Finn soon overtook the group as he moved toward the exit. Ariane had to stop Finn before he left without them, "Now mage, tell us what's going on."

Finn turned back like an excited child explaining his favorite story, "The Eluvians are linked. All of them. If you have one, you can find the others, if they still exist. But the one you know of is broken, and corrupted. So, we need something else to…amplify the magic. "

Ariane was starting to understand, "The Lights of Arlathan."

"Yes."

Theron could see the value of Finn's work already, offering a hand, "Will you come with us, Finn?"

Finn giddily shook it, "Ready to go when you are."

"First, we need to report to Hadley of the situation." Climbing back out they immediately moved to Hadley, "We've cleared out the disturbance of the sentinels. You should be able to go in and reset them safely now. And we'll be borrowing Finn regarding research we need his assistance with."

Hadley bowed, "Thank you for dealing with the situation in the repository. The Circle owes you. Oh, and make sure Finn behaves himself out there."

Finn moaning in the back, "You're just like my mother."

It took about a week to reach Cadash Thaig. Though unlike when they arrived searching for Shale's past, they reached the thaig from the opposite direction, near the giant dwarven statue with the memorial of names.

Deesh stopped the group at the bridge to the memorial as she glanced around. Finn was mentally and physically exhausted from their venture, "I'm not sure I like the Deep Roads. Fewer darkspawn than expected, but these tunnels take forever to traverse. Wait, why did we stop? Is this Cadash Thaig?"

Theron calmly responded, "Yes, we've arrived."

Finn nodded, "Right." Then he started to get all fidgety, "So, I've…er, been going through my old notes. Hmm."

Shadow pushed and poked Finn's head, "And?"

Finn pulled out said notes after flailing around to stop Shadow, "And I came across this footnote. Apparently, the elves would magically conceal relics of great significance, thus shielding them from unworthy eyes. And given what the Tevinters did, I'd say they count as unworthy."

Ariane sarcastically noted, "You don't say."

Shadow leaned over, peaking at said notes in Finn's hands, "Are we considered unworthy? I mean some of us aren't even from this world after all."

Finn slowly nodded, "I hate to say it, but yes. We wouldn't be able to see the Lights of Arlathan if they were right under our noses. If the elves concealed the relics with magic, only the blood of their kin will reveal them. Ariane…we need your blood."

Ariane was understandably quickly to retort, "What? Why me? The Warden's Dalish too!"

Deesh hissed, "The process to become a Warden…corrupts and distorts oneself. Such magics would no longer recognize him as an elf. And we don't have time to find another volunteer on the surface."

Theron could see that Finn knew of the process as well, and he had to keep the Wardens' secret as per his own oaths. "Ariane, please. It might help us."

Finn tried to urge her, "You share the same blood as the Arlathan elves, so you're the only one this enchantment might recognize."

Ariane huffed, "Fine. Just because hearing that gets me all tingly. A few drops."

Finn pulled out a small knife, "I'll…be gentle." He took a small cut on her finger and took the drops he needed, "My spell will reveal vortices of magic. Standing in them should allow us to see the energy being drawn to the relics, which will lead us to them."

Deesh whispered to Theron, "Do you sense them?" He only nodded slightly, just enough for the others to see that something was off, as Deesh slowly pulled out a dagger from her satchel. She immediately tossed the dagger toward the bridge as it struck something that started to bleed.

From the shadows a shriek appeared with the dagger still stuck in its side as it lived up to its name where more started to appear. With the narrow passage Deesh and Theron took the vanguard roll with blades at the ready. Ariane prepared her bow as Finn started casting and Shadow took aim with her elongated rifle.

Deesh's shield blocked their advance allowing Theron's swords to stab the shrieks trying to push forward. Ariane's arrow struck true at the head of another as Finn turned one ablaze. Deesh pushed back knocking them back into the burning darkspawn. Shadow's elongated weapon created a very loud bang leading to the head of one shriek exploding into a bloody mess in a split second.

Finn and Ariane were both reeling from the spike in volume, as Ariane was still covering her ears. Shadow hefted her weapon to her shoulder, "Sorry, forgot to warn you to cover your ears."

"What?!"

Deesh was slightly upset that the weapon probably alerted nearly everything in the thaig of their presence if they hadn't already sensed Theron beforehand.

Fortunately, the next thing to deal with was the small ambush from a group of deepstalkers looking for a meal. Deesh tossed one of the shrieks to the ambush sight to get the deepstalkers to prematurely jump out of the ground clamping down onto the carcass.

Even disoriented, Strider rushed forth and snapped up one of the deepstalkers in her jaw, shaking it to death. Deesh quickly joined in, stabbing one to the ground while crushing its neck underfoot. Deesh's three deepstalkers jumped out of her pack to fight the remaining three.

It was a strange sightseeing deepstalkers fighting, the three ambushers were a little taken back by the sudden appearance, but their instincts of survival had kicked in soon enough.

One of Deesh's deepstalkers got pinned as it was being bitten around the neck flap. It was quickly saved by Deesh as she stabbed and tossed the native deepstalker against a rock. She didn't do much more to assist the remaining deepstalkers nor did they need the help.

Deesh looked up to the old dwarven monument remembering their time with Shale as she finally recalled her old memories and identity. Ariane looked down to the wounded deepstalker as the others seemed to help tend to it. "How did you tame these creatures?"

Deesh kicked one of the dead deepstalkers to the side, "I didn't. A group of dwarven criminals were trying to tame various creatures of the Deep Roads and I managed to temp them into following me instead. I keep them out of sight because of their sensitivity to light and how others might attack impulsively."

After the ringing in his ears finally stopped, Finn quickly glanced over the memorial of names, "Interesting. This carving over here is in old dwarven dialect. If you can find more writing like this, I can probably translate it." The last time they visited the thaig it was for Shale, so they didn't really explore the area for any historical records beyond the golem memorial.

High above a strange technological godless world, Mephala had been observing her newest target. Seeing how much manipulation was necessary to lure their pray. While the creation of the metal shells for those Model Ws were slightly difficult to replicate; however, the anger, the malice, the power, that was easy to spread and breed into their new vessels.

The wasteland that the humans had wrought onto their world was more than adequate to test their efforts in replicating the power for the Biometals and to lure in prey. Now they were ready to use them for bait. And fortunately, her underlings have managed to find some little toys to entice the trap even further.

Mephala found several metal men scattered and isolated, plucking through the rubble searching for her bait. It wasn't too difficult to alter the minds of a few to see what she wanted, alert those she desired, and to warp them into the hands of her daedra. They toy with the machine men until they either lose interest or used up their usefulness. Their discarded shells will be useful provocation to enrage the target into making mistakes fueled by rage.

Toying with the little lives of the mortals is always a treat to savor for the lesser daedra as many rarely get to enjoy. One of the few reasons Mephala was willing to tolerate Hircine's obsession for the hunt was to play with these extra tools who will disappear without any care to their plans. While her spiderlings entrapped their prey, extracting all their little secrets with relative ease. What they lack in magic power is made up by their rather pristine souls, even for machines who mimic the human form.

Her spiderlings were eager to feast, but their mission must take precedent as their venom coursed through what little organic matter they had. They filled the ears of the machine men with their sweet poison filled lies of a cure to be offered once they called for assistance, a semi-accurate warning of more Biometals and rampant machines on the loose. It was a joy to see the daedra forcing the two to fight each other for the 'antidote' only for an even worse death.

Once their message was sent, they served their purpose and were toyed with. The daedra were disappointed in how little flesh they really had, more comparable to the dwemer golems, mostly metal with a few bits worth a damn to a daedra. though it was less about the meat as it was the terror and torment etched into their souls before death.

The Biometals were already in place as the daedra would soon clean up the mess once finished. This world was a little troublesome because of technology that emulated teleportation and flight spells, but soon everything will be in place for the trap to transfer the target.

When the scout team's transmission cut their operator desperately tried reestablishing contact, "Team 5 respond! Team 5!"

The Commander returned to the bridge from her own mission, concerned about her comrades, "Tulip, where was Team 5 searching?"

Marguerite turned from her terminal, "Team 5 was originally sent to Sector Y, but they started picking up a strange energy signal in Sector M before reaching their destination. I transferred their comms to Tulip as she was monitoring the situation in those regions."

"But that's the problem." Tulip frantically shifted through the data, "They reported to moving to Sector M from Sector F. But if the transmission originated from Sector V. Sorry Commander, but there must be something wrong here…"

Something or someone was plotting something and targeting them specifically. But the bigger threat was if the report about new Model Ws appearing and creating new Mavericks was accurate. While most of those sectors were nothing but wastelands, if left unchecked the Mavericks could become a real threat.

"Take us in so I can warp down there. If I'm lucky this will be a rescue operation…otherwise, I'll make sure the Model Ws and Mavericks are no longer a threat."

Gardénia swiftly took command, "Yes, ma'am. Grand Nuage is redirecting to Sector V. All scout teams are being notified of the delay and will operate accordingly."

The Commander smiled as she watched the view shift and the three operators diligently working to make everything run smoothly within the airship, "Keep the ship at a distance until I return."

While uncovering the Lights of Arlathan, which turned out to be invisible magical lanterns leaving a trail of magic to the next, they uncovered a rather unsettling piece of history lost to time. The ancient dwarves of Cad'halash helped shelter fleeing elven from the Tevinter Imperium only for the rest of the dwarven kingdom to destroy the thaig to protect themselves from the Imperium's potential wraith.

After completing their exploration of the thig and acquiring enough from the Lights of Arlathan their next destination would be the Elven Ruins where Theron's journey as a Grey Warden started.

Along the way, Ariane grew curious of Theron's actions involving a strange ring he would often hold between his fingers, "That ring, do you play with it often?"

Theron was lost in thought, as he continued to gaze at the ring, "Morrigan gave it to me. A long time ago."

Ariane could see the ring held a lot of sentimental value at the very least, though Morrigan was a human so that could have another meaning, "A ring is a significant gift. In human cultures, does that do not mean…?"

Theron closed his fist around the ring, "She said that it allowed her to track me. That's all." His eyes though betrayed his true feelings on the matter.

"Track you? A curious thing to want." Ariane latched onto the small hope they could use the ring, "Does it allow you to find her in return?"

"I think I feel her sometimes, but I don't know."

Ariane didn't notice Theron's fluttering hope, fearing for Theron's safety. "She has such a hold on you… We'll find her. You have my word. The ancient Eluvian will be our key."

Deesh continued to ignore them, mostly retracing her steps once again as she fought her instinct to stay away from this accursed place. The group did make a side stop to the clearing Theron's clan camped in. If Theron or Deesh hadn't asserted it, one wouldn't know another Dalish clan had camped here.

It wasn't clear if Theron or Deesh had any good memories left of this area, though spending the night in the area did seem to lighten their appearance if only for that night. Since they were getting closer to the area the forest had fallen deafly silent save for their own footsteps. While the trail to the ruins was mostly clear, nothing around showed signs of disturbance since the two last approached the area.

Deesh was growing more uneasy as they advanced toward the ruins, though she remembered a far stronger displeasure on their original approach. Before entering the ruins, themselves, Ariane pulled Theron over, bowing her head, "I'm sorry to bring you back here. It cannot be easy entering the place of your greatest sorrow."

Theron gave her a reassuring smile, "It's alright. I partially prepared myself when we learned what the Eluvians were. Besides, I was able to put my friend to rest before he completely lost himself. This is just putting an end to this old wound."

Deesh on the other hand seemed to be trying to stop herself from trembling in front of the others. The corruption in the air was not as thick as it was when they had entered long ago, yet something must have persisted and probably lured in more darkspawn and corrupted creatures.

Shadow looked around, "These ruins don't appear to be as abandoned as we may have wanted…"

Finn couldn't tell, as he marched onward, "What makes you say that?"

Shadow waved a hand to the ground, "The dirt mostly. There'd be a lot more dust than dirt on the ground. Maybe more cobwebs too, but I'd leave that one to the experts."

Deesh snorted, "The stench of corruption is about as strong as it was before. Meaning new corrupted creatures or darkspawn now occupy this place."

Deesh pushed against her instincts, moving toward a door she remembered wasn't there during their last excursion into the ruins. Theron could sense the taint just as well as Deesh could, at least 2 distinct presences in both directions away from the door. Deesh's assassin nature took control as she quietly and stealthily snuck a peek into the hall to assess the threat.

Falling back, she quietly signaled to Theron what she could see. Both ends of the passageway were being monitored by a pair of corrupted elven archers. Hidden among them was the scent of at least two shrieks hidden nearby.

Being sandwiched between two groups of archers wouldn't be pretty, especially of the stealthy darkspawn kept them in range of the archers. Deesh cast her invisibility spell while using her free hand to signal which side she'll attack, leaving the other archers to them.

Unlike normal elves, who already had heightened sight at night, these elves have fallen and become ghouls. Their eyes would have adapted more to the darkness now that they've submitted to the new dark dwelling. The smell of corruption in the area made it so hard to determine any distinct location beyond what could be seen. Deesh quickly moved behind the two archers, drawing her sword and dagger.

They at least distanced themselves far enough so she couldn't just slit both of their throats at once. Deesh never said she would kill them first, nor when to strike. She purposefully used the others entering the crossroad as a distraction for her archers. Preparing their arrows Deesh struck. With a swift stab of her sword through the back of the first archer's neck, Deesh released her grip on the sword and grappled the second archer so she could properly utilize her assassination training to eliminate him as the dagger slit the second's throat.

Deesh took her time recovering her sword knowing the others shouldn't have any difficulty with the remaining enemies in the area. When she did reunite, she looked down to the mess as Ariane closed the eyes of the corrupted elves, "These people were very sick before they died. Ir abelas! Lethallin."

Finn pushed one of the bodies away with his staff to clear the way, "You… don't think it's contagious, do you?"

"So long as you don't consume their blood, you should be fine." Deesh's toothy grin wasn't as reassuring, though she was also toying with Finn to keep him alert.

Theron and Deesh both remembered the ruins split layout, "Deesh, take Strider and Shadow down that side. I'd like to avoid any unwanted surprises when we get to the mirror."

Deesh didn't argue, simply nodding and walking off back towards her kills. Shadow rubbed Strider's head, following after Deesh. Finn started getting a little worried now, "Shouldn't we stick together, instead of going off like this?"

Theron turned down toward his hall, "We could be attacked while focusing on the Eluvian. We'll be able to clear the ruins out faster this way." As much as he wanted to reduce the threat of being attack while handling the Eluvian shard, Theron also wanted to purge the ruins of the corruption in part because of the past in how it had affected him.