The Tainted Knight
A Dragon Age Fanfiction
By Bionca Femme
Chapter 26:
While Selene and King Alistair fought valiantly to save the city of Amaranthine and deal with the aftermath of the blight disease that gripped the city, the remaining Wardens awaited the second siege of Vigil's Keep. With Selene in Amaranthine, it fell to Ser Perth to take command. How this came to pass had baffled him, but evidently it was not only his experience in leading men, but the length of time in which he had been tainted that determined his seniority.
Thus he stood atop the newly repaired outer wall watching with narrowed eyes as the first of the beasts melted out of the trees like living shadows, horrors spilling out of the dark and tainting everything with their vile nature.
"It's time men!" he called out to the Archers by his side, and to the men waiting below in the courtyard. "Once already have these twisted beasts violated our home and taken lives from us. But that will not happen again! For the Vigil, for Amaranthine... and for the Grey Wardens!" he bellowed.
The answering cry of the soldiers and the scant handful of Wardens gladdened his aching heart. For there was no hint of fear in it. "Archers!" he called out.
The line of Archers he stood next to lifted their bows, arrows knocked. "Take your aim!" he ordered, knowing that as soon as they loosed their arrows that they would fly swiftly into the night, seeking out the enlarged, slow-beating hearts of the five Ogres that had accompanied the dark spawn raiders.
He watched as the Ogres stopped in the middle of the field below the Keep, each bent and his eyes widened, they were plunging their large fists into the earth, grasping for boulders to throw at the Keep walls. "Fire!" he shouted.
Arrows were loosed and they found their marks and two of the Ogres fell with their arms still thrust elbow-deep into the ground.
The others roared, a combined terrible sound of pain that made him want to cover his ears. But he merely grimaced and shouted for the Archers to once again take aim. If they allowed even a single Ogre to make it to the gates, they would be fighting within the walls, he wanted to avoid that as long as possible.
The Archers fired again and two more went down, but the last Ogre had managed to wrench free a large boulder from the dirt and it hurled it at the walls of the Vigil, just below where he and the archers stood. The Vigil shuddered with the impact, though, it did not crumble, thanks to the skill of Master Voldrik whose stone-craft made the walls near impervious to the boulder attacks. Ser Perth and the archers staggered. When they steadied themselves, however, they found that the Ogre had bought itself the time it needed to make it to the gate, out of their line of sight.
Andre cursed and ordered the archers to keep firing into the still advancing dark spawn. He himself bounded down the rampart stairs and almost stumbled when he reached the bottom. "Make ready!" he shouted as he ran to join the soldiers waiting before the gates.
Just as he made it to where Oghren and Sigrun stood with Justice in front of the gathered soldiers, the sound of the Ogres massive fists trying to break down the gate beat out a terrible sound in the night air.
"Well," Sigrun said as she pulled her swords from their shoulder harnesses, "this is it!"
Oghren chuckled. "Aye, let's give them what for!"
"May vengeance and justice be served," Justice added with a confidence that made Ser Perth grin.
"It has been an honor, my friends," Andre said finally with a grin on his face.
All three of them nodded, knowing that this could be the last time that they had to speak with one another. Rilyn and Velanna were farther back as Velanna needed to keep out of the actual fighting so that she could cast healing spells and support the fighters. Rilyn had consented to protecting her as she did so. Andre and Sigrun had said their preemptive farewells to them just as the dark spawn had been spotted approaching the Vigil.
When the gate shattered under the Ogres' fists, they did not wait for the dark spawn to pour into the Vigil. Proud, brave men rushed forward to meet them, driving them back by the sheer ferocity of their will to live, to protect those that would perish should they not succeed in defending the Vigil. That day heroes were born; legends forged in the heat of battle.
Andre brought the might of his blade and his wrath down upon the tainted creatures, cutting a swath of destruction towards the Ogre. Once he reached the armor-plated behemoth, Andre was able to attract its attention. It made a grab for him, and Andre spun out of the way. Reversing the grip on his sword, he plunged it into the gap its armor between the creature's thigh and shin. The dragon-bone blade dug deeply into the monster's knee and it roared, kicking its leg out behind it and throwing Ser Perth to the ground. Ser Perth hit the blood soaked dirt with what would have been an 'oof', had the din of battle not drowned it out. When he looked up he found a giant purplish foot bearing down on him and he pulled out his dagger and drove it upwards. The creature let out an ear-shattering roar and then staggered away from its fallen prey.
Ser Perth rolled out of the way and got to his feet, readying himself for when the Ogre came at him again. Instead it started to wave its arms frantically trying to get at something on its back. It turned just enough so that Andre could see what it was. Sigrun clung to its back, her swords buried deep into the space between the armor and the helmet the Ogre was wearing. She twisted the blades and hung on as the creature spun around. Finally one of the blades dug deep enough that it severed an artery and the beast dropped to its knees and fell forward. Sigrun rolled off and sprang to her feet. She gave Andre a rather cheeky grin when she noticed he was gaping at her.
She only winked at him, and then, with a whoop of what Andre could only assume was excitement, she leaped back into the heat of battle.
The fighting continued into the early morning hours. When the smoke cleared, and the last hurlock's head was separated from its body, it was Andre that they hoisted upon their shoulders. Ser Perth had saved them by lobbing a number of Dworkins lyrium bombs at the largest groups of dark spawn. Eventually their numbers dwindled enough that they were able to turn the tide of battle.
"You know, for such a perky woman you certainly make a terrible patient," Andre teased Sigrun after she unleashed a colorful string of swearwords that would have made a sailor blush.
"I'm wounded! I can piss and moan all I like! I earned it," she retorted and then glared at Watcher Rilyn angrily as he pulled the bandage on her arm tighter.
Rilyn, to his credit, returned the glare with a jaunty smile and a wink that had her rolling her eyes. "You don't get to complain Lethallan, after all, no one told you to take on four shrieks by yourself."
"Maker's mercy!" Ser Perth sighed in exasperation. "You'd think you had a death wish!"
"Well, they don't call us the Legion of jaunty pub songs, you know," Sigrun replied with a sniff.
"Hah! I'd worry about you a lot less if they did," Ser Perth plopped down on the bed next to her. "If I'm not supposed to act foolishly, then I expect the same from you."
"But that's different," she protested with a faint whine.
Ser Perth raised and eyebrow at her, barely noticing that Rilyn decided that it was a good time to go check on something elsewhere. The Dalish Watcher left them alone in her room. "How is it different?" Andre asked.
"Well, you're more important than I am," she huffed, a little uncomfortable with the direction this was going.
"What a silly thing to say!" Andre couldn't help the stunned expression that passed over his face. Why on earth would she think less of herself than she thought of him?
Sigrun frowned. "You have a place in your world. You're a Knight. In my world, I'm a nothing but a thief from Dust town, I got put into the Legion for a reason, my purpose is to die. Yours is to live. I die to defend, you live to defend. It's simple really. Your living is important," she held up her bandaged arm. "Me dying; equally important."
"The Legion was wiped out, Sigrun. You aren't in the Legion any longer. And, if you hadn't noticed, you're a Grey Warden now. The blight was defeated, so while dying might be an occupational hazard, its certainly not the ultimate goal. Your purpose has changed, you shouldn't seek out death by dark spawn, you should seek out life by defeating them!" he finished with a growl.
She blinked at him in confusion. "I don't understand, why is this so important to you? What do you care?"
Andre shot up from the bed and started pacing at the foot of it. "You have absolutely no idea, do you?" he said angrily after a moment.
"By all the Ancestors!" she hissed out. "There had better be a point to this or I'm going to get cranky."
"Maker's breath, woman!" Andre exclaimed. "You are important! Can't you see that?"
"No, I'm not!" she retorted.
"Yes you are!" he ground out.
"Really? To who? The Grey Wardens? To Surfacers? The Dwarves? Your weirdo surfacer God?" she growled.
"To me!" Andre burst out angrily. "You're important to me!"
Sigrun opened her mouth to say something else and then shut it abruptly when what he said finally registered. "Huh?"
Andre ran a hand through his auburn hair. He'd carefully washed all the gore from it and though it was clean, he still couldn't shake the feeling that there was still blood in it. He grimaced then he looked back at the bed to find her still sitting there looking shocked. He chuckled. "You know, I always thought it would take quite a lot to render you speechless. It seems that I have succeeded."
"You know, maybe the air is too thin way up there," she replied dryly. "You ought to try walking on your knees once and awhile, get a little oxygen to your brain."
"Is it so hard to believe that I might care for you?" Ser Perth sat back down next to her and took her hand in his.
"You don't think I'm a little short for you?" she asked half-jokingly, though there was a tremble in her voice.
Ser Perth chuckled. "If you can single-handedly slay an ogre almost three times my size, I don't believe height is an issue."
"You could find someone much prettier," she insisted.
"I happen to think you're quite lovely," Andre scooted closer to her and placed a hand palm down on the other side of her, leaning forward slightly.
Sigrun frowned. "What about all the tattoos? You can take the girl out of the stone, but you can't take the stone out of the girl, you know."
Ser Perth smiled down at her and then moved a little closer. "I rather like them, it makes me wonder where else you have them, actually. They're quite exotic."
Sigrun's eyes widened as he moved closer still, his face mere inches away from hers. "You're a strange man, you know that?"
There was a knock at the door and Andre grimaced in frustration. "Hold that thought," he kissed the tip of her nose and left a brightly blushing Sigrun sitting on her bed.
"Yes? What is it?" he asked when he flung open the door and found a wide-eyed female guard behind it. At the woman's expressiong, Ser Perth began to feel the inky tendrils of dread creep into his heart. They had won but their losses were monumental, there was little left of the Vigil's soldiers and had Velanna not been there he dreaded to think how much higher the number of dead would have been.
"Seneschal Varel sent me to fetch you, Ser. We caught a talking dark spawn skulking outside the Vigil. It says it has information for you!" she moved aside to let him pass.
The former Knight of Redcliffe did not bother thanking the guard, instead he stormed towards the throne room. Once there he threw open the doors and stalked up to where Varel was looking down at the creature, who was kneeling on the ground between two guards who had their blades on the creature, ready to run it through if it even breathed wrong.
"Varel, I trust you have a good reason for not killing this creature on sight?" Ser Perth regarded the Seneschal with irritation.
"Aye, Ser. This creature claims that he knows the location of the Mother," he replied.
Ser Perth looked down at the creature who held his gaze for a moment and then looked away. "The Architect is wishing that you kill the Mother."
"Why?" Andre folded his arms over his broad chest. "Maybe I should just let the two of them to kill each other and then destroy whichever one is left."
The dark spawn's eyes snapped up from the floor. "Because the Mother will not kill the Father. She is liking their game too well. But the Wardens she wishes gone forever. She will come again and again, until you are gone. Then she will start looking for a new Archdemon," the dark spawn explained.
Ser Perth's eyes narrowed at the creature. "Do you know who I am?"
The creature nodded. "The Tainted Knight," it answered.
Varel's bushy iron-gray eyebrows shot up in question and Ser Perth regarded him with only a glance that indicated that he would explain later. He turned his attention back to the creature. "So then, you know that I have fallen prey to your Architect before. Do you really suppose me such a fool as to do so again?"
"The Architect is not wishing the Tainted Knight's death. He wants only to free our people of the madness. For us to resist the call of the Old Gods. To stop the madness that causes us to bring the blight," the creature replied with a fervency that had Andre near shaking his head in bewilderment.
"You truly believe that's what he wants, don't you?" Ser Perth asked. The whole time that he had been a prisoner of the one they called the Architect, Andre had not been as taken in by him just as Seranni seemed to be. Andre thought that he had fooled and manipulated the girl, but it surprised Ser Perth that even this creature seemed to believe in the Architect's supposed agenda.
"He has always told us it was so. I do not want to go back to the before. To the madness where I was always asleep and hungry. There is never enough rest, never enough food and the song, it drives us into slavery. I would rather be dead than return to that," the creature replied.
Incredibly, Ser Perth felt a stab of pity for the creature at his feet. "Do you know where the Mother's lair is?"
"Drakes Fall," the creature replied. "You must be going to the place where Dragons go to die."
A/N: I know that this is an extremely short chapter, being that I usually wait until I have around 3-4,000-ish words in a chapter before I post. But this was just such a great stopping point that I decided to go with it.
I have the rest done and hopefully I can get the rest of it out to you this weekend! Woohoo! =)
As always, thank you to Melismo!