Note! I fixed the double chapter issue I accidentally made, so those of you following may wanna go back and read chapter 8 because ch 4 and 5 were apparently the same for A LONG time and I just now looked back and saw that.
Hope you're enjoying this, there is more to come. Poster this chapter early as an apology of sorts but also because I have problems with waiting.
It had been a whisper under her breath, something one usually said when the last thing they wanted to see was a dragon...and yet. The look on her face was familiar.
"Wren, what are you doing? Have you lost your mind?" Alistair hissed when he saw her traipsing closer and closer to the gong. He was so stupid. You never asked someone if they were crazy when they clearly were. Especially when they were about to do something insane that could get everyone killed.
Wren, for instance, had been collecting quite a bit of resentment. She lifted the object meant to strike the gong and turned towards Alistair. She was pissed and smiling sweetly. A combination as terrible as it was beautiful.
"I don't know. Maybe, just maybe, I'm trying to let you know what a huge mistake it was to make me leader. Starting with you, Alistair. It was, what, after my Joining, that you just up and decided I was the better pick to lead us? By the way, 'The Joining' you Wardens are all so secretive about is just blood magic. Defend it all you want, but it's no different than a blood mage from the tower, Dalish clans, or out here. It's no different than what you were so quick to condemn me for even thinking about in the palace, where Isolde was just begging to die so her son could stop being an abomination. Pretty much all of you have demanded one thing or another from me to prove I'm trustworthy and worth following or whatever. Kill my mother who turns into a dragon, kill my former lover, find my anvil obsessed wife with me and later help me hook up with another dwarf when things don't work out, let's go on a wild goose chase for my one and only sword or an apprentice who I thought was dead (bit of a stretch on that one but you get it), and fight me because I think you're sending us on an irrelevant goose chase that doesn't suit my fucking whims." She finally stopped to breathe and looked at me.
"Zevran, you haven't asked me to do anything crazy...yet. If you do, this is me acting first, if not, then I'm sorry to have you involved. Either way, I have to do this." Then she swung her arm back and struck the instrument, waking the dragon.
"You want to know the level of pressure I feel at having to do all this shit for humans and Ferelden?! This is it, something that can swallow me whole!"
This was how she pulled rank. I still kept an eye on this utterly reckless woman as we fought the fire breathing creature.
"You say that but you also want it's scales, don't you, my dear?"
"Scales, bones, teeth, and horns. I don't care. Something to be crafted. One of a kind; fire resistant." She laughed and just barely ducked under the beast's tail in time.
"As much as I enjoy the idea of you swooning over mere conversation with me, there is a time and place for everything."
"What is it with you and blacksmithing?" Alistair chimed in as he bashed at one of the dragon's legs.
"Crafting has always been a large part of my life. I don't expect anyone who doesn't have a hobby in making things to understand." It was shortly after she said that that I reached out and yanked her towards me, away from where the blond warrior had gained too much momentum and nearly barreled over her. His action, of course, caught the attention of the dragon and she reared up at him. She was going to spit fire. Reflexively, I threw us both to the side and out of the fire's path.
"Been awhile since you let me this close to you." I jested from above her.
"Doing things like this is exactly how you almost died the last time you threw yourself in harms way in order to protect me." She hissed as we sat up to catch our breath.
"I made an oath, did I not?" I winked and rejoined the fight before she could retort.
Once it fell dead, Alistair stormed towards her as she collected what she needed.
"Are you trying to kill all of us!?"He bellowed loud enough to make Wren's ears lower and her eyes squint with discomfort. Maybe even pain.
"No, just showing you where my mind is. If anything, I just put us all on a level playing field."
"Why couldn't you have done it in a sensible way?"
"Because I'm not sensible!" She pointed as she stood to her full height. Wren wasn't nearly as tall as Alistair, but her reminder may have actually reached her blockheaded partner.
"But what about you? What if we need to exit the way we came and it was awake instead of dead, then?" Silence answered her.
"That's what I thought. Let's keep moving."
We met The Guardian once we entered the ruins on the other side and she frowned.
"Please, tell me I don't have to fight anymore dragons. I'm out of room in my pack to accommodate anymore dragon parts."
I think she had her answer once he started in on all of us. Cutting deep into the most emotional part of our pasts. She glared at him and refused to answer when he questioned her about a Tamlen.
"Of course, we can't just fight a fucking high dragon and be rewarded with goods and the urn." She cursed with a scoff and we came upon a long corridor like room and spectral people who stood patiently at either end.
"Creepy…"Alistair muttered. Then we found it was all about riddles. Something Morrigan had a surprising knack for. It turned funny when Lelianna pointed out to her that these riddles and people were all related to Andraste and the Chant of Light. At least, the bard waited until after all the riddles had been answered to tell her that because she stopped speaking for a while. Not that she really talked much to begin with if there wasn't a clever quip she could make about it.
Then we noticed our Warden had gone ahead and disappeared into the next room without us. When we next saw Wren, she was clutching a pendant to her chest just before she noticed us approaching. Then she slid it into one of her many pockets.
"Reflection, huh? How come I hate the sound of that?" We caught her mumble. Wren removed her crossbow from her back and loaded it.
"Oh, that's why." She deadpanned as ghostly clones of us came running from out of nowhere. They were just as strong, just as fast, and the spitting image of each of us. During my fight with myself, I caught her yell to us about not fighting ourselves, but someone else's clone. So, I pushed "myself" towards Sten, who overtook it easily. The only one who was still fighting her own clone was Wren and I have a feeling she assumed we were all too busy with our fights to notice the horrid way she dispatched of it. Dagger to the foot, back of the knee, and shoulder. This pushed the spectral being down where Wren straddled and began to vehemently stab her neck and face until she vanished. There was too much unceremonious violence in her act for me to suspect anything other than repressed self hate.
Wren met my gaze and put her dagger back. Did these hidden feelings of hers have anything to do with this Tamlen? I wasn't about to ask. It seemed wrong, for one thing. Not to mention, if The Guardian mentioned it, it must be as close to a sore spot for her as mention of Rinna was to me. How many of these trials were there?
I may be shit at lockpicking, but my trap and puzzle solving techniques are nothing to smirk at. We had a bridge to the other side in no time and saw the Guardian again. This time, while a bit too close to a fire. As the spirit explained this trial in his usual vague and wordy way, I caught a meaning that I wasn't sure I'd heard right until Wren sighed heavily with annoyance.
"He wants us to take off our weapons and clothes before we can safely pass. Great."
"What? Are-are you sure?"
"Alistair, if you want to test the fires in all that stuff you're wearing, then go for it." Leliana smiled a little, patting his shoulder before...well.
"No time to sit here feeling exposed. If I die, it will just be the end of all my Warden responsibilities."
"Wren, you can't just-" She stopped when Wren snapped her head in Wynne's direction. It seemed to happen right when she tried to mother hen her about something again. I kept quiet, as worried as I was about us being wrong, I wanted to see what she would do.
The elf's reaction was to step closer to the fire, while still staring at Wynne, and then she stepped through anyway. It was a scene reminiscent of a child defying their mother on purpose. Just because they said she couldn't do something. Wren then rolled her eyes at the older woman after we all followed her through the harmless flames, and continued to her destination. The lightning scars that tendrilled about her back and appendages was almost completely visible now.
In an instant, my trance was broken when she looked around and threw her hands up to be level with her shoulders.
"There. Now can I please put my clothes back on so I actually have a pouch to put the ashes in!?" She called out to the air around her, no doubt trying to call the Guardian out again.
"Fuck it, I am not freezing my ass off on my way up those stairs."