The sounds of rattling armor drew me out of bed. I poked my head around the corner of the bookshelf to see Oghren and Sigrun helping each other into their gear.

"Morning," I said.

"Not sure if it really is," Oghren replied. "But she insists dawn is any moment now."

"Don't tell me you've lost your stone sense," Sigrun protested, sounding shocked. I had no idea what stone sense entailed, but apparently it encompassed the ability to tell time in a windowless room. That would be a useful ability.

The door opened just as I was walking from behind the bookshelf. Seeing me, the clearly unused cot, and our group less one mage the priest looked at me, eyebrow raised. Anders, with his unique talent for making awkward situations worse, chose that moment to appear behind me, hair disheveled. He stumbled out from behind the bookshelf blindly, wrapping both arms around my waist and nuzzling my neck.

"Um, Anders," I said softly.

"mmmrf," he muttered into my neck.

"Anders!" I repeated. "We have company!" The accuracy of this statement was suspect, since technically we were the company. It did the trick, though. He looked up and dropped his arms like I was on fire. I heard a crash behind me and turned to see he had managed to knock a small table over in his attempt to put distance between us. I briefly had the urge to cover my face with both hands. Not an option, unfortunately.

"Good morning, Sister," I said as if absolutely nothing abnormal was going on.

Fortunately she was too polite to do anything beyond shaking her head. "Here are your supplies, Wardens."

"Thank you. Is there any word on the approaching horde?" I couldn't sense anything yet.

"The militia has scouts keeping watch, no sign of anything so far." She excused herself quickly.

"That could have gone better," I muttered.

Anders, having regained his composure, shrugged. Filling his pockets with lyrium he passed the rest to me. We split the health poultices up among the four of us, finished getting ready for the fight, and headed into the Chantry proper.

We sat against a wall, barely speaking. The waiting was driving me mad. "An army of darkspawn doesn't just vanish," I insisted for what might have been the fifth time. Jumping to my feet I began to pace. "All right, the scouts can't find anything, so I don't think the four of us would do much better. How long should we wait before returning to the keep?" Oghren shrugged. I froze midstep.

A pulling at my mind, hair on edge. Sigrun had jumped to her feet as well, with Oghren and Anders not far behind. The priest looked at us curiously. "Maggie," Sigrun said, "I can sense… but…." I nodded.

Anders whipped his head around, surveying the chantry. "I can't get a direction. It feels like they're everywhere. But not close, at the same time. How is this possible?"

"Oh no," I muttered, already rushing for the door. "Damn that guard, no!"

"Where are they?!" Oghren shouted, looking around. A guard burst in before I could answer. I knew what he was going to say.

"Darkspawn are breaking through!" he shouted.

"Where!" Oghren demanded.

I knew the answer, though. Everywhere, but far away. It was the feeling of being in Orzammar, of being on top of the deep roads. The priest had run over, fear plastered across her face.

"The inn! They're coming from the inn somehow."

The other end of the tunnel. "We've been standing right on top of them," I muttered. "In all directions, but far away."

"Stay here," I told the guard. "Keep the doors guarded and barricaded." I didn't wait for him to answer.

We fought our way through the streets once more, the bodies from the previous night still lying in the road. "I told them to SEAL THAT TUNNEL," I shouted as we fought, punctuating my words by beheading a genlock.

"Maggie, you can have the guard killed later," Oghren laughed, swinging his axe at an ogre. I froze it in place to help him. Once it was down I looked both ways and cheered.

"I swear I'll never get used to that," Anders said, opening the door to the inn.

"Won't be the last time you'll hear it today," I said, pushing past him into the bar area, where darkspawn were clustered around. Casting spells and bringing my sword on any that got too close, I crazily thought, 'Darkspawn? We don't serve your kind here!' and laughed.

"What's so funny?" Sigrun asked once the first floor had been cleared. Anders was trying to heal a gash on my head and yelling at me to stop squirming. I told them and she groaned as if in pain.

"That's even worse than my jokes," Oghren muttered, shaking his head as he helped himself to a belt of whiskey from behind the bar.

Anders, however, was cracking up. "I was going to go with 'Four Grey Wardens walk into a bar. The darkspawn look at them and say,' but I couldn't come up with a punchline. Shameful how long it took me just to get the first half, really."

"You two done?" Oghren asked. Anders inspected my cut and nodded. Once we had cleared the second floor I stood near the trapdoor opening. Someone had cut the ladder. It was roughly a nine foot drop to the bottom, nothing we couldn't manage if we lowered each other down, but because of the elevation I was having trouble sensing the darkspawn, and it was too dark to see what was even directly below clearly.

"All right," I said, "this is going to sound strange, but I need someone to hold my feet."

"Why?" Anders asked.

"I need to get a better angle, to see what we're up against."

"No!" he shouted. Grabbing my arm he leaned towards me. "You promised you would be careful," Anders all but hissed into my ear. I shook him off.

"I am being careful. That's why I asked you to hold my feet instead of just hooking my knees over the edge, and that's why I'm checking first instead of blindly jumping down there to land on some emissary's lap."

"You want us to dangle you upside down into a hole full of darkspawn!"

"Anders, we have a job to do. Either we jump down there with no idea of what we're facing, or you help me check. We don't have time to argue." I kicked open the trapdoor and sat with my back to the opening, knees pulled to my chest.

"Fine, but I'm going on record as objecting to this plan," he said, grabbing my ankles tightly. I pushed myself away from the edge with my arms, letting my knees bend so I was hanging upside down.

To find myself staring right into the eyes of a hurlock. I hissed and recoiled, hearing someone above me shout. Without thinking I whipped my arm out, punching my fist towards the monster's neck, dagger in hand. Three quick jabs later and it was down, fortunately with nothing stepping forward to take its place. I closed my eyes, trying to determine how many and how far they were. After a moment I called for them to pull me up.

"About fifty," I said, back on solid ground. "Couple emissaries, couple ogres, the rest normal grunts, but all in the main chamber. The corridor below is clear for now." I wiped my dagger on the hem of my robe.

"Make a new friend?" Sigrun asked, watching me sheathe my dagger.

"They posted a lookout below the trapdoor. He won't be bothering us, got him before he realized I was there." She nodded with satisfaction. "Let's move."

Anders slipped feet first into the trapdoor, hands on the edge. I took one wrist, Oghren the other, and we lowered him down. Oghren went next, lowered by Sigrun and myself. Anders caught him with a grunt and set him on the ground. Next was Sigrun, I took one of her hands in each of mine to help get her low enough for Anders to grab her hips. Finally it was my turn. I didn't even have to drop, once I was hanging from my hands Anders was tall enough to grab me and lower me down.

"For the Grey Wardens!" Oghren bellowed, leading our charge.

Getting hit by the tail of a dragon really hurts, and will knock you a long way. Getting bit by a werewolf burns hotter than any fire, and makes you dizzy. Getting clawed by an archdemon hurts even more, and the scars will never, ever fade no matter how good your healers are. Comparatively, getting tossed across the room like a rag doll by an ogre is almost comfortable.

By which I mean it still hurt, a lot. I made an "uumfh" sound as I landed, followed by a string of more choice curse words. After trying to sit up, and failing, I cast a force field around myself, hoping that would hold long enough for someone else to finish off the ogre. It did better than I hoped. I woke up to find myself dizzy, mind reeling. Mana clash, I thought hazily. Who would cast that on me?

"Sorry," Anders said, kneeling beside me. "But next time you cast a force field don't pass out inside it."

He hummed to himself while healing me, occasionally interrupting the tune with phrases like this will hurt or stop moving. "So, last night," Anders said, shifting one of my ribs back into its proper position before casting another spell. "At the time I was thinking 'one of us might die, both of us might die, this could be our last night together,' you know, very melodramatic, very romantic." Ah, so it was time for the expected joke about putting his foot in his mouth. Wasn't there a better time? Like when my ribs were all in their Maker-intended positions? I winced as he poked something before casting a final spell. "All done." I sat up, and he went on. "Well, it just hit me." He snorted with laughter.

"What, Anders?" Laughter? Was this of the 'I can't believe I said that to you, hahaha,' variety?

He managed to stop laughing long enough to speak. "We… we had sex in the Revered Mother's bed." Another peal of laughter.

"Maker's breath," I gasped. "I didn't even think of that!" I put my hands over my mouth, waiting for lightening to strike me dead.

"Oh calm down," he said, looking at me. "The Maker doesn't care. I bet he doesn't even like her. Besides, it's funny." I shook my head.

"Come on, back to work." I climbed back to my feet, walking to where I had dropped my staff.

"You know that will make for a fantastic story next time we're drunk."

"What will?" Oghren asked, seeing I was now healed.

"Nothing," I replied.

"I'll tell you at the victory party," Anders said at the same time.

"We're having a victory party?" Sigrun asked.

"Of course," I told her. "After this we'll deserve one. Maybe Alistair will throw us something, and we can all go to Denerim. Dress up like nobles and get drunk on fancy wine while everyone tells us how awesome we are."

"So you don't think we're going to die?" She sounded almost disappointed.

"We might, sure. I don't want to, though."

"Yeah, but… Legion of the Dead, remember?" I grinned.

"You can die later on. If you die now who will help me get the recruits from Orzammar used to surface life? And Nathaniel can't train anyone with blades, he's an archer."

Sigrun seemed to consider this for a moment. Anders and Oghren looked faintly amused. "All right, you have a point."

We headed out of the tunnels, emerging into mid afternoon, to take down another small band near the city gates, back where we began. A soon as the last ogre was down the guard captain ran over once again. I cast a pointed glance at the hundreds of people who had come out of their hiding spots to mill around in the streets or cheer at the gate, and looked at him. He at least had the decency to appear shamed.

He told us the darkspawn were retreating, and that another messenger from the Architect had arrived to tell us where the Mother could be found.

"Any news of the Keep?"

"We haven't heard much but what we have heard is… not good."

I knelt on the ground, face in my hands. Oghren put his hand on my shoulder. "All right," I said finally, standing up. "Where did they retreat to?" He gave us directions and we set off, hoping our horses were still alive.

"Maker's breath," Anders muttered. "I can't believe we killed a dragon."

"That makes five for me," I said. "or, well, dragon-like things."

It was after dark and the four of us were standing at the top of a Tevinter-era tower. The darkspawn at the bottom hadn't noticed us yet. I looked down, seeing the large single staircase, and came up with a plan. "Oghren, Sigrun, position near the top of the stairs. Anders, you and I will cast large spells below. Electrical storms, fire storms, anything. Any that make it through will be half-dead by the time they get to us." It worked, and we were soon picking our way through the bodies as we climbed down. Once at the bottom we darted out, drawing the darkspawn into the open, before bolting back up the stairs. Anders, waiting above, unleashed another lightning storm as soon as we were clear of the area. Using this method we made it through all four towers quickly.

"I feel like I could sleep for a hundred years," Sigrun protested. I knew how she felt. Oghren handed her a stamina potion from his pack. We were at the bottom of the last tower when the Architect cornered us. I jumped back, shuddering, as he levitated to the ground floor. A dwarven woman in heavy plate waited for him above. His voice, like dry parchment on stone, droned on, explaining that it was a 'misunderstanding.'

"A misunderstanding that ends in a heap of dead bodies?" Oghren asked. "Yeah, I get those sometimes, too." I had to make a note to buy him that chariot he'd been asking for since the blight.

"I have created a version of your Joining ceremony," the Architect went on, ignoring Oghren. "But for that, I need Grey Warden blood."

"I like my blood where it is," Anders said, glaring at him. "In my veins."

If I had to describe our confrontation with the Architect I could have made a list of least likely possibilities. I doubted we would all dance the Remigold together. Or any dance, when it came down to it. I doubted he and I would swap cookie recipes. I doubted he would want to shop for shoes. And I doubted the monster who kidnapped us and drained nearly all of my blood would propose an alliance. But, he did.

"What is this Mother, exactly," I asked him, knowing there was more to the story.

"My greatest mistake," he said. "Freedom drove her mad." That was all I needed to know.

"This reeks of stupid," Sigrun muttered. I nodded.

"This ends here," I said.

After we had defeated both the Architect and the dwarven woman who accompanied him I stopped, resting.

"Did we do the right thing?" Oghren asked. "Could he have ended the blight? Kept the darkspawn from Orzammar?"

I shrugged. "He made the Mother, she destroyed Amaranthine, and he didn't even admit to doing anything wrong. Said she went mad because of her freedom. You think she'd be the last?"

He considered this. "Yeah, next it would be the sister, brother, and daughter banging on the door."

Anders drank another lyrium potion. "Can you people stop getting stabbed?" he asked. "That would really help a lot." He giggled. "Look who I'm asking. You love to get stabbed. It's practically a Grey Warden hobby! We should add it to the motto. In war, victory and stabbings. In peace, vigilance after being stabbed. In death, sacrifice by stabbing."

I walked over to him and looked at his eyes. The pupils were enormous, black and round. "Anders, how many of those have you had?"

He counted, lost track, and started again. "Eight, since we got here. No, nine. Ten?" Another giggle.

I sighed. "All right, we're resting here for a bit until Anders comes down."

Sigrun shrugged and sat down, passing out dry meat and cheese from her pack.

"Comes down?" Oghren said. "You mean he's lyrium addled? I didn't think mages could get that."

"Just a bit," I said.

"Am not!" Anders protested. I ignored him for now.

"It's almost like being a little drunk, the everything is silly early stage. It'll pass soon."

"Sodding mages," Oghren muttered. "They get all the fun. We get too much lyrium in the blood and just go mad."

Anders pulled me onto his lap, giggling again. "Hello," he said brightly. Considering we were only feet away from a corpse, sitting in darkspawn filth, his mood was more than a little disconcerting.

"Anders, you need to eat," I told him, trying to squirm out of his grip.

"Only if you stay here," he said, grabbing me in a bear hug. Sigrun laughed.

I give up. I'll be the official joke of Weisshaupt. Other Wardens will snicker whenever Ferelden's branch of the order is mentioned. Alistair was right; recruiting nothing but crazy people and apostates was a mistake. And now I was sitting on the lap of one of my wardens, surrounded by darkspawn corpses, while begging him to eat dinner because he was too high on lyrium to think clearly. "Fine, just eat."

He began to shift under me halfway through our improvised meal. I took that as my cue and hopped down to sit on the floor.

"Feeling better?" I asked.

"Sorry," he apologized.

"It happens," I shrugged. "Getting a bit fog-brained is an acceptable price for not having any of us bleed out after a fight. I've had it hit me mid-battle before. That's entertaining." That was, in fact, why I became a blood mage. Getting silly halfway through a fight was a great way to make sure you didn't have to worry about the Calling.

He looked over at the body. "This is a horrible location for a picnic."

I drained a lyrium potion. "Let's go, we still have the Mother to kill."

"Do all broodmothers smell this bad?" Sigrun asked as we approached.

"Basically, yeah." I'd forgotten she had never fought one up close before. Nor had Anders, for that matter. "All right, here's what we do," I began, calling them over before we entered the next chamber. "If there's a safe place to stand where we have a clear line of sight Anders and I will focus on large area spells. If not, Sigrun, Oghren, and I get as close to the broodmother as we can. Attack her, ignore the tentacles. We do that, Anders, you stay back and keep us healed, we're going to take a real beating."

"What is a safe place to stand?" Anders asked.

"Stone floor," Oghren answered him. "The tentacles can burst through if you stand on the meaty bits."

I'd seen a dwarven broodmother before, but this one appeared to be closer to human. A side effect of the Architect's experiments, perhaps. Of course, she had something to say as well. "If it isn't the hero of the hour," she called as we entered the room. "The slayer of the mighty Father come to claim a reward. Oh, what a delicious day."

"That," Oghren said, jaw open, "is a lot of nipples."

"They just get bigger and uglier, don't they?" Anders asked no one in particular.

"Let's just kill this so we can go home," I said, suddenly exhausted. The broodmother laughed, the skin of her face peeling back in four segments. "eew," I muttered, casting a freezing spell. We chipped away at her defenses slowly, getting pushed back by the tentacles and fighting our way forward again. I could see Oghren straining more with each swing of his axe, sweat poured down Sigrun's face. A tentacle managed to throw me back.

"Maggie!" Anders shouted.

"I'm fine!" I rolled to my feet and went back down again with a scream, leg buckling beneath me. "or not." Anders started to rush over, but a red blur caught my attention. Oghren had been thrown, and with a lot more force than I was. "I'm fine, check Oghren first," I ordered. After a second glance at me Anders did, kneeling behind the dwarf.

"Blast, blast, blast," I muttered. I'd lost my knife in the tunnels below the city. Pulling Duncan's dagger off my back I glanced at it. I had promised Alistair I'd never use Duncan's weapons for blood magic, it was the only reason he didn't complain when I kept them, even though Duncan had been a rogue and both weapons were far too small for Alistair to ever use. He got the shield, I took the sword and daggers.

I sighed. Alistair would most likely rather have us live through the day than know Duncan's blades were lost forever in a broodmother's lair, next to my rotting corpse. Casting another freezing spell to help Sigrun, I ran the blade across the palm of my hand. Compared to the screaming of my leg it was nothing. A quick incantation and the red haze surrounded me. Another moment and I aimed my arms, directed at the broodmother. I laughed, watching her twitch and jerk as her blood boiled. Ha! Take that! Raising my hands again I set off a burst of lightning, not releasing until the body sagged.

"Anders?" I called.

"Oghren's fine, I'm almost done with him, give me a minute."

"Sigrun? How are you?"

"Nothing a health poultice won't fix." She walked over and sat beside me. "You killed it while sitting down."

"We killed it while I was sitting down," I corrected her, laughing. Taking a quick look at my leg I winced. Just getting home on that would be tough. "I think 'collapsed' is more accurate than 'sitting,' anyways."

Anders and Oghren joined us. "We're alive," Anders said to me as he examined my ankle.

"I noticed."

"So we get a party, right?"

"Maker, yes. Huge party. Tons of booze."

"Yes, speaking of booze," Anders began, a wrinkle on his forehead. "Oghren, give Maggie a belt of whatever paint thinner you're carrying and then both of you hold her down."

I winced. "Andraste's tits, Oghren, what was that?"

"No one sells the good stuff," he muttered, hands clamped to my shoulders while Sigrun held down my thighs. "Had to get that shipped in special from Rivain."

"All right, unless you want a limp I need to straighten this out before I can heal it. Count of three." I braced myself as he counted. I think I may have screamed as loud as the broodmother did when we killed her. "Next time you break something please stay down," Anders chastised me, his voice surprisingly calm.

Oghren and Sigrun released me and I fell to my back, panting, a cold sticky sweat all over my body. I winced, feeling the bones knit back together as Anders cast spells. Eventually the pain was replaced by warmth, and finally nothing. "Try standing up," Anders demanded, offering me a hand. I took a few tentative steps.

"Good as new," I announced. It wasn't, but it was close enough, and would be in a couple days at least. It wasn't the time to nit-pick.

While I wouldn't exactly call it making camp, we did sleep for several hours in one of the towers, too exhausted to carry on. I barely noticed the pile of darkspawn we pushed aside, and the feeling of blood in my hair as I collapsed. Up before first light, we made it back to our horses by dawn, pushing them to the keep at as fast a pace as we dared. I couldn't sense darkspawn, but it still didn't appear promising. I could smell smoke well before I could see the buildings. I urged my horse to go faster, watching the horizon for the home.

A/N: Done with the main game! Woo! Got a bit too "omg we're all gonna die" for me at the end, but I figured the game totally presents it like that, so go with it. The specific bed in the last chapter? Totally didn't even think of it like that while I was writing it. But hell, even funnier that way, so thanks to the reviewers who mentioned it, I'm going to go with that.

The Maker smiles on those who review!