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She opened her eyes to darkness; it was so dark, there was no difference between her eyes open or shut even as she waved a hand in front of her face.

"First day they come to catch everyone."

She knew it was a dream, but Calitae could feel the hairs on her arms and neck stand up. She firmly pressed her palms over her ears, screwing her eyes shut; Hespith's voice seemed to come from every direction.

"Second day, they beat us and eat some for meat."

It didn't help; the disturbing verse still came through. She couldn't stop shivering from the cold, damp air or the fear. Waving her hands in front of her, she slowly inched forward. She bumped into a wall, covered with slime. Wiping her hands on her pants, she stopped and turned her head; unless her mind was playing tricks on her, she thought she could see a very faint dimming to her left.

"Third day, the men are all gnawed on again."

She carefully made her way towards the light, when something suddenly touched her face. Choking back a scream, she leapt back, tearing at her face – it felt like a spider web. She could hear the spiders now; the soft chittering whispering around her, the echoing tapping of their claws on the stone. Calitae shuddered; reaching for weapons that didn't exist.

"Fourth day, we wait and fear for our fate."

She found herself at a crossroads in the caves; the light was coming from sputtering torches placed outside a carved door. Bones and gore were piled to either side. Looking up, she could see the ceiling covered with stars from all the spiders watching her. The paths down either side were swallowed up in the darkness. She grabbed a torch and found a large bone to use as a make-shift club.

"Fifth day, they return and it's another girl's turn."

Grinding her teeth, Calitae deliberately turned from the door and set down one of the side paths; she knew what lay beyond that door. Holding the torch high to keep the spiders at bay, she strained with all of her sense to try to see what was ahead.

"Sixth day, her screams we hear in our dreams."

Suddenly, the roar of a darkspawn blasted through the tunnel, the echoes making it impossible to tell where it came from. She turned around just in time to see two small Genlock stepped into the circle of light; she didn't sense them before and she couldn't even now. She frantically swung her club at them and stepped backwards.

"Seventh day, she grew as in her mouth they spew."

The path opened into a small chamber with a large stalagmite growing out of the floor. She could see now that the Genlocks had been herding her into a group of Hurlocks. There were at least a dozen of them and she had no weapons. She lunged one way with the torch and quickly spun the other direction, catching one of the darkspawn on the side of the head. With a sinking feeling, Calitae realized they weren't trying to kill her.

"Eighth day, we hated as she is violated."

More darkspawn were coming in behind the Genlocks; it was getting crowded in the chamber and they grew bolder with their numbers. She dodged around the rocky formation and glimpsed a path going further into the caves. She lunged again at the monsters to clear some room, and then ran at the stalagmite, using her momentum to step up its sloped sides. With a well-timed push, she managed to land behind the front row of Hurlocks, but one had grabbed at her as she was overhead, causing her to land painfully into another, knocking it down.

Her club was torn from her hand and a Genlock began battering ineffectively at her back and legs as she struggled to free herself from the Hurlocks' grasp, its armor biting painfully into her skin. Other darkspawn were gathering around, their clawed hands scratching across her leathers as she freed one arm and shoved the torch between them, burning and blinding. She slammed it's head into the rocky floor and scrambled to her feet. Tears streaming from her damaged eyes, she ran down the passage.

"Ninth day, she grins and devours her kin."

Snarls and roars followed her, but the torch light ruined her vision; she couldn't see how far behind they were. Something hit her in the back and she stumbled, the torch spinning away. She clumsily crawled towards the light, the shadows dancing strangely. Grunting and panting were right behind her, glittering eyes watching from the shadows as the darkspawn cautiously moved towards her.

She picked up the torch and could see why the shadows were wrong: they were at the edge of a crevasse; the light too weak or the chasm too deep for her to see the bottom. She looked back at the press of foul creatures; she knew what they wanted. She didn't even dare try to take any on, for she could be easily overwhelmed and forced into a fate worse than death.

Death.

With a grim determination, she wound up and threw the torch spinning as hard as she could at the front few darkspawn. Without a sound, she stepped backwards over the ledge into darkness; Hespith's words floated down after her.

"Now she does feast, as she's become the beast."

She woke when she hit the floor with a grunt. She lay there for a moment trying to piece together what happened; she couldn't recall falling out of bed before. A giant head loomed over the edge of the bed. "Really? You couldn't push him out of bed?" She ruffled the top of her mabari's head and was rewarded with a sloppy lick. "We're going to need a bigger bed if this is your plan." The dog smugly lay back on the pillow.

During this quiet exchange, Alistair hadn't stirred. She was glad he hadn't awoken; she didn't know if he was ready for the long days they would have coming up. She moved over to the window to open the shutters and stood there a moment just watching him sleep in the moonlight, then slipped out of the room.