Chapter 4: Dark Magic
The next morning Caitlin, Fenris and their companions were up at dawn. The bandit attack had cost them half a day so they pressed on eagerly. The Wardens had no problem with the gruelling pace she set; they were used to long days on the road. Even Dworkin kept up well, with only the occasional grumble. Fortunately their maps were detailed and precise, and their journey continued without further incidents. Two days later, they finally approached the spot marked on the map by a carefully drawn gate.
They rounded a pleasant green hillside only to find themselves facing a worrying sight. A pair of huge dwarven doors that had been set into the stony surface of an old cave entrance stood wide open, the massive steel plates deformed and pressed inward by some unknown force. Caitlin shuddered when she inhaled the musty, stale air coming up from below.
Dworkin, Oghren and Sigrun immediately set to examining the opening while Caitlin, Fenris and the mages lay down on the grass a little way from them, breathing in the fresh air, trying to store up as much sunlight and warmth as they could. When Dworkin approached them with a worried frown on his face, Caitlin sat up.
"What's the matter, Dworkin? Anything unusual?"
"You could say that." The nervous giggle in the dwarf's voice was more pronounced than ever. "These doors were opened from the outside."
Anders raised an eyebrow in surprise. "From the outside? So someone actually went down there on purpose? Who would have a reason to do so?"
"Anyone who had access to the same records as we did." Bethany chewed on a blade of grass, looking concerned. "Those huge lyrium deposits the books mentioned, they'd be enough to draw the attention of a lot of people."
"Dwarves. Templars. Circle Mages." Caitlin's tone was dry. "They'd all be interested. But would they know about it?"
"There must be records in the Shaperate in Orzammar," Oghren rumbled. "Though who could find them in that clutter of scrolls is anyone's guess."
Anders grinned. "True. But all the groups you mentioned have access to pretty extensive libraries, you know. The Chantry keeps meticulous records, and the Circle library is not too shabby either."
"And don't forget the Tevinter magisters." Fenris' voice was curiously calm and expressionless. "A free source of lyrium... They wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice as many lives as it takes to have access to that."
"Well, you can count out the dwarves." Dworkin sounded absolutely certain. "The doors were opened by magic. Powerful magic. That was good dwarven steel, held in place by ancient enchantments. Whoever blasted it open was no apprentice."
Caitlin shivered. "And whoever they were, they may still be down there. We'd better be careful."
It was still only late morning, so they decided to go down immediately. The first hours were not too bad. The tunnels were obviously natural, although there were some sections that showed vestiges of dwarven stonework, where passages had been widened or roofs enforced. The cave-floor sloped steadily downwards, and Fenris and the three humans found it harder to breathe the further down they got. The light from the mages' staffs was sufficient to show them the way, but it still felt like eternal night.
"Well, there's one piece of good news," Anders remarked when they rested at a little rocky ledge that formed a natural bench. "No signs of darkspawn corruption so far, and I can't feel anything. Whatever is going on here, it doesn't seem to involve darkspawn."
Caitlin breathed a sigh of relief. The Wardens might be safe from the Taint, but it represented a very real threat for Fenris and herself. One less thing to worry about. Of course, this didn't mean there were no dangers down here, she reminded herself. When they rounded a corner about half an hour later, a soft wispy strand trailed across her face and she stopped in her tracks. "Spiders."
And sure enough a crackling noise was coming from the tunnel in front of them.
"Beth. Quick." Caitlin jumped aside to give Bethany space for her trademark freeze spell. Just in time, it turned out, as three giant spiders suddenly dropped from the tunnel roof and immediately attacked them. But Bethany's spell caught them before their poisonous fangs could do any damage. Anders followed up immediately with an incantation of his own, and a massive fist of stone crushed the first spider. Oghren shattered the second with his axe and the third fell under the combined force of their blows before it had time to thaw out.
"Well, that was almost too easy." Anders' grin was infectious. They dealt with several more spider attacks before they finally set up camp in a little side tunnel. The dwarves seemed happy enough underground, in fact more relaxed than Caitlin had seen them so far.
"You know, for all your faults, Oghren, you are a remarkable fighter." Sigrun stretched her legs closer to the fire and patted her fellow warden on the back companionably.
Oghren laughed and leered at her. "Really? Let's go 'round the corner so I can show you something else remarkable."
"Ewww, Oghren. Not this again. It was just a friendly compliment!" Caitlin had to hide a smile at Sigrun's long-suffering expression. It was obvious that those two had been having that kind of conversation more than once.
Oghren sighed dramatically. "Ahhh, saucy lady. What's it take to get that cold heart beating for Oghren?" He didn't expect an answer and he didn't get one.
Caitlin smiled and settled down in her bedroll next to Fenris. He was even more uncomfortable down here than she was. Elves never took well to the tunnels, she knew. "I love you," she mouthed at him, and was rewarded with a small smile before they drifted off to sleep, holding hands.
When they woke up several hours later, they continued downwards. It took them two or three more hours to reach a point where the tunnels became straighter, the floors more even. They passed a huge stone portal and found themselves on a road paved with gigantic flagstones, flanked by massive walls and huge granite pillars carrying the markers of old dwarven thaigs.
Bethany sighed. "Once more to the Deep Roads. I remember when that seemed so daunting... full of promise. We were young and stupid. Let's hope we're not just older."
"Still no taint?" Caitlin shot Anders a questioning look.
He shook his head. "There's something here, though. Don't you feel it?"
He was right. The air had an odd electric quality to it and there was a faint swishing noise. When they passed a crumbling statue, suddenly a transparent apparition materialized in front of them, a dwarven woman with a sad face that disappeared again almost immediately.
"Ghosts." Sigrun almost spat out the word. "Wanna bet there'll be other beasties soon?"
The words hadn't even left her lips when a crackling noise from ahead made them all jump to readiness. A huge pile of bones in front of them had begun to move. Within seconds, two skeletons armed with swords assembled themselves and advanced toward them. Three others picked up bows and arrows from the ground and started to aim at the mages.
Caitlin heard Oghren laugh out loud next to her. "Nothing gets the blood flowing like a proper battle!" His battle axe made short work of the first skeleton and Anders and Bethany easily took out the archers. The brief skirmish wasn't a challenge and they emerged unharmed and only slightly winded. But it wasn't the last attack of this kind. For the next two hours, they fought off one wave after the other, never more than six or seven opponents; not enough to seriously challenge them, but sufficient to make them weary and to hold up their progress considerably. Finally the road widened and there was a door in the wall to their left, an entrance to some sort of guard post. They approached it cautiously, expecting another attack, but the large room they entered was curiously quiet.
There were bones on the floor here too, but they remained dead, and they were interspersed with newer corpses wearing mercenary uniforms. At the back of the room, there was a single corpse, surrounded by the remains of at least ten skeletons.
Anders went over to examine it. "Cait, look at this! I believe we have found our intruders, or at least one of them."
She joined him, looking in distaste at the charred, half-rotten body. The dead man was wearing the remnants of mage robes. Caitlin frowned. The style and cut of them reminded her of something... She was sure she had seen robes like this before, at one of the market stalls in Kirkwall. They had been expensive, imbued with powerful charms, pure refined lyrium woven into the fabric. Now what had the merchant called them? Tevinter... something... Robes. Yes, they looked like something a magister would wear: dark, sombre, expensive.
The dead man's face was unrecognizable, the front part of his body and most of his feet scorched off. Caitlin shivered. This had been no mere hedge wizard. Whatever had killed him had been powerful and dangerous.
Anders' voice tore her out of her thoughts. "Killed by a fireball or something similar, it seems. Look at his hands, Cait." The man's arms were fixed as they had been at the moment of his death, raised above his head, the sleeves of the robe slipping down, one hand gripping a dagger that was about to cut into the other arm. Caitlin recognized the gesture, having seen it more than once back in Kirkwall. Blood magic.
She was about to open her mouth and reply when Fenris stepped up next to her. He threw one glance at the mage's corpse, then he gasped and grabbed her shoulder. She turned to him in surprise, but he was already down on his knees, retching violently, his face distorted as if in pain.
"Fen!" she cried out in shock. "What is it?"
He looked up at her, his eyes empty, not seeing her at all, and only managed to stammer "Danarius" before they rolled back in their sockets and he lost consciousness.
Fenris hadn't expected anything unusual when he looked over Caitlin's shoulder, but at the sight of the robed figure, something had burst inside his head. Those dark red velvet robes... Danarius had owned a set just like this. And the raised hand, the knife... Fenris found he had suddenly lost the capacity for breathing, his head started to spin, and then the memories assaulted him.
He was tied to a table, naked, helpless. Danarius was standing above him, arms raised, just like this. The magister's blood began to drop from the wound in his arm, dark red and sluggish. Danarius dipped his finger in it and began tracing the outline of the tattoo on Fenris' chest. The elf watched in disbelief as the intricate whorls formed there and began to glow softly. He felt a faint tingle. Then, without further warning, his skin split open and the pain tore through him, obliterating everything else, a white-hot searing eternity of pain.
Caitlin dropped to her knees beside him, cradling his head, crying out his name. Damn Danarius! The memories of his time with the magister still haunted Fenris. His ghost remained a constant presence in their lives. Those memories were the reason why her beloved sometimes woke up screaming, why some touches would never be acceptable, why magic still had to be avoided whenever possible. But this...
"Has this happened before?" Anders was there, at her side. She shook her head, and the expression on her face tore at his heart.
His experienced hands quickly established that Fenris was in no serious danger "Shhh, Cait, don't worry. He should wake up again soon." The mage took advantage of the elf's unconsciousness to do a rapid scan for other injuries, but as soon as Fenris stirred, he retreated, knowing only too well that his attention would be unwelcome, especially at a time like this.
Moving over to a corner, Anders took a moment to collect himself. He felt numb inside, shocked by the results his quick examination had yielded. He hadn't dared go too deep, because it was always uncertain how Fenris' body would react to magic. But the extent of the old injuries he had seen had made him tremble. Instinctively he had tried to do what he could, but the wounds went too deep for a casual healing. The things the elf had been subjected to, the sheer amount of pain and humiliation those old scars spoke of...
Yet here he was, grinning up apologetically at Caitlin. Anders watched as Fenris took a deep breath, burying his face in Caitlin's lap, inhaling her scent, and immediately relaxed. She was smiling radiantly as she began kissing him, tracing her fingers over his face, whispering in his ears. The mage felt a brief pang of envy. They are so close. I guess this is how they survive...
Anders picked up the dead mage's discarded staff, but he quickly dropped it with a grimace of distaste. The thing felt evil, corrupted, and he knew he could never bring himself to use it, no matter how powerful it might be. Raising his own staff, he conjured up a flame, hot enough to burn the dead mage and his staff to ashes, obliterating every trace of them. When he looked up, Fenris caught his gaze and he saw the expression of sheer relief and gratitude in the elf's eyes.
He stretched out his hand to help Fenris rise. "Ready to go on? Somehow I don't think we're finished here. There's something else down there, and I don't like the feel of it."
Fenris nodded. They could all sense it now, an aura of evil that had settled over the old dwarven ruins and got stronger the further down they got. They gathered their belongings and set off again, ready to face whatever awaited them.
to be continued...
What would I do without zevgirl? Thanks for being such a great beta!