Chapter 14:

Talking Darkspawn

Kiera

The taint. It hummed, drummed, under my skin, and it seemed odd that the sounds I felt were too loud, too clear. The growls and guttural murmurs were no longer chaotic, but more focused, more direct in their intensities. I looked round at the qunari, who must feel so out of place in such narrow quarters.

They were walking in single file, and I caught them looking nervous, sweat beading on their creased brows— tight spaces did not make a happy kossith. Their heightened agitation was the reason why Sten was now taking the rear; we were not leaving our flanks open, even with the trap that had been set up at the entrance.

The mine seemed to go on a long way, though thankfully, it was a straight tunnel. I could tell that the qunari were getting slightly antsy, for the walls were a lot narrower than the open spaces that they were used to. Their breathing was loud, these echoed off the surrounding rock, and they all but jumped at every unexpected crunch of the soil beneath our feet. All other paths were blocked, due to several cave-ins. Compared to the winding road that characterised the Deep Roads in Ozarmmar, this expedition was so much easier on the brain.

The tunnel opened up into a cavern, one that glowed with the varying hues of raw lyrium. I heard several relieved sighs coming from the karashoks. It was apparent that they were feeling much better than before, with the marginally larger space allowing a further spreading out of our ranks. Sten immediately moved to my side; how odd—that he seemed most concerned for my safety. I could take care of myself. This was my element. Darkspawn-hunting.

Walking about the littered mining equipment, we realized that the removal of the lyrium had been abandoned in a hurry, no bodies were found, but evidence of violence were seen—splattered over the cavern floor. Eerie stuff, that.

The taint was close. One could feel it— my skin crawled in the most disgusting way possible, and I was thankful that none of the men could feel it—it would have been beyond anything they could handle. They muttered about the surroundings and the claustrophobic feeling that kept pressing down on them, and I wondered if Sten had ever thought that way, when we first entered the Deep Roads. He had been most stoic, even then.

"Kadan, breathe." Sten touched my shoulder as we moved towards the source of the humming. I had not even realized how tight my chest was, until I let out a gasp—I had held my breath when we passed the lyrium, not wanting to inhale the dust that would no doubt drive me insane. Mages were altogether too sensitive to the material.

Sten

The cavern opened into a larger grotto, and the walls were suddenly lined with the mess that could only be described as flesh. The red and pink was disturbingly familiar—although this time, there was none of that infuriating whispering that had taunted us in Ferelden. The karashok walked on behind us despite their numerous misgivings, their mistrust of the kadan counterbalanced by their awe at her relative nonchalance. She was indeed remarkable, an exemplary Grey Warden despite what she was, a woman, and a mage.

The woman in question stopped and hissed a fevered sentence. "Stop, now. Get behind me."

She then began to wave her hands, muttering unknown words under her breath, and this increased in speed. The spell grew as the karashok stared, enthralled at the forming clouds that began to form over the area. She had called up a Firestorm.

The magic gathered, and when the first wave of darkspawn appeared, their skull-like faces disappeared as the fire that rained down devoured all that ran into the area, us excluded. The kadan had planned this very well.

But as all spells do, this one faded in time, and the cloud dissipated as the beasts released their own spells—in response—aiming these at us. The kadan yelled and charged, breaking the karashok out of their mesmerized state, triggering them to attack with us. She was indeed a warrior.

Kiera

The emissaries were annoying, and I was forced to use mana clash on one while I engaged another with my dual blades—they were many in number, way more than I could have anticipated. There had to be a broodmother around here, judging by the sheer size of the army that forced us back. We couldn't fall here, not now.

I hastened everyone, and the spells now seemed to flit past like dried leaves, aimless and with no trajectories—these we avoided with ease. Sten and I were battling back to back, mowing down the darkspawn who seemed barely clothed in their iron armor. It was when the first karashok fell, when chaos truly erupted.

One of the karashok suddenly exploded into bits, their blood splattering the rest whose movements did not even slow one whit. It was then that I felt something, a drawing in of power that scared me. There was something feeding off the remains of the darkspawn, and the karashok. This was definitely was blood magic. Were the darkspawn practitioners? If so, the mission was going south, fast.

When the last emissary fell with a shriek, we counted ourselves again. We had lost four karashok in the chaos. Where was this invisible foe? I still felt something taking in power, not to mention that there were darkspawn left in the pit ahead. The lyrium prevented me from tracing this vacuum that drained the life force that was once our comrades. There was nowhere else to go but forward, into the darkness ahead.

xOxOx

What glorious luck, there were two broodmothers; one of which had been a kossith, and the other used to be a human. I assumed that these had accounted for the numbers of the legion of darkspawn that now stood before the ten of us. They seemed to be watching us curiously where normally, these would attack on sight. One of the ogres stepped forward—it towered over even Sten— and a growl burst forth from its lips, one that sounded almost like words. I could have sworn that it spoke. "Seize the female."

P.S.: edited. I hope it's better to read now. Thanks for bearing with me so far! Thanks for reading! (Please leave a review? :D)