What's up everybody! Happy New Year. And to celebrate this wonderous time, here is a new chapter for you to sink your teeth in! Just don't chew and spit it out. I have also edited some of the chapters, so i suggest reading them to see what those are.
Chapter 15
Suddenly the sound of wood snapping could be heard.
From the destruction of the staff came an all-powerful shockwave of pure magic. It started from where the two halves were snapped as two separate magical blasts, until they met and as magic can recognise each other, coalesced into one and formed into the massive shockwave. Due to the staff's age and how it was created, the amount of raw magical energy output by the shockwave was enough to disintegrate the six golems nearby and blow everyone barring Harry straight on their backs.
Harry looked on as he saw the two halves of his staff fall to the ground. He was shocked at the fact that the golem had destroyed his staff, as it had layers of protections against such a thing happening. But it did, and that left an empty hole in him, almost as if it was taken away from him. Walking slowly towards the broken halves of his staff, he picked them up from the ground and held them in his hands. And as he held the two halves, he only felt the smooth and cold feeling coming from the staff and not the constant flow of magic that would always thrum whenever he held it.
It was then that he felt something off and it came from the ring and cloak. Taking both items off and placing them on the found with his broken staff, Harry realised that they both seemed to have lost their magical properties. Sending out a weak pulse of magic, Harry did not see or feel the same thrum of magic that would come from them. In every sense of the word, they were dead.
Anger. That was the feeling that was currently coursing through his veins as he stared at the Deathly Hallows. Powerful objects that belonged to his ancestors and a literal link to his family's past. Lifting his head, his eyes landed upon the prone form of Branka. Snarling, Harry stood back up and stalked over to her, drawing his sword out as he was doing so. Pointing the sword at her, he watched as Branka groaned and looked up at him, noticing the sword pointing at her. As she looked up at his face, the look of fear was shown clear as day on her face. The reason for that emotion was the face that half his body was his normal body, the other half was that of Ignotus' in all of his spirit glow. The contrast between Harry's human features and Ignotus' wraith was night and day and made Harry seem like a abomination waiting to happen.
Gripping the handle of his sword tighter, Harry had to resist the urge to just kill her and be done with it. He did not know what was stopping him from doing so. Was it the fact that this was Oghren's wife? The fact that she had lost her sanity to the Anvil? Perhaps. But he knew that outright killing her was not something that he would do.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Do it!" Branka taunted.
"I would love nothing more than to do so. But killing you is not my choice to make." Harry said as he walked away.
While Harry could not see what Branka was doing, he did know that she was going to attack. And he was right as he sensed her getting up and throwing something at him. Quickly turning and lifting his left arm, Harry managed to stop an axe from striking him in the back. The lock of shock that was on her face was shared by everyone as they saw him literarily stop an axe without even turning around, as if he sensed the danger. Harry meanwhile flipped the axe and sent it back at Branka, which strike her in the chest and embedding the blade in her chest, sending her back and killing her.
Turning back around he walked over towards Oghren, who did not take his gaze away from his dead wife. Harry could see the pain and anger within those eyes but also regret. Stopping next to him, Harry placed a comforting hand on the dwarf's shoulder before walking towards the Deathly Hallows. Staring down at his broken staff, Harry was at a loss on what to do with them, seeing as they now had nothing in them.
"What now Ignotus? What do we do now?" Harry whispered.
"I do not know Harry. I am at a lost myself." Ignotus answered as he placed his ghostly hand on his friend.
Placing his sword onto the ground, Harry was shocked as he saw the Deathly Hallows move on their own and towards his sword. The cloak was the first to move as it wrapped perfectly around the entire weapon, from the blade to the pommel, no area was left uncloaked. Next came the ring, or rather the stone as it detached from the ring and sped towards the cloaked sword and land on top of where the guard would be. Harry did not know what to expect from the staff, but he sure as hell did not expect what came next. Instead of the staff pieces moving to his sword like he expected, they instead moved towards him and slammed right into his chest. They began to fuse into his body and pain, unbearable excruciating pain was all he felt. Shutting his eyes and clenching his fists, Harry fell onto his back and began to trash around. He could feel the heat from where the two staff pieces were as they seemed to melt into him. He could feel his body scream at him and his nerves on fire as something seemed to push in to them. He did not notice the jewel from the staff fly from the top of the staff and land on his cloaked sword.
Something else that was happening as well was that his sword, which was glowing brightly, so brightly that it caused everyone to shield their eyes from it. It started as soon as the jewel from Harry's staff touched the cloaked sword. Soon enough however both Harry and his sword stopped glowing and they were both lying on the ground.
"Harry!" Luna exclaimed as soon as she saw her husband lying on the ground unmoving.
She quickly rushed over towards her husband, the others following after her. They soon began to crowd around Harry as Luna inspected to see if had an injuries that she could not see. When she found none, she quickly checked his pulse and drew in a sigh of relief as she felt his heartbeat steadily beating.
Groaning, Harry blearily blinked his eyes as he began to regain consciousness. He looked up and found himself staring at everyone looking down at him, worry in their eyes. He slowly began to sit up, Luna helping along the way to ease the process. Placing his hand on his head, he tried to calm his raging mind as processed everything that had just happened to him.
"Are you ok? What happened?" Alistair asked.
"I don't know. Whatever it was, it sure as hell hurt." Harry replied as he began to stand up. Zevran and Luna helping him up.
"Are you sure? You seemed to be in pain back there." Luna asked as she tightened her grip on his arm in worry.
Harry turned to face her and placed his hand on top of her and squeezed it in reassurance. "Don't you worry Luna. I'm perfectly fine." he said.
"If you're sure?" Luna asked sceptically.
She knew her husband and she knew that he would only say that if he did not want her to worry and that he was hiding something from her. It actually drove her up the wall whenever he did that and she had to threaten him with her ladle to get him to answer her questions.
"I'm fine honestly!" Harry exclaimed as he put him best smiles on his face.
Yup, definitely hiding something.
Harry turned around and began to walk over to his sword, which he noticed that it still had the cloak wrapped around it but the stone was gone. Gripping the hilt of his sword, he was surprised to see the cloak fade in front of his eyes. What shocked him even more was hw different his sword was now. Instead of the normal dull silver that his sword used to have, it now sported a blueish tinge to it and seemed to glow from an inner light. he inspected the guard and saw the Resurrection Stone embedded in the middle of the guard, clearly displaying the Deathly Hallows symbol. The pommel and group did not see any changes, but he did notice something etched vertically upon the blade. He saw that it was written in ancient Tevene. It said:
In the darkness Starfang shall shine
Harry did not know what that meant, but he felt as if he would know in time. Swinging the blade around, testing the weight and its balance, Harry was once again surprised as it seemed lighter in comparison to his original blade but just as well balanced. Whenever he swung the blade, it seemed to sing, as if happy to be in use. Sheathing the blade on his back, Harry turned around and saw Caradin approach him, his heavy footsteps, shaking the ground with the slightest tremor.
"Thank you stranger, for keeping that woman from claiming the Anvil and causing further harm against the dwarven populace." Caridin spoke in his deep voice.
"What will you do now?" Harry asked.
"Now I will fashion a crown for you, to be given to whoever you choose as the new king. After that, when the Anvil is destroyed will I leave this body and go back to the Stone." Caridin responded.
"Why not join us. Use whatever golems you have left and help us defeat the Blight and push back the Darkspawn." Alistair asked.
"He's right. Even with ten golems at our disposal, it would help us combat the Darkspawn. And who knows, if we survive this you could return to Orzammar and rebuild the Dwarven Empire." Harry stated, hoping to convince Caradin. "After all, isn't that what the golems you crafted were intended for?"
Cariden seemed to ponder on this as he stared at Harry, while Harry returned the stare, not backing down. A tense silent moment seemed to last for eternity before Caridin nodded his head. "Very well, you will have the help of myself and my golems." He spoke before turning around and heading for the Anvil.
As Harry turned around to face everyone else, he felt something on his foot. Moving his foot aside, he noticed the ring that once held the Resurrection Stone. Picking up the ring, Harry held it in between his fingers and wondered what to do with it. Turning his head, Harry stared at the Anvil as he saw Caridin slam his hammer on it, creating the crown Caridin said he would craft. He wondered just how good the Anvil was. Could he create anything out of it? As that thought crossed his mind he looked down at his ring and wondered if he could create a ring that would boost his abilities.
"A ring like that would definitely help us deal with our enemies." Ignotus said.
"True." Harry said as he held the ring in the palm of his hand. "Why don't you guys look around for anything that could be of use to us." he stated as he went around the area and gathered lyrium shards.
As he went around, collecting lyrium shards, he noticed that there was a sizable chunks of ore that held some Volcanic Aurum, some of the rarer forms of metal. He even found large deposits of Silverite. Knowing how valuable Silverite was to the Grey Wardens as they used them for their armour, he gathered as much as he could. He even called Sten and Alistair to gather up any of the Volcanic and Silverite ore they could find.
Once the ore was collected, Harry gathered the lyrium shards, a little of the Silverite and Volcanic Aurom ores and made his way to the Anvil of the Void.
"Caridin, do you mind if i use the forge alongside you? There is something i wish to craft." Harry asked.
Caridin stopped his work on the crown, which as Harry noticed was being detailed. He noticed that there were slots where Caridin would put gems of some sort. He saw Caridin nod his large head before going back to his work. Harry then began to work as he placed all of the materials upon the Anvil.
Hours later, the sound of banging was heard as Harry stood alone with the Anvil of the Void. He was hunched forward as he continuously raised his arm and brought it down as he wielded the hammer that Ignotus used to forge with all those centuries ago. Upon the anvil sat a simple silver ring with two small lyrium shards with a slightly bigger shard in between them. With each blow of the hammer, words written in ancient elven that wrapped around the ring that started from one lyrium shard and ended on the other, glowed brighter. Harry was not alone in his forging either as half of Ignotus was also hammering the ring, Harry would hammer the ring once then Ignotus would take over and hammer the next part.
With one last swing of his hammer, Harry and Ignotus slammed down upon the ring causing a large shockwave, sending Harry on his back a few meters back while Ignotus seemed to seperate from Harry and stand on his own two feet visible to everyone. Everyone was in shock, except for Luna who had seen him before. For them, this was the first time that they had seen Ignotus and while they had heard it from Aedan, Wynne and Leliana, and in Oghren's case from Alistair they could not believe their eyes as they saw the spirit that shared Harry's body.
Ignotus on the other hand looked around and saw Harry on the ground looking dazed. Jogging towards him, he helped his friend get up before holding his hand out, palm open. in his hand was the new ring that they had forged. Made from Silverite with the three gems being from the lyrium shards and the ancient words inscribed Volcanic Aurum, this ring was a masterwork of smith. The ring had the ability to enhance the person's magic abilities tenfold, making them near unstoppable. The ring also had a small portion of Ignotus' and Harry's soul as they created it. The letters in ancient elven read:
When Darkness Rises. So To Shall The Light.
Taking the ring from the spirit's hand, Harry placed it upon his right ring finger. Immediately he could feel his ability to use magic skyrocket. He felt power unlike any before as he looked down and could see his hands shake as he felt the magic around him dance along his fingertips. He felt lightning bolts shoot out from his hands an onto the ground below as a swirl of air surrounded his body, the lightning hitting it and bouncing off of it. He could feel the Silverite seem to cleanse him and leave his body feeling in top condition. He felt the Volcanic Aurum light a spark within him as he clenched his hands and fire burst from it surrounding his hand, yet not burn him. Taking a deep breath, Harry reigned in his new powers into a tight leash as he did not want to accidently let loose a lightning bolt or fire off a fireball in the middle of a conversation.
Remembering his promise, Harry turned to face the Anvil of the void. Standing in front of him, Harry was conflicted as he saw the numerous uses that the Anvil could be used before shaking his head and banishing such thoughts from his mind. Raising his arm high into the air, He soon held Ignotus' hammer. With Ignotus taking up half of his face, they both put as much power into the hammer with the help of their new ring and with a cry they slammed the hammer upon the Anvil of the Void. The magical explosion was enormous and it sent Harry skidding back and covering his face from the force. Lowering his arms, Harry watched as the smoke cleared and everyone saw what was once the Anvil of the Void lay shattered in pieces. And thus the Anvil of the Void, the masterwork that allowed Caridin to craft his golems was destroyed.
Turning to his friends, he began to walk towards them smiling as he was doing so.
"I know we seem to be asking this a lot, but are you okay?" Alistair asked.
I feel fine. No." Harry said pausing. His smile then grew into a grin. "I feel fantastic."
Soon the group, along with Caridin and whatever golems he could gather left the cavern and back towards Orzammar.
It would take the group another two weeks to reach the gates of Orzammar. Along the way they had managed to run into Kardol and his legion of the Dead, who decided to follow them back to Orzammar. They also found what was once the former prince of Orzammar and older brother of Bhelen fighting off Darkspawn. Saving the dwarf, who had thanked them profously and also subsequently joined the Legion after that, they continued their trek back.
Once the group had returned, Harry and the others immediately made their way to the Assembly Chambers, drawing many eyes along the way as they saw Caradin and the golems. Entering the chamber with Caridin handing Harry the crown and waiting alongside the other golems and the Legion of the Dead, with Kardol the only exception as he needed to report to the new king, they heard the dwarves of the Assembly shutting and threatening each other. The steward, who had seen them enter held up his hand to have the Assembly silence themselves before addressing them.
"Lords and Ladies of the Assembly. I present to you the GraveWalker and the Grey Wardens. They are here to help us decide who the new king will be." The steward stated across the chamber.
Immediately whispers and murmurs began to grow among the nobility as they were dumbstruck by the turn of events.
"This is unheard of! We have never had outsider's, no matter how respected they are be a deciding factor on who our new king will be!" One of the dwarven lords shouted with many also raising their voices in agreement.
It was then that Oghren stepped forward with a scowl on his face and began shouting at the nobility. "Listen here you nug-humping dull stones, these guys just had to go through the Deep Roads for an entire month searching for my wife, who turned into a raving lunatic on her search for the Anvil of the Void. Not only that but we also found Caridin, the creator of the Anvil who now stands outside with a group of other golems willing to help them in their quest to stop the Blight. Caridin even fashioned a crown for whoever the GraveWalker chooses to crown king!"
"Exactly!" Harrowmont shouted. "These two and their lackeys have been working for Bhelen from the very beginning! How do we know that they aren't even thugs hired to pose as a Grey Warden and the GraveWalker?" he asked the chamber.
Here Harry stepped forward and held the crown for the whole chamber to see. "See this? This is the crown upon which Caridin bestowed upon me to crown the next king and if you do not believe its validity, have the Shaperate come down here and inspect it himself. As for us being hired thugs? I'm not surprised that you would say such thing Harrowmont, after all it was you who had hired the hit on Endrin's own two sons all those months ago!" Harry stated.
Gasps were heard as everyone turned to look at the now ashen face of Lord Harrowmont. Many dwarves however began to shout and curse at Harry and the others, calling them liars for the slander. Harry and the others simply watched on as insults were hurled at them while Bhelen, who had watched the entire thing unfold smiled as he saw Harrowmont sit upon his chair and bow his head.
The doors to the chamber suddenly flew open and the Shaperate walked in and made a beeline for Harry, who had brought the crown forward or the Shaperate to inspect. After a full minute of silence, the Shaperate nodded his head and smiled.
"The crown and the emblem used is indeed the symbol of House Caridin. And as for those letters that Prince Bhelen had brought forward to me earlier, they are indeed valid and confirm that Harrowmont had hired thugs to assassinate King Endrin's two sons!" The Shaperate stated as everyone now broke into furious whispers.
"GraveWalker, if you would make your decision." The Steward asked.
Nodding, Harry stepped forward and stood in the middle of the Assembly as every Lord and Lady of their respective houses stared at the man in front of them. "It is with great honour and privilege to pronounce Prince Bhelen as the new king of Orzammar!" he stated.
Bhelen smiled as he stepped down and stood in front of Harry. Raising his arms, crown in his hands, he began to lower them and slowly placed the crown upon Bhelen's head. "Now come the days of the king." harry said to all in the chamber before looking down at Bhelen with a smile. "May they be blessed." he whispered.
As Bhelen stood up straighter, he turned around and pointed his finger at Harrowmont. "As first act as king. i hereby call for the arrest of Lord Harrowmont and his entire house, as well as any co-conspirators on the death of my father and brothers as well as treason!" he shouted as guards began to pour in and begun to round up several dwarves, including Harrowmont.
Later on as Bhelen now sat in his study alone with Harry, sharing a few drinks with him, they began to discuss the reason on why he was even in Orzammar in the first place. Bhelen held his drink tightly in his hand as he stared into the drink as it swirled around. Harry meanwhile continued to look at Bhelen, occasionally drinking from his own cup before setting it down and patiently waiting for his friend.
"The troops i will send you, do you think that with them you could defeat the Darkspawn?" Bhelen asked.
Harry sighed as he rubbed his face, his weariness catching up to him. "I don't know Bhelen." Harry admitted. "Even with the treatise, it will be a tough fight, seeing as most of the other humans don't believe to be a Blight, and of those that do they are cut off from the rest of the north of Fereldan. At least with the dwarves, along with the golems, it will make it somewhat easier to deal with the Darkspawn. My concern however is the Archdemon." Harry said.
"What about your own army? Surely you can call on them?" Bhelen asked.
Harry shook his head, sighing. "Have you forgotten that my 'army' was just a bunch of volunteers and those Death Eaters that I dominated?" Harry asked in air quotes when he said army.
Bhelen gave a scoff as he took a sip of his drink. "I have not forgotten. But I also remembered that you had a small circle of friends that you trusted. Surely you can call upon them?"
"Where would I even begin to start finding them? They could be in Tevinter for all I know." Harry said, finishing his drink.
"I do know that many of them are based in Fereldan and in Orlais. I can have some runners send messages saying that the GraveWalker is calling his army back to face the Blight." Bhelen offered.
Harry sighed as he looked at the stone ceiling in thought. While he could not fualt Bhelen's line of thinking, he did not believe that any of his former circle would return, and even if they did he did not expect an army to be trailing after them. While the Blight and the Darkspawn were a major threat throughout all of Thedas, he want to involve as few as possible for fear it spilling into the parts of the world without being prepared. But at the same time, who could prepare for a Blight but the Grey Wardens. Unfortunately there were only two left and they might not be able to end the Archdemon before it lay waste to all of Fereldan.
"You do what you think is best old friend. I must return to the others and continue my journey." Harry said as he stood up and held out his hand for Bhelen to shake.
"After you're done with this, come back and drinks will be on me." Bhelen joked as he clasped Harry's hand in a firm handshake. However as Harry was about to leave, Bhelen once again spoke up. "Harry. You can count on me and on your army to be there when the time comes."
Harry nodded his head without turning back and walked out of the door.
AND DONE! I am tired! I hope you guys liked the little twist with harrowmount in the end. Please leave a review and tell me your thoughts on this new chapter and what you thought about the changes i made. And remember to have an Awesome Day!
