9:30 Drakonis 16th
"It makes me wonder if she still loves me or not." Jowan finished with his details on running from the circle. We settled on the edge of the wall overlooking the lake of lava. Jowan was very much in love with Lily. Seeing his guilt on what he did was sad. Considering what happened to Lily though…that was one life that couldn't be saved.
"Talen said she was sent to Aeonar. I'm not sure what happens over there. That's another thing to add to your redemption." I mentioned.
"Yeah…I know." Jowan cleared his throat. "Thank you, for listening."
"It's what I do best. Besides, there's no harm in it. Come on, I'm sure the guys should be back to tell us what Bhelen's Second mentioned. Our first task to getting a seat on the throne." I said, stretching and starting to walk before someone ran into me. Whether it be gut feeling or if my instincts actually got better, my hand immediately grabbed their wrist. Unfortunately my boots weren't big enough for my coins and my rack wasn't big enough to shove stuff in. So yeah, was it wrong to put my coin pouch in my pocket? Probably, either way I had stopped it.
The dwarf was young but had the casteless tattoo on his cheek. I felt a pang of guilt and was about to give him some coins when the guards came around the corner. The young dwarf fled and ran as fast as he could.
"He wasn't troubling you, was he?" The guard asked me.
"Nope, no trouble here." I smiled and waved them along.
"Why did you say that? The dwarf was trying to rob you." Jowan asked.
"We're all made differently but the casteless is just like you. A person made by his environment. He wasn't asked to be born casteless but that's what the world gave him. I was going to even give him money before he left, oh well. Let's get back to the headquarters and see if we got a mission from Bhelen's second." I started to walk with Jowan coming beside me.
"Sometimes I wonder if you're a bit too kind." Jowan sighed.
"It's a good thing and a bad thing Jowan. More of a good thing than bad in my opinion." I said. We went up the stairs, making small conversation about the city. We managed to get to the headquarters without any more incidents happening. I noticed that not a lot of light were coming in from the holes in the ceiling. That means that the sun had already set.
We went into the dining room where the GWs were stationed. They had their game faces on already. Jowan shrank under Alistair's glare from across the room before I moved in front.
"Missy! I take it you're done touring around?" Derek wondered.
"Yep. I was almost robbed too, what an experience." I chuckled. Derek laughed with me while Eren looked worried.
"Nothing happened?" Eren wondered.
"Nope, I caught the guys hand and everything. He didn't stab me or anything so don't worry about that. Have we gotten anything from Bhelen?" I asked.
"Yep. Seems like Harrowmont had promised some holdings to two families. We found Helmi's house in the bar. Boss made sure to talk to him but we couldn't persuade him." Derek huffed.
"Then we found Lady Dace and we have hit a snag…" Alistair chuckled sheepishly.
"In order to get them to sway their vote, we have to find Lord Dace but he's on an expedition in the Deep Roads." Talen frowned.
"The Deep Roads? Shouldn't they be swarming with darkspawn?" Jowan gulped.
"And you're talking to the Grey Wardens." Derek darkly smiled. "We'll have to get ready for an expedition to meet them. What about missy? You up for it?"
"You know it." I gave a thumbs up.
"Then we'll have a team. For now, go rest. We'll talk to the rest to see who's willing to go. I'm sure that it's already nighttime outside." Eren yawned. I bit back against the urge to yawn myself and nodded. Jowan meekly followed after me.
"He still hates me." Jowan sighed.
"Well you did try to kill his adoptive family and started the events that led to the death of Isolde." I said flatly. Jowan hung his head. "The path to redemption is a long one, don't mess up because if you do…" I did a slicing motion to my neck. "We'll need to clean up the mess. Good night!" I said sweetly before heading to my room leaving Jowan gaping at me.
9:30 Drakonis 17th
I had switched out from the robes to my clothes. I had them washed and, with the hot stones near the spa, they got dry really quick. I put on my armor, now that it was shining, and stretched out my body. I had meditated in the morning and felt confident going into the Deep Roads.
"Yosh! Let's do this…" I murmured confidently and walked out of the room. I walked down the hall and saw the others gathered. Alfred barked and rubbed against my legs. "You coming with us boy?"
"He does need some exercise. A bit pudgy there, aren't you Alfred?" Eren came around. Alfred whined and barked.
"I'm pretty sure that's dog speak for, I'm not fat, you are." I laughed and Eren chuckled. "So who else is coming along?"
"Morrigan, Sten, and Talen." Eren replied.
"Derek isn't coming?" I wondered.
"He had to do something with his sister, it had to do with his mother." Eren explained. I hummed before Zevran came by in his leathers and dagger.
"Ah are we ready to go then?" Zevran wondered.
"You're coming?" Eren asked.
"I might as well. A knife can get dull with so much relaxation." Zevran chuckled. Eren shrugged but nodded.
"You know we're going into the nest of darkspawn? Any cut that gets hit by their blood and you'll turn into a ghoul, we might even have to kill you." I said.
"If it is by your blade, mi niña, I'll gladly welcome it." Zevran winked.
"Don't jinx it." I said, knocking on the stone wall. There's no wood but stone will do. We got out of the Diamond Quarter into the Commons. There were many that waved to us, well mostly to Eren, and we had to avoid some of the more persistent merchants. I saw Morrigan by a stall, looking at a jeweled hand mirror. Sten was stoic as a merchant was babbling next to him, trying to measure his massive body. I snorted when I saw Talen with a bag of food, chowing down all nonchalant. Alfred ran over to him and Talen glared.
"I'm not sharing. This is the first real meal I've gotten around here so get scraps from someone else." Talen stuffed his face while Alfred whined.
"Eating again Talen? Didn't you raid the pantry upstairs too in the middle of the night?" I raised my eyebrows. Talen looked at me before eating again. "It was you!"
"Shut up!" Talen's face grew red while I teased him again.
"Must you be so loud?" Morrigan scoffed, crossing her arms.
"Let them be. Children will be children." Eren chuckled.
"I'm a year older than you." I stuck out my tongue and Eren's eye twitched.
"And yet you allow your impulses to control you. Age is merely a number." Morrigan responded.
"What can I say? I've never let my inner child go." I laughed and Talen shook his head.
"If we're ready to go then I might suggest we leave now. The faster we go, the faster we can come back." Zevran mentioned.
"He's right, let's all go." Eren said. Sten grunted at the pushy merchant and followed us. I mentally checked off what I had in my pack while we went to the end of the Common's area. There was a wall built high unlike in the game with a set of guards up in front and another set of guards surrounding the entrance to the Deep Roads.
"Hold, no one can go past here." The Guard mentioned, standing between us and the road.
"I am Grey Warden Eren and I also have this permission from Lady Dace. We are to retrieve Lord Dace's expedition." Eren explained while giving the permission to the guard.
"Ah then you must be the group that came in. The permission is sound, you may go. You're in luck, there hasn't been much activity from the Darkspawn so your journey should be easy in dwarven standards." The Guard nodded and we were allowed to pass.
"I do not understand. The Deep Roads are the home to these creatures, why is it they have grown silent?" Sten wondered.
"Apparently since darkspawn go on the surface during a Blight, the Deep Roads start to get empty. Which is good for us since we're about to go through." Talen explained, eating the last of his food and securing his pack away.
"So they are gathering their numbers already…" Sten grumbled.
"We have always known that they would start to move once winter ended. There is not much we can do." Eren sighed.
"We can search the roads for the Archdemon no?" Zevran chuckled. "Perhaps the Maker will smile upon us and grant us a chance to end this before it truly begins."
"Yeah and with what army though? No Archdemon has been taken down by a small group, it takes waves of soldiers to even weaken it. Also it will most likely kill us." Talen shrugged his shoulders.
"Such an optimist." Morrigan chuckled. So off we went through the Deep Roads.
Day 1
It would take a maximum five days to get to the Aeducan Thaig and three if we book it. There wasn't much in the roads, some rubble, torn down tunnels, wagons of various items, and plain trash. Once we got through everything though, I was left in awe.
They were beautifully built. The architecture I would compare to the pyramids of Egypt. The utter detail to the road, the walls were amazing. The fact that these have lasted all these centuries is a testament to the intellect of the dwarves. I would find myself touching the walls and feeling the grooves of the various images carved into the stone. There was also a script of ancient dwarven carved along the images.
Sten was also admiring their work. He would rub his chin as he did the same as me. I could see the cogs working through his mind as he took apart the ability of the dwarves. Not only did he admire the artistry, he also admired the hard work it took to make all of this. Not only is this beautiful art it is also built solidly with soldiers in mind. Just like Iron Bull said, dwarves build for sieges, leaving nothing to chance.
To be able to see this roads in its full glory would have been amazing. Then the darkspawn took everything. All the thaigs, thousands of lives, their history. The darkspawn took everything from the dwarves and, even now, they are chipping away at their lives. So the dwarves are slowly dying with their pride firmly held in their hands.
Too bad I couldn't literally smack sense into their heads.
"Can you imagine how many years it would have taken to build all of this?" Zevran wondered.
"A long time, I imagine." Morrigan smiled. Even she was impressed with the architecture.
"And now they're all starting to crumble with the darkspawn's help and through the ravages of time." I sighed sadly.
"The dwarves were the first that fell from the darkspawn's attack." Eren mentioned.
And the world was less for it.
"The first Blight took everyone by surprise. Do you really think the Chant has it right? That the magisters of old were tainted by the Maker and were cast out?" Talen asked.
"Do not listen to the dribble coming from the Chant of Light. Tis just men's ability to feed us lies." Morrigan scoffed.
"We don't really have much of an answer for it so everyone tends to accept it. It's a good of an answer as we'll get though. If you don't believe in it, how do you think the Blight started?" I asked.
"Perhaps twas an old ancient spell gone awry. Or the mages touched something that shouldn't have been disturbed." Morrigan's voice took out a breathless tone like she was teasing us with a ghost story.
"You don't believe in the folly of man's pride?" I wondered.
"Of course I do, fools tend to embrace their vanity and allow it to control them." Morrigan rolled her eyes.
"I believe in the Chantry. There's no point in trying to explain it." Zevran shook his head. "Mages went into the fade, touched the black city, came back and now we are up to our necks in darkspawn, so sad." Zevran chuckled.
"We aren't here to discuss theology of any kind. We're here to find Dace." Eren said.
"And it's going to take a few days to get there right? We can't just walk in silence. For one, it's boring, and it just adds tension to the group." I explained. Eren rubbed his face.
"For once I agree with him. It is best to focus on our task." Sten said. I pouted at that.
"We can always talk strategy Sten and with everyone else. We are going to face a lot of darkspawn, blight or no blight. We need to know what we're going to be expecting." I suggested. Sten thought about it before nodding.
"This is an acceptable topic to discuss." Sten said.
"She's not wrong." Talen grumbled.
"Here we go." Zevran moaned.
Day 2
Deepstalkers are frigging ugly. We killed a pack going toward the Thaig. Nasty little things that can camouflage themselves as small stones. Their eyes are milky, their mouths resemble the mouths of lamprey, and they're like little raptors with long stringy fingers. Something out of a horror book in my opinion. They tend to squeak and growl when you get near them. A very wet growl I might add.
"I think this is one of the ugliest things we've seen." I touched the carcass with a tap from my foot.
"Excluding Alistair." Morrigan smirked and Zevran busted out laughing.
"He's not that bad on the eyes Morrigan. You would make a good love-hate pair." I snickered.
"Say that again and I will have your eyes bleed out from your skull." Morrigan glared. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.
"I am assuming that your husband looks like Alistair?" Zevran asked.
"Hell no, they are way different. My husband isn't nearly as built. He also had dark brown, curly hair and a goatee. He's as tall as Alistair though, if my husband tried to stand up straight." I described, following the rest on the path.
"I see. What would you do if you met a man that was similar to your husband?" Zevran asked.
"That's impossible, no one can be similar to him. Maybe in physical appearance but my husband is one of a kind. No one fits me better than him." I nodded with a smile.
"Such a love like yours is very rare." Zevran chuckled.
"I don't actually think it's rare. Sometimes love can come up in the weirdest places." I said, looking at Morrigan and Eren who were slightly ahead. They were keeping their voices hushed but I gave both a soft smile. Morrigan and Leliana can definitely make a lasting romance, it all depends on their partner.
"I see. My big friend, has anyone caught your fancy?" Zevran knocked his hand against Sten's armor. All he did was look down at Zevran.
"Is this question one that needs to be posed?" Sten rebutted.
"And that is my answer." Zevran sighed. Alfred barked next to him. "I don't need the sordid details of your romance life." Alfred huffed.
"What about you Zevran? Out of all this adventuring, have you been proactive?" I wondered.
"Ah such a bold question from my beautiful niña. If you must know, there are many women and men who fall for my charming ways. I would say more than half of them have warmed my cot." He winked at me.
"Congratulations." I laughed. "What about in Antiva? Is there anyone waiting for you there?" I asked. I knew the answer but I wanted to see Zevran's reactions. There was a hitch in his face. If I didn't know him so well, I would have dismissed it as a twitch of the face but there was a sort of rigidity to it. Zevran chuckled.
"If you are saying if someone had captured my heart, then I would have to say no. There is nothing for me in Antiva besides a few lovely boots I could not get. That and the Crows but I am happily missing them right now." Zevran dismissed it.
"Speaking of the Crows, what are a few of your adventures with them?" I wondered.
"You would like to know more?" Zevran wondered.
"Anything to pass the time. I don't like prolonged silence. I feel like it adds tension and I also get really bored." I said.
"I would take it as an opportunity to welcome it from the constant noise." Sten grumbled.
"Calm yourself my tall friend. We must take this as an opportunity to…grow closer." Zevran nonchalantly put his arm around my shoulders. I stepped on his foot and he hissed in pain. "Ah, so close." He grunted.
"Ha ha Zevran, are you going to humor me or not?" I laughed. Zevran pouted but then he smiled warmly at me.
"Fine, let me regale you with my tales of my beautiful Antiva and the deadly Crows." Zevran said, putting his hand on my shoulder though I let it stay there instead of shrugging it off.
Day 3
We found a few carta members that were killed off a long time ago. The stench turned my stomach. We had killed other Deepstalkers that were scavenging their corpses. A bronto laid with the carta members and nugs scattered away from us.
"I had heard that Leliana wistfully wanted one of these creatures." Morrigan commented.
"A nug? For what reason?" Zevran wondered.
"She finds them…cute." Morrigan scoffed.
"They are repulsive with odd appendages." Sten mumbled.
"They're…different I would say." Eren said.
"It's a sorta ugly cute thing you know? Kinda like hairless cats." I said.
"There is such a thing?" Zevran wondered.
"Yes! A lot of people don't like them obviously, but I would have loved to have one. Those wrinkles! Their hanging bellies! Their claws and beans!" I squealed.
"Beans?" Eren wondered.
"The pads on a dog or cat, though they mostly refer to the cat. They look like beans." I explained.
"Humans." Sten rolled his eyes.
"Hm maybe we can get something for Leliana then." Talen mumbled.
"You'd win a lot of points with her." I lightly elbowed Talen in the ribs and his face flushed red.
"It's not about making her like me back. I just want to do something nice for her." Talen frowned.
"Perhaps you would need some help in charming our residential bard, I have a few lines that has won me many lovers." Zevran walked on the other side of Talen.
"I don't need your kind of help Zevran." Talen walked closer to me.
"Is that why you haven't confessed, hm?" Zevran wondered and Talen's face heated up.
"There hasn't been the right time and I want it to come naturally." Talen mumbled.
"My little Talen is growing up!" I fake sobbed.
"The boy is becoming a man!" Zevran joined up.
"I hate both of you right now." Talen glared.
"Please, leave him be. If he gets any redder, he might explode into flames." Eren laughed.
"And we will be having a field day if we return with cinders." Morrigan chuckled.
"Is everyone going to make fun of me!?" Talen groaned. I put my arm around Talen.
"Think of it this way Talen, we all care for you and we show that love and care through our ribbing. We're like family and family usually insults one another but don't mean it." I nodded.
"Uh huh, sure." Talen rolled his eyes and rubbed his mouth, trying to hide the smile that he was wearing. I noticed a chain that was around his neck and pulled at it. "Hey, that's mine." Talen huffed.
"What is that?" I wondered. Talen reached into his robes and pulled out a necklace that had a ruby on it. Or that it looked like a ruby from far away. There was liquid inside the large amulet.
"This is the necklace given to us during our joining. It carries the blood we drank in the chalice as a reminder of those we lost." Talen said solemnly.
"We all have it, not just him. I usually carry it in my pack however." Eren explained.
"Can I hold it?" I wondered. Talen took it off his neck and handed it to me. It was warm to the touch. For being with it so long, blood would usually coagulate but this was still deep red. Black speckles hung on the red which made me realize that those spots were the darkspawn blood they had to collect. "It's beautiful in a disturbing morbid way." I handed it back to him.
"I like making sure that the ones who were chosen with us won't be forgotten." Talen nodded.
"Such a romantic." Zevran winked at him.
"Yeah, yeah, who says a guy can't be sentimental, hm? Mr. Boots." Talen chuckled.
"Not these ones, I would rather have some lavish ones with beautiful threadwork woven into the leather, perhaps some padding in the underfoot to allow extra cushion." Zevran sighed wistfully.
"Am I the only one that does not obsess over the uselessness of some objects?" Morrigan wondered.
"Well boots aren't useless. Good boots help you support your whole body and it doesn't kill to have a little support. Now, if I had to say anything, having so much jewelry isn't exactly a necessity." I said nonchalantly and Morrigan glared at me. "You're going to exact revenge when I don't realize it aren't you?"
"You know me so well." Morrigan cackled. And she says she's nothing like her mother, yeah right.
Day 4
Eren found the marker around a bend in the Deep Roads. After looking at the map that Lady Dace gave us, this was the starting point of the Thaig and where we should find Lord Dace's expedition. There was a sort of eerie silence that had permeated the walls the more we traveled. It was as if this place was touched by something dark. The walls had this weird blackness attached to it. We started to feel the tension and my hands kept on touching my daggers just in case.
"Here's the marker, this is the area that Dace was last seen at. Be on your guard everyone. We may have been lucky on our travels here but the darkspawn are much more present now." Eren warned.
"You feel them too?" Talen glared at the walls.
"Like their crawling inside my head." Eren scoffed. Alfred's ears were also erect, on a constant watch. We went further in, going on a right from a fork in the road. We found another marker from Dace's group when Talen and Eren stopped. "Get ready!" Eren shouted.
When they say that darkspawn came from the walls, the ground, that the shadows held the darkspawn, they meant it literally in the Deep Roads. The walls and floors cracked as a horde of darkspawn came through. Genlocks with shields were at the forefront and Hurlocks surrounded us. The darkspawn weren't smart usually but there were times that something seemed to shine through. Like the fact the archers where behind the shielded genlock was something of a strategy.
"Don't get blood on you!" Talen shouted as he held onto barriers for all of us. Sten, Eren, Zevran, and I broke from the group and went out in pairs. Eren and Zevran went with each other while I stayed with Sten. They went for the shielded genlocks as they would give us the most trouble. Morrigan transformed into her wasp form and went for the archers.
Talen sent out a fireball to the archers that were trying to escape from the wasps constant attacks only for them to get burned. I evaded a Hurlock and positioned myself behind. I aimed for the lower back and did quick stabs before kicking them away from me. I did these to two and cut the throat of another Hurlock before going back to Talen as he needed to redo my barrier. Unfortunately one shield genlock broke away from Sten and decided to follow me.
I ran from Talen and towards the wall. The genlock went to ram at me but I jumped at the last second, the shield embedded in the wall. I jumped on the genlock's back and stabbed into the neck before it slumped down. I evaded away from another Hurlock before Sten came and stabbed it through its armor. Morrigan retreated back into her human form and let out a dark mist around the Hurlocks that went into their skin. Soon they began to roar out in pain and one Hurlock shined before running into its group and exploding, causing a chain reaction. One genlock left and Eren decapitated it.
"Status?" Eren shouted. There were various forms of 'ok's' and, after Talen passes through, no one suffered much other than a few scuffs.
"Let's keep going." Talen let out a deep breath. We allowed the adrenaline to ease off as we kept on walking. The tunnels varied between darkspawn tunnels and dwarven tunnels. Dead ends abounded and it was getting hard to track down the markers. Zevran had a good eye for them so we kept on track. Deep mushrooms grew in various spots on the wall and nugs squeaked away in fear of us.
We came into a large cavern where there were a few Hurlocks and two emissaries floating around some kind of ruins. We all look at each other with worry. One emissary was tough but two?
"I really wish we asked Alistair." Talen mumbled.
"No point in going back." Eren unsheathed his sword. I saw Zevran reach into his back, a round bottle with a sort of liquid inside.
"This is an oil mixture that I created. It is supposed to douse the creatures. Should we mix this with fire, the flames will burn for some time." Zevran whispered.
"The creatures will scurry the moment we are noticed." Sten shook his head.
"Then we need to get them in once place, Morrigan?" Eren wondered. Morrigan gave him a proud smirk before changing into her wasp form. She flew over to the group of darkspawn as they swatted at her and even tried slicing her with their swords. Zevran sneaked closer with Talen close by, two of his oil glasses on hand. Once Morrigan has herded them into a close group, Zevran threw the two bottles, dousing them with his mixture. Talen immediately followed up with his fireball.
The darkspawn screeched in pain. Eren, Sten, and I moved on forward into battle. A genlock recovered quickly from the fire and came right for us, two Hurlocks right behind him. Eren went up in front and did a shield bash right at its face. I sidestepped and rocked my knuckles into the Hurlock. In the moment it took to recover, I had switched to my blades and stabbed it in its chest and kicked it away. Sten made short work with his Hurlock, stunning him with a pommel strike and them decapitating him.
Three more Hurlocks recovered from being burned. Morrigan retreated to her original form, setting off a dark magic that caused the Hurlocks to walk around as if they were dizzy. Zevran and I came together to try to off them before the Emissaries shot off a fire and ice spell together. Talen put up a protective barrier and shielded us. The emissary drew out a sickly green light that seemed to heal the Hurlocks and they came at us.
"We need to kill the saarebas!" Sten shouted as he avoided a spirit spell.
"Morrigan try to disorient the mages! We need to separate them!" Eren shouted as he avoided a spell and a hurlock's blade. More dark magic seeped out and it seemed to work. Talen shaped a fireball that killed one Hurlock and forced the two darkspawn mages apart. Unfortunately, one decided to focus on Talen. He held up a barrier as the emissary sent out a beam of spiritual magic towards Talen. After kicking a Hurlock that came up to me I ran to Talen's aid.
I jumped up and buried my daggers into the back of the emissary. It roared and bucked underneath me. I got dizzy from all the movement and felt my grip weaken. I climbed the emissary and put the darkspawn in a chokehold. It tried grabbing at my arm and I grabbed onto the fleshy part of its arm.
The air crackled around me as I felt the rush of the magical syphon. The bucking started to slow down and the emissary was touching the ground, struggling to keep on floating. My vision started to change and I saw a dark circle, surrounded by so many other ones. If I touched this, something would go inside me. Luckily that vision was broken as the emissary dropped down on the ground unceremoniously with me on the bottom. My breath was knocked out of me. I saw a Hurlock hold its blade over my head before it got a sword through its gut. Sten kicked it off his sword before grabbing the body of the mage and threw it off me. Sten hesitated when he saw me. I got up anyway, weirdly jumpy and pumped.
"It's still alive." Zevran hummed, looking at the emissary before he slit the throat.
"Is something wrong Sten?" I wondered.
"No." Sten looked away, an odd look in his eye but I didn't push. Talen and Morrigan were also eyeing me but they didn't push. The bodies of the darkspawn were littered all over the cavern. Eren did a few double taps just in case and we moved on.
There wasn't much more to the Thaig. There were ruins buried with rubble, several dead ends with Deepstalkers coming at us. They were easy to get rid of, a few spells, some stabs, and done. Zevran pocketed their poison sacs for later use.
"Any markers around?" Eren wondered after we hit another dead end.
"They lead over here." Zevran said. We followed him to a door embedded into the stone. The ruin opened to us. We followed the trail towards stone homes. They resembled the homes around the commons area. Eren unsheathed his sword as we heard shouts coming from beyond. We saw the Dace house surrounded by a horde of Deepstalkers.
"Come on!" Eren shouted. We followed him to the Dace expedition. They were a team of six but against a small horde, even they can get overwhelmed. Talen let out a few fireballs where more were coming. Morrigan shifted into her wolf form to tackle them. Out of all of us, Sten was having a harder time as he had to duck low with his sword to reach them. Zevran and I tag teamed. I would knock them down with a good knuckles to their back and he would follow up by taking off their head with his daggers.
Their poison stung like hell. They felt like a sugar burn and those are the worst. Thanks to the armor, I was well protected but the acid was slowly eating away at my other equipment, specifically my gloves and boots. Poor Zevran and Talen were getting the brunt of the acid as they wore leather and cloth robes. Morrigan was also getting bombarded by the acidic spit. Talen kept putting up the barriers for all of us but he was getting run ragged.
Finally the first horde was dealt with. Eren tried to talk to Lord Dace but he only grumbled at him, talking about a second wave. The rest of us looked around the ruins. The sounds of our breathing were the only thing that broke the silence. I tried to focus more on my weapons than the acid that was currently burning my hands. Curse fingerless gloves.
"Here they come!" Dace raised his mace and shield, his men shouting in agreement as they raised their weapons. The rest of us got ready. Another miniature horde came at us. It was a mess of bodies trying to kill the white Deepstalkers. Talen let his proficiency with fire to help keep the Deepstalkers at a distance from their acid spit. Morrigan switched to her bear form to deal with the Deepstalkers. They started to overwhelm her as they kept on climbing on top of her.
Eren came by and killed the ones surrounding her. Morrigan couldn't keep up with her transformation and went back to her human form. Eren cradled her against him. Sten came by and protected them from more Deepstalkers.
"Urgh! This is getting ridiculous!" I shouted as I kicked away three away from me. Talen grabbed me and pushed me towards Sten, Morrigan, and Eren.
"Get behind me!" Talen shouted to Zevran. We were huddled against a broken-down home. Talen was in front of all of us, his staff in front with a large and powerful barrier up. The staff started to glow and the air grew hot.
"Haahh!" Talen battle shouted as he summoned a firestorm surrounding us. At first I thought Dace was about to get scorched when I noticed that they also had barriers. The Deepstalkers screeches sounded horrible against the fire but, after a few minutes, they all died down. Talen put down his staff, breathing heavily, sweat running down his face. The Deepstalkers were black and crispy surrounding us. Talen took a step forward but swayed.
I came over and put his arm around my shoulders. He leaned heavily against me as he was exhausted. Then the moment was broken as Dace was laughing his ass off. He came over, putting his mace away as he approached our group.
"Now that was a show! I haven't seen something that surprising since a casteless won the Proving! Who are you strangers?" Dace wondered.
"Good to meet you, Lord Dace." Eren nodded. "My name is Eren Cousland and I am a Grey Warden visiting Orzammar."
"A warden?" Dace whistled. "Not my first guess but that explains why you came through the Deep Roads. Is there something you need from our house?"
"A vote if possible. We came across these papers that shows Harrowmont approving holdings for you and House Helmi. Unfortunately, they are the same holdings." Eren described as he passed off the papers to Lord Dace. His good myrrh was ruined by the papers he held.
"What? How did you find these? Bah, doesn't matter. That lying, cheat! To think I wouldn't have known about this until it was too late. You save my house a good deal of money Warden. I guess now is the time where you convince me to vote Bhelen instead." Dace put the papers away in his pack.
"It would help us greatly if you chose to vote for him instead, yes." Eren nodded.
"Then you have the vote of my House." Dace nodded. "Me and my expedition are done with the Aeducan Thaig, for now. How about we go back as a group? It's safe in numbers."
"I think that's the best option for everyone. Allows us to rest before we head out and we will accompany you." Eren agreed.
"Good, come on boys! Let's get some of these Deepstalkers home!" Dace shouted as they began to salvage what they could from the mountain of corpses around us.
"That's two for Bhelen and zero for Harrowmont." Talen chuckled before he promptly blacked out in my arms.
Beta'd by Syutaku
OMG! I got seven reviews! Well six awesome reviews and one criticism but hey, everyone eventually gets their own. Either way, I've never had so many reviews since my DA2 story. I got so many warm feelings, I made sure to make my beta hurry. He didn't rush though so it's still good quality editing :)
Also another reminder of the collab between me and Fanatic24. Our story is called Then, There, and When. Time travel future stuff happening eventually lol
Thank you DannyPhantom619 for favoriting! Thank you Judy, JustJoe, Chimera Spyke, TheoGrey (I'm glad that this makes you happy!) for reviewing!
DannyPhantom619: She will eventually go home, eventually being the key word here. I have the whole game planned out till the end of Trespasser and then some with foreshadowing of what might happen. I hope you'll continue to read and review here and there :)
Please Review! :D They make me write faster!