Chapter 166: One Last Push
He knelt before the small body in front of him, a body now hidden beneath a white coat. The war continued to rage around them, but for now, in this moment, there was silence, a silence filled with grief and loss.
Alim knelt, staring down at the form before him. The warden continued to look down, his expression empty, his body frozen with pain and loss.
Leliana stood behind her lover. She knew that they could not remain here, not when they were so close to their goal. Death was all around them now, and the only way to stop it from spreading, from claiming even more innocents were to continue on. Yet, at that moment, she had no words to motivate Alim, to convince him to carry on and finish this journey. She, so well trained in the bardic arts, of persuading with words, tale, and song was utterly lost. She was unable to get through his pain.
In that moment, perhaps for the first time in her life, Leliana was speechless, and she feared that the whole world would fall because of it.
Around them, their allies took stock of who was left, who had made it out of the darkspawns' trap. Though people had been lost, the group was still large enough to continue on. The mages worked their magic on the survivors, healing wounds and bolstering failing strength. Both Alistair and Theron moved among the others, making sure they were ready to face the final challenge.
Yet, Alim remained lost, and had been since Shayle had lain the body of their fallen companion at their feet. The golem had not failed in doing what was needed; she had gotten out of danger. Alas, it had been too late.
Bandit had been dead when Shayle had first scooped the Mabari up.
Leliana could not imagine the pain that her love was in right now. They had travelled across Ferelden together, Bandit and he, they had been partners since shortly after the Battle of Ostagar, when the dog had escaped the royal kennel, and sought out the one he had chosen to be his master.
Now…he was gone, and the warden looked almost inconsolable.
Leliana shivered, she wanted to go to him, to wrap her love in her arms and comfort him, but from the rigid way he was sitting, the tension in his shoulders, she dared not approach. They had fought together for so long, that she recognized when not to approach him, when he was not ready for comfort.
She shook her head.
She wanted to do something, but had no idea what it was.
"We must push on," she heard Morrigan say to Alistair.
"We will," the king replied.
"We cannot linger," she continued, "The darkspawn will be…"
"We. Will." He said flatly, the strength in his voice stopping her from saying more.
Leliana bit her lip, worrying it nervously.
What if Alim could not go on? Both Jowan, who had been like a best friend to him, and Bandit had died in the same fight. They had been so lucky up to this point, losing only Bellethiel before now, but this…this…
How could Alim come back from this? They needed him, but…now…now…
He seemed so broken.
The rest of the group was equally silent, unsure what to do next, Alim was their leader and they were used to him being strong for them. Seeing him like this must have been a shock.
"Get up, warden."
Leliana glared as Elissa Cousland approached, the woman's icy gaze pinned her love where he knelt.
We cannot remain here any longer."
Alim looked up at her, his eyes flashing fiercely, Leliana thought she could hear thunder rumbling above them, but that might just have been the sound of battle.
"Go away," the elf spat.
The woman crossed her arms.
"We cannot remain here," she repeated, "We still have a battle to win, and, as much as I hate to admit it, we need you for that."
Alim's elven ears lay flat against his head, so fierce was the anger and grief he must have felt.
Leliana took a step back, fearing what might come next. She had not seen her love like this since Belle had died.
Fergus' sister was taking an incredible risk.
"He is dead," Alim spat, "Bandit is dead. He died defending me!"
"I was there," she reminded him, "He got before you and shielded you; that was his job, his place; that is what is expected of him."
"He wasn't just a shield," the elf snarled back, "I can't just discard him like…like…"
Alim whimpered, he looked down, pain seemed to be radiating off him like heat.
"He died for me," he repeated.
Leliana feared that Elissa would laugh at her lover's pain, or say some cruel or snide remark. That is what she had come to expect from the noble girl. She was the only one in their group who Leliana would not have mourned if they fell.
The girl did not laugh, in fact, she looked as pained as the elf, for the briefest of moments at least, then that pain was once again, hidden, masked by cold competence. When next she spoke, her words were almost a whisper, not for others to hear, only her, Alim, and Leliana.
"So did Prince," she said flatly, "I mourned him, and then I had to move on."
Alim looked up.
"What are you talking about?" he hissed.
Elissa shrugged.
"You are not the only one that was chosen by a Mabari," she answered, "Prince was mine, he chose me, of everyone else in Highever, he chose me, that was five years ago, and he had remained at my side ever since."
The noble shuddered, for the briefest of moments, her eyes looked misty, distant, remembering happier times perhaps, before the war and ambition had divided her family.
"He stood beside me when everyone else fell away. He was there to bolster my strength when questioned what I was doing, so me through my weaker moments, and allowed me to fight on. During my third engagement of the war, he fell, struck down by a rebel knight's lance."
Elissa's eyes darkened in anger.
"I cut the man's head off for that, but that did not change the fact that he had hurt me, taken something of value to me, the last thing I took from Highever, the one pure thing I had left."
The warrior shivered.
"I mourned him, mourned what he had given, and what I had lost, but it did not change the fact that the war was far from over. He traded his life for mine, as Mabari have done for their masters since the earliest days of the hound warriors. They knew the pain of losing their Mabari, the same pain that you and I know now."
Elissa glared down at him.
"If you sit here, weeping like a child, then he died for nothing. Everyone who has died to reach this point has died for nothing. I am not one of your "companions" warden, and nor do I wish to be, but I will be damned before I let Ferelden falter because of childish grief."
Leliana watched this with a bit of awe. Part of her was angry that Elissa would speak like that to her lover, but the part of her that was the bard was grateful as well.
A friend could not have said those things to Alim, not so quickly anyway. Elissa hit him like a cold bucket of water being poured over a sleeping man. Harsh it was, true, but perhaps necessary.
Both warrior and elf glared at one another. They were not friendly, would likely never be friendly, too much has passed between them, but in that moment, in that particular time and place.
Her words were necessary.
The elf rose, turning away from the Mabari now hidden beneath the elf's white coat. Clad in armor Alim looked more warrior now than mage, and his eyes blazed with a cold fury, a warrior's anger.
Elissa smiled coldly.
"We still have an Archdemon to kill," she reminded him, "The beast's slaves killed your dog…"
Her smiled turned wicked.
"Shall we pay the monster back for that?"
Alim did not respond, not with words, his brown eyes still burned with pain, and unshed tears of anger and grief, when he did answer it were not with words. He turned away from the noble and once again took the lead.
"We move," he said over his shoulder. "Keep an eye open for traps. Let's not lose anyone else."
He took a shuddering breath and looked at Leliana.
"Stay close to the mages," he advised her, they will shield you when the fight begins."
She nodded, and he nodded back.
The warden drew his sword, and continued on, the others quickly taking up position around him, preparing for what came next.
Leliana took one last glance at the storeroom where the Mabari laid, its form all but hidden by the elf's white coat. His hat lay forgotten next to the body as well, left behind by the elf in his grief.
"Thank you," the bard murmured under her breath. Bandit had died, yes, but in doing so he had protected her love, made sure that he would be there to do what came next, to face the great battle to come.
She would always be grateful for that, and vowed that, if she survived, she would return and make sure that the dog was honored with the rest of the fallen, not just here, but those lost in Ostagar as well.
So many brave souls, so many had given their lives.
Leliana gripped her bow, pausing only briefly to make sure that she still had arrows in her quiver
Her blue eyes narrowed in grim determination.
So many lives lost so much pain.
She would see that the Archdemon answered for that...
…One arrow at a time.
IOI
Alim gripped spellbinder tightly, his staff tighter still, the click it made on the stone floor sounded like thunder in his grief stricken mind.
Grief stricken, yes, but no longer frozen, fury burned away any ice left over from the moment that he realized that Bandit had been slain.
The warden shook his head, he felt numb, pain, injury, and loss had left with nothing but the coming battle.
As they found their way out of the noble section of Fort Drakon, things began to appear more and more militaristic, and with it, more stairways and corridors going up, always up.
He could feel the Archdemon now, its black presence shining like some kind of diseased beacon in the darkness. Its song was disjointed, the strains of the music twisted by the monster's pain.
Those chords of pain kept him focused, allowed him to go against the flow of the song. Anger drove him forward. Alistair was at his right hand, sword in hand, ready to fight at his warden brother's side. Carver was at his left, healed of the wounds he had suffered during the explosion that killed Jowan.
Alim snarled under his breath.
Belle.
Zevran.
Jowan.
Bandit.
How much more would he have to lose before he was done?
He had thought he had prepared himself, that he had readied himself for the loss that any battle commander may face.
He had been wrong.
He dared not look at Leliana. He tried not to think about what would happen if he lost her too. The others were friends, companions that had become almost like family in the last year, but Leliana…Leli…
She was different, made even more so, by what she now carried, their child.
The elf shook his head.
Did she ever realize that she was with child? It had not been that long. Morrigan was now, or so she claimed. A spell hid her symptoms, for now, slowed the progression. The same spell she had used on Leliana without her notice.
"Tis wiser that way, warden," Morrigan had said, "You do not wish Leliana to be distracted. When this is done, she will be able to focus entirely on the little gift you have given her."
The witch had smiled then.
"Will that not be nice?"
He could not say for certain.
Of course, if they did not stop the Archdemon here, there would likely be no future for any of them.
Perhaps it was for the best, that she did not know, yet.
If she fell, she would never know what was lost, what they had both lost.
It might seem cruel, but if it was, it was a cruel kindness.
In this, he thought, ignorance is bliss.
Suddenly, around them, the walls seemed to tremble, the muffled sound of a roar came to their ears. The sound set the taint in Alim's blood racing.
So close now, he thought to himself.
So very close.
"There is another landing up ahead," Carver called out, it is where they store bolts and ammunition for the trebuchets."
The soldier shuddered.
"After that, we are at the top."
Alim nodded.
Almost there.
"When we reach the top, scatter," he ordered. "I want the mages hitting the beast with everything. Fire, ice, lightning, stone, everything; target the wings, keep it from taking off. Archers target the eyes, and the mouth, let's limit its ability to fight back. Warriors, watch for darkspawn and keep them off the mages and archers."
"What about the Archdemon, itself?" Carver asked.
Alim frowned.
"Leave the beast to us," Alim advised, "It falls to us to strike the final blow. No one plays hero out there. If it looks like the Archdemon is down let us wardens take it, we will make sure it is dead."
Alim grimaced.
"And makes sure it stays dead, he thought to himself. Anyone else strikes the beast down, it is reborn anew in the closest darkspawn, and that means were stuck atop Fort Drakon with a hale and hearty Archdemon.
That would not go well for them.
The group found the landing that Carver had spoken of, no darkspawn emerged to block their path. The warden did not doubt the monsters were even now coming up behind them trying to catch up, but for now, the path to the target was clear.
They needed to move quickly, there was not much time.
Before the final door, they found a room filled with the bodies of fallen darkspawn, that and several open crates of weapons and supplies.
Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Alim called a brief stop while his swords searched through the goods, replacing damaged weapons with new ones, or downing a healing potion to rejuvenate them all before the final battle.
Alim was not sure, but he thought he saw someone watching them. He did not look too closely, but he thought that he might have heard a familiar voice say: "Enchantment?"
The elf blinked.
"Sandal?" he wondered.
Impossible the elf thought, No one from the army could have beat them here, they would have had to have flown themselves.
Less than a minute later they were on the move again, up the last staircase, and through the door that Carver claimed led to the roof of Fort Drakon.
The sight that greeted them would have turned the bravest of knight's guts to jelly.
The red sky roiled above them. Rainbow lightning struck the towers scattering the few remaining defenders. Ferelden archers rushed around trying to avoid the worst of it. They fired arrows at the massive dragon, in their midst. The Archdemon roared its rage and flapped its powerful wings, one of which was still badly torn.
The taint sang as the monster whirled around, using its tale to sweep defenders off the top of the giant fortress.
As it completed its spin it breathed, a breath that sent a blast of violet colored fire at the nearest group of defenders. The archers died their flesh and armor melting, their eyes bursting with a loud popping sound…
…A horrifying sight to be sure.
A single archer managed to escape; the man dived forward, trying to put an arrow beneath the massive dragon's chin, to perhaps strike the beast in its brain.
The Archdemon's neck came around like a snake's. It snatched up the warrior in its powerful jaws. The creature bit down once, twice, three times, as the man's cries went from screams to a straggled gurgle.
The creature did not swallow him; instead it flung its head back, tossing the chewed body from the top of the tower.
Alim and the others froze, this was only the second time he had seen the Archdemon in person, and he hated to admit it, but it looked bigger than it had in the dead trenches, bigger and meaner, despite its injuries.
The taint sang of fury and vengeance as the Archdemon finally noticed the wardens and their companions.
Pale, white murky eyes seemed to bore into them, looking not just at their bodies, but at their souls.
For the briefest of moments there was silence, you could have heard a pin drop, and then then…
The Archdemon roared.
The dragon's cry turned the song of the taint into a shriek, it was all that Alim could do to not fall down and curl up at the monster's feet, but now bolstered by his anger, and loss of those he cared about, and the desire to protect those yet to come, he did not falter.
He accepted the beasts anger, and let if wash away.
The elf glared the beast, unwilling to bend before its mighty will.
Are you scared beast? He thought.
You should be.
Before the Archdemon could leap forward or breathe flame, the wardens surged forward. Alim, Alistair, and Elissa all ran forward.
Theron slid to the side ready with his bow, ready to begin peppering the beast with arrows.
The creature flapped its wings and spun.
The wardens slid under the giant tail and came up next to the beast.
Alim slashed out with spellbinder, the elven blade, slicing through tainted scale.
The Archdemon howled and leapt back.
It was not a killing wound, but it did get the beast's attention.
Again the Archdemon roared; the song filled with cries for reinforcement for protection, that and the desire to see the wardens dead.
Alim grinned savagely up at the monster.
"Yeah," he said coldly, "Well, fuck you too!"
The warden raised his staff, lightning flashed down onto Fort Drakon. The Archdemon howled.
The final battle had begun.