So you're a Howe?
Do you have a point, mage?
Hey, I'm fond of the Howes! I'm also fond of the Whys, the Whos and the Whats.
How clever.
It's shameful how long it took me to come up with that.
- Anders and Nathaniel
"Did Arais say anything about that woman she and Anders were stopped by in the Chantry courtyard?" Fenris asked, lazily playing with Hawke's close cropped black hair.
She traced the outline of one of the markings on his chest, sighing softly against his skin. "She never came back to the mansion. Sebastian mentioned that the woman had been looking for someone to help her find her brother in the Deep Roads. Apparently he's a Grey Warden from Ferelden who was sent here on some expedition."
"Perhaps he was one of the other Wardens recruited by your cousin?"
"Perhaps," Hawke responded, rolling on top of him before he could register her movement. She dipped her head to kiss his throat, seeming to ever-so-carefully avoid the especially sensitive markings just below his chin.
"I take it you don't wish to speak of this at the moment?" She deliberately nipped at the flesh surrounding the marking that reached just below his ear, and he growled before he flipped her onto her back and pinned her arms on either side of her body. Lowering his lips until they were a mere breath away from hers, he whispered harshly, "You need to learn to communicate with your words, Hawke."
The stale stench of the Deep Roads assaulted Alistair, and he found himself instinctively bracing for the melodic hum that would come when the taint sparked to life. When Arais and Anders stiffened momentarily before relaxing into battle ready postures, he sighed dejectedly and focused on the ground as he walked.
He felt naked and defenseless. No amount of armor or number of magical protections could make up for the loss of being able to sense danger around every corner. It didn't matter that Alistair was with two other Grey Wardens, capable of doing exactly what he no longer could: it just made him feel isolated—as if his purpose had been wrenched from him. It reminded him of what had happened seven years earlier—of what he thought he had lost forever and very nearly did only days earlier.
When they stopped, he looked up to see Arais staring at him, brows furrowed in concern. He gave her a half-smile. He knew he couldn't fool her, of all people, into believing he was fine, but he tried nonetheless. No longer being a Warden paled in comparison to everything else he had overcome with Arais in recent memory. He would simply have to adjust to relying on those he now traveled with for warning, and defend them to the best of his ability.
No pressure.
Arais pulled the bladed end of her staff from the belly of the darkspawn she had just felled, turning with a flourish as she beheaded two more. She slammed the tip of the blade into the stone ground, casting a wave of telekinetic energy outward, knocking back half a dozen darkspawn that attempted to flank her and Anders.
Spotting a small group of the monsters surround the lone archer in the middle of the clearing, she cast a protective shield around him. After a moment of deep concentration, she summoned a swirling funnel of ice over the mass of deformed creatures that would have surely overwhelmed the man they targeted. Most froze instantaneously—shattering with the force behind each blow from Alistair's blade—while others were simply slowed enough to be left defenseless against a sword or arrow.
Alistair stood back to back with the man as the last of the shattered pieces melted into the blood stained stone. A darkspawn collapsed as it rushed forward, an arrow protruding from the center of its forehead—further confirming that they had indeed found Nathaniel Howe, and he was just as competent a fighter now as he had been when he was recruited.
"Seems we were wrong about the Deep Roads," Arais said as she approached the two men, smiling despite her wariness. Nathaniel turned on his heel as he strapped his bow on his back, eyebrow raised in confused recognition. "Why did I spare the Architect again?"
"Arais?" He stepped forward, his eyes narrowed. "Anders?"
"Making friends as always, I see," Anders quipped from beside Arais.
Nathaniel smiled. "There's no escaping you, it seems."
"He's special that way," Arais said, shrugging when Anders turned to her with a friendly glare. "What? It's usually you doing the escaping, remember?"
"Fair point," he conceded. Anders turned back to Nathaniel. "So what are you doing down here, anyway?"
He looked between them before responding. "The Champion went further into the Deep Roads than anyone thought possible. The First Warden himself ordered this investigation." His gray eyes met Arais'. "I had hoped you were right about the darkspawn numbers waning over time, but that seems to have been wishful thinking: nothing more."
"Where are the others? Certainly you didn't come down here on your own."
"Of course not. When we were attacked, I was separated from the rest of my expedition. Some of them may yet live, including Oghren, Sigrun and Velanna."
Arais blinked, surprised to hear the elf's name. "Velanna? I thought she disappeared after the siege on Vigil's Keep?"
"It's… a long story," Nathaniel said noncommittally, turning away. "She returned to the Wardens several months after she left."
"Oh, dear Maker!" Anders cried out, momentarily glowing when Justice made his presence known. "That is something I did not need to know."
"What is it?" Arais asked, concerned. The mage looked horrified by whatever it was Justice had informed him of. He simply shook his head, a hand covering his eyes as he did. Shrugging, she turned back to Nathaniel. "Let's search the tunnels. I'd rather not leave any potential survivors behind if I can help it."
"Thank you," he replied over his shoulder, heading into a cavern with Alistair close behind. She gave Anders one last look: he seemed to have regained his composure, though his face was now devoid of color.
A memory of his reaction to Gwyneth coming to his clinic—stiff from lyrium infusing with her muscles—caused Arais to stumble a bit, realizing what Anders' better half had told him. She closed her eyes, her cheeks flushing as she battled back the images threatening to overwhelm her.
She was going to kill Justice for that.
"Get back, you sodding beast!" a familiar voice called, blessedly tearing Anders from the… upsetting images that were now plaguing him. The whistle of an axe slicing through the air was as sharp as the blade that cleaved into an ogre's hip. The monster roared, enraged, as it reached for the dwarf with what seemed to be every intention of crushing him into a fine powder.
Narrowly evading the massive hand that clutched at him, Oghren pulled his axe back for one final swing into the ogre, dispatching its head in a single, swift movement. He sent it flying backward into a small contingent of darkspawn that attempted to surround him, leaving them in lifeless heaps on the stone ground.
Another pair of ogres came from a chamber to the right, and the overwhelming number of spells that were cast upon them left Anders in a daze, unaware of which were his. A wolf lunged out of the shadows, its jaw clamping down on the arm of one before it was tossed roughly against the wall. The animal struck against itnwith a sickening thud, letting out a cry in its agony as it landed on the floor, hard.
Nathaniel rushed from his position by the levers that triggered the explosives over to the wounded creature, lifting and carrying it back to the shadows it had emerged from, motioning for Anders to follow. Dodging the hail of enemy arrows that were flying across the cavern, he ducked into the shadows to see Nathaniel clothing—as best he could—a severely injured Velanna, who had transformed back into an elf in her state of unconsciousness.
"Go back to the others," Anders commanded forcefully. "I'll take care of her."
With a nod, the archer hesitated before hurrying back to his position, readying himself to detonate the bombs when the opportunity presented itself. The mage returned his attention to the woman before him, immediately spotting an unnatural bend to her arm and a gash bleeding profusely on her scalp. He went to work immediately, hurrying along the mending of the wound on her head before setting the bone in her arm and focusing his healing magic upon it.
A darkspawn is drawing near, Justice warned, forcing Anders to cease in tending to Velanna and turn on his knees, shrouding his would-be attacker in ice. Sigrun appeared from nowhere and drove her blades into its back, shattering it with the force.
Anders eyes widened, and she simply shrugged. "I've got your back."
He nodded before turning back to Velanna, searching her for any serious or superficial injuries he may have missed in his initial examination, but finding none. She seemed to be breathing despite her unconsciousness, so he stood and turned back to the battle. An overwhelming number of corpses littered the ground, and yet a mass of living creatures were still putting up an impressive fight.
Back to back with Sigrun, he began casting spell after spell, allowing Justice to take limited control to add power as Anders drove himself to exhaustion. The number of darkspawn never seemed to dwindle, even as the number of the dead grew exponentially.
An explosion rocked the earth above and below him, bits of stone stinging his skin as they struck from the high ceiling. Darkspawn limbs scattered about, and yet another ogre stumbled forward before collapsing, revealing a rather large fragment of stone protruding from its skull.
As he neared his last lyrium potion, the battle finally seemed to be reaching its end, the body count extraordinary. Bottles and vials were strewn about, some only half empty in the user's haste to regain just a marginal amount of energy. The last of the hostiles fell, sliced from shoulder to hip. The sounds of their weapons being sheathed once more was the only noise for quite some time while everyone seemed to unconsciously form a circle.
"For the first time since I've been down here, I don't sense a single darkspawn," Nathaniel stated, receiving nods of concurrence from all but Alistair. "We've won."
"The route to the surface should be safe, now," Arais pointed out. "Let's find something in this Maker forsaken place to make a gurney for Velanna and get out of here. I'm bloody sick of the Deep Roads."
Sorry about how long it took to update. I've been working, and then some personal problems caused a most heinous writer's block on this story. It's better now, obviously, but I'm not 100 percent happy with what I came up with. I promise future chapters will be better. =D