Epilogue: Honor
The hurlock swung his jagged blade in a wide arc, but Garott ducked and rolled under it, feeling it graze his boots as he tumbled somewhat awkwardly due to the unfamiliar weight strapped to his back. The darkspawn growled and turned to meet him, only for Kardol to step in and give the darkspawn what-for. The Legion captain let out a triumphant roar and buried his sword into the monster's torso.
Garott hopped to his feet and left the hurlock to the Legionnaire, slinking up to sink his dagger into the exposed back of a genlock opponent. He dodged the charge of an ogre, then grabbed a particular vial out of his bag and chucked it at the gigantic darkspawn. The vial broke and splattered acid across its back, and the ogre threw its head back and roared. Even as the monster turned to identify its attacker, Garott smirked and ducked out of its sight.
Finally, after a bit more ducking and stabbing, the band of darkspawn was down. Good thing, too... the waraxe on his back was bogging him down something fierce.
"You still in one piece, Warden?" Kardol called with a smirk
"Ain't dead yet," he responded easily, brushing himself off. "Which is more than can be said for the unlucky sods with me."
Kardol and the half dozen Legion of the Dead members with him chuckled, even while they inspected themselves for contamination. Coming up clean, they all gathered behind their captain to await orders.
Garott nodded and led Kardol and his minions around the next corner.
The place looked a lot different, now. The Legion of the Dead had cleared out the stragglers, gotten rid of all the Tainted corpses, burned the gunk off the walls... all that stuff. Bownammar would never be fit to live in, of course, but it no longer looked like something out of a bad fever dream.
Even so, Garott recognized the room when they emerged out of the twisting tunnels. There was the place where the creature had been. There was the ledge Branka had observed them from. And there was the tunnel that Marnan had defended against an angry hoarde long enough for them to escape to the next room.
They'd found her there, on the way back, collapsed on top of a pile of the buggers. She'd killed every last one before expiring herself, and that was just a little bit awesome.
"This it, Warden?"
"Yeah. This is it." Garott dropped his pack and unslung the waraxe from his back. They'd fed her body to the magma at the Anvil, but it seemed like there should be something here. He tested the weight of the axe, unfamiliar with the bulky thing.
There was a stone pillar, back behind where the broodmother had been. It, like much of the other refuse, had been cleared. Good.
He unclipped a special vial from his belt, and carefully uncapped it, making sure not to let any of the caustic substance inside coat his fingers. With expert care, he splashed it on the pillar, just above his head. Then, he stepped back, hefted the axe, brought it above his head, and swung it into the rock with all his might.
With the stone softened by his mixture, the blade of the axe sank into it. Garott held it there until the rock hardened again, creating a memorium that no one would be able to remove without destroying the stone itself. It would be stone-stubborn, just like her.
He reached for his belt and unclipped the chisel he'd brought along, then painstakingly tapped the words into the rock, just below the axe:
"Here went to the Stone Marnan Auducan, Grey Warden, leader, and friend."
With a sigh, Garott stepped back. "There you go, old girl. It ain't elegant, but you wouldn't have wanted that anyway." He smirked up at the axe and gave it a tap. It held, and would hold for a thousand years, if Garott had gotten his formula right (and Garott always got his formula right). "One day, I'll hear the Calling and come back here to meet you. That sound fair, princess?"
Only the silence of the stone answered him, and he lowered his hand with a chuckle. Talking to a rock. What a sentimental sod.
"All right, Warden?" Kardol asked from behind him.
Garott smirked and turned away, slowly walking back to meet the Legion of the Dead. "Never better, Kardol. You ready to move on? Lots of darkspawn to kill."
"That there are, Warden. Lead the way."
He spared one last glance back at the little memorial he'd made and, with a chuckle, went off to do his Warden duty.