A/N: A new chapter, and in less than a month - not bad! I'm hoping to be able to do the same for the next chapter also. The next chapter will wrap up the Deep Roads storyline and then we will officially be finished with Act 1, meaning there will be a couple of special cameos coming up in a few more chapters ;). Still not sure exactly how many chapters but it should be fairly soon!
Thanks to everyone who's favorited, followed and read the story so far - I'm happy you're enjoying it!
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Disclaimer: As always, any characters/dialogue you recognize is Bioware's, the rest of the story is mine!
Chapter 12: Trapped
"No!" Brianna screamed, pushing uselessly at the heavy stone door. It was shut tight, however, and she could see no handle or way to open it from this side. She remembered that the other side had a heavy bar one could put across it, almost as though it was designed to trap people inside, and that it had been made of such thick stone that Mardin had been the only one able to push it open when they'd entered. There was no way she could open this door, particularly not if Bartrand had barred it from the other side, but she kept pushing anyway, not knowing what else to do.
Varric had reached the door now as well, obviously free of whatever strange hold the lyrium idol had over him, pushing past Carver, Anders, and Mardin, who were all staring at the door in varying stages of shock. "Bartrand!" he called, pounding on the door beside Brianna. "It's shut behind you!"
Bartrand's dry chuckle echoed from the other side of the door. "You always did notice everything, Varric."
"Are you joking?" Varric asked in disbelief, staring at the door as though he could see through it to his brother on the other side. "You're going to screw over your own brother for a lousy idol?"
"It's not just the idol," Bartrand retorted. "The location of this thaig alone is worth a fortune, and I'm not splitting that three ways. Sorry, brother." Brianna, pressing her ear to the door, praying for the sound of the bar lifting, could instead only hear the fading sound of Bartrand's footsteps as he walked away. She stared at the door in sheer disbelief. This couldn't be happening, it just couldn't.
"Bartrand! Bartrand!" Varric shouted, pounding on the door, but Brianna could hear no sign of Bartrand coming back. "I swear I will find that son of a bitch – sorry Mother – and I will kill him!" Varric growled as he whirled away from the door. He heaved out a sigh, looking over at Brianna. "Let's hope there's a way out of here."
Brianna backed away from the door, staring at it, shaking her head as she tried to suppress her panic and despair. Her mother was alone – alone – on the surface with Gamlen, and would never know what had happened to them if they remained trapped down here. All she would know was that Brianna had failed in everything she'd ever promised, including keeping Carver safe. No – no!
"Come on, Hawke," Varric murmured, steering her away from the door as she struggled not to hyperventilate. "I'm sure there's another way out of here; we just have to find it."
"Mardin, no!" Anders yelled.
Brianna whipped around just in time to see Mardin in his bear form hit the door at full speed. There was a sickening crash, during which the door remained completely unaffected, and the bear hit the ground with a heavy thud. Her panic over her mother and their current situation temporarily forgotten, Brianna raced back to Mardin's side along with the others, who had all been moving away from the door when Mardin had apparently decided to try knocking it down.
Brianna dropped to her knees next to the bear, lying limply on the ground at the base of the door. Just as she and Anders reached him, the shimmer passed through his body and it was once more Mardin there on the stone floor. He struggled to a sitting position as Brianna reached out for him, looking dazed. "Well, that hurt more than I expected," he muttered, putting a hand to his forehead.
"What did you do that for?" Brianna cried, worry swirling through her. He still looked pale, though not as deathly white as he had when he'd told her not to touch the idol; she'd wondered what had made him look so incredibly ill then, but she'd had no idea how to fix it, as her healing magic hadn't seemed to be working. And though whatever was wrong seemed to have passed as suddenly as it had appeared, he was already pushing himself, shifting and charging at a stone door, of all things. Anger started to build in her at his sheer recklessness. "What were you thinking?! You were so sick a few minutes ago, and now you're trying to bust down a stone door?!"
He shrugged, wincing, and Anders, who was kneeling on the side of him opposite Brianna, put a hand on his shoulder, a glowing mix of blue and green swirling from his hand through Mardin's body. Rejuvenation magic, Brianna realized, as well as the regular restorative healing magic most mages were taught. Anders had been trying to teach her the basic rejuvenation spell, but she'd yet to fully manage it, as it was a good deal more difficult than regular healing. It was, however, far more effective in healing someone who was weary, whose stamina was running low, and she could already see color returning to Mardin's face as he answered sheepishly, "I'm a lot heavier as the bear; I thought it might be enough to knock the door down."
Anders sighed, shaking his head. "Dwarven-built doors are often capable of stopping ogres, Mardin. Even as the bear, you had little hope of breaking it down. How are you feeling?" He lifted his hand, the glowing gone and the spell obviously complete.
Mardin got to his feet, Brianna standing up next to him and scowling at him as he rolled his shoulders. "Much better, thanks," he said, nodding at Anders.
"Don't do something like that again," Brianna snapped at him, "especially not when you're already feeling sick, understand?"
"I'm sorry," he said quietly, refusing to meet her gaze as she stood directly in front of him, hands on her hips. "It was the only thing I could think of to do, to make up for failing to protect all of you."
Brianna stared at him in astonishment, seeing the guilt and shame on his face, and wondering how he could possibly blame himself for what had happened. "You didn't fail at anything. Nobody could have known what Bartand was going to do, and besides, you obviously weren't feeling well."
Mardin opened his mouth to reply, looking like he was about to disagree with her, when Carver interrupted him. "What happened up there, anyway? You looked awful as soon as we got near that idol."
Mardin shook his head, frowning as he glanced over at Carver. "I'm not entirely sure. As soon as I saw that thing, it set my instincts off – I felt total panic looking at it, like there was something horribly dangerous about it. It made me feel sick to my stomach, the sensation was so strong. And then when I yelled at you not to touch it –" he nodded at Brianna – "that feeling of sickness got much worse. I felt so incredibly ill I couldn't even seem to think of words to say, to try to tell you all to get away from it. And when Bartrand came in, I knew he was going to do something, and I wanted to stop him, but it was suddenly like I was frozen too, like I couldn't move at all. And I could feel you trying to heal me, but it wasn't working. It was only after Varric tossed Bartrand the idol and it started to get farther away that I started to feel better, but by then it was too late."
"Are you saying that the idol did something to you?" Brianna asked, surprised. Could something like that even happen? she wondered, glancing at Anders.
"It might have," Anders said slowly. "It seemed as though Varric wasn't acting like himself, either."
"I wasn't," Varric admitted, looking ashamed as he met Brianna's eyes. "I could hear all of you telling me not to touch it, that something was wrong with it, and I could see Red looking like he was about to pass out, but it was like it was . . . calling to me. Telling me to pick it up, to give it to Bartrand, and I couldn't seem to stop myself. I'm sorry, Hawke. You too, Red. You tried to tell me about Bartrand, and I wouldn't listen. I thought, he was my brother, and he wouldn't really do anything to hurt me, but . . ." He shrugged.
"It's all right," Mardin told him softly. "No one would want to think their own brother was capable of doing something like this. It's not your fault, it's mine. I knew there was something wrong with this place, even more so than the rest of the Deep Roads, but I didn't say anything because I thought there was no way it could be more dangerous. I should have trusted my instincts; I should have known better. It's the first lesson every shifter learns, and I ignored it."
"Look at me, Mardin," Brianna said sternly. When he finally did, his ice-blue eyes still full of shame, she met his gaze fiercely as she told him, "This is not your fault. It's not Varric's fault, either. It's not anybody's fault but Bartrand's, and maybe that idol, I don't know. Do you think it's alive, or something?" she asked Anders. "I've never even heard of red lyrium, either."
Anders shook his head. "Neither have I. I would suspect it's not naturally formed lyrium at all, which is probably part of the reason why it affected you so badly." He nodded at Mardin. "I noticed with your sister that shifters seem to react poorly to anything that's a corruption of nature, like the darkspawn. It seems to make you ill." When Mardin nodded, Anders went on, "And I don't think it was necessarily alive, so much as it probably had defensive spells set in place to make sure it fulfilled whatever purpose it was designed for. It's likely that it was meant to influence dwarves more strongly, being down in the Deep Roads, and that's why Varric did what it told him, even before he touched it. And I think it was probably designed to have a paralyzing effect on anyone that realized it was dangerous, that tried to stop the dwarves – or whoever was about to touch it – from doing what it wanted. And once it had what it wanted – once Bartrand took it away and it was out of range of Mardin – the effect disappeared. That would be my theory, anyway."
"It makes sense," Brianna admitted. "I did feel almost compelled to touch it until Mardin yelled at me not to, and then when I saw how sick he looked, I forgot all about it. It must have tried to compel Varric, instead. First a mage, then a dwarf." Though she wondered why it hadn't tried for Anders first. Was it maybe because he was a Warden? Or because of Justice? Not that it mattered, she supposed. Still, the thought that she'd nearly touched it almost made her feel ill. What would have happened if she had? And what would happen now that Bartrand had it?
"But what was it designed for? What was it trying to do?" Carver asked, looking disturbed as he echoed Brianna's thoughts.
Anders shrugged. "I'm not sure, of course, but based on the altar and the fact that the door seems designed to be locked from the outside, I would guess it has something to do with sacrifice. With drawing energy from people, maybe. And having been trapped down here for so long with nothing to draw from, it might be designed to seek out more people that it can draw energy from. Bartrand must have been the easiest one to influence to do something like that, so it might be using him to get back up to the surface where it can get the energy it needs. It's just a theory, though; I could be wrong," he added when Brianna stared at him in horror.
"Well, that's certainly a cheerful thought, Blondie," Varric said dryly. "And all the more reason to get out of here and find Bartrand."
"Can we, though? If this was designed as a sacrificial room, there might not be another way out . . ." Mardin trailed off, shrugging.
"I might not know a lot about my people, but I do know they liked their secret ways out." Varric strode determinedly towards one of the walls. "I'm sure this place is no different if we look hard enough."
"He's right," Brianna agreed, filled with new determination. She wasn't going to die down here. She wasn't going to fail to protect Carver, and she wasn't going to leave her mother alone. Neither was she going to let Bartrand get away with this. There had to be another way, and they would find it. "Let's all split up and check the walls. There must be a way out."
Everyone nodded in agreement, and the five of them proceeded to comb over every inch of the stone room, searching for another door, for some way to open a secret passage and get out. Unsurprisingly, it was Varric who finally found a hidden lever at dwarf height that caused a section of wall to slide open, revealing a darkened passageway beyond.
Brianna ran over at Varric's shout, along with the others, and nearly collapsed with relief when she saw the opening. They would get out of here, after all. "You are my very favourite dwarf, Varric," she told him. "Thank you."
Varric grinned at her. "Of course I am, Hawke. Just like you're my favourite human."
"Hey," Carver said in mock offense. "What about the rest of us?"
"Yeah, I thought we were friends," Anders added.
"Don't worry about it," Varric waved them off. "You're all tied for second; Hawke's just better story material. Plus she's better-looking than all of you."
"Well, there's no arguing with that," Mardin said mildly, and winked at Brianna when she rolled her eyes at him, though she couldn't suppress a smile. It seemed finding the passage had lifted everyone's spirits.
"Now let's go find everyone's least favourite dwarf," Varric said grimly.
Brianna nodded, lighting the first torch in the passageway with a flick of her magic. "Let's go get Bartrand. He's going to pay for what he tried to do to us." And if Anders was right about the idol, they needed to get it away from Bartrand before it fulfilled whatever purpose it was designed for. She started off down the passageway, determined to get out of the Deep Roads and find Bartrand; the treasure and all the rest of it no longer seemed important.
"Enough." Though it was not a shout, still the word boomed throughout the room, reverberating eerily through Brianna's body as the last of the odd creatures they'd been fighting collapsed at her feet. All the way to this cavernous room, they'd been fighting these things, which seemed to be spirits of stone held together by fire, almost like walking skeletons of flame and stone. The only way to defeat them was similar to the undead on Sundermount; removing their heads – or what passed for their heads – from their bodies stopped whatever unnatural magic or energy drove them. They had fought the most yet in this room, over a dozen, but it was the first time they'd heard a voice other than their own.
Brianna looked to the other end of the room, where she thought the voice might have come from, down between the several pillars that lined the center of the room, rather like a great hall leading to a set of stairs where a throne might be. There was no throne at the end any longer, but there was something else there at the base of the stairs; another spirit of stone and fire, far larger than any of the others they'd fought so far, with half of a skull for a head, one large glowing eye peering out at them. "You have proven your mettle," the thing said, though of course no mouth moved, making Brianna wonder just how it spoke. "I would not see these creatures harmed without need."
Brianna walked towards the creature, between the pillars, the others falling in line behind her. She could see more of the blue and red crystals outside of the pillars, on either side, which they had seen all the way here, and more cracks in the wall through which red light shone. All of it, Anders had said, was lyrium, though it didn't seem to affect anyone the way the idol had; at least, not yet. This creature glowed with a red light to match the unnatural lyrium, and she didn't need to see the scowl on Mardin's face to know it was as dangerous as the idol had been. "We aren't harming them without need," she informed the thing as she stopped several feet away from it, just inside the pillars. "They were attacking us on sight; we were just defending ourselves."
The eerie skull swung towards her, focusing in on her after it had seemingly looked over all the others. "They will not assault you further, not without my permission."
Brianna was about to ask why it cared, or how it could stop them, but before she could, Varric asked, "What are these things? They seem like rock wraiths, but . . ."
"They hunger," the spirit answered, its one eye swivelling down to Varric now. "The profane have lingered in this place for ages beyond memory, feeding on the magic stones until the need is all they know."
The magic stones? The lyrium, Brianna realized, frowning. "They eat the lyrium? That doesn't sound like a healthy diet. And what about you? What are you?" Even as she asked the question, she had a feeling she already knew.
"I am not as they are. I am . . . a visitor," the spirit answered carefully.
"You mean a visitor from the Fade," Anders said coolly. "It seems mostly interested in their hunger," he explained when Brianna looked at him, eyebrows raised. "It's a demon, come to feed."
Brianna nodded, unsurprised that Anders had confirmed her suspicions. The only demons she'd seen in the flesh, and not in her father's books, had been desire demons, which took a very different form from this thing, but the feel of them, of the magic around them, was very nearly the same. Although she sensed that this thing was stronger than any desire demon.
"I would not see my feast end," the demon stated before Brianna could tell it just where it could go. "I sense the desire you all share; you seek to leave this place, among other things. But you," turning to Mardin, "you hunger more than all the others. To do battle, to deliver death, for family, for a place to belong, but most of all, for her. So much hunger – it is . . . delicious," the demon breathed, almost reverently.
"Leave him with me," it continued, looking back to Brianna, "and defeat the creature that lies up ahead, and I will see to it that the rest of you leave this place safely. The profane will no longer harm you, and the way out will be open."
Brianna had been looking to Mardin during the demon's speech, startled at its assessment of him, and when the demon had said the words "for her" Mardin's gaze had flashed to her, briefly, and in that moment she had seen such blatant hunger in his eyes she had nearly gasped out loud as she felt an answering hunger flare up in her. The moment was gone as quickly as it had come, however, as Mardin blinked and his eyes, his face, went carefully blank. As soon as the demon finished, Mardin began, "If it means the rest of you will get out safely, then –"
"No," Brianna cut him off, surprised at the sudden fury and fear that swept through her at the realization of what he was about to offer. "We're all getting out of here together, and we're not taking any deals." She looked firmly at the demon, meeting its fiery eye with a glare.
"Come on, Red," Varric added. "We're not going to leave you behind, and if anyone should be making a dramatic sacrifice to get us out of here, it should be me. My brother is the reason we're trapped down here."
When Mardin opened his mouth again, frowning, a determined look stamped on his face, it was Carver who interrupted him. "No. Bree's right. We're all getting out of here, and no one is making any kind of sacrifice, okay?"
"A deal with a demon is a bad idea, anyway," Anders said, laying a hand on Mardin's shoulder and squeezing it briefly. "They trip you up every time, and nothing good ever comes of it. We'll find another way out."
"He's right. It's a bad idea. No deal," she snapped at the demon, firing an arcane blast right at its eye.
"Most unwise," the demon growled, seeming to be more annoyed at her blast than injured. The rocks collapsed to the ground as it spoke, and in their place, an abomination rose up, along with several more of the creatures it had called the profane, along with some shades.
Mardin was there in front of her almost instantly, blocking the clawed arm swinging at her with his shield, and she took advantage of the distraction afforded to fling spell after spell at the abomination and the shades surrounding them, as did Anders. Down here, surrounded as they were by lyrium to draw from, their magic was nearly inexhaustible, and both of them had been using that to their advantage in the many fights so far.
This fight was no different, as they used their ice magic to freeze shade after shade for Carver and Varric to shatter, and blasted off head after head using lightning magic. They used healing and supportive magic when needed, and Brianna used shielding spells and strengthening spells on Mardin as he fought in front of her, meeting the infuriated abomination blow for blow. In the end, his sword slipped past the creature's long arms and through its chest, and he drew it viciously downward, opening up a fountain of blood. The abomination screamed in rage even as it crumbled to its knees, and Mardin sliced its head off with a clean, decisive stroke, the body sliding sideways to the ground.
Even as the dead abomination hit the ground, Anders blasted the head off the last profane and Carver busted apart the last shade in a shower of ice, leaving the cavernous room quiet once more.
"Well, now it's time to find that other way out," Varric said as he slung Bianca onto his back. "I wonder what creature it wanted us to defeat?"
"If we're lucky, we won't have to find out," Brianna replied as she stepped carefully over the abomination's body and started up the stone stairs beyond.
Varric snorted. "Do you really think we have any luck?"
"Yes and no." Brianna shrugged, grinning down at him. "We might have been locked in that room, but we're not still trapped there, are we?"
"An excellent point," Varric nodded at her. "Your story is much too epic to end down here, after all. Looks like there's a door up here; let's go."
He pushed his way through the door at the top of the stairs, into another tunnel, and Carver and Anders passed through while Brianna waited for Mardin, following him through the door and falling in next to him.
"You're mad at me," he said after a moment, quietly, as the others continued on ahead through the crumbling, rocky tunnel.
"No. Maybe," she admitted with a sigh. She wasn't quite able to properly identify all of the tangled feelings that had swept through her when she'd realized he was willing to sacrifice himself for them, but she knew they were intense feelings, and anger was certainly one of them. "Do you honestly think so little of me, as to believe that I would happily trade your life for ours?"
He shook his head. "Not happily, no. But if it's what needed to happen to get the others out safely, I thought you would see the sense in it. One life lost is better than five. And I did promise to help you, to help you protect your brother and get out of here safely. And I was willing; it wouldn't have been your fault."
"There was no sense in it," she snapped at him, irritated at how casually he was discussing throwing his life away. "It's not the only way out. It's not," she repeated firmly when he looked at her doubtfully. "I'm never going to make a deal with a demon for my own safety, or anyone else's. Not even Carver's. And I'm definitely never trading anyone's life if I can help it. So don't ever try to take an offer like that again while you're with me, understand?" When he nodded, looking surprised, she went on, "And shouldn't you worry about yourself for once, anyway?"
"Myself?" He stared at her blankly. "Why?"
"Why?" she echoed incredulously. Was he really so unconcerned about his own life? "Don't you want to live, to see your sister again? Why would you throw all that away for people you've only known a few months?"
"It's my duty," he replied after a long moment. "Protecting people, keeping them safe. It's my duty, and my destiny. How long I've known you, or what I might want for myself, that doesn't matter. And of course I want to see Ayla again, but my duty comes first; it always has. How can I be an effective protector, an effective shield, if I'm worried about my own safety?"
He said it so simply, with such conviction, that it shook her. She didn't know why, but the thought of him dying as her shield was terrifying, as was the careless way he treated his own life and death. Even as she admired his bravery, his iron-clad devotion to duty, she was angry at him for treating his own life so casually. How could he even say that it didn't matter? Well, she wasn't about to let him die on her watch, not if she could help it.
With that in mind, she stepped in front of him, forcing him to halt so he didn't run right over her. She looked up at him, meeting his gaze seriously. "Think about it this way. How can you protect us, be our shield, if you're dead? If you want to help, that's fine. But if that help means you carelessly tossing your life away without thinking, without even trying to find another way, then I don't want it. I don't want any dramatic sacrifices. I want all my friends alive and together with me, and I won't accept any less. Got it?"
He studied her for a long moment, his gaze unreadable again, before he suddenly smiled, a bright, genuine smile that flooded over her like light – and swept that shocking hunger through her again. "Got it. I'll do my best to protect myself as well as the rest of you. I'll be more . . . careful and less reckless, and try to look for the best way out. Now, we'd better catch up to the others. There is something up ahead still – I can feel it."
The creature, she remembered suddenly, the one the demon had referred to. And Carver, Anders and Varric had gone on ahead. "Let's go!" She turned and raced after the others, Mardin close on her heels.
Once they'd caught up to the others, Brianna slowed her pace, but she pushed to the front of the line again, as did Mardin. "Mardin says there's still something up here," she told them, "so be ready. It would seem our luck ran out on this one."
"Not if we beat it," Varric said, grinning at her. She simply shook her head and smiled at him in response.
They continued on through the tunnels for a few more minutes before they finally went up another set of stone stairs into a circular room. The rocky ceiling was held up by massive, thick pillars covered in red crystals, leaving the center perfectly clear. There was an opening in the wall across from them, likely another tunnel, and a heavy silence hung over the room. If the creature was going to be anywhere, it was probably here, Brianna thought.
"What is this place?" she murmured, clutching her staff tightly as they walked slowly into the center of the room.
"This is the vault," Varric explained, gripping Bianca in both hands as he looked around, his voice hushed. "The dwarves would have brought their . . ."
"It's here," Mardin said, cutting him off.
As soon as he said it, Brianna heard it; the sound of rocks crashing together behind them. They were most of the way across the room now, and she turned reluctantly to see rocks flying together in the center of the room, as if drawn together by some unseen force, rapidly building themselves into an immense skeleton of stone, held together by red, crackling energy. It looked similar to the form the demon had taken, only much, much larger.
"Oh, that can't be good," Varric muttered.
"You think?!" Carver exclaimed.
"If it's anything like the other ones, then we simply need to remove the head." Anders raised his staff, aiming a blast of lightning at the rounded stone on top that passed for a skull. Just before the blast reached it, the rocks suddenly split apart, disappearing and re-forming behind them in a matter of seconds.
"Oh, that's definitely not good!" Brianna cried. Rather than aiming a blast of lightning at it, she tried throwing an explosive fire spell at it. It exploded around the creature's stone body, and the thing shrieked as it appeared to bust apart, but once again, it re-formed in mere seconds, back in the center of the room. One of Varric's bolts bounced uselessly off the stone shell, even as Mardin and Carver's swords clanged off the stone, too.
It's not enough. I need something stronger. Brianna was trying to think of a way to make her fire spell more explosive, or perhaps combine a spell with Anders, when the creature pulled itself into a tight ball of rock and Mardin suddenly shouted, "Run! Hide behind something! The pillars!"
"But – " Brianna began, but she was abruptly cut off as Mardin raced at her, scooping her up and whirling her behind a pillar as the others dove behind another pillar on the other side of the room. Mardin held her tightly against his chest, his back up against the pillar as the room exploded with blinding red light that flooded every inch of it, obliterating all of the smaller rocks in its path. Brianna stared at the light in alarm as it exploded by, a mere foot from her face, the only parts of the room not filled with it being the areas behind the pillars, which were apparently large and sturdy enough to block the incredible force.
After a long moment that seemed to take forever to pass, the red light finally disappeared, leaving the room quiet once more. Brianna blinked in shock, spots of color dancing in front of her eyes. "Is it dead?"
Mardin let go of her, and Brianna pushed aside the strange feeling of regret when he did as they both peered around either side of the pillar. A pile of rocks lay in the center of the room, but Mardin shook his head even as Brianna felt hope rising in her. "No, it's just recuperating, I think. The feeling of danger isn't gone yet."
"There are more of those things – those profane!" Carver shouted as he, Anders and Varric emerged from behind their pillar.
Brianna whirled to look at the way they'd come in, seeing that Carver was right – several more of the smaller creatures were shambling into the room from the tunnel they'd used earlier. She hurried out to meet them, Mardin and the others at her side as she blasted the head off of one of them. These ones, at least, she could do something about.
But even as they cut through the profane, she could see out of the corner of her eye the larger creature beginning to re-form – and the others saw it, too.
"What are we gonna do, Hawke?" Varric shouted, firing bolts at the heads of the smaller creatures. "Our weapons don't work on the big one!"
"We need to explode it apart, somehow!" Anders called, blasting lightning bolts at both the smaller creatures and the larger one, though they appeared completely ineffective on the latter.
Explode it apart . . . boom! "That's it!" Brianna yelled, excited, as the thought came to her in a flash.
"What's it?" Mardin grunted as he bashed back the last of the smaller profane, striking its head off with a swing of his sword.
Brianna dug her hand into the pocket of her robes, where she'd placed the rock Sandal had given her a couple of days ago. The rock with an explosive rune engraved on it. "Boom!" she said, holding out the rock to the others. "We throw this at it when it's finished re-forming, and Anders, you and I cast explosive magic on it at the same time. That ought to be enough to bust it apart – and blow its head off!"
Anders grinned, nodding at her. "That just might work."
"Are you sure that rock will work?" Carver asked doubtfully.
"Sandal managed to freeze that ogre and defeat all those darkspawn," Brianna pointed out. "I don't see why this rock wouldn't work, too."
"Let's do it, then, Hawke! It's almost back together!" Varric shouted, pointing at the creature, which had indeed almost fully re-formed.
"I'll throw the rock," Mardin said, holding out his hand. "I have a lot of practice throwing daggers, and it'll give you more time to cast your spell."
"Okay." Brianna handed over the rock without complaint, raising her staff and readying her spell as Anders did the same across the room. Mardin pulled his arm back and hurled the rock directly at the creature's face, and just before it reached its target, it was engulfed in explosive flames from both her and Anders.
A huge ball of fire blasted outwards seconds later, an explosion of heat and noise that rocked the room as the creature gave an unholy scream and rocks burst outward from it as it shattered apart. Brianna was stunned for a moment by the unexpected force of the explosion, and so was unprepared when a rock sailed right towards her. For the second time in the last few moments, Mardin's arms wrapped around her as he pulled her out of the path of the rock and down to the ground, shielding her body with his as rocks rained down on them from the ceiling and flew towards them from the force of the explosion.
She could feel his body jerk as the first few rocks struck his back, and cast a shielding spell over him in the next moment, covering both their bodies as she struggled to hold the magic in place, feeling more and more rocks striking it. She had just begun to worry that the explosion was too much, that it would bring the ceiling down on them and bury them, when she realized that the number of rocks striking her shield and clattering around them was slowing, until it stopped altogether.
She let out a sigh of relief as she let her spell go, feeling close to drained. Unlike the previous rooms they'd been in, this one didn't have any natural sources of lyrium, and she wasn't about to draw from the red lyrium. She'd have to hope that Anders had a lyrium potion or two left, because she didn't. "Is it dead now?" she whispered, hearing nothing but silence around them again.
She looked up at Mardin as she asked the question, realizing suddenly just how close his face was to hers and just how much of his body was pressed to hers. Fire began to burn through her veins at the realization, and her heart began to speed up even as he nodded. "The feeling's gone; it's dead now. Are you okay?"
"I think the better question would be are you okay?" she retorted, struggling to keep her voice and breathing even, and wondering why he hadn't moved yet - and why she wasn't making him. "I didn't get hit with any rocks."
He grinned at her. "I'll be fine. It's just a few bruises. You stopped the rest of the rocks from hitting me."
"You shielded me, and I shielded you. It seemed fair," she told him, and he nodded in agreement, smiling again even as his gaze dropped to her mouth. She'd licked her lips, and she had the fleeting thought that she might have done it intentionally when she saw his eyes go that blazing blue again. He swallowed convulsively, his head lowering fractionally before he froze, seeming to struggle with himself.
So much hunger. Most of all, for her. The demon's words flashed through her mind again, and she wondered once again if it had been referring to her. Given the way he'd looked at her when the demon had said it, it seemed likely, though the thought of it surprised her – and somehow thrilled her, too. She wondered, also, why she still felt like this around him, even though she didn't want to – and why she wanted to close that last scant inch of distance between their mouths. Even as she thought it, her body had already moved, apparently over-ruling her mind, and her mouth lifted up, brushing his.
There it was again; the fire, the intense passion as soon as their lips touched. And this time, when he opened his mouth, she was the one who went deeper, who slid her tongue against his as his breath hitched out in a low moan. Maker, the taste of him, the way he fired her blood, the electric feel of his body against hers; why had she ever thought she could do without this? She arched her body up into his, and he growled, his hand gripping her thigh and pulling her leg up over his hip, holding it firmly in place as his body pressed tightly against hers.
At that moment, a hacking cough broke through the pleasant haze of passion she was experiencing, and a voice called out from across the cavern, "Red? Hawke? You two okay?"
Icy panic and embarrassment dashed through her as she suddenly remembered that Varric, Anders, and Maker, Carver, were all here in the room with them, and she shoved at Mardin's chest even as she tried to scramble backwards. Mercifully, he seemed to return to reason as well, for he let go of her and sat back, allowing her to lurch to her feet. More fortunately yet, the room was filled with dust from the explosion that was slowly settling, making it hard for her to spot Varric, Anders and Carver as they made their way across the room. Meaning they couldn't have seen what she and Mardin had just been doing – thank the Maker.
She took a deep, steadying breath, trying to clear her mind and push down the lust still thrumming through her body. This was not the time or the place, and now that reason had returned, she remembered just why she'd been avoiding the passion between them. Perhaps, she thought, looking at Mardin as he also got to his feet, clearing his throat and carefully avoiding looking at her, she would give him another chance, but not now. Once they got out of here and back to Kirkwall, she would talk to him again, give him a set of conditions and see if he could abide by them – but now was definitely not the time to have that discussion.
"We're fine," she called back, once she could trust her voice again, and waving the dust away from her face as she tried to make out the others. "What about you? Anders? Carver?"
"I'm fine, Bree," Carver answered, and she felt some of the worry and tension drain out of her as Anders added his reassurance as well.
Brianna let out a breath of relief as the others approached, and the dust finally settled enough for her to see that yes, they were all fine; dirty and a bit bruised, but no one was seriously injured. "Looks like the plan worked. I'm glad everyone's okay. Now, I suppose, we see if we can find a way out."
"Well," Varric began as he turned and began leading them toward the other tunnel out of the room, "as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by that rock wraith – which is supposed to be just a dwarven legend, by the way – this should be the vault. Meaning it just might have the treasure we've been looking for."
"There'd better be, after all that," Carver grumbled, but he hurried after Varric readily enough, as did the others as the dwarf led them through another winding tunnel.
As they reached the end of the tunnel and rounded the corner, Brianna gasped at the sight before them. The tunnel opened up into another large room beyond – this one filled to overflowing with gold, treasure chests, gems, and statues, piled and scattered every which way. It was more treasure than she'd ever seen in her life – than she'd ever expected to see.
"Well, well," Varric said in a tone of utter satisfaction. "Just look at what it was guarding."
"Wow," Carver breathed, staring around the room in awe. "This is it, Bree! This is what we came down here for!"
"The treasure is all well and good," Anders said, kneeling down next to a chest to rifle through it, "but only if we get out of here."
Mardin was carefully threading his way through the piles of treasure to the opposite end of the room, and Brianna saw that there was a large door there just as he reached it. He tried to turn the handle, pulled at it and then pushed, before he turned back, shaking his head. "It's locked. But it looks like there's a place to put a key, unlike that other door."
Brianna nodded, glancing at the others. "Then let's look for the key. And once we find it, then we'll see if we can bring some of this back with us."
She still didn't think the treasure was as important as all of them getting out of here alive, but if that door did lead to the way out, there was no sense in just leaving all of the treasure behind when it was right there in front of them. If she could avoid coming back empty-handed, she would, especially after the months and months of work they'd all put into going on this expedition. But one way or another, they were getting out of here.
With that in mind, she began to comb thoroughly through the treasure in the room, looking for anything resembling a key. The others began to search with her, and it was Anders who eventually found a large, ornate gold key inside a pouch tucked among a pile of treasure. He scrambled over to the door with it, all of them following, and Brianna let out a long, shuddering sigh of relief when the key turned and the door pushed open, revealing another tunnel beyond.
"All right," Varric said, rubbing his hands together, "let's take as much as we can carry for now, and later, I'll send people back to get the rest. Bartrand doesn't know where this treasure is."
Brianna nodded in agreement, and they loaded themselves up with as many valuable gems, jewels, and coins as they could carry without exhausting themselves, before they left the treasure room behind and entered the tunnel, praying that it would finally lead to the way out.
Five long, gruelling days later, they finally stumbled across a paved stone road that looked much like the roads Mardin remembered from their first days in the Deep Roads. The few provisions they'd had on them when Bartrand had locked them in that room had run out two days ago, leaving them to search for somewhat edible plants along the way – and they'd even roasted a few deepstalkers, as Anders called them, for meat – little lizard-like things that attacked in packs. Fortunately, they'd also found an underground river that ran fairly clear that they'd used to replenish their water supply once Anders and Brianna had boiled the water with their magic to be sure it was clean. Unfortunately, they'd also run across several packs of darkspawn on their way back, and the last couple of fights had been close, due to their exhaustion and lack of proper food.
Still, they'd survived so far, and Mardin was determined that none of them would die down here. He'd promised Brianna to protect them, and he'd even promised to try to look after himself - a promise he'd never given before, not even to Ayla. And now that she'd kissed him – though she'd avoided talking about that so far – he had real hope she might one day give things between them a second chance. That and the thought of seeing his sister again, seeing the sun and sky, were what kept him going, kept him pushing onwards through his nausea and exhaustion as they trudged along, looking for the way out.
His determination had begun to wane in the last couple of days, however, so he was relieved when Varric looked around at the road, nodding. "We're back where we started, and in only five days. Not bad, eh?"
"Definitely not bad," Brianna agreed, smiling. "And another reminder of why you are my favourite dwarf. Looks like our luck is changing."
"If we were really lucky, we would have stumbled over Bartrand's corpse by now," Varric grumbled.
"I'd prefer to find him living so I can kill him myself – and make it slow," Mardin retorted, temporarily lost in a pleasant vision of all the ways he could make Bartrand suffer for what they'd all gone through over the last week.
"I'd just like to get out of the Deep Roads," Anders said. "And then never come back here again."
The others all nodded, adding their agreement as Varric and Brianna led the way forward along the paved stone road. Noticing that Carver had been unusually quiet, Mardin turned to look back at him, only to see him several feet back from the rest of them, weaving as though he were drunk. "Think we could . . . take a break?" Carver managed, as Mardin hurried back to him, his instincts suddenly going off in alarm that something wasn't right. "I feel . . . wrong."
As Mardin raced towards Carver, he could Brianna's worried voice saying behind him, "Let's make camp if you're sick. What's wrong?"
Varric let out a snort. "I'll wager it was those deep mushrooms we found."
Carver slumped to his knees just as Mardin reached him. "No, it's . . ." Before he could finish what he'd been about to say, he fell sideways, and Mardin just barely caught him before he hit the stone road.
He could hear running footsteps behind him as Brianna screamed out, "Carver!" All his focus, however, was on the smell coming from Carver's right side, halfway down his ribs. He realized suddenly, as Carver breathed shallowly in his arms, that it smelled like the darkspawn – like their unnatural blood. How could he not have noticed this before? he wondered, furious at himself. Was his sense of smell really so poor, so overwhelmed down here, that he would fail to notice that horrible scent on one of his own companions? Or was it that he had been so caught up in keeping himself from losing his mind down here that he hadn't noticed anything else? Either way, it was unacceptable; he was supposed to be protecting them, Carver especially, and the guilt flooded him as Brianna dropped to her knees next to him, pulling Carver over onto her own lap, her face wracked with anxiety and pain.
Anders and Varric had reached them by now, as well, and Anders suddenly reeled back, looking shocked and as disgusted at himself as Mardin was. "It's the Blight," Anders said quietly. "The taint. I can sense it. I don't know how I could have missed it until now . . ." he trailed off, shaking his head.
"You and me both," Mardin replied grimly. "I should have noticed the smell by now."
"The taint?" Carver murmured, struggling to sit up, and Mardin helped Brianna lift him into a sitting position. "Just like that Templar, Wesley. I'll be just as dead, just as gone."
Mardin didn't know what he was talking about, but Brianna obviously did, for she shook her head in denial. "No, you won't! Anders, there must be something you can do!"
"I'm not going to make it." Carver placed a gentle, restraining hand on Brianna's shoulder, shaking his head. "Not to the surface, not anywhere. It's getting worse."
"So I'll carry you," Mardin said. He had to do something to make this better, to make up for the fact that he'd failed to protect Carver as he'd promised, and this was the only thing he could think of.
"There might be something I can do," Anders said slowly, almost reluctantly, Mardin thought. "I can't guarantee it will work, but it's the only thing that might. Going back to the surface definitely won't help."
When Brianna looked up at him expectantly, Anders continued, "There are other Wardens nearby. Less than a day's travel. I can sense them. I was planning on avoiding them, if we could; Justice makes it so they can't sense me anymore. But I can still find them - and we need them."
"How would more Wardens be helpful?" Brianna demanded.
"We can bring Carver to them," Anders replied. "They're the only ones who can help. Healing magic can't do anything, not for this."
"How can they help?" Carver asked, frowning. "By making me a Grey Warden?"
How would that help? Mardin wondered, confused, even as Brianna said, "Becoming a Grey Warden? Is that a cure?"
"Yes, I suppose it is." Anders hesitated for a moment, before adding, "But it's not without a price – one not everyone is willing to pay."
"What price?" Brianna snapped. "Maker's breath, Anders, just spit it out!"
"The process of becoming a Warden is . . . unpleasant," Anders answered carefully, avoiding Brianna's gaze. "And irreversible. It also means you might never see your brother again. He might survive the Blight, but at the cost of becoming a Grey Warden. It's not an easy life. Trust me. While I enjoyed parts of it, other parts are . . . very difficult."
Brianna looked back and forth between Anders and Carver, who was only looking paler by the moment, sweat dripping down his face. "How does it work? What's so unpleasant about it?"
Anders shook his head. "I can't tell you. But it's not something you can undo once it's done . . . even if you want to. It is the only thing that will save him, though."
Mardin frowned. Ayla was with these Wardens, and the more Anders said about them, the more his own anxiety grew. It sounded like the consequences for the powers of Wardens were even worse than for shifters. But surely she wouldn't have - "My sister isn't actually a Warden, is she?" he demanded, worry slicing through him.
"No, she never became one," Anders told him, and Mardin let out a breath of relief as Anders went on, "The Commander is quite insistent she never tries unless we have no choice – that only if she falls victim to the Blight as Carver has, would he ever consider it."
"This just keeps sounding better and better . . ." Carver muttered, his words slurring now as his head lolled against Brianna's shoulder. She put a hand up to his forehead, looking anxiously up at Anders.
"It's the only thing that will work, though," Anders said as his eyes met hers. "And they will agree to it, if we can find them in time . . ."
"We will," Mardin said firmly, getting to his feet. "It'll be faster if I carry him."
"Carver," Brianna said quietly, shaking his shoulder. "Carver?"
"What is it, Bree?" he mumbled, lifting his head a little to look up at her.
"This is your decision. I don't want you to die if there's a way to stop it, but if you don't want to be a Warden, I won't force you." She took a shuddering breath before continuing, her voice low, breaking towards the end, "Do you want to try, even if being a Warden will be hard? Or would you rather I just . . . let you go?"
Carver was silent for a long moment, and Mardin began to wonder if he was even alert enough to answer when he finally answered, "I want to live. If being a Warden is the only way to do that . . ." He shrugged, weakly. "Then I have to be a Warden."
Brianna nodded, smiling, though her eyes were shining with tears, and Mardin wondered at the way those tears wrenched his heart. "Then let's go find the Wardens," she said, looking up at Mardin. "Can you really carry him? I know you're strong, but he's nearly as big as you are, and it's a long way."
"I can," he promised her. It didn't matter how tired he was, how much these Deep Roads and the lack of food were sapping his energy. He would not fail her in this, not after he'd failed to notice Carver's injury. He stooped down, and between Anders, Brianna, and Varric lifting and arranging Carver, managed to get Carver draped over his back.
"I'm so sorry, Hawke," Varric muttered as Mardin straightened up, nearly staggering under Carver's weight but managing to plant his feet, determined not to fall. "This is all my fault."
"No, Varric, it's not," Brianna reassured him, squeezing his shoulder. "This is Bartrand's fault, and one day he'll pay for it. Right now, though, we need to get Carver to the Wardens as fast as possible."
Varric nodded, though the guilt on his face had not lessened as Anders said, "Then let's go." He sighed, before turning towards a side road and waving them on. "They're this way."
The others followed behind Anders, Mardin bringing up the rear with Carver out of necessity. He could carry him, and he would, he was determined about that, but he couldn't be fast about it.
"Merrill . . . and Bree . . ." Carver murmured as Mardin trudged along.
"What about them?" Mardin asked softly. The smell was only growing worse, and he knew Carver had to be getting weaker; he could hear it in his voice.
"The Templars . . . don't let the Templars . . . take them . . ."
"The Templars will never take them, not so long as I draw breath, I swear it to you," Mardin vowed.
"Good," was all Carver said, and Mardin prayed as he followed the others, putting one foot carefully in front of the other, that he would do a better job of keeping this promise than he had his last one – and that if the Goddess granted him strength and Carver good fortune, he might not entirely fail that promise, either.