Disclaimer: I don't own this stuff.
"Dammit, hurry!"
Harry ran towards the bridge the Archdemon had perched upon moments ago- there were several dwarves in armor fighting darkspawn. The dwarven warriors thankfully had the end of the bridge blocked off, acting as a choke point, but that meant he would have to aim carefully with any spells and avoid large area effects.
A lion roared beside him and Sirius gave him a wink as the conjured animal charged into the fray, followed shortly by Padfoot leaping upon a genlock, knocking it over onto the serrated it had held in its hands. The grim skidded past the fray and shifted back into his godfather who finished the monster off with a curse that pierced its head.
The lion was in the middle of tearing an arm off a hurlock.
Harry came to a halt and saw more enemies further along the bridge. He trusted his allies to get those closer to him and went back a few feet so that he could aim over the side of the trench and onto the middle of the bridge. "Daemonis Ignis!"
There was a realization that he was perhaps becoming a bit too reliant on Fiendfyre, but it was too useful to pass up when there were dozens of enemies charging their way.
"Harry?" Sirius stood on his right, just in eyeline. "We've cleared the others. You can end that."
"Follow me across the bridge," he answered, his wand still pointing at the flames, weaving them through his enemies. "There are more in our path; I will deal with them."
"Men, follow the mage!" one of the dwarves bellowed and soon they all marched across the bridge, the stone now scorched and the remains of any darkspawn merely being slightly bigger burnt spots.
The darkspawn that were waiting to ambush them on the other side did not know what to do as the sentient flames flew about, hunting them down.
One genlock tried to run, fleeing towards a tunnel carved into the rock, but Leliana put two arrows in its back before it could get away.
Harry exhaled and sat down awkwardly once he finally managed to dispel the flames. "I need a moment to rest."
"We are in your debt, mage," a bald dwarf with a tattooed face said. "I am Kardol, and I fear my men might not have been able to stop that horde from getting past us."
"You're welcome," Harry nodded. "Where are we, by the way?"
"Once, this place was known as Bownammar," Kardol replied. "A fortress for the Legion of the Dead. But our order was defeated here almost twenty years ago and we have not been able to reclaim it from the darkspawn ever since. Now, it is merely known as the Dead Trenches."
"Trenches, as in plural?" Sirius asked with a grimace. "So, there are more of those things, and just overflowing with darkspawn?"
"Aye, that is why we lost this place," Kardol said. "Those monsters are endless."
"I don't suppose you have seen a dwarven paragon by any chance?" Leliana asked.
Kardol snorted. "We've got enough to keep us busy just trying to make sure that Orzammar doesn't get overrun. The rumors of that mad woman Branka have no meaning to us. I haven't seen her personally, so even if she did find the mythical Anvil of the Void, she probably died there."
"Hey!" Oghren protested. "That's my wife you're talking about!"
"You should be glad she left you behind, otherwise you would be dead too. Of course, you could join us instead. Maybe try to redeem yourself."
Harry stepped between the two dwarves. "I'm sorry, Kardol, but I recruited Oghren first. We're going to need his help stopping this Blight."
"As you say," he replied with a nod. "But Oghren, think it over. If you survive this mad quest, the Legion of the Dead could always use another skilled warrior."
As Kardol and his men walked off, setting up a base camp of their own, Harry peered at the huge gates that had once led into Bownammar.
"Can you get that open?" Sirius asked.
Harry examined the magic involved and shook his head. "We should leave it. The ancient magic that was used to create them was also used to seal them. Besides, for now, it acts as another choke point for the darkspawn, forcing them to use smaller tunnels."
"Which we can use to our advantage," Sirius agreed. "Let's use some of this stone to create some friends to clear the path."
Harry shrugged and followed his godfather over. "Where did your lion go?"
"Conjurations don't last as long unless you keep focusing on them. If we transfigure something instead, it will last a lot longer." Sirius used his wand and soon had another pair of lions transformed from the rock. He grinned at Harry and raised a fist. "Go, go Gryffindor!"
Harry chuckled and created a couple of serpents out of the stone.
"You traitor!" Sirius scoffed at him.
"Never turn your back on useful skills," Harry countered before hissing at the snakes. "Bite any of the tainted creatures that you find."
A quick charm turned them invisible and he pointed the way to the tunnel leading away from the large cavern.
"What was that hissing?" Leliana asked.
"I have a somewhat rare gift that allows me to speak with serpents, and I just sent them to attack any foes that are in our path."
"Let's just hope there aren't any more friendly dwarves along the way then," Wynne said.
"You're not going to leave me anything fun to do," Shale groaned. It turned to Oghren. "Come along, dwarf, before the mages steal all of our kills."
The largest and smallest members of the party stomped down the tunnel and Sirius sent the lions after them.
"This means we'll have less to deal with, other than wounded party members," Wynne chuckled softly. "My old bones should probably be thankful."
"You can't be that old," Sirius grinned at her. "Why, you remind me of my older sister."
Harry snorted. Morrigan raised an eyebrow at him as Sirius shamelessly complimented (and flirted with) the older witch. He motioned for her to come closer and whispered, "Sirius didn't have a sister."
"Of course he didn't," she said as she rolled her eyes.
"What is the Legion of the Dead?" Harry asked a few minutes later as they followed the trail of corpses down the tunnel and out into another large open area.
Leliana was the one to answer him. "They are a group of dwarves who have given up their lives in order to fight the darkspawn. Sometimes it is for a matter of honor or to avoid some punishment- criminals may elect to join the Legion and the dwarves pretty much always allow them to do so. With how many darkspawn we've already fought, I can see why. They need all the help they can get."
"The dwarven society is on the brink of collapse," Morrigan added, looking at Harry. "I believe 'tis as you said, they are too conservative and unable to adapt to how bad things have become. One last city state is not enough for their race to thrive."
"Of course, there are also plenty of dwarves on the surface, but they are treated as outcasts," Leliana continued. "Many of them are involved in some form of lyrium smuggling. That is the dirty little secret- mages and templars both need more lyrium than they can often get through normal channels."
"That does track with what I've seen so far," Harry agreed. "Well, I don't know how much of a difference it will make, but we may as well try to relieve the pressure on the dwarves as much as we can. The darkspawn all seem to be mindless killers, so we may as well slaughter any of them we find."
"Sounds good to me," Sirius shrugged. "They're just a nastier version of Inferius in that case."
"I might want to try something the next time we come across one of the big ones, though," Harry mused aloud.
"One of those horned things?" Sirius asked.
"Ogres," Morrigan corrected him.
"Yeah," Harry nodded. "If the Imperius curse will work on one, it could tear its friends to pieces for us."
"I like it," Morrigan leered at him. "I do believe you will need to teach me that spell very soon."
"Maker have mercy on us," Wynne muttered.
"Yeah, Harry, you might want to wait on that," Sirius agreed with a frown.
"I wasn't speaking to any of you," Morrigan countered before wrapping her arm around Harry's waist. "I'm sure we can come to some sort of agreement, can't we?"
He chuckled. "We'll see. But let's focus on getting out of here first."
"Where have the others gone?" Wynne asked.
Leliana pointed to an open doorway leading into the rock. "I believe they went that way."
Sirius pointed to the chasm leading off to their left and the broken bridge. "We could always fly that way. It would be a short cut."
Harry sighed. "Yeah, but we probably shouldn't let Shale and Oghren get too far away."
"The golem can take care of itself," Morrigan scoffed. "And who cares about the dwarf?"
"I do," he replied. "I told you I have a soft spot for redheads."
"Really?" Leliana arched an eyebrow at him.
"Merely platonic in these cases," Harry waved her off. "My mum was a redhead, my first wife was a redhead, two of our kids-"
"Your first wife?" Wynne asked. "How many times have you been married?"
"Only twice."
"And there certainly won't be a third," Morrigan scoffed.
"Live long enough and you may change your mind," Harry shrugged.
She rolled her eyes and kept walking.
The tunnel led on through several windy sections carved by the dwarves ages ago before they caught up with Shale, Oghren, and one of Sirius' lions- the second had been killed along the path, and Harry had canceled the transfiguration to keep Sirius from pouting and Leliana from fussing over the poor thing.
Harry would save his sentimentality for more important things.
They came back out into the large cavern where their friends were surrounded by more darkspawn on the other side of the broken bridge they had spotted previously. Sirius immediately transfigured a bit of loose stone into another lion and sent it charging into the fray.
"I should brush up on my transfiguration," Harry mused to himself. For the moment, he chose to levitate one of the monsters up out of the melee before flinging it over the chasm. It was a long way down before the genlock disappeared into the shadows.
Without another clear target, Harry waited a moment for the scrum to end. His group was clearly capable of dealing with the darkspawn, as Shale was smashing one last genlock into the ground, but the massive amount of the tainted creatures was still a concern.
Wynne was quick to begin chastising Oghren to take more care as she healed a bruised rib. It made him wonder about magic and healing- from everything he'd seen, this world had no more scientific knowledge than the medieval times back on Earth, and yet they were still able to manage some very powerful curative magic. Was it merely the old saying that 'life would find a way' or was there perhaps something more to magic? Once they had finished down here in the Deep Roads, Harry was definitely going to need to do a bit more research on the theory side of things.
"Ah, I see the little mage and his friends have caught up to us," Shale said. "I suppose that means it will start to steal more of my fun."
"Sorry," Harry smiled at the golem. "But I would like to try something out the next time we come across one of those ogres."
The golem sighed. "I suppose I did get to play with the last one. Have it your way, mage."
He bowed to Shale. "Thank you."
Sirius petted his lions for a moment and then bent over to eye level with them. "Go see what we've got up ahead."
The group followed after his transfigured mascots and prepared for yet another fight.
It turned out this time they found an enormous room that was clearly meant to honor the dead- sarcophaguses lined every little alcove on each side of it. Unfortunately, there were also darkspawn waiting as well. Lots of them, of course. And on top of that, he felt an eerie ripple in the air that Harry could now recognize as a weakening of the Veil, meaning that spirits could possibly crossover here.
Spirits that might like nothing more than to inhabit the skeletons that now surrounded his group as Oghren & Shale once again bellowed their battle calls and charged.
"Expecto Patronum!"
He wasn't sure if it was really the best solution to the situation, but Harry knew that Prongs could strengthen the area long enough to keep any undead from rising. It was yet another thing he would need to begin researching one of these days.
Guiding Prongs to trot around the room, Harry watched his companions as they fought. Morrigan was still focused on the spells native to Thedas that she already knew before meeting him, which made sense for the moment. They hadn't reached any of the most dangerous spells in her instruction that he knew from back home yet. Sirius, on the other hand, was having a blast as he switched back and forth between each style of magic. Harry supposed part of that could have been how his godfather had been locked up for so long, first in Azkaban and then in Grimmauld Place, which he reminded himself had only been a couple of months ago for Sirius.
Several minutes later, once the carnage was over, Sirius turned back to Harry. "What's with Prongs?"
"Can't you feel the magic in the air?"
"Not really," his godfather shrugged.
"The Veil is thin here," Morrigan answered.
Sirius closed his eyes and relaxed. "Yeah, I guess it does feel a bit off."
"If one is distracted it is harder to tell the difference," Wynne explained. "The more you experience it, the more noticeable it becomes."
"I suppose I might be a little more sensitive to it," Harry added as he looked around the room. "Why don't we move on so that I can give this fellow a rest?"
"Good idea," Oghren chuckled. "There's gotta be more darkspawn to kill soon."
They moved past the large room and came to another tunnel that curved around. There were signs of the darkspawn's corruption, blood and flesh strewn about- recent enough that the gore was still quite pungent.
"I don't like the looks of this," Lelianna said.
A woman's gravelly voice echoed down the halls.
"First day, they come and catch everyone."
They came to a halt and Leliana muttered as she shook her head. "I've got a very bad feeling about this."
Harry nodded and waited a moment to see if the voice would speak again. It was hard to tell how far off the speaker may be from where they were.
"Second day, they beat us and eat some for meat."
He looked at his group and sighed.
"Third day, the men are all gnawed on again."
"Let's keep moving," he suggested, not wanting to dwell on the creepy poem until they could find the speaker and deal with whatever was waiting for them.
"Agreed," Shale said as she stomped forward.
"Fourth day, we wait and fear for our fate."
The dwarven section came to an end and there was yet another hole cut into the rock that curved out of sight, although with a bonfire sitting at the corner. The voice kept droning on as they walked down the path.
"Fifth day, they return and it's another girl's turn."
Harry inhaled sharply- he did not like the sound of that.
"Sixth day, her screams we hear in our dreams."
Leliana gasped next to him and drew an arrow, preparing for a fight.
"Seventh day, she grew as in her mouth they spew."
"Gross," Sirius grumbled. "I hope we get to kill something soon."
"Agreed," Oghren muttered.
"Eighth day, we hated as she is violated."
They came upon an intersection where a path led off to the left as well as continuing straight ahead.
"The voice is coming from further on this path I believe," Morrigan stated.
"Then let's get this over with," Harry replied.
"Ninth day, she grins and devours her kin."
The path led into another dwarven section, with more alcoves filled with sarcophaguses. There were more signs of the darkspawn and violence as well.
"We're getting closer," Morrigan said. The creepy voice answered her.
"Now she does feast as she's become the beast."
They found a doorway around a corner, and Shale flung it open before stomping inside. Off to the left was another room carved by the ancient dwarves, but this one was filled with fleshy growths like tumors- things that reminded Harry of the mess created by the abominations that had torn apart the Circle Tower where they had met Wynne. And among the blood and viscera, there was a dwarven woman stooped over who was reciting her terrible, dark poetry.
"First day, they come and catch everyone," she began again.
"Excuse me," Sirius interrupted her. "But what the bloody hell is going on around here?"
The dwarven woman looked at them and her condition was obvious.
"Another ghoul," Wynne sighed.
"Hespith!" Oghren hissed.
"You know her?" Harry asked.
"She was friends with Branka," he replied.
"What is this?" Hespith said as she stared at Harry. "A human? Bland and unlikely. Feeding time brings only kin and clan. I am cruel to myself. You are a dream of strangers' faces and open doors."
"Hespith!" Oghren shouted. "What in the name of the stone is going on here?"
"Oghren." She tilted her head at him. "A memory that I thought forgotten. I was happy when Branka left you behind. But happiness is a memory that fades now too."
"I really don't like this," Leliana whispered.
"Can we help you?" Wynne asked.
"No, no you can't," Hespith answered. "There's nothing left. There's body and there's hope, and both are turning... They come. They... they vomit, they violate, and they chant. They scream... oh, how they scream. Then the change comes. All I could do was wish Laryn went first. I wished it upon her so that I would be spared. But I had to watch. I had to see the change. How do you endure that? How did Branka endure?"
"Branka?" Oghren shouted. "Where is she? Tell us, you stone-mad wench!"
"Branka?" Hespith's dull grey eyes grew harder. "Do not talk of Branka. Of what she did. Ancestors preserve us, forgive me. I was her captain and I didn't stop her. Her lover, and I could not turn her. Forgive her... but no, she cannot be forgiven. Not for what she did. Not for what she has become."
Harry exhaled. This was just becoming worse and worse- and the mad woman in front of him may have held answers, but they were going to be hard to fathom. So, yet again, he did the foolish thing that could save time and possibly lives regardless of the price he would pay.
"Legilimens!"
He stared into the ghastly eyes of Hespith and watched unspeakable horrors.
Branka, the mad genius who had led her people in search of glory.
Branka, who had found death and pain, who had made everything worse when she allowed her clan to become captured by the darkspawn.
Oghren's wife was going to need to die very, very soon. Harry would just have to apologize afterwards, but now that he had seen how the darkspawn reproduced and the fate that was so much worse than death for those captured women that became the Broodmothers...
He fell to his knees and vomited as he exited Hespith's mind.
"Harry?" Sirius bent down beside him.
"No!" Hespith screamed, clutching her head. "I will not become what I have seen! Not Laryn! Not Branka!"
She ran past them.
"Let her go," Harry muttered as he wiped his mouth before conjuring a glass and filling it with water. Even after rinsing his mouth out, the desecration he had seen haunted him.
"What happened?" Morrigan asked him as he forced himself to stand.
"We're getting near the Anvil of the Void," Harry replied. "But there were some sort of magical traps and puzzles that Branka couldn't get past. Not to mention all the darkspawn, of course. And Branka, she sacrificed her people. I don't know if there are any other survivors."
"What happened to Laryn?" Oghren asked. "I sort of remember her. Nice looking girl, a little naive maybe, but I had a cousin who was sweet on her when they were young."
"You don't want to know," Harry shuddered. "Death would have been better."
"This Hespith seemed to suggest that Branka was to blame," Wynne said. "That does not sound good for our chances of trying to seek her aid."
"No, it doesn't," he sighed before patting Oghren on the shoulder. "I'm sorry, but your wife is an absolutely heartless monster."
"She did have a bad habit of going somewhat mad when she got fixated on some idea," the dwarf replied with a grumbled snort. "Just give me a chance to speak to her first."
"I can agree to that," Harry said. He wasn't going to promise anything more though- he was going to have to struggle to force himself not to kill her on first sight.
"It's strange that the darkspawn left her alone here," Wynne spoke up. "Even without weapons or armor, you would think they would keep a closer eye on someone who was a prisoner."
"That tells me that there are more of them nearby," Sirius replied. "Keep your eyes open and let's move."
They left down the far passageway and came upon another open cavern area, with a dwarven door leading further on. And this time there were two ogres waiting for them.
"I've got the right one!" Harry called out as he raised his wand. "Imperio!"
He pushed with his will to make sure the giant hulking creature fell under his control. Once he had done so, he turned to check on how the group was handling the other one.
Shale was going toe to toe with it, each of them smashing into the other, while Oghren bashed on the monster's legs with his maul. The rest of the group was flanked out around them, aiming spells or arrows at the ogre's head and torso.
The combined firepower was enough to fell the beast.
"Looks like we've got a great big door knocker," Sirius laughed as the mind-controlled ogre walked towards the door.
"Better to let it find any danger and traps before we do," Harry replied.
Beyond the door was another tunnel leading directly into the stone, a tall path leading on but without any ornamentation or sign that the dwarves had purposefully built this area. It twisted, curving back and forth over the next few minutes until they came upon a larger open section.
And there they saw it- the Broodmother.
It was grotesquely obese, with no actual legs that could be seen, just endless rolls of flesh that stretched from its neck to the floor, with six or seven sets of saggy teats interspersed over its immense torso, and several tentacles growing out of its sides. Other tentacles stretched up from beneath the much softer ground around it, as if they were roots to keep it there and attack any threats that came near.
The only things that still looked humanoid were its head and shoulders, where two proportionally much smaller arms still grew.
"Great Maker," Leliana gasped.
"Fucking hell," Sirius murmured next to her. "What is that?"
"That is what happened to Laryn," Harry replied. He waved his hand and the Ogre charged forward. "Watch out for the tentacles!"
Oghren seemed to acknowledge him as he ran into melee range as well. Shale, on the other hand, stomped on one of them that slithered up and tried to grab hold of the golem's massive stony leg. The mages in the party all launched a variety of elemental damaging spells at it before their friends got too close.
Several roars came from around them, and Harry spotted the two paths leading behind the Broodmother on either side. Darkspawn came running out, eager to defend their hideous 'queen' and moved to attack.
Sirius once again countered with transfigured lions to block their path on the left side. Harry sent an overpowered banishing charm to the right, knocking several genlocks off their feet.
"How many of these blasted things are there?" Oghren bellowed as two of the tentacles had wound themselves around him and were trying to squeeze him. Harry noticed that Shale was also having to fend them off as the golem attempted to bash the Broodmother with its stone fists.
The rest of the group was trying to dodge them as well as they continually shot up from underground.
"Get away from it!" Harry called out. Normally, he wouldn't try this, but the circumstances called for his wrath. It was pity that he felt for the dwarven woman who had suffered such a disgusting fate, but it was pure hate for the creatures that would do such a thing- and that hate was what he channeled into his wand.
"Avada Kedavra!"
The great massive thing slumped down onto itself as Harry ended its suffering.
Cleaning up the last few darkspawn around it was easy comparatively.
Above them, a voice drew their attention. Hespith was standing upon a ledge overlooking the area.
"That's where they come from. That's why they hate us. That's why they need us. That's why they take us. That's why they feed us." She paused in her recitation. "But the true abomination is not that it occurred, but that it was allowed. Branka, my love...
"The stone has punished me, dream friend. I am dying of something worse than death- betrayal."
Hespith turned into the shadows and was gone.
Leliana sighed. "I officially hate this place. This abomination is... is how-"
"It's how the darkspawn reproduce, yes," Harry confirmed with a grim nod. "Be glad you didn't see the actual process carried out."
"Crap, Harry," Sirius closed his eyes. "Did you really have to look in her head?"
"It was not my best idea," he replied quietly.
"You know, before I started off on this journey, I actually thought I might have a happy ending when I found Branka," Oghren said before spitting on the ground. "What the hell was I thinking?"
"You loved her once," Harry answered.
"Yeah, I did."
"Love can make us do terrible and foolish things."
"Let's move on," Wynne suggested. "I don't think any of us need to stay here any longer."
"You go ahead," Harry replied. "I'm going to cremate this travesty. No one deserves to become this."
The others nodded and trudged down the path that led past the Broodmother's cave. Harry sent the ogre he still had under the Imperius alongside Shale in the vanguard of their force.
Once they were gone, he again called upon Fiendfyre. Maybe he was a bit reliant on it- but some things in this world clearly needed to be burnt away. 'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,' wasn't that how the old prayer went? As the Master of Death, he really should have paid more attention to funeral rites.
"Be at peace."
And thus the flames were extinguished.
Harry followed the path and tried to calm his anger. Even as old as he was, it was going to be a challenge not to immediately smite Branka for the monstrous things she had done.
