Thanks, as always, to Olndina for her lovely beta work. I had to split Kal'Hirol into two chapters, due to the fact that it came in at just under 9,000 words by the time I put in everything I wanted to. The next chapter should be up shortly.

Anders let out a low whistle. "That's a really big . . . pit. How did no one notice this before?"

Gideon shrugged. "This doesn't look like a very inviting place, I doubt many people come around here."

"That's true," Nathaniel agreed. "Not much wildlife in this area, and no resources to mine."

Anders inched closer to the edge and looked down into the deep chasm. Heights had never really bothered him before, but then again, the ground had never been quite so far down either. Littered along the bottom were several toppled stone pillars, all carved with designs that Anders had never seen before. Scanning the horizon, he spotted the long, rickety bridge. "We're not going across that, are we?" While he might not be afraid of heights, he was definitely afraid of walking across an incredibly deep chasm with nothing to separate him from death but a few rotted boards and some frayed rope.

Nathaniel and Gideon had already started across the bridge. Oghren slapped him on the back. "C'mon, mage, it'll hold us." He chuckled. "Probably."

Anders rolled his eyes. "Well, that's reassuring." He watched as Nathaniel crossed the bridge easily and paused on the other side. The rogue looked back at him with an expectant look on his face, almost as if he was trying to offer encouragement to Anders. He couldn't stand to look bad in front of the other man, so he stepped tentatively onto the bridge.

Gideon stepped off soon after, so that only Anders and Oghren were left. Anders grasped one of the rope handles as the bridge swayed dangerously. "Are you sure this thing is going to hold?" he called out to Oghren.

"'Course it's gonna hold," Oghren grunted from up ahead. "Those two made it, didn't they?" Anders fought the urge to say something about how the dwarf was likely heavier than the two men put together; instead he concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, trying not to look down.

After several slow, shuffling steps he managed to make it to the center of the bridge. Oghren had reached the other side, so he was the only one left. He was just starting to think that this wasn't actually that bad, when he made the mistake of looking down. "Andraste's arse," he muttered to himself. It really was a long way down. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to fight off the wave of dizziness that washed over him.

"You're almost there, Anders." Nathaniel's voice was just loud enough to carry across the maw. Anders lifted his head and locked eyes with Nathaniel. The rogue's face was creased with concern. "Just put one foot in front of the other, and you'll be across in no time."

Anders nodded. He swallowed harshly before breathing deeply and taking a hesitant step forward. Just one foot in front of the other. He repeated Nathaniel's words over and over, moving slowly but surely.

An eternity later and he was finally across. He breathed a deep sigh of relief as his feet touched solid ground again. He expected Gideon to make some remark about Anders taking so long, but all he got was a quick nod and, "Let's get going." The Commander had definitely been more relaxed lately, and Anders suspected it had something to do with Nathaniel. The tension that had existed between the two of them had dissipated.

Nathaniel, however, was still an enigma. Anders had a pretty good feeling that the rogue was attracted to him, even though he gave no obvious signals. There were hints, though, little things that Anders had picked up on. Nathaniel no longer grumbled when Anders said something flirtatious, and he didn't seem quite as uncomfortable around him as he had before.

When Anders had first met Nathaniel, he'd felt an overwhelming desire to bed him, to turn on his charm and use every seduction technique he could think of until he finally wore the other man down. He was accustomed to seducing people he either didn't really know or didn't particularly care about, unconsciously using people for his own gains. But then the two Wardens spent time together, had gotten to know each other, and Anders was starting to realize that things had gotten much too complicated. Anders' obsession with Nathaniel seemed to be growing, rather than waning. He cared for the rogue, in a way he hadn't for anyone else in a very long time. This closeness terrified him. It was one thing to bed someone, and something else entirely to develop feelings for them. Feelings led to intimacy, which sometimes led to love, which always, always led to someone getting hurt.

Anders' first instinct was to ignore his obsession. When that didn't work, he tried to fight it. He'd told Nathaniel the story about Amira, hoping (and fearing) that Nathaniel would be so disgusted with Anders for how he had handled the situation that he would have nothing else to do with him. There were so many people who, if they knew how mages were really treated in the Circle, would say that the mages deserved every bit of abuse and mistreatment they received. Why would Nathaniel feel any differently?

Anders frowned as he followed after the others; the scars that he received in the Circle would never fade, even if they weren't visible.

A few hundred yards away from the bridge, they came upon a huge set of stairs leading down into the chasm. Anders scowled. "Why couldn't they have put the stairs on the other side?" he huffed. "Then we wouldn't have had to cross that damn bridge."

"I'm sure they did it just to piss you off," Gideon smirked at him.

Anders frowned. "You know, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that that was the case." At least the stairs look more stable than the rope bridge.

The Wardens advanced cautiously down the stone stairs and arrived at the bottom just in time to see a diminutive figure being dragged by a few darkspawn towards the stone ruins in the distance. The sound of the grunts and the size of the figure indicated that the captive was a female dwarf. Gideon must have surmised the same thing as he shouted, "Don't let them take her!"

Anders prepared a stunning spell, but before he had a chance to cast it an arrow whizzed through the air right by his ear and straight into the skull of the hurlock that had been dragging the woman by one of her legs. There was no time to admire Nathaniel's bowmanship, however, as the rest of the darkspawn attacked while their comrade fell dead.

Anders tried to keep out of the way as much as possible, casting healing and support spells as needed. From his ranged position, he could see that the female dwarf, who used a small axe and dagger to cut the tendons on a nearby hurlock, was a formidable fighter and a rogue. He focused on her as well as Nathaniel since they wore lighter armor than Oghren and Gideon.

The darkspawn were defeated easily enough; there weren't that many, and the four Wardens had been fighting together long enough to be able to work seamlessly. When they were done, the dwarf took off her helmet to reveal a crop of short brown hair tied in several pigtails. He heard Oghren let out a grunt of appreciation and smiled to himself. She was quite good looking. Anders was surprised when he felt a small stab of irritation (not jealousy, definitely not jealousy) when he saw Nathaniel smile at her warmly. It was even worse when she smiled back. "Nice shot," she said admiringly.

Nathaniel inclined his head respectfully. "I'm glad I could be of some help."

Gideon removed his helmet and held out his hand to her. "Gideon Cousland." He gestured to the others. "This is Anders, Oghren, and Nathaniel."

The woman looked at Gideon's hand with some surprise before shaking it. "Sigrun, at your service."

"What's a dwarf doing so far from Orzammar?" Gideon asked.

"The Legion of the Dead go wherever we're needed," Sigrun answered with a shrug.

Anders looked at her curiously. "What's the Legion of the Dead?"

She turned to him. "We're a group of warriors, mostly casteless—or commoners, I guess humans would call them. We dedicate our lives to killing darkspawn."

"But why are you called the Legion of the Dead?" Anders asked. "That's a bit grim, isn't it?

Sigrun chuckled. "We have to cut off all ties to our families and friends in Orzammar when we head off to the Deep Roads, so in a sense we're 'dead' to them. They even have a funeral for us before we leave."

"You're awfully cheerful for someone who's dead." Anders said, slightly amused.

Gideon cut in. "That still doesn't explain what you're doing here, specifically. This place doesn't look like anybody's been here for centuries. And where are the rest of your companions?"

Sigrun's expression turned sad. "Dead. They're all dead," she said quietly. "Literally. We were out here scouting, and we got ambushed by a huge group of darkspawn." She seemed to falter a moment before composing herself again. "I ran. I didn't know what else to do. Everyone was dead, and they were all after me. I know what they do to the women they capture." She looked at Gideon defiantly, as if daring him to say something scathing.

He grimaced and nodded. "Probably the smartest thing you could have done. I've seen a broodmother before; she wasn't a pretty sight."

Nathaniel voiced the question that had been on the tip of Anders' tongue. "What are broodmothers?"

"They birth darkspawn," Gideon replied. "Thousands of them at a time."

Nathaniel made a small noise of distress. "The darkspawn turn women they capture into monsters that breed more darkspawn?"

Gideon nodded. "Exactly. I think we need to check this place out." He turned to Sigrun. "You coming with us?"

Sigrun looked at him skeptically. "What . . . you're just going to go down there and kill darkspawn, just like that? I'm warning you right now: these darkspawn aren't like any others I've seen before. They're smarter, more organized."

Gideon smirked. "We're Grey Wardens. It's what we do."

Sigrun perked up. "Grey Wardens, huh? We might actually have a chance, then." She grinned. "And it's not like I have anywhere else to be."

With Gideon leading the way, they ventured further along the ruined pathways. They hadn't gone far before Sigrun gave a startled cry and ran towards a small figure slumped on the ground. "Jukka!"

He was a male dwarf, another member of the Legion, and Anders and the others listened intently as Sigrun spoke to him in whispers about a new form of darkspawn called "children." Anders knelt down next to the man and looked him over. The dwarf carried the Taint, just like Roland did, and it was beyond even Anders' considerable skills.

Jukka shrugged off Anders' attentions and grabbed Sigrun's arm. "Be careful, Sigrun," he whispered hoarsely, obviously in great pain. "The Broodmothers . . . they're . . . they're breeding." He groaned. "There's an army down there . . . they have to be stopped . . ." He let out another loud, rattling groan, his final breath escaping him as he slumped forward.

Sigrun closed his unseeing eyes. "Ancestors look down upon you, brother," she murmured sadly.

She stayed there a few moments longer before standing up and looking at Gideon resolutely. "We have to stop them."

Gideon nodded. "Agreed." He placed a hand on Sigrun's shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly, before motioning for them to move on. Anders was a bit surprised by the gesture—it didn't seem like the Commander to be . . . well . . . sensitive to others' feelings.

As they made their way further into the ruins, Anders thought about the small changes he'd noticed in his commander recently. Gideon was more patient, his tongue less sharp. He and Nathaniel seemed to be growing closer, as well—more willing to talk to each other than they had before. The two noblemen had been friends once, or so Nathaniel had said; perhaps time and proximity were helping them to rebuild that friendship, despite the damage caused by Rendon Howe.

oOoOo

The Fortress of Kal'Hirol was impressive, to say the least. Cut straight into the rock, it was surrounded by massive stone walls, carved with the heads of strange figures. The party fought their way through small groups of darkspawn to the main courtyard. There, swarming in front of the large stone staircase that led to the main entrance were dozens of what looked like large grubs: fat, bulbous yellow creatures oozing slime that didn't appear to have any eyes, but sensed the Grey Wardens approaching. Anders held back, casting protective and healing spells while Gideon and the others cut through the grubs. He wondered if these were the "children" that the dying dwarf had referred to.

Gideon was heading towards the staircase when Sigrun stopped him. "You can't go through the main entrance," she urged. "We already tried that, and you know how well that turned out." She gestured to herself, reminding him that she was the only one alive of her scouting party.

"Traps?" Nathaniel asked.

Sigrun turned to him. "Traps . . . and worse. The darkspawn used the Fortress' defenses against us. It was . . . terrible."

Gideon made a noise of irritation. "Then how are we supposed to get in?"

"There should be a side entrance somewhere," Sigrun replied. "Most dwarven fortresses have one; we just have to find it."

As they searched the walls for a hidden entrance, Anders listened idly to Nathaniel and Gideon talking. "Were those things darkspawn?" Nathaniel asked.

Gideon nodded. "I think so. But I've never seen anything like them before."

Nathaniel looked at him, surprised. "A new breed of darkspawn? How is that even possible? We aren't even in a Blight."

The Commander frowned. "I don't know. The further we get into this, the stranger things get. And I'm not exactly an expert on Blights or darkspawn, either. I've only been a Grey Warden for a couple years."

That seemed so strange to Anders, especially knowing how much "The Hero of Ferelden" had accomplished in that relatively short time period. He hadn't known Gideon for very long, granted, but the man seemed to be born for the position of Commander of the Grey Wardens.

Sigrun called to them from where she had been searching along the west wall. As they joined her, she pointed to one of those strange heads carved into the stone. "Look there. I think there's a lever inside its mouth."

Anders peered into the dark recess and did indeed see something hidden in the very back.

"It's either a lever or a trap," Nathaniel commented, moving close to Anders and peering in. Anders felt a tiny shiver crawl up his spine as he felt Nathaniel's warm breath flutter against his ear. The soft tang of rosemary and leather were enough to make him swoon, and he had to fight the urge to close the distance between them and just kiss the man already.

He was startled from his thoughts by the sound of Sigrun's voice. "That's why I didn't stick my hand in there. I'm not very good at disarming traps."

Anders grinned. "I vote Oghren should do it."

A scowl poked through Oghren's beard. "No way am I stickin' my hand in some gargoyle's mouth."

Nathaniel stepped forward, still peering intently into the statue's mouth. He cautiously stretched his hand out.

"Nathaniel . . ." Anders watched the rogue uneasily. "I'm not exactly sure that's the best idea." Nathaniel ignored him, of course, and reached in to pull at the lever. There was a loud grinding sound, and they watched as a large section of the wall next to the statue disappeared into the ground. Anders looked at the space where an apparently solid stone wall had once stood. "Huh. Nice trick."

They stepped into the area that had been hidden behind the wall and saw a large opening to their right. "Looks like a hidden entry to me," Gideon commented dryly as he strode through the entrance. The others filed in after him.

A short, downward-sloping tunnel led to what appeared to be the main hall of the Fortress. The vast room was lit by a few braziers anchored to the walls, which seemed awfully strange to Anders. Darkspawn were supposed to be mindless beings that dwelled in the dark, yet the ones occupying this place had gone to the trouble to light all of these fires. Not that he was complaining, mind you; his claustrophobia was already starting to take hold. As big as the room was, there was still the fact that they were now standing beneath a few hundred feet of rock, not to mention the fact that the hall was so huge that the small pockets of light weren't enough to banish the dark completely.

It was apparent almost immediately that Micah and Colbert—the men in Amaranthine who had told Gideon of the swarm of darkspawn rising out of this place—had not been exaggerating. No sooner had they stepped inside the cavernous room than they were set upon. Anders let out a deep sigh as everyone took their usual positions. He had a feeling that their journey through Kal'Hirol was going to be a long one.

He quickly upgraded that assessment to dangerous as well. It seemed to take ages for them to finally clear this portion of the hall, and it didn't help that a few of the golems lining the walls had come to life to attack them as well. By the time the last death rattle sounded, Anders was exhausted. He'd had to down a lyrium potion in the middle of battle, and he was a bit worried that he would go through his finite supply all too quickly.

Blissfully, Gideon suggested they all take a break. Oghren sat down heavily on the floor, pulling out his small hip flask and taking a large swig from it, while Gideon rummaged around the room, searching the corpses for supplies. Anders decided to help, as there might be a chance some of the genlock casters had been carrying lyrium potions with them.

He took a few steps into a portion of the room where the golems had been resting when he suddenly felt a hand grab his arm. He looked behind him to see Nathaniel, his face grim.

"Be careful, Mage. There are pressure traps all over the floor." He pointed to a few tiles that were no more than an inch or two higher than the floor—they blended in so well that Anders never would have noticed them had Nathaniel not pointed them out. "Go sit down," Nathaniel said, not unkindly. "I'll see if there are any potions around for you." Anders looked at him with surprise, before nodding his head and joining Oghren, who was attempting to flirt with Sigrun. Given the look of distaste on Sigrun's face, Oghren wasn't having much luck. As he sat down, Anders reflected, not for the first time, on how easily the rogue seemed to read him. He wasn't sure how he felt about the fact that Nathaniel was obviously watching him intently. He'd had his fill of constant scrutiny while in the Circle. Nathaniel didn't seem to be suspicious of the mage, however. His interest seemed to be more altruistic than that.

After about fifteen minutes, Gideon called for them to head out. As Anders stood up, slinging his staff onto his back once again, Nathaniel approached him. "Here." He held out his hand, showing Anders the three lyrium potions he'd found.

Anders took them with a grateful smile. "Thanks."

Nathaniel nodded curtly before calling the rest of the group over. "I don't want to set off any of the traps. They may be useful in catching up any darkspawn that wander through here again . . ." He looked at Gideon uncertainly.

The Commander nodded his head in understanding. "You're the expert when it comes to traps—tell us what to do."

Nathaniel smiled at him, clearly relieved that he wouldn't have to argue with their leader. "The worst concentration is over there." He pointed to the area that Anders had nearly walked into earlier, right in front of the door leading into the next section of the Fortress. "I suggest we walk single file, with me in the lead. If everyone follows in my footsteps as closely as they can, we can keep from setting any of the traps off."

"Sounds good," Gideon said. "Lead the way."

Nathaniel nodded and stepped slowly through the room, the four others following close behind. Anders breathed a sigh of relief when they made it to the door without incident.

As Anders passed through, he found himself wondering what other surprises the old fortress of Kal'Hirol had in store for them.