had been full of praise for James' melee abilities. Shepard had his biotics, and Ashley had been practising faithfully with her bow.
The memory of how all three of them had come through during the smugglers' attack on their way back from the coast decided her. "Sure. If you can be ready at dawn tomorrow."
"We will be." Shepard's face was determined. "You can rely on us."
When they set out early next morning, Fiona inspected her new companions with a fond smile. Shepard looked good in his Warden armour, and Ashley carried her bow with confidence. James was wearing huge red shoulder guards that looked oddly familiar.
"James?" Her brow furrowed in an effort to recall where she'd seen them before. "What are you wearing?"
He grinned happily. "Aren't they neat? I got them from Boots. Said she nicked them from that giant you killed."
"The Arishok?" Fiona bit back a laugh.
On the way out to the pit, Sebastian, Anders and Fenris took point, with James and Shepard right behind him, and Fiona and Anders bringing up the rear. Her friend seemed more melancholy than usual, and when she raised a questioning eyebrow, he shrugged, a crooked little smile on his face.
"I miss Steve. Can't wait to be back." His voice carried so much warmth at the mentioning of the name that Fiona smiled to herself.
It was good to see Anders like this. Much better than his unhealthy preoccupation with mages' rights and Templar wrongdoings, righteous as his cause might be. She hadn't seen any trace of Justice in the past few weeks, and she briefly wondered if the spirit was biding his time, waiting for Steve to leave before he renewed his hold on Anders.
When they made camp for the night in a little clearing out in the forest, Shepard and James immediately engaged in a friendly bragging contest about who could put up the tents faster. Watching them was heart-warming, Fiona thought. The young lieutenant was obviously full of respect for his commanding officer, despite his occasional attempts at calling him out. At the same time, there was no mistaking Shepard's protectiveness toward the younger man. He is a natural leader, no doubt about it.
They soon had a fire going and settled down for the evening, sharing hot tea and dried beef and biscuits.
Ashley was seated between Sebastian and Fenris. The two of them seemed to have a curious relationship. They clearly enjoyed each other's company, yet the elf was fiercely critical of Sebastian's religious convictions.
"I don't know how you can just overlook the obvious, Sebastian. Terrible things do happen all the time. The guilty prosper. Innocents die. If there really is a Maker, why does he allow it?" Fenris' deep, sonorous voice carried a scathing undertone.
Sebastian sighed. "What we see is only a piece of the puzzle. Only the Maker can see the greater picture." He gestured expansively. "There is always a greater purpose."
Fenris shrugged. "Then it is singularly well hidden. It doesn't feel like the Maker cares about anything we do. No matter what you say, I still haven't seen any evidence that he even exists."
Ashley shook her head, quoting softly to herself. "The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills and the plains. Are not these, O Soul, the Vision of Him who reigns?"
Sebastian turned to her with an eager expression. "That is beautiful. Is it from your world?" When she nodded, he took her hand, giving it a brief squeeze. "It's good to know I'm not the only one who believes in a higher power."
Ashley tilted her head back to indicate the stars. "How can you look out at the sky and not believe in something?"
Ignoring Fenris' contemptuous snort, they shared a brief smile.
They crawled out of their tents early the next morning. Shepard winced when he felt the effects of spending the night on the ground, with nothing more than a thin bedroll between him and an untold number of pebbles and small twigs. It had taken him hours to fall asleep. Ashley looked just as worn out as he did. Only Vega seemed unaffected.
In just a few hours, they reached the area near the Bone Pit. Shepard had never seen a place that was such a weird mixture of stunning and desolate. The view was gorgeous, mountains and clouds and untamed forests, but at the same time the landscape was bleak and cold and unforgiving, and the atmosphere oddly ominous.
When they got closer to the mine, the smell was the first thing that hit them. Burnt flesh, death and decay. The miners' camp was covered in ashes, horribly mutilated bodies scattered everywhere. It didn't take them long to ascertain that there were no survivors.
Fiona's mouth was set in a hard line as she took them along a path down the mountainside, following the trail of devastation. Two huge pillars flanked the path in front of them where it led into a large open space. They were about to descend when a flapping noise made them look up.
"Maker help us." Fiona had turned white as a sheet. "It's a High Dragon."
The lines Ashley quotes are an excerpt from "The Higher Pantheism" by Alfred Tennyson.
Big hugs and thanks to zevgirl for her help!
