CHAPTER 6

They walked the rest of that day until they couldn't walk any more and then set up camp. At daybreak, they quickly broke camp and started out, determined to reach Vigil's Keep as soon as possible.

They started to see the bodies before they could see the keep towers. "Maker," Anders breathed, "look at them all!"

There were darkspawn bodies all over the place. Dried blood was everywhere, and everywhere the darkspawn blood touched the land was dead and blighted. It was a horrific sight. As they came closer to the tower, they started to see human and elven bodies too. It was a massacre. The amazing thing, though, was that for each non-darkspawn body there were at least 10 darkspawn bodies, if not more.

Nathaniel spotted a familiar-looking armor set and knelt next to it. "Elissa," he called out, "Justice … he didn't make it." He looked around and gathered the severed head that had belonged to their newest friend and placed it next to the body. "I hope he ended up in a better place." He then looked around. "It looks like he got at least twenty or more before they got to him."

Elissa nodded, resignation in her voice. "We need to cremate Kristoff's body first. In a sense, Aura's been waiting the longest to collect her husband's ashes. I don't think anyone could have survived this." Oghren and Nathaniel picked up the body between them and they continued toward the keep.

They got to the gates and were surprised to see the walls still intact. Well, what they could see of the walls. There were thousands of darkspawn bodies, most of them piled up against the walls. Most of the roofs were gone, smoke and dying embers taking their place.

They had to go over the walls because they couldn't break through them? That dwarf Voldrik does good work.

The portcullis was raised and the entire group was shocked to see movement inside. "There are survivors!" Elissa showed the first signs of hope since they started to see the death surrounding the keep. "They need help!" She ran forward, with Anders hot on her heels. Oghren and Nathaniel had to walk, but placed Kristoff's body inside the gates in a relatively safe spot and followed as soon as they could.

There were survivors, but only very few. Garevel was directing them and doing his best to maintain order. He looked up and saw Elissa rushing toward him, "Commander! You survived!"

Elissa waved off Garevel's incedulity. "Captain, it's more impressive that anyone is left here. Considering the number of darkspawn bodies that attacked the keep, you were overwhelmed at least tenfold."

"The keep's walls kept a large number of us protected. Even though we were still desperately low on soldiers, many of the servants took up arms and helped where they could. The men fought their hearts out, but nearly everyone is gone. There are just a handful of people left."

Elissa closed her eyes. "I understand." She looked very tired. "Varel?" Garevel's nod affirmed that Varel had died in the attack. "All right. You've started to identify the bodies?"

Garevel nodded again. "We are doing what we can to return the ashes of the dead to their families." He indicated a smoke column outside the walls of the keep. "We can't afford to wait for the families to pick up the bodies of our dead. The smell and disease would overtake the rest of us otherwise."

Elissa nodded. "I agree. The other Wardens and I will pull the soldiers' bodies from the piles of darkspawn and start to deal with those, to avoid contaminating the survivors." Elissa's became more determined then, and started to issue orders. "Anders, look for injured survivors. Do what you can for them. Join us after you've finished. Oghren and Nathaniel, you're with me. We have a lot of bodies to clear before they blight the entire region.

It took several days to pile the darkspawn bodies and burn them, since there were only four people in the entire keep who could safely clear the bodies without fear of becoming ghouls. The Wardens worked from dawn until dusk, only stopping to grab quick meals. It was grim work, and all of them were exhausted. They were usually so tired at night that they barely made it inside the walls of the keep before they collapsed in their tents, passing out as soon as they climbed inside.

Although the outer walls of the keep had held, the living quarters were uninhabitable and the courtyard housing was completely destroyed. The darkspawn had obviously set everything alight with fire arrows when they couldn't break down the walls. Everything flammable in the entire keep was completely gone.

Finally, the bodies had been identified and cremated after what seemed like a lifetime. Out of a few hundred people employed at the keep, less than ten percent survived. Elissa sent the survivors who had families outside the keep to their homes and started to write letters to include with the ashes of the fallen. Nathaniel and Anders helped, writing letters so that Elissa could sign them, and Oghren helped the remaining soldiers and servants start to pick up debris and move it out of the keep.

It was during this time that Nathaniel noticed how much more exhausted Elissa looked than everyone else at the keep. Is she ill? He started to watch her more closely. He noticed that Anders also would look at her from time to time with a look of concern. When was her last meal? Is she sleeping at all?

"Talk to me." Elissa looked up with a start as Nathaniel spoke. "Tell me what is keeping you from eating and sleeping."

She looked hesitant, but spoke after a moment. "I've had to reconstruct our finances since Mistress Woolsey died and our books got burnt in the attack."

"I could have helped!"

"I know, but I didn't want to worry you. We all have enough on our minds." Elissa sighed, then squared her shoulders. "Nathaniel, we don't have the money to rebuild the keep. I think we're going to have to abandon it. There is some money in the treasury, and I plan to put my personal funds into what we have. But the records of who owed money to the arling also were destroyed, and it's going to be impossible to collect those monies. I think we need to distribute what we do have to Amaranthine's guard and the merchant quarter, as well as the farmholders, to try to overcome the existing damage to the rest of the arling. I'm sorry. I think we're going to have to depend on the city guard to try to patrol the area and the bandits will move in soon, if they haven't already."

Nathaniel sat, stunned. "It's that bad?"

Elissa nodded. "There just isn't enough to go around. I've been trying to think of another way to try to maintain order, but … we had started to build up reserves in the treasury before this, but with nobody left to recruit and nowhere for them to live, the granary destroyed … we don't have enough money to hire mercenaries until we can find recruits. We need to save what we can, rebuild the city, and try to reinforce that. Cut our losses as best we can. And trade is going to be really important, if bandits and pirates don't halt it entirely. I've written my brother and the King to see if they can help, but with the entire country still trying to rebuild from the blight and trouble left over from the civil war..."

Nathaniel breathed, "You don't think there will be anyone to help us."

Elissa nodded, and put her head in her hands. "I couldn't just leave Amaranthine, burn it to the ground! But now the entire arling is in danger. It might never recover. I … I failed, Nathaniel."