A/N: Originally the rest of the Dalish section was going to be one chapter, but it was getting too long so I've broken it off here and will finish the rest as soon as possible.

Chapter XIX

Alistair finally ordered everyone back on their feet and to get ready to move out again. Ten minutes of griping and bargaining later everyone was ready to go, figuratively speaking anyway. We proceeded deeper into the forest before turning a corner and in the distance was a huge ruined fortress of some kind. Alistair stopped and looked at it for a moment before saying, "Who wants to bet that's the werewolves' lair?"

There were no takers.

He ordered us closer together in case of an ambush and started forward again. We had barely gone twenty feet when nine werewolves appeared around us. The same wolf, though that wasn't obvious at first, said to the others, "The forest has not been vigilant enough, still they come." He turned back to Alistair and said, "The Dalish chose well, you are stronger than anticipated. But, you do not belong here. Leave this place."

Alistair answered, "Look, let me try to settle this dispute."

The wolf growled back, "You have been sent by the treacherous Dalish to kill Witherfang. We will not allow that."

Alistair tried to keep his voice from getting too obviously fed up and said, "I have no intention of harming Witherfang, we just want to talk."

In answer the wolf snarled, "I do not believe you. You are an intruder, you come to kill like all others do, we have learned this lesson well. Here Witherfang defends us, and we will fight to return that protection with our lives."

Before anyone could point out the idiotic contradiction there the wolf lunged at Alistair who just barely managed to get out of the way in time. He came back up swinging his sword widely to drive the wolf back. The rest of us were quickly attacked as well. The wolves had obviously considered their opponents carefully; another went for Alistair, two for Leliana, four to the three mages, and finally one for me. Guess which one of these fights was the most uneven?

Needless to say Solona, Alim, and Morrigan had flattened their opponents in about half a second, Alistair had killed one foe and was holding off the leader, and Leliana was slowly dancing around her opponents, avoiding their attacks and trying to hit them with her daggers, but she just couldn't do both against two opponents. On the other hand I was barely still on my feet. The wolf kept snapping at me, and trying to get bite on pretty much anywhere to end the fight while I swung my saber desperately to try to stop that from happening.

Finally in a surprise move the wolf brought its claws onto my armor with enough force to knock me over, though thankfully the armor held enough to stop anything past a bit of bruising. With a roar of triumph the wolf bent its head down to finish me, when Solona tapped it on the back with her staff, and then roasted its top half with a blast of fire. She helped me up and I saw Alim blasting lightning into one of Leliana's opponents while she drove her daggers into the chest of the second one, the lull in attacks enough to give her the edge.

Alistair ended his battle with a sudden move as he bashed the shield into Swiftrunner's chest, before bringing the edge up into its chin. The wolf let out a squeal of pain as it stumbled back, only for Alistair to smash it in the face with the front of his shield. Swiftrunner fell backwards and Alistair moved in with his blade down when there was a snarl to the right.

He glanced up and barely dodged out of the way as a huge white wolf leapt down to where he had been standing. It snarled at snapped, allowing Swiftrunner enough time to get his bearings and retreat toward the ruins, then it followed him faster than any of us could run.

Within a minute they were completely out of sight. Alistair stood ready for further fighting, but finally he sheathed his sword and turned back to us, "I think it's safe to assume we found Witherfang." He said dryly, and surreptitiously glanced at me for confirmation. I nodded slightly and he turned back and motioned in the direction they had gone, "In that case let's keep moving. We need to get into those ruins too many more show up." This time, strangely enough, there wasn't an argument.

No other wolves tried to stop our advance, the ruin's guardians ran as soon as they saw our group heading toward them. Alistair watched them go and said flatly, "You know something tells me this is a trap." Behind us there was a series of howls and he continued, "But out here is probably going to be even worse soon, let's go."

The ruins were of some old Tevinter fortress, built over a thousand years before for reasons unknown. It had fallen into disuse after Andraste drove them out, and lay abandoned for God knows how long before the werewolves took over. Like most Tevinter structures it was stupidly big, with massive sections both under and above ground, and filled with monsters even if the werewolves hadn't lived there. It being in the Brecilian Forest was fitting.

The entrance was in fairly good shape, the door had long since fallen off its hinges and the masonry was crumbling, but at least it hadn't collapsed. Just inside was a long staircase leading into a main entrance hall. Just inside a group of undead rushed us from the right, which ended up going badly for them when Solona swung her staff over and blasted with a wave of fire. The carcasses caught quickly and within moments they had burned down and collapsed. Quick stomps on their bones finished the fight.

We descended into the main hall proper and Morrigan commented, "The ruins definitely look Tevinter, but there are elvish trappings too. Tis quite odd." Before there could be any more speculation a pair of werewolves rushed from a staircase. One caught an arrow from Leliana in the throat and slowed enough for her to finish it off with another. The second came on, but Alistair managed to hit it with his shield before stabbing the creature in the chest. We followed the pathway that the wolves had come from, leading to a door that had been barred from the far side.

Alistair looked at the door for a second, then stood aside and said, "Solona, can you handle this?"

She smiled a little and stepped forward, running one hand down the door, then digging in a little with a fingernail. Finally she raised her staff and said, "It's only a few inches thick, I can get through in a minute."

She was about to start when Morrigan threw one hand onto her staff and shoved it down, demanding, "Do they teach you nothing at the Circle? This is a door built by the Tevinter Magisters; you know the most powerful mages ever. The ones who took great care to magicproof their entrances. Look into the currents around us and see the truth of the matter."

Solona frowned, but did as she was told, then suddenly her eyes widened and she said, "Oh Maker that was close."

Alistair blinked, "What is it?"

Solona gestured to the wall surrounding the door, "It's been magicproofed. If I try to burn through this hallway will probably collapse. We'll have to find another way through."

Alistair groaned, "Why can things never be simple? Okay, there was another door in that entrance hall. Let's go try it."

I muttered darkly at that and finally said, "Are you sure there is no way through?"

Morrigan made a disparaging comment and Solona launched on a long-winded explanation about magical theory that I didn't understand a word of. Cut me a little slack though, I had to explain evolution and gravity to people who hadn't invented the scientific method yet.

Alistair stepped up and muttered, "So what's the other way?"

I sighed and answered, "You little things like a couple dozen undead, werewolves that can hide in darkness, and a dragon."

"You have got to be kidding," Alistair said desperately. I shook my head and Alistair groaned again, "Then I guess we should get started." He quickly got Solona to wrap the explanation, which had strayed into the history of exploration of the Fade somehow and ordered everyone back into the entrance hall. The second door led down a dark passageway filled with spider webbing.

Solona sighed, then blasted the entire hall with fire. As the flames burned down Alistair commented, "Don't you have a limited amount of power to do that?"

She shrugged, "Well yes, but spider webbing isn't hard to burn. Just a bit of power and it naturally goes down"

Alistair accepted that and proceeded into the hallway. There were burned corpses of spiders and various prey."

At the end of the hallway was another staircase that Alistair led us down. Halfway through there was a horrible roar and Alistair announced, almost managing to keep his voice under control, "dragon."

No one questioned him; the roar was too similar to the last dragon we had met. Blades were drawn and spells were readied. At the bottom of the stairs Alsitair peaked out, then said, "I don't see it, which probably means its hiding among the roots on the ceiling."

He thought for a moment then ordered, "Leliana and I will dash out to draw it down. The room is divided into two sections with sections of pillars descending from the ceiling and a mound of dirt under them. If we can get to the other side the dragon will be forced to land. We cannot fight it in the air. When we bring it down I want Alim and Morrigan to blast it with everything they have. If that doesn't finish it then Solona try to pin it down." He glanced at me and said, "And you try to stay out of the way. We don't need another death to this one."

Everyone nodded and Alistair and Leliana took positions on opposite sides of the door. He counted down and the pair of them dashed out. There was a roar from above and a blast of fire hotter than anything Solona could dream of firing hit the ground where they should have been. The wave of heat through the door stunned everyone for a moment, but Morrigan was ready to go in seconds and Alim joined her as they watched the dragon descend on Leliana who was nearing the center of the room. She glanced up and rolled to the left, barely missing a trap that had been set up there. Then she was up and running again. The dragon gave chase, but Leliana was too fast in the enclosed hallway and she made it over the hill in just over ten seconds total time before diving for cover behind a pillar.

That unfortunately left Alistair slightly behind her, and with an angry dragon between him and relative safety. Before the dragon could remember him Alistair drew his sword and brought it down on the creature's wing. There was a spurt of blood and the beast crashed to back to earth as its wing failed it. Taking advantage of the distraction Alistair ran forward, bringing his sword down on the creature's neck. There was a ring and he started running again as a very angry and not dead dragon reared from where it had crashed and snapped at him. It drew in to breathe fire, only to take an arrow in the top of its mouth from Leliana's hiding spot.

As it turned to face her Morrigan and Alim burst from cover, drew in all the power they could manage and blasted the creature with beams of ice and lighting, concentrated as much as possible to try to finish it quickly.

They failed. The dragon survived both attacks and answered with a burst of flame in their direction. Alim was the only one who could respond, and he did so by erecting a forcefield around both himself and Morrigan. The flames encompassed both bubbles, leaving the pair unharmed, and unfortunately completely out of the fight.

Solona drew her staff, ready to join what was looking to be a hopeless fight when I finally remembered one of the toys I had taken from Denerim when we left. I pulled one out and she blinked for a few second before asking, "How could you forget about those?"

I shrugged and said, "Haven't thought about them in weeks. Here, light one."

She raised one finger, touched it to the rage on top and there was a smell of burning.

I glanced out from the door and saw that the dragon had turned its attention back on Leliana who was continuing to try to fire at it. Taking a deep breath I stepped out, carefully aimed, and threw. By an amazing bout of luck the projectile landed on the creature's back and the rag touched the powder inside perfectly. There was a flash of light and heat that was soon joined by the roar of the dragon as the grenade exploded.

The combination of explosive and shrapnel penetrated the dragon's hide and dealt a major injury. It reared its head back to roar in rage, only for Leliana to land a second arrow inside its mouth. As the dragon brought its front back down Leliana loosed a third arrow, hitting the creature in the eye.

Solona lit a second grenade for me and I tossed it as well. This throw was not as good, landing next to one of the dragon's feet and shattering on impact. The weapon still exploded, but this time there was little shrapnel. The force of the explosion stunned the dragon for a moment, allowing Alistair to dash from where he was hiding and dive for the ground underneath it. With a great effort he took his sword and plunged it into the dragon's underbelly and slashed outward.

There was a terrible moment as the dragon teetered, then collapsed, barely alive just to the side of where Alistair had struck. He stood, walked up the dragon, and stabbed it in the throat. The blade penetrated the scales and there was a low hiss, then the thrashing stopped and the dragon died. We emerged from cover and wen to where the body lay.

Alistair was completely covered in the dragon's blood and some internal organs. He panted for a moment, then said, "Bar that door if you can. I don't think we can keep going today. Group two takes first watch."

The door was relatively easy to bar, mostly we just hauled the dragon's corpse (a rather difficult process since it weighed about half a ton, it was a small one) in front of the door and backed that up with some stones that had fallen from the ceiling and the traps set up in the room. Then everyone else lay down to sleep."

Watch was about as boring as usual. There were a few scary moments, but the wolves seemed content to let us come to them rather than hunt us down within the ruins, especially since they likely though the dragon had eaten us. Leliana took the opportunity to show me a new bow she had found in the dragon's treasure mound and demanded that I get back to finishing the story of Superman, one I'm told has proven insanely popular in Nevarra.

Other than that absolutely nothing interesting happened before we had to wake up Alim and Solona for their turn before settling down.

Alistair woke me the next morning with the smell of his and Morrigan's cooking in the background. The nights that ended with them cooking were generally unpopular for a reason. Breakfast was burned porridge (how do you burn porridge, really) with a bit of dried meat, about all that remained of our original rations before armor was strapped on and Alistair started down a tunnel at the far end of the room. The tunnel led to the main underground section, why were the Tevinters so obsessed with underground ruins anyway, and we were almost immediately set upon by a dozen undead. Solona brought her staff up and proceeded to deal with half of them, but the rest were too close when she turned to them. Instead Alistair met them with sword and shield, Leliana met them with daggers, and everyone else met them with, well whatever they could. Alim trapped on in a crushing prison while Morrigan and Solona turned their magics on destroying two others with elemental magic. I stayed out of the way. A saber against undead is not a winning combination especially when wielded by an amateur. Shortly thereafter Leliana retreated to join me, daggers are slightly worse even when wielded by an expert. The remainder of the battle took a few minutes until Alistair finally smashed the last one's skull with his shield.

He lowered the shield and said flatly, "I really hate undead. When the Blight is over I think I'm going to try to stamp them out." Needless to say, that never went anywhere.

He motioned down another hallway, only to find spider webbing blocking it. Solona muttered about her talents being wasted before roasting the entire nest. The hallway ended in a small room that seemed empty at first, at least to me. The rest were all staring at the same spot and seemed to be listening to something. Finally Alistair asked, "does anyone know what he's saying?"

Solona finally answered, "I think he's asking about his mother."

Alim nodded, "He is, but I don't recognize the rest of it. Ancient elvish was never something I really studied."

Then the rest of them turned their gaze toward one of the rooms, and moments later undead came pouring from it. Solona swept her staff up and roasted all of them, but behind us another group had emerged and they got close to fast for her to finish them as well.

Once again battle was joined, except this time there were more than enough for one to attack me, what joy. Fighting the dead is never an easy task, but at least they have absolutely no skill with a weapon to make up for being insanely hard to put down again. The creature swung its sword wildly, trying to land a hit and I managed to get out of the way and counter attack by bringing my saber down on its weapon arm. There was a satisfying crunch as bone was shattered and the weapon fell to the floor. In response the creature swept its other hand at me in a punch, though there was little power behind it. I brought the saber up again and chopped its head off with all the strength I could muster. That did even less than cutting an arm off. It succeeded in grabbing me and started to squeeze at my throat, but I managed to bring the saber back up and brought the handle down on its shoulder, shattering the ancient bones and causing the grip to slacken.

The skeleton wasn't done though as it swung a leg up to try to kick at me as well. This was stopped when Alistair came up behind it and slammed it in the ground with his shield before using an armored book to shatter the creature's lower chest. Even the undead can't keep fighting after that so we left it there, still trying to stand back up and give chase, and it stayed that way until whatever intelligence spawned it got too feeble to continue.

The rest of the group had already finished their opponents and were ready to move out. The next several hallways were completely deserted oddly enough, and what a great effect that had on the paranoia we were developing about this place. Eventually we found a small holy shrine, but Alistair ordered everyone out when he caught me rapidly shaking my head.

The hall eventually led to a point where it was crossed by a staircase that had once crossed the building and Alistair held up a hand, then whispered, "Perfect ambush point up here. Solona, you and Alim go ahead and see if you can destroy whatever's waiting for us."

They nodded and started forward, Solona a bit farther ahead with her staff ready. Alim had gone a bit misty eyed as if his thoughts were someplace else. Suddenly Solona swung around the corner and blasted up the stairs with a wave of flames. There was a clatter as bones fell to the floor as magical fire swept over them.

Alim simply started down, knocking any interfering undead out of the way (and usually shattering them against the wall as he did so) until there were none left but he didn't stop. Finally he entered a room at the bottom of the stairs and knelt before a jewel, with one hand reaching out to touch it. Before anyone could stop him he closed his hand around the gem. After a moment of complete stillness he asked, "What are you?" The silence lasted longer this time, broken only by the impatient sighs of Morrigan. Finally he stood with the gem and turned to a broken stone altar. He sighed as the gem neared the altar, then as it touched there was a sudden break as if some invisible presence was gone from the room. At least that's how Leliana described it later, I didn't feel any different.

Alim seemed to though as he turned to where one of the broken skeletons lay and picked up its sword before giving it a few swings. Finally he turned back and said, "I can use this. The gem taught me how to channel my power into strength. It all seems so clear now."

Alistair waited a moment before asking, "Are you okay?"

Alim smiled as he picked up a shield and answered confidently, "I can honestly say I've never felt better. Like to see Gregoir threaten to execute me now." Yeah, long story involving a blood mage, a Chantry priestess, and either setting pants on fire or spiders (he was sometimes a little vague).

The hallway eventually led down into another room, this one loaded with magical traps left by the Tevinter Magisters from long ago when the fortress was abandoned. Fortunately the undead had set them off long ago and now there were only a small handful working, which Leliana fixed after a few minutes of work.

Another empty hallway waited on the other side, until finally there was a great chamber, likely a major hall for whichever Magister had once ruled the fortress. Three undead met us on the stairs, but Solona swept them aside with a wave of fire. Then came the real shock, an Arcane Horror waited at the bottom of the stairs.

It met us with a blast of power that Morrigan had to block, then it fired again before she could retaliate. Alim though drew himself up and unleashed a mana clash upon the spirit, turning its own power against it. The horror recoiled as the horrible carnage within itself started, only to be blasted by the combined elemental power of three mage as it started to recover.

As usual with this kind of monster this made had the effect of making it slightly angrier.

It power regenerated quickly and the monster unleashed a wave of lightning upon the mages who battle it while Alistair tried to position himself to smite the creature with his Templar driven abilities. It noticed him, only to take an arrow from Leliana before she dove for cover again. The Horror responded by blasting at her, ripping the stone apart. Leliana barely got out of the way before the wave hit, taking the upper half of the stairs with it as the blast kept going.

I started trying to load my pistol as fast as possible, but had to be sure not to lose any of the cartridges since there were so few left. It didn't matter though as Alim drew himself up and another aspect of the Arcane Warrior took hold. A glowing shield engulfed him and he charged the Horror as it prepared another spell. With a yell he drove the sword into its body, while sending lightning down the blade. There was a horrible moment as the Horror drew up as if to attack, but then it began to fade in a puff of smoke. Moments later there was no evidence it had ever existed, save half the room being wrecked of course.

We kept on the path, having a rather one sided fight with four undead along the way before finally there was hole in the floor that was filled with water. Around it were scattered werewolf tracks that seemed to end at the edge.

Alistair stared at it for a moment, then started to remove his armor. He glanced over at the rest of us and said, "Well come on, we're going to have to swim and unless you look forward to the idea of drowning when your armor or robes weigh you down you might want to do the same.

Much grumbling and swapping of underclothes to keep everyone properly dressed when we emerged ensued, but finally we were read and Alistair dove into the water. Leliana walked to where he was, then took a breath and dove in as well. Alim went next, then Solona, until finally only Morrigan and I were left. She stared at the edge then said, "Well go ahead, looks safe enough." Then she shoved me in before diving in as well.