9:30 Guardian ?
Bodahn stayed behind at the cave's entrance with the horse, wagon, and cart. Everyone else continued through the passage of tunnels. They had make shift torches and Levi was using an extremely worn map to lead them through. Nia was fidgety. She didn't like caves specifically because they could house spiders. After what she had went through with Morrigan, she'd been having nightmares every night. Wynne and Leliana weren't that happy with the tossing and turning.
"You are afraid." Sten stated as they went through another tunnel.
"Yes. That I will admit." Nia flinched as she heard a tumble of rocks. She inched closer to Sten through instinct even when he moved away.
"This is merely a carved out tunnel of earth. There is nothing down here." Sten explained.
"Not to be the one to burst anyone's bubble but this is exactly where giant spiders would be." Alistair chuckled.
"I will stab you through your crotch if you keep speaking of them." Nia threatened. Alistair did a small eep while Zevran laughed.
"If you are so afraid then you can always hang off my arm. I shall protect you with my entire body and soul." Zevran said. For once, Nia took his offer and grabbed his arm full heartedly. She hugged it close to her, keeping an eye in the shadows. "Ah…"
"You have no idea what to do now that she's done it, do you?" Leliana giggled. Zevran tried not to look sheepish.
"I will use you as a meat shield if it comes down to it." Nia said seriously.
"Oh please there is nothing around to show that life has been settled here." Morrigan explained.
"You never know. Aren't there things in the Deep Roads that only exist there?" Talen asked.
"You're talking about Deepstalkers priss but they don't usually come out to tunnels like these. They only keep to the Deep Roads or caves that connect to the Deep Roads." Derek explained.
"I would rather you not talk about what can kill us while I'm leading you all to Soldier's Peak." Levi said.
"It feels like we're going in circles actually." Alistair mumbled.
"Let's give him a few minutes of silence so he can get his bearings." Eren said. Levi was able to find the correct path. Nia kept jumping at shadows and mild noises, not like Zevran wasn't enjoying it. He would have enjoyed it more if she wasn't wearing so much armor. It would have been nice to feel something.
At last, they saw daylight at the end of the tunnel. The breeze came in as a chill cold and made all of them shiver as they crossed through. Morrigan slipped from the draft and Eren caught her by her arm. He held on tight and gave her the support needed to walk through the cave. Morrigan scoffed but couldn't deny she liked the attention.
Alistair helped Wynne through while Sten and Derek were trying to force through. Suddenly, the draft stopped and they reached the end of the tunnel. Light snowflakes fell and the ambiance stopped. It became deathly quiet.
"And there she is. Soldier's Peak. Very impressive isn't she?" Levi broke the silence.
"You got lost a few times didn't you?" Talen chuckled.
"I didn't get lost. The map got soggy from the snow from earlier. It's not important. Let's keep going." Levi scoffed and went ahead. Derek whistled as they saw the image from the grand fortress, a few hundred years strong.
"I can only imagine how this would have looked when this was full of life. If we got this fortress back up, I might even work on this. Give it the old dwarven spit shine. Ha!" Derek laughed at his joke.
"This is the reason why your order is looked with respect. The fact that it has been left to the elements speaks much for the Wardens." Sten stated.
"I get the feeling that there's an insult in there." Talen mumbled.
"This is how far the Grey Wardens have deteriorated. They even accept people like you." Morrigan side glanced at Alistair.
"Hey." He moaned. Nia, Leliana, and Wynne were marveling at the formidable fortress.
"And here we are." Levi breathed out. The group were each giving their own reactions. Alistair, Talen, Derek, Nia, Leliana, and Wynne were all looking up, amazed. Derek, Sten, and Eren were thinking about fortifying in case it could be used later. Morrigan and Zevran both didn't care and wanted to get out of the cold. Alfred was a dog. He waged his tail.
As soon as Levi took a step beyond the front gate, a green pulse rocked the group. Soon they began to see people walking through the courtyard. Soldiers of all kinds were setting up in front of the castle.
"Fall back! Fall back already!" A soldier shouted.
"Taking the peak will not be easy, m'lord." One grunt said to another who had extremely fine armor.
"I gave the Wardens one chance to die with honor. Instead they decided to hole themselves up in the tower like cowards! We will starve them out." He directed.
"But m'lord! The keep has months of supplies!" The soldier cried out.
"Then they'll be too weak once they fight back. This is my final judgement." The voice started to fade out and, soon enough, the image dissipated. It was the empty courtyard again. Nia rubbed her eyes. 'So that's how it feels like when you watch a fade vision.' She thought.
"Maker's breath!"
"By the Ancestors!"
"Vashedan!"
"I can do this too. Andraste's flaming bosom." Zevran chuckled.
"It's sword." Wynne facepalmed.
"What was that? You all saw that too? I swear if you didn't, I am not out of my mind." Levi breathed out.
"This was a vision of the past. I've heard stories such as this. They never ended well. The princess never woke up from her dream." Leliana commented.
"No this wasn't a waking dream. This is a fade tear or something like it. Something really bad happened here. It's making my magic feel itchy." Talen shivered.
"Your analysis is correct. The veil is extremely thin in many areas. I would not be surprised if we encountered demons." Morrigan added.
"Visions, dreams, fade, and demons? Maker this place must be haunted! Good thing you are here Wardens." Levi breathed out.
"It would be best if you stuck yourself right behind us. There's no telling what will happen once we start exploring." Eren suggested.
"Good idea." Levi nodded and went behind everyone. They entered the wide courtyard. There seemed to be remnants of other entrances, a stable house whose wood entered into permafrost, and a forge that needed to be cleaned in order for it to be used again. Nia wandered toward the forge, finding a hammer that was sticking out of the snow. The hammer head crashed into the ground, the wooden handle broken.
"Damn. It's pristine almost. I mean, everything is mostly standing. It's been hundreds of years and not a scratch on the concrete." Nia breathed out.
"Dwarves probably helped with the construction. We build things to last." Derek chuckled. Nia nodded and put down the broken handle to follow the rest near the entrance stairs. Suddenly she heard a hiss and something grabbed her leg, forcing her down. Nia grunted as she hit the snow and more hands popped out.
"Ah!" She cried out as more bodies started popping out of the snow, like daisies! Nia kicked off the first hand and got up, holding her daggers. They were surrounded by skeletons in armor with weapons. They hissed as they scrambled toward them.
Nia was surrounded by three skeletons. She dodged a sword strike from one and tackled another who held to a bow. She pulled back her arm and smashed its skull. The skeleton rattled down until all the bones were scattered. The skeleton hissed before it got bit by a large mabari.
"Thanks Alfred!" Nia said before kicked another skeleton in the ribcage. It recoiled into a well. Nia pushed it back in and she heard a loud thump coming from it. She narrowly avoided another arrow. She saw the others spread out in the courtyard.
Talen and Wynne were both on the protective edge, summoning barriers to those that needed it and keeping an eye on Levi. Derek and Sten were wading through the skeletons with ease while Alistair and Eren were both defending the mages. Morrigan was flinging electric spells but those didn't work. She scoffed until a fireball killed four at once.
"Fire. Always fire." Talen smirked.
Zevran was going around, using the snow to his advantage to easily deal backstabs. Only to find that his assassin skills aren't that useful against those without flesh. His dagger was caught in the ribcage of a skeleton that turned its head 180 degrees to stare at him with its unholy eyes. "Braska." Zevran cursed under his breath as he left his dagger inside the skeleton to avoid its next strike.
Nia came in and shoulder tackled the skeleton to the ground. She hammer kicked its skull and retrieved his dagger. She held the hilt out to Zevran who gave her a smirk and wink. She replied with rolling her eyes. Derek did the last skull smash and they were now surrounded by truly dead skeletons.
"This won't be the last of them. If the veil is as thin as Morrigan says, then we're going to find more undead." Talen breathed out.
"That or they will simply try to resurrect what we just killed." Morrigan explained.
"We'll take that chance. Let's go." Eren said. They walked up the stairs to the double doors that would lead them inside. The doors were stuck in place and Sten had to use his great sword to break through. Derek gave it one final smash and they went through. They encountered what looked to be a foyer. Sharp wooden barricades were still pushed up by sacks of dirt. There was a scuffle involved. Another pulse went through and visions of people began playing out.
"The men's morale is low. My spells are no use in this matter Commander." A bald male human mage spoke to a barely visible visage of Sophia Dryden.
"Is that…?" Levi whispered.
"There is more to leading men than sorcery Avernus. I will remind them they are wardens." Sophia explained. She walked into the middle of the room with ghosts of Grey Wardens surrounding her. "Men, I won't lie to you. The situation is grim. Our forces are outnumbered, our bellies are empty, and our hearts are sagging. But we are Wardens!" There was a shout of approval as more ghosts seemed to come out of the walls to hear her speech. "Darkspawn flee when they hear our horns. Archdemons die when they taste our blades! So are we to bend knee to a mere human despot? No!"
They cheered the more she spoke. No wonder she was able to rise in the Grey Warden ranks. Levi was entranced the more his ancestor spoke. Even he cheered for her with the group looking in amusement. Levi cleared his throat as the vision stopped and the way was clear.
"Sorry about that. Just, this is the first time I'm witnessing something that wasn't just hearsay or rumors." Levi chuckled nervously.
"It's always good to know where you come from. It seems your ancestor was built of hardy stuff. Now, let's keep going before my beard freezes over." Derek chuckled.
"As if that were possible." Talen mumbled. Nia shook her head at their antics. She saw the poster that had all the Grey Wardens names on it. She did a small prayer before following everyone into the next room.
As soon as Eren opened it, an Arcane Horror rose up followed by two rage demons. Their resulting surprise forced them to go back into the foyer. Derek closed the door only for it to be burned down by the two rage demons. Wynne quickly let out a small area cone of cold and froze the second one but the first one continued.
Morrigan summoned a wall of ice and shattered it on the rage demon. It gave out a guttural growl being being impaled by Eren's sword follows by a mighty swing from Sten. It dissipated.
The second one was struck by both Alistair and Derek, shattering it. Unfortunately, the way was now free for the Arcane Horror. It teleported inside the room, gathering its spirit energy around it. It pulled the group toward it and Sten threw Levi back inside the next room where it was safer. The Arcane horror released its energy causing shallow wounds to everyone. As Eren prepared his first swing, the Arcane Horror dodged and teleported to another part of the room.
It brought its long claws together and released a tri beam attack. It hit Sten, causing long gashes on his armor to appear. Alistair was able to use his shield to divert the attack away. Wynne pulled up a barrier while Talen and Morrigan were both hitting it with flame and lightning spells respectively. It moved again to swipe at Zevran and Nia who both hit the ground to escape its claws. Alfred jumped up and hung onto an arm, only for the Horror to whip him off right into the mages.
Leliana sent arrow after arrow, allowing the others to recover. The Horror growled as the arrows pierced through its undead body. It was the melee fighters that were suffering from its constant moving around. The Arcane Horror flinched back as Talen launched a large fireball at it and Wynne finished tracing the ground with remote magic, a paralysis glyph. The Arcane horror stepped in it and was caught in the clutches of Wynne's magic.
"Now!" Wynne shouted. All the melee fighters jumped on the Arcane Horror. It didn't bleed per say but its body was scored with various cuts and stabs. The paralysis wore off and Alfred dragged it on the ground with it weakened. Sten did the final blow and severed the head from the body. The horror disintegrated into ash besides the cold heart of it. Talen did a scoff of surprise while tapping the heart with the staff.
"Everything else disappeared, why didn't this?" Talen asked.
"Revenant hearts are used in rune making though that is as much as I know on that subject." Wynne explained.
"We might as well pocket it for Sandal later then." Eren grunted in pain as he moved to the next room. Levi looked at them in distress, obviously scared.
"The demons are dead." Nia said reassuringly. Wynne and Talen did their best to heal minor wounds. They couldn't focus all their magic on healing now that they knew there was going to be resistance. They had to keep their mana in check in case they run into something stronger. They continued and Alistair opened another door only to be met with skeletons. He closed the door and backed off when the arrows penetrated through the wooden door.
"You had to find more skeletons." Morrigan stated.
"Don't look at me Ms. 'Oh the fade is weak here and demons are sprawling everywhere.'" Alistair countered.
"Maker…" Talen rolled his eyes. "Move." Alistair did so and Talen gathered his magic in his hands. "Open the door when I tell you to." Alistair had his hand on the doorknob as the fireball in Talen's hand grew larger. "Now!" Alistair opened the door where the skeletons already climbed down from where they were, already to the door. Talen blasted them into charred remains.
"Not bad." Nia nodded.
"The charring seems a bit much." Zevran commented.
"Talen you shouldn't waste your mana like that." Wynne shook her head.
"Hey if the priss wants to knock heads with skeletons, let him." Derek chuckled. Talen smirked and Wynne scoffed.
Eren opened another room and three more rage demons were lying in wait. Sten, Derek, Alistair, and Eren all pushed to the front. Alistair and Eren both diverted the flame attacks of the rage demons while Sten and Derek pushed from the sides. Morrigan flashed freezed them with a successful glyph of cold. Two shield bashes later, they had pieces of the rage demons scattered throughout the room.
"Oooh hot!" Alistair waved his shield.
"At least we were able to protect the others." Eren said, nearly tripping on a book.
"Look at all the books." Nia said as she ran her hand through the spines of them, gathering dust on her fingertips.
"Most of these pages have been eaten through or destroyed by mold. How sad, I would have loved to have read through them." Leliana commented.
"What's this one on the floor? It looks kinda glowy." Alistair remarked.
"Of course, touch the glowing book and perhaps we will be greeted by even more demons." Morrigan rolled her eyes.
"It has ambient magic working on it. May I?" Wynne asked. Alistair allowed her and Wynne touched it. She noticed that most of the pages were burnt and then another green pulse overtook the room. They were met with a vision of a mage writing down furiously on the same book she touched. Another mage was behind him, holding the door with a small barricade.
"This door won't hold Archivist." The young female mage said.
"I am almost done…the truth must be told." The Archivist said.
"Why does it matter? We'll be dead soon enough." The female mage scoffed.
"Our grand rebellion…we were so close! And to die here a stillbirth." The Archivist sighed deeply.
"We never should have done it in the first place. Wardens are supposed to be neutral, not oppose kings and princes." The female mage walked closer to him with a worried look. The Archivist stopped writing and looked at her.
"Should we stand idly by while-" The door opened and they heard the last screams before the vision shined and disappeared. Levi walked forward to the book and scoffed.
"Another vision and what's this thing about a rebellion?" Levi wondered outloud. "If only the book weren't burned." Levi sighed.
"Wardens fighting against kings and princes? They're not supposed to that right?" Talen asked.
"Grey Wardens only have darkspawn as their enemy. We aren't the ones to come in to people's problems and help them. In fact, it's against the rules." Alistair furrowed his brows.
"So if there was a town being attack by undead and Grey Wardens are near it, they're not supposed to help?" Nia asked with a twinkle in her eye.
"Unfortunately no, not unless darkspawn starts appearing." Alistair explained.
"But even then, Wardens are heroes! They can't just let injustices slip by." Levi argued.
"We won't find anything here. Let's press on. Perhaps there are other records deeper into the fortress." Eren said.
"We can only hope." Levi sighed. The group gathered together to head to the upper floor.
'If it's any consolation Archivist, I do remember what truly happened.' Nia thought before following the others.
Beta'd by FearaNightmare and Syutaku
Woo! Early update! I know, you're probably wondering like 'What a minute, what happened to the POV?' In clarification, these are memories that Nia CANNOT remember and that's why it's switche. Why? You'll find that out next chapter. Of course, most of you already know what's going to happen in the next chapter :3
Thank you TheBandleMan for following! Thank you Chimera Spyke and Syutaku for reviewing!
Guest: The difference between Lives and Start is that Days of Our Start is like an extended version of Lives. After encountering a huge plothole in Days of Our Past, I realized that I needed to go back and fix this. After reading my first story I knew that I had glossed too many things. I had to explain more than what I was able to. Days of Our Lives wasn't supposed to go further than Origins in the first place. I wasn't going to write more than that until Inquisition came out. Because of that, there are a lot of ideas, holes, and other things that I never went into further explanation of. Instead of going back and adding things to my original story, I decided to write another one so I can further expand on it. Think of Days of Our Lives the rough draft of Days of Our Start. Of course there are also going to be several differences from here on out and I see Days of Our Start as the true starting point and Days of Our Past will eventually reflect that. I hope that answers your question! :3
PLEASE REVIEW! :D