Working through it
The guards at the gate of Sharokovar thaig were dumbfounded when the somewhat battered female dwarf in blood drenched Grey Warden armor simply walked up to the gate and rapped on it. The thaig wasn't hidden per say, it was just hard to find and far away from Orzammar in the labyrinth that was the Deep Roads. It was well defended since, well, it was in the Deep Roads.
"Go away!" The head guard said gruffly from his tower overlooking the gate. His accent was thick, but the words were understandable.
"I need to talk to your Assembly." The Grey Warden said firmly. "My name is Sigrun."
"I said 'Go away', woman!" The guard snapped. "Are you hard of hearing?"
"'Woman', is it?" Sigrun said softly and then she shook her head. "I am trying to do this the polite way." The outsider said firmly. "But if you send me away unheard, I will have to report to my superiors that you are disregarding our Order. We try to help out when we can, but we are spread all over Thedas. Too thin. They will likely pull all of our support from your people. After all, there is only so much that we can do. And if you do not want us here, then we will leave. There are a lot of Deep Roads for us to kill darkspawn in after all. All I want to do is deliver a message. Nothing more. Then I will leave and you inbred fools can play with each other to your hearts' content."
"Leave or die!" The guard shouted. "Archers-!" Whatever else he was going to say was cut off as a huge rock impacted the gate directly under his head. Shards of stone flew everywhere and the guards ducked for cover. Sigrun did not move. Everything stopped as a huge form stepped out of the shadows that Sigrun had come from. It had another large rock in hand.
"If it wants to be stupid, feel free." Shayle said in a dreadful voice. "The message will be delivered one way or another." She hefted the rock, ready to throw. "This one can send the message this way. How much of your thaig do you wish to remain standing?"
"Shayle." Sigrun said quietly and the golem retreated a step. "We deliver it. No more. They get nothing more." More than one of the watching guards shivered at the Warden's cold, dead tone. "What is it going to be?" Sigrun asked the head guard who was staring at her in shock.
"Do I deliver the message or does Shayle?"
Ten fairly tense minutes later
"What is the meaning of this?" The loud voice silenced the hubbub as Sigrun was escorted into a large hall. "What have you attacked us, Grey Warden?"
"My name is Sigrun and I have not attacked you." Sigrun said calmly despite the room filled with animosity. "Your guards were about to shoot me. My friend took offense. No harm was done except to your wall, and frankly? I couldn't care less about your wall. I am here to deliver a message and then I am gone. I have more important things to do than deal with your nugs***."
"You come here, you demand to speak with us, your 'friend'..." The speaker emphasized the word heavily. '...damaged our fortifications. And now you insult us. Your diplomacy is... odd to say the least."
"I am no diplomat." Sigrun said softly. "And I haven't begun to insult you."
"Then we have nothing to say to you, Grey Warden or no. Guards." The speaker said but broke off as Sigrun shook her head. "What?"
"The message is simple. Your western flank is no longer secure." A pin dropping in the room might have deafened everyone when Sigrun closed her mouth. "Be very glad the Wardens are apolitical." She shook her head and none dared to speak. "Of the things I might have expected from dwarves -And I expect a lot of bad from my kind, since I grew up in Dusttown in Orzammar- this... This makes me sick."
"I don't understand." One of the ladies near the back spoke up when no one else did. She swallowed as Sigrun's gaze landed on her but she held her ground. "Is Reda the Tunnel Ghost gone to the Stone?"
"What do you care?" Sigrun demanded. "You got what you wanted. She did as you demanded of her. What you forced her to do."
"She was sworn to fight darkspawn until she died." The lady stammered as Sigrun glared at her. "We all knew this."
"Yes, she was." Sigrun admitted. "Of course, that oath was sworn by Sereda Aeducan and Sereda Aeducan died in a Kal Sharok dungeon."
"What?" The shouted word went around the room and it took the spokesman several slams of his hammer on the stone table they were gathered around to restore order.
"Here is the final message from Reda." Sigrun threw a parchment onto the table where it sat. "I will summarize. It lets you know that she is no longer warding your western border. There is an addendum from her second in command. Who happens to be outside your gate with a big rock at the moment. Her brother's assassins killed three of her men, several others were wounded. But more importantly, your hold over her has been removed from where it was. The drugs you addicted them to have been countered. You will not find them. So you cannot threaten to kill them to force her compliance."
"What do you mean?" The lady who had spoken before asked, stunned.
"Was it a majority vote or just business as usual?" Sigrun asked the spokesman who did not move. "I get that she was an outsider, so she didn't matter. I get that you wanted to hurt her for what Orzammar did to you so long ago. I get that she fought, tried to escape and killed several people who brutalized her while she was a prisoner. But using those kids against her like that... That I don't get. That is the kind of thing her brother would do. Or the Carta. I thought you were better than that. I really did." She shook her head and started for the door. "I was wrong."
To her surprise, the dwarven lady who has spoken rose and moved to block the door. "Wait! Warden Sigrun, wait. This doesn't make sense!" She bowed to Sigrun. "I am Kalina Gaz, Paragon of Gaz Thaig."
"No?" Sigrun asked. "Ask the spokesman." All eyes landed on the one who had been leading the assembly meeting and he froze. "Reda kept a journal. In it, she names a number of people that she will kill if she ever gets the chance. Her brother is at the top of that list for framing her for the death of her eldest brother and getting her exiled from Orzammar in order to grab the throne. She never cared for the throne. She cared about all the people her brother hurt. All the orphaned kids that were left for her to tend."
"What?" Lady Gaz asked, stunned. "I know nothing of this." She stared around but most of the faces were equally stunned. A few though...were blank. "Spokesman Holiim?"
"She is an outsider. She lies." The spokesman said firmly. "Grey Warden or no, you lie."
"Do I?" Sigrun asked as she started for the door again. "Then you have nothing to worry about, do you?" She paused at the threshold. "Except for the fact that with the kids safe, there is nothing that is keeping Reda from finding the others who were responsible for throwing that crying little boy into her cell."
"What?" Lady Gaz actually shouted.
"He didn't tell you?" Sigrun asked, to all appearances calm. "That is how the ones who did it got her compliance. How they forced her compliance. They threw a year old baby boy into her cell and said they would kill the child and others if she didn't do as they wished. That was, of course, after they had her mutilated. Destroyed her voice and took her reproductive organs from her." The Grey Warden's voice cracked a little. "I am held to a higher standard. I cannot do as my conscience demands. But you should be afraid now. Be very afraid. For your slave soldier is a slave no longer. And she is pissed." She shook her head. "Can't blame her."
"I... don't understand." Lady Gaz said softly, stunned. "Reda is a hero."
"She was a slave!" Sigrun snapped and the entire chamber went deathly still. "I never knew her. I knew Shayle but never Reda. I wish... I wish I had. She seemed a decent sort. She might have done what you forced her to do anyway, but whoever did it..." She glared at the spokesman who seemed to wilt under the eyes of his fellows. "...had to be sure that she complied." She sighed. "I have to go. If I am not out of your gates by the time the next sandglass turns over, Shayle will start throwing rocks. And not the little one she used to get your guards' attention."
"Walk with me." Lady Gaz said formally as she started for the door. Sigrun looked at her and then matched her pace. The halls were empty but the lady did not speak until the left the building. "I... do not know what to say, Warden. I met her. She seemed... distant. Cold."
"She trusted." Sigrun said sadly. "She trusted that your people would treat her honorably so she did not fight when they found her in the Deep Roads. Instead? They chained her in a hole, treated her like an animal. Then they hurt her repeatedly. Because they could. When she had the means to fight back, she did. I would have done the same. So, they mutilated her and then used her sense of decency and duty to force her to fight for them." The dwarven warden shook her head. "She was alive when last I saw her. But she is gone beyond the reach of anyone from Orzammar or Kal Sharok."
"I am glad." The dwarf lady said quietly. Sigrun looked at her and Kalina scowled. "My thaig borders the western boundary. She came to us for supplies a few times a season. Her brother's agents attacked her once in my thaig. The survivor was most forthcoming when put to the question." She continued walking and Sigrun could see the gate in the distance. Still intact. Shayle hadn't started anything. Yet. "Is there anything I can do?" She asked. Sigrun stared at her and Kalina grimaced. "Trust is hard to restore when violated. But she served us well. She fought and bled for us. No matter why she did so, she did it. We owe her."
"Not all of your people will agree." Sigrun said mildly.
"I don't care." Kalina Gaz said with a snap. "Several of my thaig served with her. Four of them fell serving with her. She was always dutiful to them. They said she always paid more attention to their needs than hers."
"Yeah." Sigrun said with a sigh. "Sounds like what I knew of her." Kalina looked at her and Sigrun shrugged. "I lived in Orzammar. I saw her a few times. Heard stories. Then I joined the Legion. Then I joined the Grey Wardens." She chuckled without mirth. "Overachiever. That is me."
"I could not have delivered such a message and not killed someone." Kalina said quietly. Sigrun shrugged but Kalina was not mollified."Who did that to her?"
"She named a number of names in her journal." Sigrun replied just as quietly. "Most of those she killed when she tried to escape after they tore her future from her belly and took her voice. But from a few of your peers' reactions..." She trailed off as Kalina hissed.
"They knew." The Paragon bowed her head. "Muck brained nug shitters!" Sigrun stared at the other, mildly surprised by the profanity. "What the hell were they thinking?"
"You are not like any Paragon I have ever heard of." Sigrun said mildly as they approached the gate.
"Good. I don't want to be anything like the Stone cracked fools in Orzammar." Kalina's face was twisted in thought. "I didn't know. I should have.. I should have asked." The gate ahead opened, but none of the guards showed themselves. Shayle had probably been amusing herself by scaring them. "Are the kids safe?" She nearly begged.
"For now." Sigrun admitted. "We don't know if the youngest will survive. The poison was..." She broke off as Kalina paled. "Oh yes. Whoever did this poisoned all of them. Every so often a shipment of antidote was sent to her but the smallest of the them were always vulnerable. She lost half a dozen over the years."
"That is evil." The Paragon's face was slowly turning red. "Small wonder she is angry."
"Yeah." Sigrun might have been part of the rock around her for as much emotion she was showing.
"I give you my word, Warden Sigrun..." Paragon Kalina's tone might have shattered the rock under their feet. "I will get to the bottom of this. You were right. This is...sick. I can almost see forcing her to serve. But using children to do it?"
"Orphans." Sigrun grunted. "And they were not your people, so who the fuck cared?"
"I care." Kalina said softly, but there was something in her words. "If you see Reda again, tell her 'I am sorry and I will find out what happened. Whoever did this, be they commoner or Paragon, will face justice'." Sigrun just looked at her and Kalina's face flushed. "This travesty will hurt us all. Not the least of which if you Wardens deem us all evil. We have had to do...questionable things to survive. But that? That is not questionable. That is evil." She shook her head. "And if I can stop it, I will." Sigrun looked at her and the Paragon scowled. "You know they wouldn't have just done it to Reda."
"I hadn't thought of that." Sigrun admitted. "I have been... a little emotional since they told me."
"Understandable." Kalina nodded to the gate. "Where will you go?" Sigrun just looked at her and the Paragon flushed again. "I want to help."
Sigrun did not reply. She marched out the gate without a backwards glance. Kalina stared after the Warden, but Sigrun vanished into a darkened tunnel. A moment later, a large shadow unfolded from one wall and followed the Warden. Only after the gate closed did Kalina turn to see a group of her peers who had followed the pair.
"She knows." Kalina said softly. The others nodded. "She knows all of it. You idiots." It had taken a vote of the Kal Sharok Assembly to do what had been done. "My father dissented, but you forced him to abstain when you could not make him agree to your way of thinking. He warned you it would come back to bite you." She shook her head. "It has. I am done. Goodbye."
"Lady Gaz..." The spokesman said slowly.
"Shut up, Holiim!" Kalina snapped. "Warhelm was right. You are a moron! I am going home to make sure my thaig's defenses are in order. And to prepare my heirs. Your business matters are far less important." All of the others gasped. "Reda will seek vengeance and she will be well within her rights to do so. You know it. I know it. We cannot stop what we cannot see." She shook her head. "You never told us about the children."
"They are not of our people!" Holiim snapped only to recoil as Kalina stepped forward and slapped him across the face.
"AND THAT MAKES IT RIGHT?" Kalina screamed at him. "Warden Sigrun was right! You all make me sick!" She slumped a bit and looked at her fellows. Some of them looked blank, but most of them looked horrified. Either by what had happened or by what Reda would do now that she was free. "What are we? What have we become when a group of young lives are simply bargaining chips?" She shook her head. "Way to act Orzammar, fellow Assembly members. Way to go."
With that, she strode off, head bent.
"She knows too much." One of the older ones said into the silence that fell.
"So now we start assassinating each other?" Another of the Assembly -one of the younger ones- said with a snap. "Just like Orzammar?" He shook his head and strode off after Kalina. Half a dozen others followed.
"What do we do now?" The remaining ones asked Hollim. He had no answer.
The Surface
"Something you want to tell me, Tara?" Felsi asked as she finished cleaning her tools.
The procedure had gone swiftly. Even the chance of speaking again had immediately turned gotten Reda excited. She had begged for the work to be done as soon as possible. Felsi wasn't sure about it. There was a lot of damage to Reda's throat. Right now? All they could do was wait and see.
"Not really." Tara said with sigh. "But if I don't, you will make my life miserable until I do. Herder Ziz was working for the Carta." Felsi gave a great sigh and Tara nodded. "He recognized Reda. He was going to report her. Mishana acted to protect us. He won't be found."
"I knew they would keep an eye on us just as the king did when he sent Mishana here." Felsi said with a scowl. "Sure, she needed the medical attention, but that doesn't explain why she stayed." Mishana had nearly lost an arm to an injury, Felsi and Tara's skill had saved her arm and her life.
A tap had then both turning. Both went still as they saw the armored Silent Sister standing behind them. She held Reda's tablet.
'This thing is cool.' Mishana wrote with a smile. 'So much easier than writing on parchment.' But then her smiled faded.
'There is far more going on than you know.'