Dragon Age. Origins
Levyn
Chapter Fourteen – Durgen'bel
Tainjen was the only Chasind Grey Warden in the last century. He went through the joining over fifty years ago and had been in the Deep Roads for what the Dwarfs called 'The Glorious Death' in the last twenty years. He managed to live down here somehow until the Blight. The Deep Roads were almost empty for a time. When the Blight was finished and the Archdemon was slain, he expected those twisted creatures' return at full force just like everybody else. Instead, he encountered very little of them. He ventured further, eventually reaching old Gwaren, and then he discovered this.
Like a well-defended fortress, nearly the entire east side of dwarven Gwaren ruin was behind the Veils. Occasionally large batches of darkspawn would dispatch from within, some even including ferocious armored ogres and the bug-like darkspawn the Grey Warden called "The Children." However, since he was no mage, not to mention he was alone, there was no way he could seal off any of those Tears and wandered in himself. He had lingered around here for weeks, trying to find a loophole but so far with no success.
Now they showed up. Things began to look up.
"How do you know about the Durgen'bel?" Lanaya was curious.
"Saw a Dalish keeper use it against the Orlesian troops in my younger days." The Grey Warden grinned. "Spirit of the Forest, it was such an magnificent sight to see!"
"A Keeper only passes down the knowledge of Durgen'bel to his or her First when they believed there was a threat that could affect the whole clan, sometimes the whole Dalish people." The young Dalish Keeper looked at the Chasind warrior thoughtfully. "To my knowledge there are only a handful of Keepers who wielded such a spell to date. I was privileged enough to learn that from my predecessor because of the Blight and … a certain disturbance in the Brecilian Forest at the time. And to cast it ... the Keepers only use it as the last resort. It is very rare for a non-Dalish person to witness, indeed."
"I quite agree." Tainjen inclined his head. "I was very fortunate to see such a spell being cast."
She stepped forward and glinted her eyes at the other side of the bridge. Determination clearly in her voice, she said, "And now, looks like we had no choice but to use this."
The Dalish elf bent down and picked up a handful of pebbles from the ground. Holding them in her palm, she tapped them with the tip of her staff and began to recite a long string of syllables Levyn could only assume was in Dalish. "Durgen'bel, him emma assan, him emma bor'assan. Durgen'bel, elvhen nuvenin ma sahlin!"
Lights beamed out of the Keeper's staff and covered the ground with shimmering light. Lanaya waved her hand and tossed the stones out of her hand. The small rocks scattered around the ground before them and made a small ripple of rattling noise, while each of them slowly glittering in a silvery hue. The Dalish elf raised her ironbark staff again. More bright lights beamed out. The ground shook. The small pebbles vibrated vigorously. Next thing they saw was at least a whole troop of elven warriors made of stones erected from the stone surface that stood there silently at her disposal. Each of them was fully armored, equipped with stone swords and large round shields.
The blood mage's eyes were widening in surprise. He could not believe his eyes. Had this Dalish girl, whose people usually believe in woods, just summoned a small army of soldiers made of stones? Shouldn't that be a Dwarf's territory? Then it suddenly occurred to him that the children of stone did not have the ability to cast magic.
"Originally, the stone should be the sacred bones of hallas from within our clan." Seeming to be able to read his mind, the petite Keeper explained. "But since they are such good friends to us, we don't want to scatter our friend's bones in the battlefield, do we? Hence we replaced them with pebbles we can find on site. Something nature had provided us. Now," she said as she tilted her head toward the Tear. "Shall we?"
Levyn and several others gave her an affirmative nod.
The elven mage cast anther spell. The stone warriors broke into movement, began to charge across the stone bridge and slash any darkspawn or Fade demons they came across. Behind them, the blood mage slit his palm with a dagger and drew a summoning circle on the sandy surface. Within minutes a blood dragon joined the marching troops and blew out stalling winds toward the surprise enemy. Wolf and Zac, along with several other fighters were with the stone warriors. They had reached the other side and immediately engaged with a Revenant and group of four Ash Wraiths. Arrows shot across the ditch from both sides. Tainjen drew out his long bow and fired frosted arrows.
With the help of the stone soldiers, the group managed to eliminate the darkspawn and demons at an amazingly fast speed. Soon Lanaya the Dalish keeper and Levyn found themselves standing in front of the Tears, both free of any sinister creature's attack.
"Time to close this nasty thing off." The Dalish elf nodded toward the black hole. Thick and dark smoke gushed out of the Tear. Rotten smells and blood curling sniggers echoed in their ears.
"Couldn't agree more." The blood mage clicked his tongue. "Let's do this."
"Let's." Lanaya nodded.
Both mages waved their staff, their movements in unison. Their lips murmured the same incantations. Sparks crackled from the tips of their magic staffs. Light beams formed and shot toward the dark curtain of black smoke. As soon as the ropes of light touched the smoky surface, they heard a high-pitched scream. As if fingernails had scratched on a porcelain plate's surface, the shriek gave everyone goosebumps. The ground shook even more violently, and almost every single darkspawn and Fade demon turned their head around. They snarled, some even abandoned their opponents and headed toward the pair of mages, attempting to stop what those two were doing.
"Someone needs to hold them up!" the Dalish mage barked toward the others, while her hands gripped the ironbark staff even tighter, using all her strength, towing the edge from one end toward the other. "We can't stop what we are doing now. Any disturbance that causes our sealing process to be stopped will result in a spell backfire that will kill all of us!"
Two Dalish archers and Wolf managed to pull themselves away from the opposition and took over the guarding duty at once. Along with several stone soldiers, they began to fence off any sinister creatures, Fade or mortal that went anywhere near them.
Demons on the other side also struggled to come through at the same time. Wrinkly, bulky knuckled hands and ghastly, disfigured faces kept emerging through the ripples of dark smoke, snarling and trying to grasp something. Levyn gritted his teeth, ignored the noises around him and tried his hardest to hold the spell in place, slowly closing up the gap. Above them, the blood dragon continued to frighten darkspawn and demon alike below, blowing ill wind that sent their blood boiling and bursting out of their veins. An ogre waved its fist and smashed several stone warriors into pieces.
The gap was closing up.
Another high shriek echoed through the cavern. Tainjen switched from his long bow to a thin blade and a large shield, and started bashing against the small genlocks, sending them flying across the floor. He spun on his heels and slashed another hurlock with his sword in one clean cut.
Lanaya's boots dug deep into the ground. The light beam coming from her staff stretched tight. Her small face was coated in sweat. Her brows were deeply frowned. She was concentrating too much to talk, nor shout out any comment.
The Tear was halfway closed.
Wolf managed to guard near Levyn, fending off coming darkspawn and demons. He murmured something that the blood mage vaguely recognized as some recitation from the Chant of Light. Blinding light beamed out from his body and purged outward, knocking off all the opponents within half a meter radius. Two Children dropped from the ceiling above and snarled. Their splitting faces were chopped off by the Templar's greatsword in the next second.
The gap was still closing at a snail's speed. Sweat droplets beaded from the corner of the blood mage's forehead and trickled down his cheek, dampening his hair. The cavern continued to shake; darkspawn and Fade demons kept emerging from the shadows of the stones in waves, trying to attack them. Zac waved his battleaxe and charged forward, disturbing an ancient darkspawn's spellcasting by engaging in a duel with him.
"Only a meter left!" Tainjen yelled out after he slaughtered anther small group of darkspawn and ash wraiths and cast the mages a quick glance.
"Stand your ground!" Wolf barked. "Don't let them sneak past you!"
Another ear-piercing scream. Two stone warriors were smashed into pieces. One of the Children hung over a dwarven berserker and feasted upon the screaming fighter while taunting wickedly. Hands and demon faces struggled even more violently, trying to grab Lanaya and Levyn into the Veil with them. Two Revenants managed to get past Zac and made an attempt to attack the mages, only to be caught up by two other Dwarves and being chopped into bits. The remaining stone soldiers continued to work as extra hands on distracting the sinister creatures.
"Nearly there!" A Dalish archer held his daggers backward and leaped onto the back of a genlock, his legs clapped round the darkspawn's neck tightly, and stabbed the blades into the dark creature's temple. Blood squirted out of his mouth, nose, and ears. The sinister monster let out a series of gurgles before it fell onto the ground. One Gwarenian warrior wrenched the arrow from a dead hurlock's body and pushed it into another one's heart, then twirled around fighting another group of deep stalkers as they snuck up on them while they were busy fighting dark creatures. Wolf stroke out another Holy Smite, knocking down several shrieks and genlocks around him.
Tainjen unsheathed two daggers from his waist and disappeared behind a thick black drape of smoke. Within second several darkspawn and demons were struck down by unknown forces. When the shadow-formed Grey Warden reappeared again, there was pretty much no one left on the small plateau between the stone bridge and the closing Tear.
The two light beams finally joined and the black surging smoke gap completely evaporated. The two mages collapsed onto their knees, both drenched in sweat, their breaths ragged.
"It's…it's done," Levyn panted.
"A moment…moment to recover, please?" Lanaya hung onto her stave, having trouble even holding herself up.
The rest of the group nodded wordlessly.
It took them over a day to recover. The blood mage and his Dalish keeper companion pretty much slept through most of it, and only woke up to eat and take some health poultices to speed up their recovery. Zac and Tainjen spent most of the time with each other, drew maps on the sandy ground and exchanged notes and information. Wolf and several others took turn to watch. Most of them could not tell the time underground, but according to the Keykeeper, by the time when they were all fit enough to press on, it was close to midday the day after.
"Right, we've cleared out all the Tears, so now there shouldn't be any problem, well, with this kind of magical problem from now on." The dwarven weaponsmith grunted as they gathered around a hasty map drawn on the floor for the briefing. "From here on we will be entering the dwarven Gwaren ruin. Judging from the Tears we've found, there's something hidden within the east side of the ruin," He circled the now-sealed Tear barriers with his sword, "where the old Gwaren Shaperate once were."
"Shaperate?" Levyn and several others, including Wolf and most of the Dalish elves, looked at the Dwarf quizzically.
"Similar to what you surfacers called 'the Library,'" Zac explained. "It's where we stored the 'Memories,' the archives of Gwaren. Every time when a Keykeeper came down here to complete the test, they signed their name in the lyrium – ah-hah, don't look at me like that: Besides us, only shapers are allowed to know how it's done." He grinned toward the astounded mages, showing his gapped teeth.
"Funny how the darkspawn decided to settle there, isn't it?" Tainjen chuckled.
"Indeed." The Keykeeper folded his arms and shifted his weight from one side of his leg to another. "Now according to our Grey Warden friend, there should be at least one last group of those sodding things in there – about ten to fifteen of them, more or less. And one powerful one among them."
"How do you know that?" Wolf gaped at the Grey Warden rogue.
"Grey Warden specialties." Levyn grimaced. "The inexperienced ones only senses them, some senior ones can actually tell the numbers."
"How do you know…you've encountered other Grey Wardens before?" The Templar looked at the blood mage; suddenly, he understood. "Wait, that was the other friend…wasn't he? The one who helped you and Lily…"
"It was a she." Levyn tilted his head and stared back at Wolf. "And yes."
The Templar continued to stare at him for some time. Several complex emotions were written across his face, and his mouth moved soundlessly. For a moment, the blood mage thought he was about to shout out something, revealing to the others who he truly was. His chest tightened. How would these people react? Would they change their opinions about him when the truth was told?
But instead, Wolf simply looked away, turning his attention back to Zac and Tainjen, who now focused on their strategy.
"There were a couple of golems still in there the last time I was inside the Shaperate." The dwarven weaponsmith rubbed his chin. "I cannot recall where their control rods were, but we still need to be careful about that. Those Shapers had thousands of places to hide those sodding things. Better safe than sorry."
"What can we do about the legendary golems?" one of the Gwarenians piped up. "They were meant to be ten feet tall and had lightening shooting out of their fearsome eyes!"
"I am sure we will think of something when we get there," another Dalish archer chimed in.
"Don't think too long, buddy," the Gwarenian mocked. "Or by the time you come up with a decent enough idea, we will all be turned into mashed spuds!"
They all laughed. The group pulled up camp and continued on. The high column led them further into the old Gwaren streets. There were marks of darkspawn everywhere. Odd-looking totem poles, piles of rotten darkspawn flesh, and braziers were at almost every corner. They encountered very little resistance from the creatures, however. They were mostly genlocks and shrieks. Zac continued to stop every now and then, mumbling something under his breath and using a skeleton key to open the doors of various houses.
"Noble houses in Orzammar still have plenty of hidden records here. No, not just treasures." Noticing that several people were staring at him rather curiously, the dwarf explained. "They often placed their request a while back, waiting for the next Keykeeper to enter the old ruins to fetch it for them. It's an honorable small quest." He tossed a few items into his pack. "Bless their ancestors."
They came to a large metal door at the end of the market square. Carved with elaborate Dwarven patterns that matched the one they saw on some of the older buildings in Gwaren on the surface, the gold sheet engraved on it still illuminated a faint glow under the layers of dust and grime.
"Aren't you going to use the skeleton key on this one?" Wolf arched his eyebrows as he saw the weaponsmith put the key back into this pouch.
"This one can only be opened with lyrium," replied the Keykeeper simply. "Raw lyrium, to be precise."
"How are we going to find that?" another Dalish elf asked.
"Why do you think they called us the 'Keykeeper'?" Zac winked. He fumbled inside his rucksack a little and drew out a small parcel wrapped with wolf pelts. The dwarf carefully unwrapped the piece and revealed the shiny mineral inside.
"A key made of raw lyrium?" Lanaya was in awe. "This is the first time I've seen the material in its original form!"
"Me, too." Levyn's eyes widened. "The only time we mages seen them like that was in the Fade!"
The dwarven weaponsmith simply grinned under his bushy beard. He found a small dwarven pattern indentation and carefully placed the key into the slot. The metal door made a loud click; a surge of energy vibrated through it and then it began to slowly swing open, making a loud squeaking noise on the process.
As the door slowly moved forward, they noticed there was something stirring inside the dark passage beyond the gate. Everyone immediately held their weapons high and glared ahead in alert.
It was a single darkspawn. A hurlock, to be exact. Compared to the rest of his kind, the creature looked slightly smaller.
"Arh…" He grinned wickedly as soon as he saw them through the gap of the opening door. "The Scholar thought you should be here by now. He sent me to greet you."
"The Scholar?" Tainjen frowned. "So it is true: He is still around."
"Cha-cha, and you too!" The talking tainted being's eye flickered in playfulness. "How interesting that you are still not one of us yet… Grey Warden!"
"What did he talking about?" Levyn jerked his head around and looked at the Chasind warrior.
"I've heard stories, coming from our brothers in Orzammar." It was Zac who answered the question, instead. "That the true reason Grey Wardens enter the Deep Roads at the end of their days was to slaughter as many darkspawn as possible before themselves turn into one…. Looks like it is true."
"Ah-hah!" The talking darkspawn clapped his hands and laughed. "So someone here does know! And from none other than one of the short legs! I am pleased. I am very pleased, indeed!"
Levyn stared at the old Grey Warden in shock. They, the heroes of Feralden, would eventually turn into the very thing they spent their entire life fighting against? Why? Was that why he was wearing a mask, as the transformation had already begun? Was that why they were so secretive toward the other people? Was that why they vanished after a certain period of time?
Maker's Breath, thought the blood mage in shock. Is that what was going to happen to my childhood friend?
"Enough chattering, I think." The darkspawn chuckled. "The Scholar's waiting, and he will be most displeased if I bring you lot to him late. It is time for me to take you there, yes?"