Chapter 30:
"Branka you mad, bleeding nug tail! Does this thing mean so much to you that you can't even see what you've lost to get it?" Oghren shouted at his wife. Sylina glanced from him to Branka who was looking past the steel golem Caridin at the Anvil of the Void.
Branka turned to stare with disgust at Oghren. "Do you not see what our empire has become? A crumbling tunnel filled with darkspawn? The Anvil is the way to let us take back our glory!" She had a frantic gleam in her eye and Sylina shuddered.
"You can't truly believe it is worth enslaving people, your own people?" Leliana asked, her eyes wide with shock at this Paragon. Branka didn't appear to have heard her.
"Psh, sounds like a fine plan to me," Morrigan muttered from behind Sylina.
"Then perhaps you should go first," Alistair shot at the witch, glaring at her. Morrigan glared back and folded her arms.
Sylina had heard enough. She shook her head and readied her staff. "Stand down Branka. The Anvil will be destroyed."
"So we will fight with Caridin. Good. That seems right," Shale said moving into a readying position.
Oghren turned from Branka to Sylina. "Just give her the blasted thing! She's confused, once she calms down...maybe we can talk to her!"
Sylina looked at Oghren, she saw sadness and worry in his eyes. She hadn't spoken to him much since entering the Deep Roads, but she could see he loved this woman, despite everything she had done. She shook her head and was about to try and talk to the woman when Branka unsheathed her sword.
"No! I will not let you take it from me while I still live. Golems obey me! Attack!" She was waving around a control rod and several golems near Caridin activated and started charging the group.
The battle over, Sylina did her rounds to each companion healing their wounds. Morrigan had been knocked unconscious by one of the golems and she had been surprised to see Sten standing over her during the battle to make sure she was not squished. She smiled, perhaps there was more to the qunari than he let on. Other than Morrigan, Leliana had obtained a few broken bones which Sylina mended to the best of her ability, and Alistair was once again bruised and scrapped. Oghren had stayed back in the fight so he was not injured and it had been Shale who had crushed Branka's skull. Sylina shuddered and avoided looking in the direction of the once Paragon.
"Thank you." Sylina turned to see the huge steel golem walking toward her. "Your compassion shames me."
Shale walked up beside Sylina. "How was the woman able to disable you, but not me?" the golem asked Caridin.
"I do not know. Have you been altered?" Sylina looked from the steel golem to the stone golem with crystals embedded in her body. Sylina silently suppressed a giggle at thinking of Shale as a woman.
"A pathetic mage once experimented on me, I killed him and it rendered me paralyzed," Shale said matter-of-factly.
"The death of the master always results in paralyzing the golem. As for your free will, you were always a strong woman, Shale." Caridin said. He sighed and turned back to Sylina. "The Anvil waits for you to shatter it. But before you do, is there any boon you wish of me? A final favor before I am freed of my burden."
Sylina looked at her companions. She saw Oghren staring at his dead wife's body from where he had sat since the battle had finished. She sighed and shook her head. "No. There is nothing I can ask of you."
"Wait." She turned to see Alistair rising. He winced as he still had many bruises she could not heal. "We still need a Paragon's vote to decide the king." He walked over to stand beside Sylina looking up at the steel golem.
"Then I shall forge you a crown for the king of your choice," Caridin said and he turned to walk toward the Anvil.
"Well that beat the sod out of how I imagined," Oghren said, sighing and taking a seat next to Sylina at the fire. She turned to him and frowned. She felt guilty for being the cause of Branka's demise. But as she had thought on it since the battle, she couldn't see any other outcome. After Caridin had forged the crown Sten had smashed the Anvil and Caridin had taken his life by falling into the lava below. Sylina had decided that it would be better to stay near the Anvil for the night since no darkspawn were near and they could close the doors to the room and stay safe for the night. So now the company spent the first night in a long time near a fire without worry of darkspawn.
"I'm sorry Oghren," Sylina said, frowning into the fire. "I wish..."
"Don't go a-wishin Warden. It'll only make you regret a lot of things," the dwarf said as he took a swing of his flask. He paused. "Want some? It'll calm the nerves."
Sylina shook her head. The last thing she wanted was to be drunk in the Deep Roads.
"Oghren?" Leliana's voice floated over to them from where she stood. She was glancing at a large stone wall with what looked like writing on it. "Can you tell me what this is? Do you think you could read it?" the laysister called, turning to find the dwarf at the fire.
He grunted, got up, and walked over to Leliana. Sylina's eyes drifted back to the fire. She heard stomping and the heavy sigh of the stone golem behind her. "Hello, Shale," she said.
"Oh good, it is aware of my presence. I have a question for it."
Syling sighed and stood up to stretch. She turned to the golem. "Okay, what is the question?"
Suddenly Shale looked nervous, or as nervous as a creature of stone can look. "It is just… Caridin said that I was a woman, a dwarf. That I volunteered for this. I must know about my past."
Sylina blinked at the golem. She was pretty exhausted from fighting and solving puzzles in Caridin's maze and then the battle with golems. She would say her patience was wearing thin. She sighed. "That is not a question Shale. What is it you want? I cannot tell you of your past."
"No. No it couldn't, could it?" Shale sighed. "But perhaps while it travels through the Deep Roads I might remember something. A clue as to my past?"
Sylina nodded, her eyelids heavy. "Okay, Shale, if you find something we'll investigate." She yawned. "Now I am going to sleep. Good night." She turned and walked to her tent. She crawled inside where Hesper was already curled up asleep and sleep found her quickly.
"I can't believe what Caridin said was true," Shale said while they walked out of Cadash thaig. Needless to say Sylina hadn't been thrilled when on the sixth day walking back to Orzammar the stone golem had suddenly said she recognized where they were. They had then traveled three days out of the way to Cadash thaig and found a stone tablet that showed Shale's lineage and house. And in reality the damn steel golem had already said as much. Sylina just shook her head and muttered to herself. She wanted to get her blasted ass out of the Deep Roads and as quickly as possible. She was exhausted, angry, and dirty. She desperately wanted to sleep and bathe and feel the fresh air of outside on her skin.
"Yeah, yeah you were a dwarf woman. Great. Let's get back to Orzammar," Alistair said from next to Sylina. She looked up to see dark rings around his eyes and perhaps it was the dirt caked to his face but he looked as if he had aged since they entered the Deep Roads. They had both seen so much in these tunnels. They exchanged a look that told her he felt the same.
And they made their way back to Orzammar. Day by day. Sylina pushed them each day until they were exhausted. But they made it back quicker. And finally the doors to the Deep Roads opened and she saw the light of Orzammar. She could have cried if she had the energy. Instead, she nodded dimly to the guards and walked directly to the Warden complex.
After what she was sure was the longest bath of her life, she finally donned on clothes and marched herself, Alistair, and Oghren to the Assembly.
"Lords and Deshyrs, please-" the Steward shouted over the rabble.
"My father has one heir, who would deny me my rightful throne!" Bhelen yelled from atop his dais.
"Your father made me swear on his deathbed you would not succeed him," Harrowmont said from the other side of the Assembly.
Sylina shook her head and descended the stairs with the crown tucked under her arm. The Steward noticed her and nodded.
"Warden," Bhelen said from high up. "What news do you bring us?"
Sylina opened her mouth to speak, but Oghren stepped forward. "This Warden found the Paragon Caridin trapped in the body of a golem. After setting him free he forged a crown for a king chosen by the ancestors themselves."
Sylina glanced at him and held out the crown for the Steward.
"We are supposed to believe this from the Warden who is known to be in Bhelen's pocket?" Harrowmont said glaring down at Sylina.
"This crown bears the symbol of the Caridin house," the Steward said after examining the crown. "Tell us then Warden, who did the ancestors choose?"
Sylina's eyes traveled up to the arrogant prince. He sneered down at her and she felt her blood boil. Alistair put his hand on her shoulder and she looked up into his eyes. He knew how she felt, but they both knew it didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was stopping the Blight. She sighed. "He chose Bhelen," she said, and turned and walked out of the Assembly. She heard Bhelen begin making a speech and heard him descending to be crowned. She didn't care. When the stone doors closed behind her she pinched her nose and walked back to the complex alone.