Disclaimer: Bioware owns all, except what I most humbly create. While, at times, I will take verbatim from the game, I mostly use the events of the Dragon Age games, expansions and universe as a loose structure around which to construct my re-imagined tale. If you are looking for a strict canon piece, I have no desire to offend, and so I warn you upfront!
When reading this tale, I hope you can easily imagine it being told by the very best of storytellers in Varric (from DA:2). In my version of events, Varric meets "The Hero" (my Elissa Cousland) in Kirkwall during the time period of DA:2. I mention this only so that readers can understand his connection along the way, and so I don't have to mention and rehash it again and again as I make my way through the tale.
A/N: ***Re-posted with minor edits 12/15/11***
Muse Music: Burn by The Anix vs. Apoptygma Berzerk (cover of a Cure song), and Shadows by Red.
Antivan Translation: He is hung like a stallion.
Thanks to my readers, followers and reviewers! As always, you guys make this extra fun! :)
Happy Reading!
-Frayed One
Chapter Nineteen: Through the Looking Glass
Elissa and Velanna led the group wordlessly through the wood in the direction that the chilly Dalish woman had indicated the abandoned mine entrance could be found. As the ruined door became visible through the thinning foliage around them, Elissa began to sense the faint traces she'd learned to recognize as these altered darkspawn. She flicked her hand over to press against Velanna's forearm to silently halt their progress. The elf bristled at the contact, narrowing suspicious eyes in Elissa's direction.
"I assure you, I have no intention of copping a feel – now or in the future." Elissa sighed, wrinkling her brow and pressing out to the edge of her senses for a read on what lay before them. "I simply needed to stop your progress without alerting what is waiting at the bottom of this hill."
"More soldiers?" Velanna sneered, freeing her arm from Elissa's grasp with a quick yank and popping her staff off its anchor.
"Easy, killer…" Elissa smirked, allowing herself a short chuckle when the elf glared even harder. "...it's only darkspawn. Though, I'd say if we were looking for proof that your mine theory is correct, we've got it."
"I'm still not good with numbers, but I can tell you one is minty!" Sigrun chirped, beaming up at Elissa.
"That would be the Emissary, yes." Elissa replied, smiling back and ignoring the confused glance from the cranky blonde beside her. "There are four others, three drones and what I assume is likely to be an ogre."
Elissa waved Oghren ahead of them, sending him to gather the small force together before refocusing his efforts on the ogre. Zevran and Sigrun sprinted off, hot on his heels. Elissa took off after the Emissary, tossing a pleased nod back in Velanna's direction when she petrified it before it could complete the paralysis spell it'd undoubtedly been in the process of casting. The cluster fell quickly due to the Wardens superior numbers alone, leaving the group to carefully inspect the ancient and nearly hazardous looking staircase that descended deep into the earth.
"I say again, this is a trap." Nathaniel grumbled, repeating his earlier warning and accepting the glare that Elissa offered him in return for his efforts. "We should not be going down there. Not like this; blind in all but the knowledge that they are seeking you."
"We are Grey Wardens, Nathaniel. Going down there is what we do." Elissa sighed, starting down the stairs and forcing the others to decide whether to come along and follow her orders or linger behind with Nathaniel. "If you want to stay up here and try to decipher what's going on while I go see to cleaning it up, do it, but I'm not waiting. If it's a trap, I say spring it."
Velanna had no issue with going along, darting down the stairs behind her along with both Zevran and Oghren. Anders hesitated for a moment, both concerned with her safety and balking at the idea of going back down into the spawn infested bowels of the earth again, but eventually he bounded down the stairs as well.
"I'm going." Sigrun said, looking up at Nathaniel with slight concern. "If you're right, she's going to need our help and you can't offer that standing up here and sulking. Wouldn't you rather be there if she needs you instead of standing up here waiting to say you're right?"
Nathaniel sighed, falling in behind her as she disappeared into the shadows of the steadily declining stairs. By the time they caught up with the others, Elissa and Velanna were stepping off the end of the lengthy ramp and onto the dirt floor at the bottom.
Nathaniel saw it then. The odd symbol half buried beneath the dirt and rubble that had accumulated within the chamber with the passage of time. He dashed forward, dragging Sigrun and Anders along in his wake as his desperate need to reach Elissa was written clearly across his normally stoic features.
"Elissa, stop! There's…" Nathaniel managed, before he found himself unable to move anything aside from his eyes. A quick flick to the left and right verified what he'd already known to be true. They were all stuck. Paralyzed by whatever had been carved into the floor.
Nathaniel followed Elissa's gaze, turning his eyes up to a high ledge where an incredibly disturbing looking darkspawn now stood. His robes and the faint sensation of peppermint marked him for the Emissary that he was, but nothing else about him was familiar. Not to him and certainly not to Elissa whose fear and confusion he could feel leeching over into his own mind as the creature started to channel a spell.
"Shh…." The creature whispered, its words pitched low and almost soothing. "Sleep."
Oghren and Sigrun dropped first, followed soon after by Zevran and Velanna. Anders managed to fight it off for a while longer, but eventually gave in and crumpled to the floor in a deep sleep just like the others. Nathaniel watched Elissa losing her own battle, her green eyes flickering closed as her body crumpled down to the dirt. After that, he remembered nothing more.
"I cannot tell you how long I have waited for this moment, my Grey Lady." The Emissary whispered, tracing his long clawed fingers along the now exposed skin of her arm and shoulder. "I am The Architect, and your song has haunted my dreams for many years."
Elissa struggled, but barely managed any movement as her body was still weak and held in the confines of some powerful paralysis spell. She stifled both a gag and a groan when his fingers reached the bare skin of her leg, tracing along the scar that Nathaniel's father had given her so long ago.
"You need not be afraid. I would never harm you." The Architect insisted, drawing his long fingers back when he sensed her discomfort at his exploration of her body. "I have merely treated your wounds and both taken and given what we needed to exchange at this juncture."
Elissa tried to speak, but found that she was unable to manage even a sound. Her tongue felt too heavy and her traitorous lips would not respond to her commands no matter how many times she encouraged them to do so.
"There is so much to… say…" The Architect continued, pausing over the last word as though it had been difficult to settle on. "But now is not the time for us… Rest, rest and evolve. Our time will come…"
When Nathaniel awoke, it was in a prison cell dressed in plain clothes similar to what he'd been given the last time he'd found himself locked in a cage. Oghren and Zevran were already there and awake, nursing small headaches similar to his own. Velanna and Sigrun were returned soon after, unconscious but alive. The darkspawn that carried them in were accompanied by an Emissary that paralyzed the others so they had no ability to speak, much less attempt to mount an escape. Some time later, Anders was also dumped into the cell, but no matter how long they waited – Elissa never came.
"I swear to the Maker if you don't sit down I'm going to put you down!" Anders hissed, The Archer's frantic pacing from one end of the cell to the other finally pushing him over the edge.
"And just how do you plan to do that, mage?" Nathaniel growled, glaring at him and continuing to stomp around. "You're fairly useless without that great hunk of wood so far as I've been able to tell."
"At least you admit that the size of my wood is clearly superior to yours." Anders smirked, doing his best not to cringe when the larger man charged in his direction.
"Boys, Boys!" Sigrun yelped, running in between them and keeping them separate as best she could though they shoved against her. "A little help?" she muttered, bringing Oghren and Zevran over to forcibly separate the two.
"Useless, all of you." Velanna snorted from her seat by the wall, disgusted with the entire mob of them.
That brought everyone's temper to a boil, and before they knew it they were all standing in the middle of the room shouting and shoving and seconds away from a full out brawl. Looking back on it, everyone would have taken the opportunity to throw the first punch, had they not suddenly found themselves paralyzed again.
They heard the soft thud of a body being settled on the floor behind them, and the gate locking soon after, before they were finally released from the spell. Zevran was in motion first, sprinting over to the new arrival faster than Nathaniel would have believed possible had he not witnessed it with his own eyes.
Elissa lay crumpled just inside the cell door, dressed much like the others in the plain clothes of the peasantry. Her hair was loose and seemed darker than normal against her exceptionally pale skin. She hardly did more than twitch lightly when Zevran tugged her into his lap and began inspecting her for injuries.
Nathaniel crouched down beside her and Anders hovered over his shoulder, their earlier argument forgotten in the presence of the fragile looking woman draped across The Assassin's legs.
"Is she..?" Anders started, concerned that she was not yet waking, when the others had said everyone prior to and including him had not taken very long to recover once they had been returned to the room.
"She is simply exhausted, so far as I can tell." Zevran answered, finding the pink new skin of a recent scar at the fold of her arm. "But this scarring tells me she has been bled for some reason…"
"Bled? These things bled her?" Nathaniel hissed, reaching over to inspect the scar for himself.
"Aye, same as the rest of us." Oghren snorted, raising his arm up to show his own scar and watching as all of the others found and exposed marks of their own.
"What would darkspawn want with our blood?" Anders asked, horrified at the possibility of something else out there being able to track him the way that the Chantry already could.
"Ugh… oh… Maker that smarts! Can't you all ever shut up?" Elissa muttered, silencing any further discussion as she started to stir in The Assassin's arms.
She rubbed at her temples, trying to push away the headache as her eyes flickered open. Through the slow fluttering of her eyelids, Zevran watched a quick smoky shadow pass across her eyes. It was only there for the briefest of moments; so fast, so subtle he would almost have believed himself to have imagined it had he not caught the look on both Nathaniel and Anders' faces saying they'd seen it too.
Though it took her some time, Elissa eventually sat up, taking the assistance Nathaniel offered her and pulling to a stand – wavering on her feet for only a moment before she began inspecting their cell for anything that could get them out.
"Have you checked the cell for anything useful?" Elissa asked, starting to pace slowly around the room.
"Several times over. They've left nothing and the lock is heavily enchanted regardless." Nathaniel replied, watching her warily from across the room as he could feel her temper churning in his own blood.
"He is right, my Warden. If we are to exit this cell it will be with a key or under someone else's volition." Zevran added, noting the heavy weight of Nathaniel's eyes on her as she came to a stop in the middle of the room, stumbling in the long narrow skirt of her foreign clothing.
"Bloody hell! Is it too much to ask to be given pants when I'm thrown unconscious into a prison cell!" Elissa ranted, dipping down to pick up a long jagged piece of stone from the floor. "I can't even pace properly in this horrible thing!"
"Surely that's no reason to commit harry carry?" Anders quipped, trying to keep his voice light though the look in his eyes showed he was seriously worried as he approached her.
"I'm not going to start cutting on myself, Anders." Elissa snorted, shoving the point of the stone through the cloth of her skirt at around mid thigh and pushing it through enough so that she could get her fingers in before tearing away the bottom half of the dress with a sigh. She kicked out each leg, shaking loose the coiled muscles of her thighs. "There, that's better."
She tossed the offending strip of cloth over to the floor and popped off both her sleeve caps, making eye contact with Velanna just long enough to throw the stone over to her so she could repeat the process with her own garment.
"Elissa… surely you could have simply cut a slit in the side of the skirt rather than removing the entire piece." Nathaniel grumbled, watching every male set of eyes in the room follow her long bare legs around the room.
"Pfft." Elissa snorted, rolling her eyes at him. "Bare legs are hardly risqué. My top is fully covered and I'm wearing my small clothes. Besides, Melonna over there was wearing far less than this when we found her and none of you seemed concerned for her virtue." She tossed a sweet smile over at the elf who was passing the stone over to Sigrun to make similar alterations. "No offense, sweety."
"None taken." Velanna sneered, sauntering toward her. "If my legs were mangled up like yours, I'd keep them well under wraps."
Elissa's eyes narrowed on the elf for a moment, realizing that in altering her clothing she'd made it possible for anyone looking to see the horrific scar that Nathaniel's father had given her as a parting gift.
"Maker's breath! What did that and why didn't your healer prevent this scarring?" Anders said, coming closer and attempting to inspect the wound until he realized exactly how far underneath her skirt it disappeared. He cleared his throat and backed away, flushing all the way down beneath his collar.
"That was a gift from the late Rendon Howe . Lovely, isn't it?" Elissa said, eyes flickering over to Nathaniel's as she watched his eyes trace its path. She could see his mind processing the pleasure his father had likely experienced in delivering such a wound to her, and the disgust etched into his face when he finally turned away. "My healer used all of her mana trying to seal off the vessels and save not only my life but the use of the limb. After that I was thrown into Fort Drakon where I'm fairly certain Loghain cared little for our scarring considering the marks both Alistair and I carry over most of our backs."
"Yes, yes. I'm sure you've suffered horribly. Some shem cut you and another imprisoned you and your perfect porcelain skin was damaged as a result." Velanna chattered, folding her arms over her chest in frustration. "While I would love to stand here wasting more time listening to the sob stories of some pretentious little twit who has no idea what it is to really struggle, my sister is still missing. I want to know what you intend to do to get us out of here, seeing as these idiots were capable of nothing more than muttering about where you'd gone from the moment I woke up."
"Why don't you start by going to talk to her?" Elissa suggested, folding her own arms and tilting her head over toward the cell door.
"Was your head damaged during your abduction?" Velanna spat, clearly believing her mad. "We're locked in, and even if we weren't I have no idea where she is."
"Oddly, I'm thinking more clearly right now than I have in quite some time." Elissa said, raising an eyebrow and pressing her lips together as she realized it was actually true and not simply a boast she was making to get under the elf's skin. "Someone with the taint is coming in our direction. The trace is too faint to be a darkspawn, even one of these darkspawn, and, as we've only seen one ghoul thus far, I'd wager it's going to be your sister that walks through that door."
Moments later, as though Elissa had willed her into being, a small, frail elven woman came in from a side door and sidled over to stand in front of their cell.
"Seranni!" Velanna gasped, rushing over to the bars to inspect her sister who was clearly blighted. "Oh creators… what have they done to you?"
"Well that was creepy." Anders whispered, leaning in toward Nathaniel and Zevran who both tossed him a glare in response. "What? It was!"
"They haven't done anything. I'm fine, Velanna." Seranni insisted, constantly looking over her shoulder as though she would be caught and punished for speaking to them. "It's not me he wants…" her taint clouded eyes drifted over to Elissa as she started digging through the pouch on her belt. "I have to get you out before something bad happens. I don't want anyone else to get hurt."
"Release me and I'll take you home." Velanna insisted, watching as her sister pressed a key into the lock and held it there. "The others are capable of finding their own way out. Their usefulness ended when I found you."
"I cannot go with you, Velanna." Seranni replied, shaking her head as she worked at the lock. "And the darkspawn will sense my presence here soon, so you must hurry. Find a way out of the mines and run! Do not come back." The shaken woman popped the lock and shuffled off out of the room just as quickly as she had come.
"Wait!" Velanna cried out, tugging at the door, but it remained still not having released all of its barriers. "I can't just leave you! Seranni, wait!"
"Stop." Elissa said, sinking demanding fingers into her bicep as she began to pull the door ajar. "There are several darkspawn just outside that door. They will need to be dealt with before we can pursue your sister."
"Then let us deal with them." Velanna snipped, reaching for the door again.
"Have you any abilities which do not require a staff to execute?" Elissa asked, yanking her back to a standstill and watching her eyes narrow in response. "That's what I thought. You are no good to me or to her dead. Now stay put and I'll deal with them."
Elissa pulled the cell door open slowly, sensing Nathaniel and Zevran move in behind her.
"You stay too." Elissa said, watching Nathaniel's mouth open in argument. "Trust me. There are only three, and the first will be easily subdued. I will draw the other two in at which point you are all free to offer any assistance you can."
Nathaniel didn't like the plan, but he could feel nothing but calm assurance and the rush of anticipation coursing through Elissa's blood and so he settled himself to accepting it. She walked to the door directly across from their cell and whispered something none of them could quite make out. A few moments later, a Hurlock stepped inside, and she made no move to avoid it as he strode right up to her and leaned in to inspect her face.
"She's going to get killed! She…" Anders started, attempting to shove through the crowd and intervene before Nathaniel's powerful arm stopped him in his tracks.
"They don't want to hurt her, remember?" Nathaniel said, completely freaked out at what he was watching but somehow able to maintain a sense of calm from what he was reading through Elissa.
She reached out her hands to it, like a mother to a child or one lover to another, drawing it close enough so that she could get her hands in just the right spots. A moment later, its body was crumpling to the floor with a snapped neck.
"Incoming!" Elissa yelled, grabbing the longsword off the corpse at her feet and tossing it to Nathaniel who was first out of the cell as she dashed back into the room with another Hurlock and a Genlock hot on her heels.
Nathaniel whistled, drawing the Genlock off in his direction, leaving Elissa to deal with the second Hurlock. He watched as she ran full speed at a solid wall, and held his breath for a moment as the three quick pops of her bare feet echoed through the room. She'd used her forward momentum to run just a bit up the wall and flip herself down behind the completely dumbfounded Hurlock.
When she hit the ground, her leg popped out in a side kick to its spine, slamming the creature forward hard enough against the wall that it dropped its weapon and stood there stunned. She finished it off with a turn of the neck so brutal it nearly spun the creature's head backward. She relieved it of its great axe, and turned toward Nathaniel and the Genlock.
"Back!" Elissa called, and Nathaniel did as she asked without question – darting away from the stout Genlock as she brought the axe down. There was so much force in the blow, she cleaved the thing nearly in two, spattering both their lower bodies with its tainted blood in the process.
When Nathaniel met her eyes again, he didn't know who or what he was seeing there. The things he felt coursing in his blood went beyond adrenaline and a drive for survival. There was bloodlust and exhilaration and power… so much power. She had slaughtered them because she could, and she had relished every moment of it. Nathaniel could feel it too… that dark intoxication seeping into his body and turning his mind to the places he fought so hard to keep silent, especially now that he knew what his father had become.
"Can't say darkspawn weaponry isn't sharp." Elissa chuckled, tossing Nathaniel a wink as she pulled loose the axe with a wet pop and threw it to Oghren before leaning down to collect the Genlock's weaponry.
"Scavenge what armor you can from the bodies. Get those with weapons covered up first since they'll be doing most of the fighting." Elissa insisted, distributing the other longsword to Zevran and the two daggers she'd scavenged to Sigrun. "Sorry mages, no staves on these."
"What about you?" Anders asked, noting that she was still unarmed and had taken none of the armor for her own, instead allowing the other rogues and Oghren to distribute it amongst themselves.
"Did it appear to you as though I needed either weapons or protective gear?" Elissa asked, leaning in so close he could feel her breath on his lips and smiling at him before turning to move the group through the rear door.
The mage shivered before falling in behind her, unsure whether he was turned on or frightened out of his mind as he thought on that.
"I believe that is a dead end, my Warden." Zevran noted, having peeked through it earlier while the others were distributing armor. His brow furrowed when she continued forward in spite of his instructions.
"This is The Architect's lab." Elissa explained, padding slowly up the stairs into the great room.
"The Architect?" Nathaniel asked, attempting to stop her though she shook his hand off of her arm easily. "That's even more reason to run the other way, Elissa. We've heard mutterings of that name for months now, but we know nothing except that he seems fixated on you."
"We'll know a great deal more than that now." Elissa said, moving into the expansive rooms as the others filtered in behind her.
Rows and rows of overfilled bookshelves lined the walls, and behind those were tables covered with vials and blood crusted instruments. Elissa made her way to the tables, seeking out and finding a battered journal full of experimental notes and data she could only partially discern. The rest was in a language she did not know.
"Anything of note?" Zevran asked, watching the quick pace of her eyes as she flipped through the pages.
"This is his journal. A lot of it will have to be translated, but there are two things that keep repeating in what I can read." Elissa said, tossing it over to him for inspection before moving further into the room.
"The Grey Lady and blood is key?" Zevran said aloud, his face twisting in concern as he tossed a frantic gaze in her direction. "My Warden, you know I am not one to push you… but I feel we must linger here no longer… I must insist…"
"Insist all you want, Zev. I'm not leaving until I understand why he's been seeking me and what they did to us." Elissa replied, her pace slowing for a moment as her eyes found the altar she'd been strapped to in her hazy memories. "They had me here… I was naked, I think, or maybe in my small clothes… it's distant… cloudy." she said, reaching her hands out and drawing them over the smooth cool marble. "I remember him talking to me, stroking my arms and my legs… like we were… He said it wasn't our time."
"He? You mean The Architect?" Nathaniel asked, seething when he thought of the creature having the gall to touch Elissa anywhere with its horrific clawed fingers.
"Yes. Who else?" Elissa said, shaking off the memory and refocusing just in time to see Anders starting to pull one of the two levers at the rear of the raised platform they were on. "Wait! Don't touch those!"
She darted forward, looking at them a moment before pulling the opposite one from where he stood, and then the one in front of him – repeating the process once more before standing back beside him. In the distance they could hear several metallic pops and the floor of the large lower room beyond the wall cleared of the poison gas that had only recently filled it.
"How did you know to do that?" Anders asked, eying her cautiously as she led them back they way they'd come and through a newly accessible side door into the lower room.
"I didn't… not exactly." Elissa replied, covering her mouth against the stench of rotting corpses as she pressed into the room. The floor was littered with them, most of them wearing insignias that could easily be recognized as belonging to the Grey Wardens. "I think we've found the Orlesians."
"Maker! What were they doing in here?" Anders muttered, attempting to stifle his need to vomit several times before giving up and running over to the side.
"There are spent traps everywhere." Nathaniel noted, gingerly making his way across the room. "I think this was a gauntlet of some sort."
"I could do without seeing another of those." Zevran snorted, thinking back on their adventure at the mountain temple. "Although, if there is another trial that requires our lovely leader to walk naked through a wall of flame, I may be willing to compromise."
"I daresay this trial would require I walk naked through piles of rotting corpses." Elissa snorted, rolling her eyes at him and pressing toward a glint of something she saw underneath a body in the far back corner. "And surely that wouldn't be appealing even to a man of your expansive tastes, Zev."
"The naked talk is wonderful and all, and I will be sure to ask about the full story of the wall of flame later." Anders said, burping and wiping his mouth. "But, can we maybe get out of the large room of rotting bodies and try to escape this underground prison we're trapped in?"
"Anders is right." Nathaniel said, eliciting a surprised brow raise from the mage who was not used to Nathaniel agreeing with him about anything. "We shouldn't linger any longer than we already have. There is nothing salvageable here."
"Aside from this!" Elissa grunted, standing up as she pulled loose her prize – knocking a chunk of the former owners arm off in the process. It was a beautiful vhenadahl bow, and somehow still in perfect condition. "Saw it from across the room. Give your sword to Anders." She said, pushing it into Nathaniel's appreciative hands. "I know it's not your grandfather's, but it will do 'til we find it."
Elissa moved the group out of the lab finally, winding them back through the prison and out into the long dark hall beyond. She moved slowly, crouched barefoot near the side wall with her eyes closed. Her long fingers trailed out, tapping lightly against the stone, like a spider reaching out to sense the vibrations of prey falling into its web.
"There is a large group ahead. I can sense them, but it's distant, likely in the lower portion of this room." Elissa explained, turning back to them as they entered the large chamber and watching the barely concealed looks of either concern or fear being leveled in her direction. "If you have something to say, say it."
She watched Nathaniel's mouth open as though he intended to, but all that came out was a terse yell of pain when Sigrun stomped hard on his foot.
"These children you drag about are concerned because your behavior indicates you may now be more beast than beauty." Velanna muttered, shrugging at the others in response to their glares. "What? She's been acting like one of those things since she woke up in that cell. You've all seen it, I'm just the only one saying it."
"Perhaps I am a beast." Elissa sneered, leaning forward toward Velanna with a smile. "But I'm a beast you need to get out of here. I'm a beast you need to have any hope of reclaiming that tainted sister of yours. So, unless you'd rather have a go on your own…" she said, raising an eyebrow and waiting – but the elf said nothing. "That's what I thought. Zevran, if you could go fire off a couple rounds from that ballista." She continued, not even looking at the man though he followed her instructions without question. "It should take care of most of them down there. What's left will come running through that door so I suggest those of you now armed prepare yourselves."
When the bolts released, they crashed into the large Avaar statue that Zevran had aimed them at and brought the massive structure crashing down into the large pod of darkspawn. Elissa lingered with Velanna at the back of the group as they dealt easily with the two Hurlocks who had survived the initial attack. After stripping their armor and tossing a salvaged bow over to Velanna in the hopes that she - as most Dalish - had received rudimentary archery training, Elissa moved them down the long winding corridor into the lower portion of the room.
Everyone, including Elissa, had acquired some bits of armor and weapons enough to provide them at least some protection once they reached the bottom floor. Elissa had taken a sword and shield from the Alpha that had been crushed there, and pressed forward at the head of the group toward a large set of metal doors at the back of the room.
"Four or five drones inside and an Emissary." Elissa noted, barely even having to try to read them anymore and left wondering if they'd simply stopped shielding themselves or if she'd developed some new connection to their specific taint. "You know the routine."
She kicked the doors open after that, drawing the shield up fast enough to divert both swords swung in her direction before pressing in toward the quickly casting Emissary. She brought the shield down in a savage arc, dropping the creature to its knees with the stun and decapitating it with her sword before turning to help finish off the remaining drones.
"Alistair will be jealous." Zevran smirked, falling in beside her as she led them down another lengthy stretch of empty tunnel.
"Alistair has seen me wield a shield many times before." Elissa chuckled, tossing him a wink.
"Ah, The King likes to play Naughty Templars, does he?" Zevran asked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively and setting almost everyone into laughter, though Velanna and Nathaniel remained silent.
"Sparring, Zev. I meant sparring." Elissa said, shaking her head at him. "Naughty Templar… honestly. Can you imagine Alistair playing naughty anything? He'd blush himself unconscious!"
"He wasn't blushing himself unconscious when I found him trying to make a sandwich out of you with Nathaniel…" Anders muttered under his breath, drawing a curious look from Zevran and a quick slap to the back of the head from Elissa as they stopped at the opening to another large chamber.
"Velanna." Elissa said, clearing her throat to end the other conversation and waving the elf forward. "Isn't that your stuff?"
"That… that filthy ghoul has my things! All of them!" Velanna hissed, even angrier when she saw Elissa barely even attempting to hide her joy that the woman's things would be coated in ghoul rot and stink for days.
"Aye, an' that one's wearin' my junk!" Oghren grumbled, tugging loose his axe.
"Shall we reclaim your trinkets then?" Elissa smirked, barreling into the room with the assumption that the ghouls would be no more than the mindless lumbering zombies they had become accustomed.
A few seconds later she was hunkered down under her newly acquired shield, bracing herself against the brutal swings of Oghren's double. A glance toward the others showed they were having an equally difficult time dodging the blasts of stone and lightning that Velanna's double tossed out in a seemingly endless stream.
"Get her down!" Elissa yelled, wincing when a particularly hard swing rattled the shield so hard it vibrated up her arm and into her teeth.
"We are trying!" Nathaniel snipped, popping off another couple of shots from the new bow and finally landing one that forced the lumbering creature to drop Velanna's staff.
"Hey, shem! Don't shred my clothing with that blade!" Velanna snipped as Anders ran his sword through the tainted creature to finish it off.
"I can't shred what's not there…" Anders muttered, drawing the blade back out and leaving Velanna to verify that he had indeed missed all of the limited fabric that made up her robes with his steel.
The group converged on Oghren's double much to Elissa's relief. She'd been unprepared for the strength of its swings and forced to spend much of her time huddled in the dirt beneath the shield just blocking herself from the wickedly sharp axe head.
"Blasted creep nicked meh blade!" Oghren swore, kicking his own armor before thinking it through and then hopping around for a moment when the metal hurt his foot through the soft leather of the borrowed boots he'd been wearing.
"We'll have Wade repair it when we're back at The Keep, else I shall supply you with another weapon of your choosing." Elissa assured him, anxious to keep their pace. "Strip your things off the ghouls and get dressed. The longer we stay here, the further away they are slipping from us."
Elissa paced back and forth, completely ignoring the others as she reached to the boundaries of her senses looking for the unique signature of The Architect. It was there, but just barely, and growing more distant with every passing second. When she finally turned back, Oghren was stark naked and pulling on his last bits of armor.
"Maker… don't you think you should have removed your things from the ghoul before undressing?" Elissa sighed, shaking her head and moving away only to notice most everyone else watching the completely bare back of Velanna as she dressed. "Ugh… honestly. I'm going to scout ahead. You lot feel free to waste time on ogling."
Elissa turned on heel and headed into the next large chamber, following the trace of something itching in her sternum. Something that was neither darkspawn nor ghoul.
"You shouldn't be scouting alone." Nathaniel said, the familiar rasp of his voice irritating her more than usual at the moment.
"You shouldn't be watching elves of questionable virtue while they're dressing." Elissa snorted, heading down one of the side passages a little further as the others began filtering into the room behind them. "It would appear neither of us is perfect."
"There were two directions to face in that room, and I had no desire to watch Oghren strapping his stink back on." Nathaniel's voice was laced with irritation, but the thrill that Elissa appeared upset that he would allow himself to enjoy the physical virtues of another woman poorly hidden beneath it. "Would you rather I have sat in the middle of the floor with my eyes closed?" he looked around then, starting to feel an odd sensation of his own and looking to Elissa for verification. "Is that a Warden?"
"Certainly feels like it." Elissa answered, the edge of her mouth curving up in approval though she attempted to remain cross with him.
At the end of the tunnel a man lay crumpled in the dirt. His legs were horribly mangled from mid thigh down and he was bleeding dark and fast into the dirt. She increased her pace to his side, watching Anders settle to the ground beside her and do the best he could to staunch the bleeding as he had no staff with which to heal.
"Warden-Commander?" the man said, grimacing as he tried to focus in on her face. "Y-you should not be here, my lady. You must go, and quickly."
"You know me?" Elissa asked, glossing over his warning and inspecting him carefully. His armor marked him as one of the Orlesian forces which would mean that he couldn't. The only Orlesians she'd ever known were dead or hidden away somewhere in a snowy mountain temple.
"We… we have never met." The man answered, shaking his head and gulping in a deep breath. "But we have all heard tale of the flame maiden who took on the Archdemon and lived… Your legend, my lady… it does not do you justice."
"Then you are Orlesian?" Elissa continued, again ignoring his attempts to connect with her in her push to gather any useful information and move on. This man was beyond their capacity to help him, and they were wasting time.
"Yes, C-Commander. My name is Keenan. I was sent to help rebuild the Ferelden Wardens for you. We were at Vigil's Keep less than a month when the darkspawn arrived." The man explained, grimacing enough to draw pity from Velanna who cast a quick spell for his pain. "I am the only one left… the others… they are dead, or… worse."
"Do you know what they are doing here?" Elissa asked, leaning in closer to try and read his eyes - her posture almost menacing as she lingered above him. "The Architect… do you know what these experiments he speaks of entail?"
"No… no I… The Architect is more cunning than any darkspawn we have ever encountered." Keenan explained, flinching a little at what he saw in her eyes but continuing regardless. "He is obsessed with Wardens and seemed singularly focused on you."
"That is nothing I did not already know." Elissa sniffed, dusting herself off and standing. "Your legs are ruined and I have neither the time nor the resources to carry you out of this place. I can leave you here to die of your own volition, or I can make a quick end for you. The choice is yours, but make it quickly. I can tarry here no longer."
Nathaniel tried not to visibly flinch, unsure what the reaction to his interference would be and sensing that whatever was going on with Elissa had her walking on the razor's edge already. The appalled looks that passed subtly through the group made it obvious that everyone had noticed the callous fashion in which she had treated the man once he had given her anything useful he had to offer.
"Y-yes, Commander. I would never ask for you to waste your resources on a dying man. But, I-I have one request of you if I may." Keenan said, turning anxious eyes up to her and waiting for a response before choosing to continue.
"Ask." Elissa replied, folding her arms and inspecting him with cold eyes.
"The darkspawn that did this to me, he… he took my wedding ring. I ask that you reclaim it." Keenan asked, watching anxiously as Elissa stood unmoved by his request. "My wife, Nida, she resides in Amaranthine. Will you take it to her? Will you tell her I died trying to make this world better for her?"
"I will do what I can." Elissa answered cryptically, seeming not to notice as the man's face fell when she accepted the dagger from Sigrun's hand and knelt to do what he'd requested.
He nodded, granting his permission and Elissa swiped his throat open in one smooth stroke, dropping him haphazardly back to the dirt and handing the bloody blade back to Sigrun with little more than a passing glance at the dying man before heading back to the central chamber.
"What the fuck was that?" Anders hissed, ignoring the warning looks and whispers from the others as he strode forward to Elissa's side.
"That was ten minutes I should like to have back." Elissa snipped, continuing with her quick pace through the winding passage.
"You'd like to have back? You'd like to…" Anders said, snatching her arm hard and forcing her to face him. "That man was one of us, one of your so called family. He was dying and all he asked for was a little compassion before you removed him from this world. What he got was an interrogation and the impression that he was wasting your time."
"He was wasting my time, as are you." Elissa replied, her tone even but her eyes glittering with a cold fire. "Now, remove your hand from my arm unless you wish to join him."
"Elissa!" Nathaniel said, dashing in between them before Anders could press her temper any further. He could feel his own blood beginning to churn and knew how close to losing it she had already come. "This is Anders you're speaking to! You have no reason to threaten him and he has every right to question your conduct. That man was a Warden and you treated him like dirt. Something is not right with you…"
"We do not have time for this…" Elissa insisted, glaring at Nathaniel through narrowed eyes before turning to leave the room, knowing no one would dare to press her further.
The press forward was lengthy and fraught with countless darkspawn ambushes and an ever increasing number of both dragonlings and drakes. They'd reclaimed each of the party's belongings, lingering in their current room so that Nathaniel and Sigrun could finish changing.
Elissa stood with her back to them, unconcerned as she remained singularly focused on finding The Architect who was slipping further away with every second she wasted. She was so lost in her own mind, she didn't even notice Zevran lounging against her side.
"Is your flower intact?" Zevran muttered, drawing a curious glare from the corner of her eye at his cryptic smirk.
"My flower?" Elissa snorted, it was unlike Zevran to choose a term so... polite. "If you're referring to my maidenhead then no, Alistair claimed that trophy long ago as you are well aware."
"Ah, memories…" Zevran sighed, his eyes far away for a moment before he seemed to refocus. "But no… I was not speaking of your virgin skin, but more of the… how do I say… whole of your femininity?"
"The whole of my…" Elissa sighed, looking cross at another riddle. "Zevran, what exactly are you asking? It's not like you to beat around the bush like this."
"Perhaps beating the bush is a better term…" Zevran mumbled, clearing his throat when she glared at him un-amused. "I'm sorry, mi amour, it is only that I wonder how one can resurface unscathed after having lain with…"
"Having lain with who?" Elissa asked, following his eyes to Nathaniel who was working the buckles on his chest piece. "Nathaniel? I… we…"
"Ah, so… you have not…" Zevran made a gesture with his hands that Elissa swatted quickly down before anyone else saw. "Apologies." He chuckled. "When you left the barracks you both seemed… We assumed… never mind."
The others fell in behind them then, and Elissa fought to keep the heat out of her face as she sensed Nathaniel close behind them, dipping in to whisper into Zevran's ear when her curiosity was more than she could bear.
"Why did you..?" Elissa whispered, raising an eyebrow.
"Curiosity getting the better of you, my Warden?" Zevran snickered, glancing quickly back toward Nathaniel who was preoccupied with getting the two bows he now carried to lay in a satisfactory way against his back. "I asked only out of concern for your well being. Your archer, è appeso come uno stallone."
"Zevran!" Elissa squeaked, unable to stop the quick pulse of sensation down to her pelvis before it leaked off into Nathaniel who drew a sharp breath in behind her. "Really?"
"I was raised in a whore house, my darling." Zevran smiled, winking at her as her blush intensified. "If there is one thing I know above all else, it's the anatomy of sex."
She turned wary eyes over her shoulder only to find Nathaniel watching her; his stormy gray eyes a mix of the desire she'd leeched into him and irritation toward Zevran who he assumed to be the cause of it. She cleared her throat, increasing her strides to distance herself from the group as she worked them out of the last bit of mine tunnel and back into what appeared to be old Avaar ruins.
"Have you taken The Assassin to your bed?" Nathaniel asked, lengthening his strides to press through the group and catch her.
"What would give you that idea?" Elissa snorted, willing her heart rate to slow and her libido to fall silent. Her impulse control was dangerously limited at the moment and his proximity combined with the lingering memory of what Zevran had just hinted was nearly enough to see her pinning him to the nearest wall and stripping his leathers off just to see if the elf had been exaggerating.
"I know what it feels like when you are… stimulated…" Nathaniel replied, whispering the last word in an attempt to keep her temper from spiking out of embarrassment. "I just got a good jolt of it, and, seeing as he was hanging all over you as usual… well, I am not a stupid man."
"No, stupid is not the word I would choose…" Elissa muttered, clearing her throat as she thought of the way his tongue had shaped the word stimulated, and flushing when his face showed he was not amused. "Don't worry, Nathaniel. Zev and I are no more intimate now than we have ever been. It is simply that he sometimes has a way with words…"
She drew in a long shaky breath and laughed softly to herself as she continued down the hall, watching the look of confusion and then suspicious disbelief take over his face though he made no further comment to reference it.
After what seemed like hours roaming the scattered mining tunnels and broken pockets of barbarian ruins, Elissa could finally sense that The Architect was not far beyond the large ominous set of doors that marked the end of the hall within which they now stood. She was anxious to get there, and it was obvious to everyone as she suddenly increased her pace to the point it became difficult even for Nathaniel who was naturally fast to keep up with her.
"You will want to see this, my Warden." Zevran called out from just inside a nearby archway.
Nathaniel had watched him fall back and pick the lock, slipping inside to see if there was anything worth scavenging. Elissa started to argue, but seeing the look on his face snapped her mouth shut and doubled back to slip past him into the room.
"This looks like a person's room…" Anders said, inspecting the carefully arranged furniture, including a spacious bed, several bookshelves and a writing desk. "Does this belong to Velanna's sister?"
"My sister has not been here long enough to accumulate so many objects." Velanna snipped, looking at Anders as though he was an utter moron.
"Then who lives here, because it's obvious that someone does?" Sigrun wondered, kicking at a worn toy horse with the toe of her boot.
"The Architect." Nathaniel replied, eyes both haunted and furious as he looked up from the book he'd been perusing at the desk.
"Do I even want to know how you figured that out?" Anders asked, swallowing as he watched The Archer toss the leather bound volume over into The Assassin's waiting hands.
"There are sketches in here, my Warden." Zevran said, watching Elissa raise an eyebrow at him quizzically. "At least a hundred of them… all of you."
"What?" Elissa snipped, striding over and snatching it from his fingers to flip through it on her own. But he was right. Page after page after page filled with her face, or her body, her daily life…
"Is that you and The King..?" Anders started tilting his head to get the angle right, then flinching when she snapped the journal shut and crammed it into her pack before turning to stomp out of the room.
"There were letters as well. Countless letters he's written to you but never sent." Nathaniel continued, matching her angry strides step for step. "He is obsessed with you, Elissa. If some of those sketches are to be believed, he has been for years. We must leave this place immediately!"
"We are leaving! The exit is through those doors!" Elissa yelled, pointing angrily in the direction of the gleaming metal they'd nearly made it within range of.
"The Architect is through those doors!" Nathaniel yelled back, leaning in to glare at her as her eyes went wide for a second before she managed to rope her emotions back under control. "You haven't been searching for an exit, you've been searching for him."
"It doesn't matter what I've been doing!" Elissa hissed, leaning in to glare at him through menacing narrowed eyes. "The exit and The Architect are one in the same. Both require us to go through those doors."
"She is right, I'm afraid." Zevran mumbled, looking distinctly displeased to have to support Elissa on this occasion. "Regardless of how much you and I might agree on our wish to keep her from coming within reach of that monster once again, the only way forward is through those doors. I have checked all side passages behind us. There is no other path for us to choose."
Elissa turned then, pushing through the doors and charging into the room awash in her fury over Nathaniel's latest need to challenge her and her obsessive desire to find and seek answers from The Architect. There were four balconies in the room, marking the chamber for what it was… an arena. On the far rear balcony stood The Architect along with Seranni and a tainted dwarven women whom Elissa had never seen.
"I must apologize, dear lady." The Architect began, bowing low and reverent as Elissa approached the base of the platform on which he stood.
"I am certain there are any number of things you should apologize for, but I am not interested in taking your confession at the moment." Elissa replied, seeking out his eyes but finding nothing but a sunken depression of his empty sockets pressed into the flesh-like material of his mask. "I have questions only you can answer, and I would see that information provided to me."
"All that I have is yours, Grey Lady… but as I have already told you, now is not our time." The Architect replied, his smile sending a chill up her spine and a fresh course of fury through Nathaniel's blood. He raised his bow to take a shot. "That would be ill advised, Nathaniel Howe."
"You? How do you..?" Nathaniel hissed, eyes narrowed though he lowered the bow.
"I know many things of which you would be surprised, and many you would not." The Architect answered, his twisted smile growing even further across his face. "But, we are running out of time, and you have one final trial to complete."
"Trial? I don't like the sound of that." Anders muttered, arming himself and watching as everyone else did the same.
A few moments later, two adult dragons came into the room through side chambers, loosed upon them by The Architect or his minions. It didn't much matter, they were fearsome creatures even to Elissa and those of her companions who had seen and bested many in the past.
It was a lengthy battle, all of which was overseen by the watchful, eyeless stare of The Architect – though none could say what it was he was looking for. When the last dragon had fallen, head lopped off with a massive swing from Oghren's axe, Elissa turned her eyes around the room to assess the damage.
Anders had been lit on fire, the bottom of his robes still smoldering though he'd doused the flames with ice shortly after being hit with them. It was only because of Velanna's quick thinking that he hadn't been scarred permanently or lost a great deal of flesh in the process.
Sigrun, Oghren and Zevran had all suffered minor cuts and scrapes, managing to avoid any major damage either through pure luck or rogue skills.
Velanna was completely unscathed, the irony of which was lost on no one.
Nathaniel had taken major damage to his left calf, just below the knee when he failed to recover from one of the dragon's advances with his daggers quickly enough to fend it off, and Elissa had suffered similar damage to her shoulder and right hand when she'd intervened in an attempt to pry it off of him before it took the whole leg.
Anders knelt between them with Velanna, working as best they could with minimal mana reserves to knit the flesh and bone back together properly.
Watching through battle weary eyes, Elissa noted that The Architect seemed to have gotten all that he needed from them and was moving his companions out the cave behind the balcony on which they stood.
"Wait… no…" Elissa panted, struggling to her feet before collapsing once again in exhaustion; forced to watch as The Architect collapsed the tunnel behind him so that they could not pursue him.
"No!" Velanna yelled, rushing forward in frustration and then stomping back over to Elissa. "Why would she go with that monster?"
"I assure you, I haven't got the answer to that question." Elissa replied, pressing a hand to her forehead and trying to muster up the energy to move again. "But we'll find them. I can promise you that."
"How?" Velanna hissed, glaring at her. "We don't even know where they're going!"
"They're darkspawn. They'll head for the Deep Roads." Elissa sighed, lying back against the stone and allowing the chill to ease the fever she could feel burning her up from within. "They always do."
"And you… you Wardens. They say you can sense them… track them even below the ground." Velanna said, eyes narrowed upon Elissa as though she was attempting to read her face. "I would join you then. I require this power to track these monsters in the deep. I would have you give it to me."
"Would you then?" Elissa snorted, pulling herself up into a seated position and considering it. Velanna was a bitch and at times a menace… and there was the obvious interest she showed in Nathaniel, one which he did not entirely discourage. However, she was an incredibly powerful mage – and at the moment, Anders was the only one she had. "It is not as easy as that… the process could kill you."
"We should be so lucky…" Sigrun muttered, and Elissa smirked at her before suppressing it so that the elf wouldn't see.
"At the very least, you'll have a bad taste in your mouth for several hours." Anders smirked, turning away from her as he finished. "Though, I doubt that's a process you're entirely unfamiliar with…"
"I am not afraid of death!" Velanna sneered, ignoring the muttering and barely concealed laughter around her. "And you need me. I have seen what your, shemlen mage has to offer. He is a proficient healer to be sure, but his damaging magics are limited at best." She rolled her eyes at Anders complaints, focusing her attention in on Elissa only. "I will pledge myself to your service in exchange for the abilities your order can offer to me. What say you?"
"Very well." Elissa replied, standing up and shaking the Dalish woman's hand. "Let's get out of here. It's a long way to Soldier's Peak."
"Soldier's Peak?" Anders asked, falling into step behind her as she turned them toward the only other door in the room. "Shouldn't we be headed back to The Keep?"
"In light of all that has happened, I find myself needing to consult a resource of mine in person." Elissa replied, clearly annoyed that she was having to justify anything as she was the Commander. "The only way I can do that, is to travel to The Peak - and so, to The Peak we will go." She increased her strides after that, illustrating she was finished with the discussion. "Zev, may I speak with you?"
"Yes, my Warden?" The Assassin asked, darting up to her side and lowering his voice to keep the others from hearing as he already had some idea of what was coming.
"The Architect has collected all of Avernus' potions I had remaining. I need you to scour the forests as we travel and gather any of the components we require to make more." Elissa explained, watching the slight look of worry pass over his eyes. "Speak with Anders to see if he has any, but be discrete. I do not wish to discuss this until it becomes necessary."
"Should we increase our current pace?" Zevran asked, shooting a quick look back over his shoulder and catching Nathaniel's eyes with a subtle tilt of his chin.
"As much as possible." Elissa replied, turning her face forward. "I can feel my blood boiling, Zevran. I don't know how long I can keep it silent. If I..."
"I know what to do, and you have my word that I will do it." Zevran insisted, reaching over to squeeze her hand briefly before dropping his pace to speak with Anders.
Elissa slid the small rust colored vial out of her sleeve, finally uncapping it and tipping a few drops out onto her tongue. The bitter burn tensed her jaw and forced a quick intake of breath from her, but she could feel the effects almost immediately as the chaos in her mind slowed to a dull hum lingering at the edges of her mind. She could only pray that it lasted.