"Are you okay?" Anders asked softly, using that same calming healer voice Kallian had seen in Wynne.
She nodded automatically. Funny enough, she did feel better. A lot better. Though her stomach was empty, the queasiness was completely gone.
An underground ancient dwarven city wasn't the ideal place for throwing up but sure, her body felt like going insane, may as well with talking darkspawn on the rise. Still sounded weird thinking about it: talking darkspawn. It was time to get back to business.
"Camp here for now, then we can head into the city tomorrow. Or later. Not like we know what time it is down here," Kallian pulled herself off the ground.
"Actually, it is getting late, camp sounds good. Also we need to find another way in," Sigrun motioned at the large stone door.
"Let me guess," Kallian groaned, "locked from the other side, broken door mechanism or whatever?"
"No, actually just loads of darkspawn on the other side and probably a good number of traps that the other Legion of the Dead members didn't already set off. We could try that way, but there's always secret side entrances. Up to you, Commander."
Kallian smirked. "Isn't it always?" She murmured to herself.
"It sounds like Sigrun's idea to find the hidden entrance would work best. If they took out an entire squadron of the Legion of the Dead, let's just say I'd rather not test your bravery with my own life, Commander," Nathaniel had to put in his rather smarmy opinion.
"I'm not about to storm the gate, Nate," Kallian spoke his name in the embodiment of an audible eye roll. "We'll camp here, and look around once we wake up."
Without needing to shield themselves from the elements, camp was a pretty simple process of clearing away rubble and slapping down their bedrolls. Fire came quick with Anders to help and Kallian once again found herself thankful for, and envious of, the mage. If only she could call fire to her hands - now that would kill some fucking darkspawn.
She stared into the fire, going over plans and preparations, trying to stop herself imagining worst-case scenarios while the others chattered on. She took a deep breath, not particularly anxious to fall asleep and open herself up to the darkspawn dreams. Maybe since they were still relatively close to the surface they wouldn't yet be too awful.
Kallian tuned into Nathaniel's conversation. "Where did you train, Sigrun? You are remarkably good with a blade. I'm sure a valued member of the Legion of the Dead."
Sigrun laughed leaving Nathaniel with a trace of confusion in his eyes. "If you call fighting for scraps of food training then I've had the best. Life is the hardest bitch there is!"
Snorting, Kallian echoed a, "Here, here!" as the nobles did, albeit in a mocking tone.
"Sorry, I had no idea," Nathaniel was taken aback.
"Nobles-" Kallian and Sigrun laughed meeting each other's' eyes as they spoke at the same time.
"I'll take first watch then, eh Warden?" Oghren nodded over at her.
Now used to Oghren's near constant drinking, Kallian had found him to be perfectly capable when they were in the Deep Roads, and once his darkspawn sense kicked into full power, he would be formidable.
"Wake me up for second then," Kallian agreed, taking the middle watch since she knew she wouldn't sleep well anyway.
This turned out to be entirely too true and she tossed and turned. It was like she was back in the Blight when the dreams first started hitting her with force. Alistair was often awake too, and they would pass the time with a card game or two, sometimes just telling little anecdotes of their lives. She missed him, but she missed the soothing feel of skin on skin in the comfort Zevran provided. She missed touch.
At some point sleep must have come because then Oghren was shaking her awake and he was trotting off to his own bedroll. She sat up, instantly alert, and quickly strapped on her armour, holding a blade in her lap. The air was still, and Kallian was left with yet another reminder of why she hated being underground: everything was stagnant.
With the tingling sense of darkspawn only faintly tugging at her, Kallian allowed herself to once more lose herself in thoughts, knowing she would sense if danger was near. She spared a glance at the large door, knowing behind that barrier a horde lay somewhere in wait.
Idle fingers twisted at her golden hooped earring, a silent prayer that Zevran was still be safe - as best he could in his situation. The ache was still fresh on his sudden departure after only barely reconciling when they both tried to regain their balance in the wake of the ended Blight. She wouldn't lose him now.
Best for her to focus on killing darkspawn. As if sparked by her own thoughts, an intense buzzing began at the back of her head and she stood, hands gripping her blades. A moment of tension but the unsettling sensation faded when the source moved away.
Her watch continued in much the same way, wary with every spike in tingling awareness, until the buzzing dimmed down to the background once more. She knew the more time that passed, as each of her Grey Wardens came into their senses, the darkspawn in turn would sense them too and they wouldn't be able to camp so peacefully the further in they moved.
Sigrun stirred first, the rest of the party slowly rousing in turn - she had stayed up through third watch, unknowing, when she hadn't felt the need for sleep that would normally tell her to switch. A breakfast of strips of meat sizzled over their fire, and Kallian savoured the taste. Once their perishables were used up it would be dried meats and bland porridges.
She stood, dousing the fire and wrapping up her bedroll to strap her gear to her back. "Start skimming the walls for a hidden switch or something. We don't want to go through that main hall unless we have to. I don't fancy being darkspawn food after we've all just become such good friends," Kallian flashed an innocent smile to their grumpy archer.
It was unsurprisingly Sigrun who located the pressure plate nestled into elaborate stone carvings. A door slid open with a grinding screech of stone on stone, clouds of dust billowing around them making everyone blink and shield their eyes.
"Excellent! Now we just get to stumble around through caves until we find our way to the horde and kill them all!" Anders said in a falsely cheerful voice.
And stumble they did.
Several turns lead to blocked passageways, there were stretches of unbearably hot roads with lava bubbling on either side of them, and whether from heat or stress, Kallian began to feel lightheaded.
Sweat was beading across her forehead and a glance behind her showed Nate swiping across his brow Anders becoming more sullen, looking down at his feet as they walked.
As their path began to widen, Kallian drew her weapons. "There's darkspawn up ahead." She dropped her pack, the others following suit.
"Really eerie how you can do that, you know?" Anders pulled his staff from his back, his face brightening as the tunnel opened up.
"Just wait til you all start feeling it," said Kallian, arching her neck and rolling her shoulders in habit of trying to shake of the tingling up and down her spine.
The first of the darkspawn sensed the senior warden of the group and turned around, echoing a cry of warning to rouse the horde into battle. An arrow flew past her ear and embedded itself into the wall behind her and Kallian ducked and rolled for cover behind a rock.
Anders and Nate ran in and worked in tandem to take down the archers while Kallian and Sigrun sprinted from their cover to bring down enemies now bent on taking down the men. An arrow pierced through her blue gambeson but the thick leather she had covering her chest stopped it from reaching skin. Kallian yanked it out of the material, tossing it to the side as she stabbed into the eyeball of a genlock running at her. She pulled back, blood pouring out of the ruined eye socket.
A strangled groan sounded. "Uh, I need healing!" Sigrun yelled, much farther away from them than she had just been a second before.
Sigrun was down on her knee, blood seeping from between her fingers clapped over the back of her thigh. Oghren was swinging his axe, the only thing keeping Sigrun from being finished off.
"Anders can you get to her?" Kallian yelled over the blood pounding in her ears.
"I can try!" He yelled, letting out a series of blasts from his staff as he ran.
More darkspawn poured into the tunnel, the noise of battle calling their attention. Her chest tightened and she swallowed to keep the growing panic down. This was her job. She was good at killing things, so go fucking kill them! With a snarl, she leapt at the hurlock, sliding between its wide stance to hamstring it and sink a blade into its spine.
A flurry of magical energy released upon them and Kallian fell backwards, about to berate Anders for his carelessness when she realized with a pit in her stomach - the magic wasn't from Anders.
"Nate, we need to get that emissary and we need to do it fast," Kallian urged.
"I'll take care of it," he answered without looking at her, already lining up his shot.
Ducking away from him, Kallian sliced through another pair of genlocks looking to bring them both down, giving her archer time and space to get that headshot. She had no templar assistance now, and Anders was busy trying to heal so she could only hope for Nathaniel's arrow to fly true.
He grunted suddenly and Kallian's stomach dropped in horror seeing the glowing light surrounding him as he gasped and struggled to breath, held in place as the spell began to close around him.
She had moments. Moments to end the emissary's life before the spell ended her warden. Moments to make a split decision as she looked into Nate's eyes clouded with pain and fear, hands twitching with every pulse of light. A snap of bones and blood coughed up at a pained wheeze from him and her decision was made.
Kallian ran, relying on her speed to duck under a wide-swung sword and dance out of the way of a falling darkspawn corpse coated in ice. She yanked a small knife from her belt and threw, landing it in the shoulder of the emissary, shifting its attention to her.
"Anders- Ah!" Kallian lurched, falling as her right leg seized up an arrow deeply embedded in her thigh.
The emissary glided smoothly towards her. Shaking hands hovered over her wound, afraid to touch and make it worse, but needing the grinding metal out. Another knife in her hands, she flung it with a sharp flick of her wrist, panting heavily as she watched it drive into the black mottled forehead, the body of the emissary crumpling to the ground.
Again an arrow struck her, drawing a gash across her upper arm, but pinned as she was, Kallian could only try to drag herself across the floor to try and avoid the onslaught.
She had a single throwing knife left and tried to keep her hand steady to land a hit on her attacker. She grit her teeth, breathing harshly through the pain. It sailed through the air, flying right past the hurlock archer.
"Dammit!" She cursed frantically, scooching backwards up against a rock, grasping at a dead genlock, looking for anything she could use long-range.
The sharp edges of a rock scraped her palm and Kallian laughed weakly, throwing it hard at the darkspawn's ugly face. It was stunned momentarily and Kallian used the time to try to pull herself around behind the stone, groaning as every shift jostled the arrow in her leg, more sticky blood pouring forth.
She couldn't move fast enough and another arrow lanced through her shoulder, the crease of unprotected skin where she needed freedom of movement over thick protection. Her right arm now immobilized, Kallian held her blade in front of her with her left, hand unsteady.
The blood was warm flowing over her and she knew she was losing too much, feeling faint.
A body slammed into her, picking her up and making her screech as the arrows embedded in her limbs shifted and cut into her even further. Yelling echoed across the halls but her head was swimming from pain as she was carried backwards.
Blond hair brushed against her face as she was lowered to the ground.
"Anders," Kallian spoke hoarsely, "Gotta heal Nate."
His mouth was set into a grim line as he looked to her right, where she saw dark hair spilling across a far too pale face. Had she not been fast enough? What the fuck was the point if she couldn't keep her wardens from dying on her?
Anders opened his small satchel and gulped down a glowing blue potion.
"I'll help you in a second, just try not to move, okay?"
He closed his eyes in concentration, and then blue light enveloped him and extended from outstretched hands to Nathaniel's body.
I wasn't too late. The relief was crushing and Kallian allowed her eyes to close as her head sank back against the ground. In the silence she realized the fighting had ceased.
"Always knew you were blighted crazy." Oghren's bloodspattered face swam into her vision.
Nathaniel groaned, hissing between his teeth as the magic flowed through him.
"That should do for now. You'll be tender but the bones have knit back together," Anders murmured.
"And the Commander?" Nathaniel grabbed onto the healers arm.
"I can heal her too. It's going to hurt like a bitch though," Anders winced.
Kallian nodded, she had been hit with arrows before. It was that foreknowledge that made her tremble in anticipation.
"Anyone have a belt?" Anders requested as he pulled back his hair, refastening the band at the nape of his neck. He took the wordlessly offered leather from Nathaniel, turning to Kallian and holding it out for her. "Might be best to bite down on this. I'll get the one in your shoulder first but i'll have to... Er... dig the one out of your leg."
She took the belt between her teeth, nodding that she was ready as she was turned to lean on her left side so the arrow head could be clipped off. A hand braced on her shoulder, Anders pulled the shaft straight out and Kallian's entire body tensed up, sweat beading on her face as she whimpered.
"You're doing great Commander, just have to get the one in the leg." A wash of magic soothed the burn of the hole in her shoulder and then she tensed again as Anders looked down at her thigh.
A finger prodded at the wound entry and Kallian choked back a groan, only to thrash and jerk when that finger slid down alongside the arrowhead, stretching open the torn skin.
"Hold her still," Anders' clipped tones urged the dwarves.
Arms were clasping down on her shoulders and shins and Kallian screamed again when that fucking finger dug further into her flesh. Steel shifted and sliced as Anders pulled at the shaft, slowly maneuvering it through her thigh to pull it out without causing more damage.
She panted, biting down on the thick leather, grunting and screaming once more as he yanked it free at last, blood rapidly pooling in the empty hole left behind. Kallian panted, trembling and soaked in sweat.
Magic infused her once more, bringing arteries back together and sealing skin smooth over top. Kallian unclenched her teeth letting the belt drop and sighed with a whispered thank you. Sigrun and Anders helped her to her feet and she wobbled for a moment, vision tunnelling for a second.
Oghren similarly had helped Nate to his feet, who grimaced but at least stood firm.
Leaning heavily on Anders, Kallian pressed her eyes shut as they moved forwards, trying to will her dizziness away. Her throat tightened and she felt bile rising up.
"Maker, no," she groaned, and fell forwards to her knees, letting loose the contents of her stomach for the second time in two days.
"Hey, whoa there," Anders knelt quickly beside her, helping her to lean back against the cave wall.
"Oghren is," she panted, sweat slicked skin making it hard for her to hold steady against the wall. "Oghren is in charge."
"The drunk?" Nathaniel stormed forward.
Kallian wiped the back of her mouth, vomit still tasting like acid in the back of her throat. "Yes, Oghren. We're in the deep roads, he's a dwarf, he's faced far more darkspawn than the," Kallian slid down the wall, putting her head into her knees. "than the rest of you." she mumbled.
Stomach empty, blood smeared across her legs and shoulder, Kallian felt drained of all energy in a way she hadn't experienced before - not from so few injuries. She had braved far worse during the Blight.
Moments passed as her wardens shifted on their feet uncomfortably. She stood with a hand on the wall and gestured forward. "Lead on, Oghren," she said reluctantly.
"Whatever you need, Commander, Warden, Ser," Oghren saluted and marched on ahead.
"I know I don't do well in dark, cramped places, but seriously are you okay?" Anders held back to speak to her as he helped her along.
Kallian gulped back some water and for the first time a note of fear crept into her voice. "I don't know. We just have to make it out of here."
The task grew more daunting the longer they walked. For miles they only came across deepstalkers which they swiftly killed. After more backtracking and trying a different tunnel, they were once again back into a main road with lava on either side and they were back to sweating, drinking too much water even with every effort to conserve it.
Several more times she lost her breakfast, and her dinner too. Anders even gave her some of his water, as she used more and more to settle her stomach and keep hydrated from her constant sweating. On the fourth day, she simply didn't eat, and though tired, pale and withdrawn, Kallian didn't purge her stomach once. She hung to the back when they fought darkspawn, lashing out when they came near but not chasing them down to strike their backs. In the back of her mind, she wondered how much longer she could hold out this way. The wary looks from Anders beside her told her that he was thinking the same thing.
The fourth night they made camp, Kallian felt she was losing her edge. She hugged her knees to her chest, wishing and praying it would be over soon. Some days she couldn't keep meals down for more than twenty minutes, and her interrupted sleep was draining her stamina, as much as she had, her body seemed to be failing her. Every day they were down there she her fear grew: of being taken by broodmothers, trapped in the darkness, gasping at stale air.
A cry jolted her out of the downward spiral. Nathaniel was sitting up in his bedroll after just falling asleep after his watch not an hour ago.
He looked around with eyes wild, hair mussed before finding Kallian's deep brown, calmly blinking at him.
"Darkspawn. I swear they were… was it a dream? It felt so real, so… they're close aren't they?" He finally surmised, rubbing subconsciously at the back of his neck the way Kallian often did.
"Yeah, and those dreams… it's going to happen a lot down here," she shuddered visibly.
"You haven't slept."
"Of course I've slept," she snapped, the lie obvious as she sat there wide awake.
Nathaniel rested an elbow on his knee. "No, you haven't. Every time I've been on watch you toss and turn. Are your dreams… bad?"
"Dreams, memories, it's all the same. I've had some pretty shit experiences in the Deep Roads so yeah, okay, I'm not coping great." Her face heated, admitting to the weakness she knew he saw in her.
He didn't press for details. "I'm understanding this warden business a bit better now," Nathaniel replied evenly. His piercing eyes met hers, lacking the distrust she was used to. "It was reckless, but if you hadn't taken those hits, I would probably be dead. So, thank you. Commander," he added with a twitch of a smile.
"I never claimed to be the smartest one here," Kallian let the snark creep into her voice. "But sometimes you have to risk it to get the biscuit."
Surprisingly, Nate laughed. "Risk it to get the biscuit?"
Kallian snickered. "Yup. Used to say it to my cousin when we tried to steal cookies from the baker. You didn't die so I'd say it was worth the risk. Pretty painful on my end though. Remind me not to get struck by arrows again."
He smiled. "Remind me to watch your back better. We all need to watch each other's' backs down here."
"That we do."
Whatever sickness had gripped her over the past several days seemed to have passed and the plain oatmeal had settled her stomach quite comfortably. Kallian was back at the front of their group, strengthened with food and bolstered with confidence much to everyone's relief - though Anders still kept a close watch on her, and now with Nathaniel ever vigilant at her side. A mutual understanding was beginning to develop between the rogues and small groups of darkspawn met quick deaths after a hail of arrows and whirl of blades between the two of them. It helped that Anders was still keeping true to his word with rejuvenation spells to boost Kallian's energy. She felt she had a grasp over her panic.
They wandered through the tunnels until they merged back onto the typical wide open Deep Roads. Through another cavern they walked into stone halls and old dusty polished stone floors.
"We made it! This is Kal'Hirol!" Sigrun exclaimed, vibrating with energy. "We should be able to track down the growing horde. Jukka swore that they were breeding in here."
"Breeding?" Anders echoed with a disgusted grimace.
Kallian's stomach plummeted, and air left her in a rush. No. No, no, no. "Don't say it."
"I know. I hoped he was wrong, but their numbers are telling us they have to have a broodmother down here," said Sigrun.
Taking a deep breath Kallian sputtered then shouted, "Fucking Andraste's flaming asshole! Couldn't have warned us about that earlier?"
"Colourful," Oghren chuckled. "We've killed one before, Commander, we can do it again."
She didn't want to worry the others too much but she really wanted to remind Oghren that their last encounter had ended with Zevran near strangled by tentacles, Morrigan and Wynne without mana, and Kallian herself with a fractured skull from being whipped against the fucking ceiling.
"It is our duty," Kallian spoke, wishing she could just turn away.
It was eerie to walk through the long forgotten halls, footsteps echoing, brushing cobwebs aside. That must have been why everyone jumped when a ghostly dwarven silhouette ran across their path.
"Did you just?" said Nate.
"See a ghost appear?" Sigrun finished the question. "Yeah, I did. I think. Unless the roads are finally getting to me."
"Is it the veil?" Kallian asked Anders. "I've seen something like this before, at Soldier's Peak. There were ghosts or… spirits re-enacting the events of the battle there."
Anders nodded stiffly. "If there are spirits here, there must have been a lot of death. Be wary, but they shouldn't harm us."
Every few turns they made, they saw more of the spirit dwarves, clashing in battle, or shouting for evacuation. It struck Kallian how much the dwarves had lost, running away as city after city fell.
With her wardens now coming into their own senses, everyone but Sigrun was now ready when they came upon other small groups of darkspawn. They were stronger, cohesive, as they readied their weapons together, prepared for attack before they could even see the oncoming groups.
Oghren pulled his axe out of yet another skull and they moved on; a trail of death behind them. The one thing that helped ease Kallian's previous anxiety of the Deep Roads was that she didn't have to worry about her wardens getting tainted. No brushing hands over wounds to make sure the Blight hadn't spread, just trust in her comrades to take down the darkspawn efficiently with ruthless skill.
More spirits whisked across their path and Anders held an arm out, keeping them well back until they disappeared into wisps once more.
"Do you guys hear that?" Kallian asked to a series of no's and shaken heads. Damn shems and dwarves with their shit hearing.
She still decided to proceed cautiously, tensing for another battle when the constant buzzing at the base of her skull grew in intensity.
"There's definitely something up there," Anders said in hushed tones.
This time Kallian was certain she heard noises, and her heart pounded when those noises turned into voices. They crept up to the sounds and still Kallian could not get over the shock of seeing darkspawn talking, no, arguing with each other.
In an instant the hurlock was grabbed between giant hands and ripped apart.
"You and all others who oppose the Mother will die!"
"Yeah, fucking right," Kallian sauntered out, drawing her gleaming daggers. "Take the talker, down!" Kallian shouted and they filed into the open.
The darkspawn turned, and held up a rod, a mass of glowing stone and steel groaned, turning on them.
"What in the bloody Maker is that?" Anders stepped backwards.
"A golem. On fire. Brilliant," Kallian joined him in back up.
Another motion from the rod-wielding talker and flames spewed from the giant golem forcing everyone to retreat away from it.
"Shit. Okay plan. Anders, you can do ice, right?" He nodded, already casting. "Oghren, draw the golem's attention to you. The rest of us will get the talker and hopefully we can get the rod before that fire golem burns us to death." I hope.
Another blast erupted and Anders quelled it with a well-timed wall of ice with Oghren running out with a yell, banging on his chest plate to draw the golem away.
The talker turned out to be a magic wielder, Kallian quickly learned when a shock of lightning hit her, stunning her momentarily as all her muscles seized up in succession. Sigrun rolled out of the way of another bolt, but was then harshly smacked by the golem's fist, dropping her to the ground.
Having regained control of her limbs again, Kallian sprinted to the darkspawn, slicing its wrist when it tried to raise the staff against her.
"To your left!" Nate called, and she sidestepped left as an arrow whizzed by her right side, sinking into the hurlock's neck.
They had the advantage of surprise with the darkspawn apparently not expecting wardens down this far, unlike when they had been ambushed at the keep.
When the talker dropped, Kallian grabbed at the rod, and cracked it in half across her knee and let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding when the golem's fists dropped and it ceased all movement.
"Hey, through here!" Sigrun's voice echoed from another doorway beyond the golem.
Kallian hadn't even seen her get up and already she was rushing ahead without the wardens. In fairness she supposed a legionnaire was pretty comfortable roaming lost Thaigs and tunnels.
"Andraste's tits," Kallian cursed when the doorway opened into fleshy covered floors and walls. Sigrun stepped onto the mass and tentacles shot up, whipping at her as she hacked at them with her dual axes.
Oghren and Kallian shared a look. At least there was no creepy chanting coming from a ghoul. Sixth day her screams, we hear in our dreams.
Random tentacles kept popping out of the ooze and Kallian, Oghren and Sigrun hacked them down mercilessly. The path opened up into a chamber with a pit in the center of it. The smells of rotting flesh, feces and collected blood nearly made her hurl. The two men behind her sputtered with hands over their mouth and nose.
"Tell me I'm not gonna see a broodmother when I look down in that pit, Sigrun," Kallian's voice was muffled from behind her hand.
Sigrun leaned over, eyes watering from being closer to the putrid stench. "You won't, Commander," she said, leaning back, "You'll see three."
"Three?" Kallian balked. No wonder it smelled so awful, and the buildup of filth down in that pit… she shuddered, pushing down nausea again, though for good reason this time.
She had no desire to refresh the images she already had of broodmothers in her mind, and instead set about figuring out how to destroy them. Her first thought was fire, but Anders had just used up huge amounts of mana to keep the ice spells trained on the golem. Acid would work if she actually had enough, but three fucking broodmothers?
"Oh sweet Maker, I'm gonna be sick," Anders groaned, having ventured over to look.
Nathaniel was green in the face, gulping down more water with his jaw clenched shut.
"Wait, is that… lyrium?" Sigrun was squinting up above them.
Everyone's gaze pointed upwards, seeing the ball hung from chains, blue lines and spikes weaving through the stone in wild patterns.
"That would make for one hell of an explosion," Oghren surmised.
"Risk it to get the biscuit, then?" Nate winked at her.
"You bet," said Kallian. "Oghren, would you like to do the honours?"
He hefted his axe, slamming down onto the first set of chains, rattling the lyrium above them. He hacked down the second and third much the same until the lyrium bomb was dangling by a single chain, swinging back and forth over the broodmother pit.
He roared, slamming his great axe down a final time on the fourth chain, clattering of metal ricocheting off the walls and the bomb dropped among horrible screeching, with a flash of light and shaking stone.
Kallian and the others instinctively dropped to the floor, hands over their heads until the shuddering of stone subsided. A glance over the edge saw not only had the broodmothers been obliterated, but they were buried beneath stone and rubble.
"Well," Sigrun walked up to the wardens, wiping dust off her shoulders, "we managed to finish the job the legion started. I have to thank you for your help, once again."
"Do you have other legion members to meet up with now?" Kallian asked.
"I'll wander into the roads, luck will bring me to others but we've ventured so far from Orzammar, I don't expect to come across anyone else."
It was a long shot, but Kallian had already become accustomed to working alongside the dwarf. "You could become a warden, join us instead." More members who had darkspawn experience would always be welcome, presuming she survived the bloody joining.
"Could I do that? I swore an oath, left my life behind to die fighting darkspawn," Sigrun said in contemplation.
"Well you'd already be fighting more darkspawn!" Kallian grew more animated in her excitement that Sigrun was considering the offer. "And well… I guess if that's how you want to die… it's not exactly out of the realm of possibility," she added as extra persuasion, though Kallian personally felt more that she was saving Sigrun from a lonely death.
"If you'll have me, I won't turn down the chance to work alongside the fabled warriors against darkspawn. I'm your woman, Commander."
Kallian beamed. One good thing to come out of the nightmarish journey. Covered in grit, grime, days old blood, and sweat, Kallian was beyond ready to get the fuck out. "Then let's go back to the surface, and I'm jumping in the first body of water we get to, armour and all."
"Sunlight, dear sweet sunlight, I'm coming for you!" Anders cooed as if speaking to a lover.
"Lead on, Commander," Nate said as he adjusted his bow on his back and handed Kallian's pack back to her.