Chapter 48:
Soldier's Peak:
The next morning, we headed off towards this Soldier's Peak place. It took a few days to reach it – it was high in the snow-covered mountains and sod it was cold.
We made camp at the base of the mountain and decided that only a few of us would head into the actual place. Morrigan was reluctantly recruited to come along with Leliana and Alistair and I was practically dragged into the sodding place. Why they couldn't deal with dead things without me, I don't know!
Levi stopped in front of a large, foreboding entrance. "Here we are. Soldier's Peak," he said softly.
I looked up at the entrance, a sense of dread falling over me. This place felt… wrong. I could practically smell death and destruction seeping from the fallen walls.
Alistair gripped my shoulder. "It's seen better years," he muttered.
"Better centuries more like," I replied.
Morrigan snorted. "Once the Wardens flourished, their ranks full, their calibre certain. Now they even accept people like you, Alistair."
"Hey!" yelled Alistair, glaring at Morrigan. She just shrugged and took a few steps forward, her staff drawn.
Ghosts seemed to materialise around her as she moved. She flinched slightly but didn't change position. They seemed to be talking, but I wasn't really paying attention to what they were saying. They were sodding ghosts. Ghosts were in front of me.
"What is this?" I screeched, stumbling backwards into Alistair's chest. "I don't like ghosts. This is not nice, not nice, I don't like this."
"Be quiet," snapped Morrigan. "It appears to be a memory."
"I've heard an Orlesian ballad about something like this," added Leliana. "A beauty trapped in a dream. In the song, Bellissa never wakes up."
Levi shuddered. "Your pretty friend here is making me nervous, Warden," he muttered.
"You're not the only one," I agreed.
I screamed as something started to move ahead of me. The freaking skeletons were moving. "Sodding stone!" I shrieked as Morrigan sent a fireball towards the closest skeleton. "What the sod is going on?"
"Calm down, Kaela," shouted Leliana as she shot an arrow through a corpse heading right for me. "They do not put up much of a fight."
Alistair ducked away from me and started attacking some of the reanimated skeletons. "They die easily," he agreed as he beheaded another corpse.
I shuddered. "They were already sodding dead!" I screeched, frantically slicing at corpses with my daggers. "Dead should stay dead!"
I heard Morrgian snort beside me. "We fight darkspawn on a daily basis and you are afraid of reanimated skeletons?"
"Yes!"
The last corpse fell to the groud and I gripped my daggers tighter. "I hate this place," I grumbled, edging closer to Alistair. "Let's just do this as quickly as possible. I want to get away from here."
Alistair gently patted my head and we followed Levi into the Keep.
Ghosts materilised again as we entered the Keep. I clung to Alistair, feeling myself tremble.
A ghostly mage walked up to one of the soldiers. "The men's morale is low," said the mage. "My spells are of no use in this matter, Commander."
"There is no more to leading than men than socery, Avernus. I will remind them that they're Wardens."
The solider nodded to the mage and walked towards the centre of the room. Multiple soliders, Wardens, looked at her as she held her head high. "Men, I won't lie to you. The situation is grim," she said loudly. "Our forces outnumbered. Our bellies empty. And our hearts are sagging. But we are Wardens. Darkspawn flee when they hear our horns. Archdemons die when they taste our blades. So are we to bend knee to mere human despot? No!" The woman stalked across the room, eyeing off each of the ghostly soldiers. "I, for one, will never give up. I, for one, will never surrender just to dance on Arland's gallows. So I propose here and now, in these hallowed halls where generations of our bretheren stood vigil against darkspawn and evil… that we send a message to that fat bastard. In this sacred place, proud men, strong men stood defiant and would rather die than submit to tyranny!"
The ghosts vanished and left us standing in silence. "So brave, even when starving," sighed Levi. "And my great-great-grandmother stood with them. Generations of Drydens have said that our stock were lions. Fierce, proud and noble."
"Looks like your great-great-grandmother lived up to that description," I said softly, still clinging onto Alistair.
Levi nodded. "Let us keep going," he said.
We continued through the corridors, Morrigan and Leliana fighting off the few corpses that reanimated along the way. I was sodding terrified of this place. Why the sod did I agree to this? I need to learn to say sodding no to these people.
We walked into a large room and I let out a moan as more ghosts appeared. This was just getting ridiculous.
"Make them pay men! Hold the flank" yelled the ghostly woman. "Avernus, we need you!"
The mage started chanting and ghostly demons appeared. "Blood magic," hissed Alistair beside me.
The ghosts disappeared again, and I let out a string of curses as corpses started rising again.
I stayed behind the others, protecting Levi from the few stragglers. I so didn't like this place. I sodding preferred the Deep Roads. Give me the sodding archdemon over corpses any sodding day.
The last of the corpses fell to the group and I heard Levi exhale loudly behind me. "The Wardens summoned demons," he muttered in disbelief. "I can't believe it. And my grandmother… she knew."
I bit my lip and stared up at Alistair. The memory of using blood magic to save Connor flicked through my mind and I sighed. "She was fighting for her life," I murmured, glancing away from Alistair. I shrugged. "Sometimes… it's necessary, depending on the circumstances and what the other options are."
Levi shook his head. "I believed that my family was better than that."
"More answers may lay ahead," said Leliana.
Morrigan nodded. "I sense some disturbances in the veil ahead."
I sighed and followed my companions forward. I sodding hated this place so sodding much. We edged further into Soldiers Peak, fighting off more sodding corpses and demons until we reached a mostly empty room. Someone was standing alone at the end of the room and we slowly approached the person.
"I sense a demon," murmured Morrigan beside me, gripping her staff.
I narrowed my eyes and gripped my daggers tightly as the person turned around.
My jaw almost hit the ground as the person turned to face us. It was distorted and rotting, but the features were familiar. It was the woman from the ghostly memories. Levi's grandmother. I could barely breathe as I backed into Alistair, tightly clutching onto him. I could hear my companions talking with this… thing… but it wasn't really computing in my head. This was just too sodding much.
"I can't do this," I muttered, my head going blank. Darkspawn are one thing, but this was just... too sodding much. Darkness swirled in my vision and I felt my body hit the hard ground.
oOo
When I came too, I was back at camp. Alistair smiled as he saw me slowly sit up. He rushed to my side and gently wrapped an arm around my shoulders
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
I rubbed my head. "Sore," I said. "What happened?"
"You fainted," he replied. "We took care of Sophia. She was possessed. The veil had been torn in the Keep due to the Wardens using blood magic – Avernus, the Warden mage, was still alive too. They'd used blood magic and ripped the veil there. Avernus was doing some pretty sick experiments holed up there to keep himself alive longer… We used Avernus to close the veil and then Morrigan killed him."
I blinked. "Wow. So I missed a sodding lot then."
He shrugged. "Just a bit. Levi stayed at the Peak. He said to say thank you for your help and coming despite your fears."
"Not that I was much sodding use," I grumbled. "I sodding passed out."
He patted my shoulder. "It's okay," he said. "You don't have much experience with possessions or things like that."
I shuddered. The memory of Sophia's face wouldn't leave my mind for quite a while. I was immensely happy that dwarves were immune to things like demons, it was incredibly disturbing what they could do. "Let's just get moving. We need to get back to Redcliffe and stop this Blight."
Alistair helped me to my feet and we quickly packed up camp and continued to Redcliffe.
oOo
Alistair and I were quickly whisked away to meet with Arl Eamon and Teagan once we arrived in Redcliffe.
"Have you acquired all your allies?" asked Eamon.
"We have," said Alistair. "All the allies from the treaty are ready to fight the Blight."
"That's good… we can call the Landsmeet now."
I glanced at Alistair and let out a sigh. "Let's get this over with. There's no point delaying this any longer."
Arl Eamon nodded. "Excellent," he said. "I shall make the arrangements. We shall head off to Denerim first thing in the morning."
