Chapter 35
~Deep Roads~

Morriana

"You can't be serious." Alistair claimed, once again for the fifth time. I looked up from where I was packing (which normally includes me dumping everything I have onto a surface and packing it up one by one to see what I have or don't).

We had returned to the Tavern after meeting with Bhelen and I had recounted what had happened. Everyone was now in their rooms resting. We were leaving for the Deep Roads in two days to find Orzammar's latest living Paragon to vote for Bhelen to be king. That is, if she's even still alive. That should give us enough time to gather supplies and be well rested. And help a couple of people I had heard were having trouble.

"Yes, Alistair. I am." I continued putting my things way. Even though we were leaving in two days, I wanted to make sure I had everything now. From what I had heard of the Deep Roads, you don't exactly want to go down their unprepared. Alistair shook his head, his armor rattling as he did so. He was still pretty cautious about being in Orzammar and kept his armor on and would even sleep in it had I not convinced his not to. Of course, the mention of the dagger I always sleep with helped a little bit too.

"But, Mori, think about this. Darkspawn are everywhere down there." I stopped and straightened, looking at him.

"I know. That's why everyone is coming. Can't be too careful."

"And if we don't find what we're looking for." I shrugged.

"Wing it." This time he let out a small chuckle, but it sounded half-hearted. I just kept picking up my stuff. As I picked up one of his shirts I noticed there was a book under it. I put the shirt down and picked the book up. I was obviously old, the pages bound by leather and I titles was written on the front.

"I got bored while you guys were gone," Alistair explained. "Guess I figured I might be able to read up on Orzammar's history to see if that could help us. Now that I think of it, it does mention the Deep Roads. Perhaps that could help us." I shrugged, not taking my eyes off the book, and sat down on the side of the bed. I opened it to a random page and stared at the words with sad eyes. "What's wrong?" Alistair asked after a moment of silence. I broke out of my trance and shook my head and set the book down.

"Nothing, nothing." I laughed as if to truly show nothing was wrong. But, he wasn't convinced.

"Mori. I know when something's wrong." He moved closer to me. "What is it?" How could I tell him? I loved our relationship. I loved where things were going (except with the whole Blight thing. That just sucks). I opened my mouth to say something; give some sort of excuse and that I was okay. But I couldn't find my voice. "Mori?" He said again. This time, I was talking a mile a minute.

"It's not such a big deal really, a common thing where I'm from. Not that it matters. It's a stupid thing anyway . . ." I think I was saying more stuff but I don't really know what I was saying. That happens sometimes, when I get really nervous. I stopped when Alistair gently grabbed my shoulders.

"Mori, calm down." I tried, I did, but I guess I was just too nervous to control my breathing. He waited for me to calm, but I think he would be waiting a while. I think he figured that to so he went on talking. "You can't read, can you?" Oh Maker! This is it. I shook my head. Tears welded in my eyes as I could only think of what he thought of me now.

"Like I said," I tried to explain, this time more slowly. I think. "It's sort of a common thing among elves in the Alienage. We're not that educated because the city doesn't want to throw money into teaching petty elves who'll do no more than clean houses and sell unwanted items. Maker, you must think I'm an idiot." I covered my face with my hands, ashamed. Stupid Alienage. Stupid city. Stupid nobles. Stupid—

Alistair suddenly moved my hands and I saw a sad smile to his face.

"Just because you don't know how you do something doesn't make you an idiot, Mori. I've seen how smart you are. Probably smarter than me, in most cases." My heart ached at this. "Do you want to learn?" He asked.

"More than anything." I replied without even a thought. Did I even need to think about this? He smiled and grabbed the book he was reading and shoved everything onto our backpacks on the floor with the comment of "we'll get that later." He then sat on the bed next to me and began teaching me to read.

###

And in two days we were all packed up, rested, and ready to go. I had also been doing very well in learning to write. I wasn't really at the point where she could write sentences, but I was doing well nevertheless. We all made our way to the entrance to the Deep Road where five guard stood armed and ready in case of a darkspawn attack when suddenly we heard someone calling for us. A red-haired dwarf stopped in front of us out of breath and reeking of alcohol.

"Hey! Hey, wait." He panted and rested his hand. I looked to Alistair to see what he thought of this. Obviously, and unsurprisingly, he was just as amused as me.

"Hey I remember you. The drunken dwarf from the tavern that told me to, what was it? 'Sod off'." I said, crossing my arms. The dwarf chuckled halfheartedly.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I was a little too drunk. But, listen, I know I didn't make a good first impression, but listen. I know you're the Grey Wardens and I know you're going into the Deep Roads to find Branka. I want to come along." Mori folded her arms.

"And what makes you think I'll need you?" I asked.

"Branka was my sodding wife. I knew he better than anyone. I come with you, I can help you track her down." I thought for a moment.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes I'm damn sure. Branka was determined to find the Anvil of the Void. If we find it, we'll find her."

"Bhelen gave me a map to Caradins Cross. Can you help me from there?"

"I know Branka's tricks to find her way." I nodded and held out my hand.

"Welcome adored. . ."

"Oghren. Name's Oghren."

"Then Welcome, Oghren."

###

Alistair

Morrigan's bright staff led our way as we walked through the tunnel as we left Caradin's Cross. To be honest, I've never been so grateful to have her along. It was dark as hell down here. Oghren was a little mad about it, being a dwarf and was used to the dark, but he didn't say too much. Since he was leading the way with Morrigan I think he was trying to keep his mouth shut after their last conversation which almost resulted in Morrigan kicking him in places had Mori not intervened. Sadly.

But down here made me extremely uncomfortable. It wasn't just the fact that we were surrounded by rock that could crumble down at any minute, but it was the taint. Sure it felt stronger in the city, but as we keep going on it's getting stronger; the voices of the archdemon were getting louder.

I tried my best to ignore it, repeating the Chant of Light in my head, going over past conversations, contemplating what I'd do if we ran into more darkspawn, anything I could do to keep my mind off it. I was able to keep this up for about two hours, I think, until we reached Ortan Thaig, as Oghren identified it. The dark stone caused the thiag to have a grey-blue hue to it, almost making it seem ominous. As we walked on a bit, we all kept a hand on our weapons. Not a minute after we entered the thiag spiders came down from the shadows of the cave ceiling. Nothing hard to kill, but it scared the hell out of all of us. Of course, our hearts didn't stop racing, considering we suddenly heard mumbling nearby. Rounding one of the dwarven made pillars, we saw a man, a dwarf in particular, hunched over a body, talking to himself.

"Maker's breath," I gasped. I looked to Mori who had the same nervous look as me. She glanced at me then looked back at the dwarf. She then proceeded to walk towards him. I tried to stop her, but she ignored me and continued on. As she got closer, the dwarf he finally noticed her, he jumped up and turned around, running and yelling as he did so. he took off to another section of the cave, and didn't look back as Mori shouted "wait!"

Mori ran after him, and I, somewhat cursing her as I did so, followed with the others close behind. He stood at the entrance of the cave and I was able to get a better look at him. His hair was matted with sweat and blood, skin paler than a normal dwarf, armor that had been attempted to be fixed but at this point would do it no good, and his eyes gleamed of madness.

"Go away!" The dwarf shouted at Mori. "There's nothing for you here. It's mine! I've claimed it!"

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Mori spoke in a gentle voice, as one might a child.

"You've come to take my claim! You surfaces are all alike! Thieving scoundrels! Well, I found it first!" Oghren came next to Mori and scoffed.

"He's a bloody scavenger. Good as sodding gone." Morriana's eyebrows furrowed together.

"Begone you! you'll bring the dark ones back, you will! They'll crunch your bones."

"Word has it you can only survive down here by eating the darkspawn dead." Oghren went on to explain. Mori shook her head, appalled.

"But darkspawn blood is poisonous. Men have died from drinking it." Oghren simply shrugged.

"It brings the taint. Turns their brains to sewage, but it hides them from the darkspawn."

"Poor creature." Wynne said from behind me. "such are the lengths to which our survival drives us.

"Hmm, eating the darkspawn? Now there's a way to get rid of bodies after the Blight." I heard Morrigan mutter. I turned towards her, almost as appalled as Mori was with the dwarf.

"That is a horrible, horrible suggestion!" I snapped at her. She answered unfazed.

"Is it? it might solve that "world hunger" thing you're always complaining about. My eyes narrowed at her. I said something about it only twice!I wanted to scream. but I knew it was no use against Morrigan. she wouldn't care either way. I just turned back around, shaking my head.

"It's my claim, not yours! Crunch your bone!" the dwarf shouted before turning and running into the tunnel. I was about to say something, but a noise behind me made me stop and turn to see more spiders behind us. Of course more spiders.

We went on to attack them, thinking that we were pretty lucky there weren't as many now as there was before. The battle was over as quickly as it had begun and our weapons were back in their sheathes.

"Makers breath, these spiders." I huffed. "Lets hope there wont be a lot more." When I turned to look at Mori she was looking into the tunnel the dwarf had run into. I quickly walked over to her, grabbing her arm (as gently as I could with armors gloves). She looked at me confused, though didn't try to pull away.

"Please, don't even attempt to go after him Mori," I told her. "The taint has practically destroyed him. There will be no use in going after him."

"I just want to talk to him." she replied. I thought for a moment.

"He might attack, you understand that?" She nodded. I let her go and we all walked into the cave where we found numerous objects ranging from books, to armor, to gems.

Mori walked over to the dwarf who stood near a fire.

"Go away! This is mine! Only I get to plunder its riches!" the dwarf shouted at her. Mori held her hands up to show no threat.

"I just want to talk to you." she told him. he violently shook his head.

"No! No talking! You leave my territory!" Mori took a cautious step forward and I placed my hand on my sword, just in case.

"Please. I'm not here to steal anything. I promise." the crazy dwarf tilted his head and moved closer to Mori, his eyes softening.

"Pretty lady . . . pretty eyes, pretty hair, smells like the steam of burning water, blue as the deepest rock . . . . So . . . the pretty lady wont take anything from Ruck? won't take Ruck's shiny worms and pretty rocks?" Mori let down her hands and knelt down in front of "Ruck."

"I just want to talk. I won't take anything."

"Oh. Ruck not mind that." Ruck nodded many times before waiting to continue. I sighed in relief, removing my hand from the hilt of my blade. I looked to the others but noticed Oghren looking around at the floor, an odd look to his face. I left Mori asking questions to Ruck and went over to Oghren.

"What is it?" I asked him, staying quite, less Ruck heard us and think we were stealing his "shiny rocks" or whatever.

"The markings on the floor. . . these were from old campfires. This was Branka's campsite, I'm sure of it. But she hasn't been here in a long time. She'd never let anything like stay- he guestured to Ruck "-stay in her camp." I turned back around to where Morriana stood as Rucks voice got a little louder.

"They take things of steel and things of paper. they take the shinnies and the words." Oghren rushed over to where she stood.

"Paper and words? That sounds like someone was taking notes." He looked up at Mori, his eyes showing a bit of light. "I think Branka had camped here." Mori nodded and allowed Ruck to continue.

"they bring to the great nest, the nest they make for the eggs. they put the shinnies inside they do." Mori turned to me.

"We should find this nest. It might give us a clue as to where Branka went." I nodded and she turned back to Ruck.

"Thank you Ruck, you've been very helpful." Ruck smiled, though it was a little to creepy to bring and happiness.

"You're welcome, pretty lady. And the pretty lady will tell mother Ruck is dead." Mori gave a sad sigh but nodded.

"Yes, but I wish you would let me tell her you were alive." Ruck shook his head.

"No. you must tell her Ruck is dead." She nodded and stood, waving goodbye to Ruck and leading us out of his cave.

We went continued through Ortan thaig, being more cautious to the spiders than the darkspawn. As we went, Mori explained to me that she has met a woman back in Orzammar who'd lost her son after he got separated from his group and had asked her to find him, should he still be alive. However Ruck had begged her to tell Frida that he was dead. I suppose I saw her point. Technically, he was dead already and there was no saving him.

Trying to forget Ruck for the moment, I focused on going through the tunnels with a hand to the hilt of my blade, ready to strike at those who threatened us. We passed more dwarven building, once home to those long dead, where the ghosts on those long dead dwarves decided we were intruding (Or something like that, I don't know anymore). They weren't too hard to fight for ghosts. Almost like fighting the undead at Redcliff.

Although, things did get a little more complicated when we crossed one of the bridges to get across a lake to get to another tunnel. More ghosts showed up . . . along with large stone creature I remember reading about called "golems." The came to life as we neared, fighting us alongside the dwarves. I was so thankful we were all there to fight them especially Shale. I knew he was a bit reluctant, considering he too was a golem, but he fought nevertheless. But it also made me think that I would much rather fight darkspawn than these golems. We were lucky to fell them, though I think most of that might have been because of Morrigan and Wynne's magic.

After walking through more series of tunnels we eventually got to an area literally covered with web. This was not good. At all. What so ever. As we walked through the area I could hear the clicking of the spiders on the rocks that brought a chill up my spin and made the hairs on my neck stick up at all at once. And, of course, just when you think things cant get any worse, we came to an area where we found all of the paper and notes Ruck was talking about. Along with all of the spider that had taken off earlier. Along with the "queen" spider.

Great.

The spiders came down around us, surrounding us all. Drawing our weapons quickly, we fought the spiders, and when the smaller ones were dead around us we all attacked the queen. This in turn caused it to get defensive as we attacked it and shoot web at us all then taking back to the ceiling as more spiders fell. This happened repeatedly until Oghren-who was drunk, angry, and impatient-finally stabbed the queen with the great axe, putting an end to it all. Whatever spiders remained either fled or attacked, in which we killed them too. I sighed in relief.

I looked to the others, who all seemed okay. A blessing, I think.

"Take a break." Mori called to them. "And look around. See if there's anything that will lead us to Branka." I watched her as she looked back at the spiders and I could tell she was wondering how they got so big.

"It's the Lyrium, I think. Being exposed to it for so long." I told her. she looked back at me.

"Really?" she sighed. "What do I know of the world and the creatures in it? Clearly not as much as my naïve mind wanted me to think." I chuckled and came closer to her.

"Eamon once told me a story about Maric going down in the Deep Roads some time before he married Rowan. Apparently he, Loghain and Rowan were escaping the Orleasians after they attacked Gwaren and they found a tunnel that lead them here. He told me that that was when they also fought the spiders. He also said that was when he found his sword too."

"Interesting. Perhaps you could retell the story some time?" She suggested with a smile. I smiled right back and was about to say something else but I heared Oghren calling for her. We quickly ran over to where he was, which was by a pile of book, one of which was laid out. Web covered the sides of it and I assumed on the pages too, so Oghren probably brushed it off. The book was battered and a bit torn, but surprisingly intact.

"Listen to this," he said, "We found evidence today that the Avile of the Void was not built in Ortan Thaig. We will go south to the dead trenches. The anvil is somewhere beyond. My soldiers tell me I am mad, that the Dead Trenches are crawling with darkspawn, that we will die before we find the Anvil . . . if we find it. I leave this here in case they're right. If I die in the trenches , perhaps someone can yet walk past my corpse and retrieve the anvil. For if it remains lost, so do we all." Oghren stopped for a moment, as if you catch his breath and to comprehend what he was reading. "If I have not returned and Oghren yet lives tell him . . . no, what I have to say should be for his ears alone. This is my farewell." Oghren let out a small chuckle in disbelief and turned towards me.

"Branks wa sthinking about me! I knew she still cared. Old softy. Looks like the Dead Trenches if our next stop. they say the darkspawn nest there; whole herds of 'em. But if that's where Branka went, that's where I'm going." Began to walk in the direction of the Dead Trenches then stopped and turned back to me. "You coming or what, Warden?" I looked at Mori, who hesitated for a moment then followed, the rest of us trailing behind her.

And as we went on through the tunnels that guided us the Dead Trenches I silently wondered if this was the right choice.

And there's the next Chapter. Been a while. Sorry. And yes I did add in a reference to The Stolen Throne in there. For those who have read it, no I did not add in Katriel because I kind of figured they wouldn't tell Alistair, or Eamon for that matter, about her.