"How did you know how to do that?" Nahalanee asked as she watched the stone door open after Oghren dropped his hammer on the last of the spirit anvils.

"I do not know, it just came to me. Like I was here before." Shale said with a small shrug of it's rocky shoulders.

"Does it have to do with that crystal?"

"It is possible."

"T'was a stupid idea sticking an unknown crystal in a creature that could crush you like a bug. What if it had made the golem turn on you.?"

"You know Morrigan I seriously am getting sick of your complaining. Remind me again why I brought you?"

"Because I am the only healer you have." Morrigan replied with a smirk. "Without me you would probably be dead by now."

"Had I known you would be this annoying I would have risked it." Nahalanee said as she walked toward the door. She didn't hate Morrigan, just the opposite in fact she had always thought Morrigan and interesting person and a good friend. Hell she even killed a dragon for the witch but sometimes all she could think of is slapping that smug look off her face. Maybe with a hammer.

She peered through the door into the next hall and scanned the stone walls and floor. Traps lined both sides of the hallway, darts or something she guessed. With a loud frustrated sigh and spun and leaned against the door frame rubbing her forehead with her palm. The darkspawn were closer then she would like, up ahead in their path in fact but so was the Paragon and the only hope she had in order to gain control of the army.

"Are you ok my warden?"

"Fine Zev, do me a favor." She said and nodded her head toward the hallway. "Take care of it." She said and slid down the wall sitting heavily on the ground. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the cool stone as she heard the soft footfalls of the elf going about disarming the traps.

"Shale, can you tell me anymore about whats up ahead?" She asked as she pulled at the front of her tunic, it felt far too warm in these caverns and it made her leathers rather sticky and uncomfortable, as if the grime and muck hadn't been enough already.

"The Anvil."

"Can you be more specific?"

"I cannot, the knowledge in the gem is scrambled and broken. IT wants to know whats ahead, I can only tell IT it is the anvil. It is close though."

"BRASKA!" She heard echo down the hall as the sound of several pieces of metal hit the stone reached her ear. "No worries! All is well, I missed one." Zevran yelled down the hall.

"We had no doubts Assassin." Nahalanee yelled back as she opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling.

"We are all going to die down here." Nahalanee said in a low voice as she watched the light of their torches dance across the stone. "Ur...the arch demon is going to eat us, or the darkspawn will kill us." She paused and watch a shadow shaped as a nug dance across the stone. "Or we are all going to die because our Paragon has lost her mind and wants to turn me into a brood mother to birth a thousand darkspawn."

Morrigan scoffed and shifted from one foot to the other which caused the shadows on the ceiling to shift. Nahalanee watched as the dancing nug was trampled by a bronto which then turned into a hurlok.

"You know I am starting to wonder why we have paragons? We worship our Ancestors, Paragons are living ancestors but what happens when they go crazy? How do you kill that which is suppose to be worshiped? It would be like killing one of your good fade spirits. Humans worship spirits right? Or did I get that wrong?"

Morrigan groaned as she knelt beside the dwarf and placed a hand on her forehead. "I should have seen it earlier." Morrigan muttered as her hand began to glow a vibrant blue.

Nahalanee closed her eyes and winced at the sudden brightness. "A little warning would have been nice, what are you doing?" She now had small blue dots and white streaks dancing behind her eyelids, she swore one of them looked like Gorim that day he was...

"You have a fever, which would explain the nonsense pouring out of your mouth. How long have you been feeling ill?" Morrigan asked cutting into Nahalanee's thoughts.

"Since my Joining, did you know I never dreamt until that day? My first ever dream was of a huge dragon, you know I think I almost wet myself too probably would have if I had been awake. Do all humans dream of monsters, or is that just a lucky Warden thing? I wonder if I could..."

"I mean how long have you felt feverish?"

"Oh, I don't know I lost track of time years ago, you know I can't hear the whispers anymore. Maybe it's because of the fever, maybe I should stay that way. I think it's because the arch demon is no longer under ground. Well at least not in this part of the deep anyway. What do you think Morrigan, you think its the fever or the lack of dragon gods?"

"I think you should quiet down now."

"Hey Morrigan, if I turned into a brood mother would you kill me? You would wouldn't you, you would...'

"Shut up." She snapped at the dwarf.

"You can be such a bitch."

"Indeed."

"Well that is done, and I only tripped one of them!" Zevran said proudly from the doorway. "Shall we press on?"

Morrigan stood and entered the hallway without another word as Zevran helped the warden to her feet.

"I guess that is a yes." Nahalanee chuckled and followed. "What is that smell?" She asked wrinkling her nose, she couldn't tell if the smell was her or the rotting corpses of house Branka that made it to the first set of traps. It didn't matter, somewhere up ahead was the end for good or ill. The sounds of laughter echoed against the stone from somewhere ahead. Branka? But it couldn't be she had not been with them in these stone cursed trials. Nahalanee's eyes narrowed as she followed the broken path, if it was Branka ahead nothing would stop her from ripping the woman's heart from her chest.

It took less then twenty minutes to find their way out into another enormous cavern, and an added five minutes for Nahalanee to prove to herself what she saw standing there on the small cliff above her was more then just fevered imagination. Yes there she was, Branka of House Branka, Paragon of Orzammar standing smug as can be staring down watching as the warden tried to piece her mind together.

"You are kidding me right?" Nahalanee finally said as she glared up at the woman. "You made us go through all that just..." Nahalanee at a loss for words cut herself off.

"You look angry Princess."

"If you knew your way around the traps why make us go through them?" Nahalanee barked.

"I had to make sure you would survive the last stretch. The Anvil is on the other side of that hall."

"I should kill you where you stand!" She yelled, wishing now she was proficient in bows, or better yet had Leliana with her. An arrow between the eyes would be a sufficient start.

"How dare you speak to your Paragon like that!"

"You are NOT my Paragon!"

"Oh right, kinslayer. You were exiled then, so what are you doing here?"

"I am a Warden."

"I see." Nahalanee could see the cogs turning in the vile woman's head as she worked her way through this new information. Finally her mouth twisted in an almost pleasant smile. "Then you of all people should understand. Victory at all costs, the wardens of old burned whole villages to meat their end."

"They were fighting a blight, you destroyed your whole house for your own glory. That is NOT the same!"

"Is it not? You have a golem at your side, you know the strength they possess. Think Princess." Branka said as she hunkered down resting her elbow on her knee. " An army of Golems to fight the darkspawn. The dwarves could take back thousands of years of history, reclaim Thaigs long since forgotten. With these golems you, Warden could defeat this blight before it spreads any further."

"The anvil destroys lives Branka." She hissed, but her voice betrayed her thoughts. A small part of her knew what Branka said was true. "Caridin locked it away for a reason, it as never meant to be reclaimed! You deny the Ancestors with this endeavor!"

Branka huffed and stood waving her hand dismissively. "The ancestors are long dead, rotted and forgotten, but I the only living Paragon will bring glory back to our people, with or without you." She said and turned away.

"BRANKA!" Nahalanee screamed after the woman.

"You know I am right, I hear it in your voice." Branka said and laughed, a vile dark laugh as she disappeared somewhere up on the cliff.

"Lovely warden, now what do you plan on doing? Maybe we shall find the arch demon and anger her as well." Morrigan sighed.

"Shut...the...hell...up." She growled to both those behind her and the people standing behind her, and the noise that began to rise once again in her fever addled brain. Her hands reached back and pulled both daggers from her hips as she began to move forward. "I am so sick and tired of your voices.. All of them." She glanced back only once before she rushed forward toward the darkspawn that began surging out of the hall ahead.

"Did you see..." Oghren mumbled but the roar of an ogre snapped everyone into action before he could finish his sentence and they all ran forward following the screaming dwarf.

IDid you see her eyes? They were burning like the inside of a forge!/I He was going to say. Nahalanee had called it the wardens glow, each of them had seen it many times. But this was different, there was something terrible hidden within the light that now spilled out over her face.