Together Or Not At All

by RogueHunter06

"What in the Maker's name were you supposed to do when you liked a woman?" It's a question Alistair has asked himself far too many times since unexpectedly meeting her in the Wilds. And though he knows he should be focusing on the Blight, he can't seem to help himself around her - from falling deeper into his attraction for her. *OC, Cousland Warden with Morrigan, M for lemons*

39. The Anvil of the Void

A/N: Here's the new chapter, exactly on the biweekly schedule this time! I will also be trying to post a one-shot from Morrigan's POV sometime in the next week, so keep an eye out for that if you're interested. By the end of this chapter, we are finally done with the Deep Roads, meaning we'll be back in Orzammar next chapter and moving on to the Landsmeet from there. I'm not sure how many more chapters there will be, as there's still a lot of ground to cover, but we're slowly getting near the end - thanks to everybody who's been following along so far!

Thanks to everybody who's put this story on their favorites and follows - it means a lot, but I'd love to hear from you too!

Special thanks go to the reviewers of last chapter - CandleintheNight, XZanayu, AnnabelleHawke022812, and the guest reviewer. To Guest: I'm sorry this story is not to your liking, but yes, Alistair is one of the main characters of this story, not the Warden character. It is meant to be told from Alistair's POV (and Ayla's) and I'm sorry if that's not what you were looking for, but I'm sure there's lots of other terrific stories on here that focus mainly on the Warden character for you to read!

150th reviewer gets a one-shot gift fic - so PLEASE REVIEW!

Disclaimer: As always, Bioware owns all their characters and dialogue, I own everything else. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 39: The Anvil of the Void

They had followed Branka through to the next area, and had been made to listen to her insane ranting about how she'd forced the people of her house to try to solve the traps that lay ahead while they'd fought several groups of darkspawn in that first room. It was a vast, cavernous room full of crumbling rocks and spires and corpses, that they had been forced to fill with many more darkspawn bodies as Branka shouted from a ledge above about how her house had been promised to her and so owed her their loyalty.

By the time she'd finally shut up, Ayla had been highly tempted to jump up there and kill the dwarf woman herself. It wouldn't have been all that hard for her to do in her shifted state, and she'd actually gone to turn around and do it at one point before Alistair had grabbed her arm and pulled her back, shaking his head. It was then that she remembered they still needed Branka's support for the sake of the Blight, and she'd tried not to listen anymore, being extremely grateful that Branka had stopped talking shortly thereafter.

It was the part where she'd mentioned being willing to sacrifice the women of her house to become broodmothers in order to supply endless darkspawn to test the traps that had nearly made Ayla jump up there. She could not believe how insanely obsessed with this Anvil that Branka was. How could she even have considered offering anyone she knew to become one of those abominations, let alone Hespith, the woman she'd loved? The woman was truly insane and beyond forgiveness, and she felt bad for Oghren that he'd come all this way for his wife to see her become like this.

He had ranged far on ahead of the others fighting the darkspawn, however, well out of earshot of Branka's ranting before she'd gotten to that part, as if he'd rather avoid hearing whatever it was she was saying. Ayla couldn't blame him for that, nor did she want him to know that part unless he absolutely had to. She suspected she might have been the only one who'd heard it, as none of the others had showed any reaction. She didn't bother to ask or find out if anyone had heard; no one else needed to know just how deep Branka's betrayal ran.

Shortly after Branka stopped talking, the amount of darkspawn streaming out of the narrow tunnel at the other end of the room from where the dwarf woman stood began to slow, until it stopped altogether. Alistair nodded to Aedan and he gestured all the others to continue forward into the tunnel. They passed many more corpses, of both dwarves and darkspawn, as they followed the winding tunnel along to the next area of Caridin's traps.

The next area was an entirely enclosed room of stone, a small hall about half the size of the one they'd sheltered in earlier, that began to fill up with a noxious green gas as soon as they entered. The doors had sealed as soon as the gas started, leaving them with no way out. Ayla nearly passed out from the smell of the gas, which hit her hard, so she sat on the floor by the door with her cloak pressed over her face while the others scrambled to find a way to shut the gas off.

Leliana was the first to find one of the levers that turned the gas off in only one section of the room, in an alcove off to the side, and shouted to the others to hurry and check all the alcoves in the room. As they did so, however, a stone golem came to life and lumbered forward to begin attacking them. Sten and Alistair took the golem on, keeping it distracted, while the others hurried to find the other levers. Within a few minutes, all the gas in the room was gone, but they were left with three more golems to fight in place of it.

It was only with the help of Morrigan and Wynne's weakening and freezing spells, and the strongest blows that all their party members, particularly Sten, could muster, that they were able to defeat the golems. Freezing them allowed repeated strong blows to shatter the stone golems apart, and the weakening spells kept them from crushing the party with their blows entirely. It was lucky that the golems were also incredibly slow.

Ayla had joined in the fight as soon as the air was clear enough for her to breathe again, though she had not been of much use except as a distraction, lacking the necessary strength to bust the golems apart. Still, she'd been grateful to be able to help finally, annoyed that her sense of smell, normally a strength, was almost becoming a weakness down here.

The next room, unfortunately, contained more of the stone golems. It was another stone room where they had to pass through many archways. It had not taken long for Leliana and Zevran, who were leading the group at the moment to check for traps, to see that each archway was armed with a blade trap designed to cut unwary travellers in two. The rogues had no trouble disarming them, but doing so caused two stone golems to awaken for each archway.

They took care of these golems in the same way as they had in the other room, and after four such traps, finally reached the other side. They continued on into the next area, which was just a cavern rather than the stone halls the other rooms had been, discovering a four-faced statue surrounded by anvils in the center of it.

The statue came to life as soon as they approached it, and began rotating, releasing shades all around them. They soon discovered, however, that defeating the shades caused the anvils to glow with energy, and once those anvils were struck, the released energy rebounded at the statue, causing damage. They continued with this pattern several times, some of the party keeping the statue busy, the others defeating the shades until the anvils could be struck, until the statue finally collapsed.

Fortunately, no one in the party had been badly hurt beyond the ability of the two mages to heal, and there was raw lyrium directly in that cavern that allowed them both to keep themselves at full power. Once the statue was defeated, Aedan insisted on pressing on, though they were all growing weary.

"Let's hope this final area is it," Aedan declared as they made their way through the opening at the other side of the cavern across from the statue. "If we can find the Anvil, we should be able to convince Branka to lend us her support, and we can finally go back to Orzammar."

"Are you sure letting her have this Anvil is such a good idea?" Ayla asked him quietly. "You heard how insanely obsessed with it she is."

Aedan sighed and shook his head, exchanging a grim look with Alistair, who shrugged hopelessly. "I know," he murmured to her, glancing back to make sure Oghren couldn't overhear, "but we have no choice. She's the Paragon, and we need her to agree to put Bhelen on the throne. We can only hope that once she sees the Anvil, she recovers some of her reason, or we can convince her to leave it behind."

Ayla wasn't so sure it would be that easy, but she knew that there was really no way around it. "I hope you're right," she replied as they came around a final turn in the tunnel and into a cavern, more immense than any they'd been in so far.

It was vast, the roof almost as high overhead as it was in the city of Orzammar, and flowing magma cascaded down the walls across from them and around them. The place looked as though it had been part of a large hall once, the door through which they entered surrounded by pillars. The ground leading from the entrance appeared to end in a cliff of sorts, and was surrounded on all sides by the flowing magma, which seemed to create a sort of river down below. The main area of the rocky ground they were on was largely circular, but narrowed out to a path into which steps were carved, that led high up to a peak, on top of which Ayla could see an immense anvil, split by glowing blue cracks. Lyrium springs were everywhere in the room, and veins of glowing lyrium ran through the walls around them.

They were flanked on both sides by a line of unmoving stone golems as they entered, and at the end of the lines of stone golems, stood one bigger than any of the others. This one almost appeared to be made of stone overlaid with metal, with huge shoulder plates that rose higher than its head. Just as Ayla was wondering if the freezing trick would work on this golem as it had the others, it spoke, something none of the other golems had ever done.

In a hollow, metallic sounding voice, the golem boomed, startling them all so that they jumped back, "My name is Caridin. Once, longer ago than I care to think, I was a Paragon to the dwarves of Orzammar. If you seek the Anvil, then you must care about my story, or be doomed to relive it."

They all stared at the golem in astonishment, taken aback. "It can speak?" Ayla muttered in disbelief to Alistair. "How?"

He shrugged, looking as startled as she felt. "I have no idea. I don't know how those golems even move in the first place, let alone how one can talk."

Aedan stepped forward, past Oghren who was staring at the golem in open-mouthed disbelief, and asked, "You are truly Caridin? As in the smith Caridin, who made the Anvil of the Void?" He gestured to the glowing anvil on the cliff above, which could only be the anvil Branka had been so desperately looking for.

The golem moved its metal head in a jerky nod in response to Aedan's question. "Though I made many things in my time, I rose to fame and earned my status based on a single item: the Anvil of the Void. It allowed me to forge a man of steel or stone, as flexible and clever as any soldier. As an army, they were invincible. But I told no one the cost."

The cost? Ayla wondered, feeling suddenly sick to her stomach again. She knew, better than most, that no power came without a price, without limitations. What sort of cost was involved with these golems?

"No mere smith, however skilled," Caridin was continuing, "has the power to create life. To make my golems live, I had to take their lives from elsewhere."

Oh no. It was even worse than Ayla had expected; she exchanged a horrified look with Alistair. They had taken people's lives, their souls, to make those golems move? How could they have done such a thing?

"It sounds like a terrible price to pay," Aedan replied grimly, his attention fixed on Caridin as the rest of the group watched in horrified fascination. "Was it worth it?"

"So said my king. I had only intended to use volunteers, but he was not satisfied . . ." The golem that was Caridin shook its head in regret and went on, "and soon a river of blood flowed out of this place. Finally, it was too much. I refused. And so Valtor had me put on the Anvil, next."

"Well, that explains how a Paragon became a golem, I suppose." Aedan tilted his head, looking at Caridin thoughtfully. "What do you want now? Do you want revenge?"

"Not revenge," the golem answered heavily. "The blow of the hammer opened my eyes. My apprentices knew enough to make me as I am, but not enough to fashion a control rod. I retained my mind. We have remained entombed here ever since, and I have sought a way to destroy the Anvil. Alas, I cannot do it myself. No golem can touch it."

Before Aedan or any of them could reply to what was obviously a request to destroy the Anvil, which Ayla did really think would be the best thing, after hearing what it could do, Branka came racing through the door behind them, having finally caught up to them. "No!" She screamed wildly, skidding to a halt a few feet away. "The Anvil is mine! No one will take it from me!"

"You!" Caridin cried as soon as he saw her. He turned his attention back to Aedan, begging, "Please . . . help me destroy the Anvil! Do not let it enslave more souls than it already has!"

Aedan hesitated, clearly torn. "But . . . we need it to bargain with Branka for the king. We need the support of a Paragon . . ."

"Isn't he a Paragon?" Alistair pointed out in a low voice, gesturing to Caridin.

Aedan nodded, his expression clearing as he obviously saw a way out. He turned back to the golem. "Yes, if you agree to support a new king, we can help you."

"Don't listen!" Branka snarled. "He's been trapped here for a thousand years, stewing in his own madness."

"As if you aren't stewing in madness over the Anvil yourself?" Ayla snapped, furious with the dwarven woman. First, she wanted to sacrifice her own people to the darkspawn for this thing, and she still wanted to use it, despite knowing that it required the souls of living people? She was far more insane than anyone else they'd encountered down here, and Ayla was not about to let her have something so dangerous and powerful. She was glad that neither Aedan nor Alistair seemed inclined to side with her.

The dwarven woman completely ignored Ayla's comment, fixed only on Aedan as she said, "Help me claim the Anvil, and you will have an army like you've never seen!"

"Branka, you mad, bleeding nug-tail." Oghren's voice was wavering between anger and despair as he looked at his wife. "Does this thing mean so much to you that you can't even see what you've lost to get it?"

"Look around." Branka gestured to the pillars and the rocks surrounding them. "Is this what our empire should look like? A crumbling tunnel filled with darkspawn spume? The Anvil will let us take back our glory!"

Aedan stepped towards her, shaking his head as he stated firmly, "I will not let you use it. The Anvil enslaves living souls! It must be destroyed."

Most of the party members looked as though they were in agreement with Aedan, but Zevran was frowning as he said, "Living souls suffer all the time. Peasants working the land are trapped, but we do not go about destroying farmland, do we? It just seems a waste to destroy the Anvil, given what it could do."

"The elf is right," Morrigan declared. "This anvil has great potential. It is a marvel, a tool of creation!"

"Morrigan, Zev –" Aedan was shaking his head in disappointment, interrupting Morrigan before she was even finished, but he seemed to be at a loss as to how he should reply.

Ayla could see where they were coming from. She knew both her friends well enough to know they weren't suggesting its use maliciously, but out of a sense of practicality, seeing the power it could provide in the battle that they faced. "I would be inclined to agree with the two of you," she began softly, holding up a hand to forestall any interruption as Alistair and the others turned to look at her in horror or surprise, and the other two began to smile. "But, that would only be if we could guarantee that only those who volunteered would be turned into golems. And I believe that it would not be long before someone would begin to force unwilling people into using it. I chose to become a shifter and take all the consequences that would come with the extra power, but I would not want anyone unwilling to be forced into becoming one. And I can still be myself, most of the time. Golems can never be anything else. Would either of you wished to be forced into becoming a golem, if that Anvil fell into the wrong hands?"

Alistair was smiling by the time she finished, looking at her with such pride she felt embarrassed, while most of the others were nodding in agreement, though Sten looked as impassive as ever. Zevran and Morrigan looked to be seriously considering what she had said.

Zevran finally smiled at her and nodded. "Well, my dear, you make a convincing argument. Perhaps destroying it is a good idea."

Aedan looked over at the witch. "She's right, Morrigan. I would not want to see the Anvil fall into the hands of someone who cared only for power, to have them force people into becoming golems, as Caridin was."

Morrigan sighed, waving her hand at him. "Fine, destroy it if it pleases you. I will not object."

Ayla beamed at Morrigan, who rolled her eyes in response, though Ayla could see the corners of her mouth twitch slightly. Morrigan, she believed, was beginning to realize that power was not the only thing to rely on.

Caridin, meanwhile, had bowed as much as his metal body would allow to Aedan, booming out, "Thank you, stranger. Your compassion shames me."

Ayla turned her attention to Branka, wondering how she would take this decision to destroy the Anvil, and noticed the narrowing of Branka's eyes in anger before she shouted, "Bah! You are not the only master smith here, Caridin! Golems, obey me! Attack!" As she spoke, she held up a slender, white stick above her head.

"A control rod!" Caridin cried out, glancing around as the golems on either side of the entrance begin to stir to life. "But . . . my friends, you must help me! I cannot stop her alone!"

"We will help you," Aedan stated firmly. "We cannot let her use the Anvil as she wishes." Everyone nodded in agreement as they armed themselves. Aedan turned to look at Oghren. "If you can't help us, I'll understand."

Oghren shook his head, pulling his axe off his back. "Can't be helped; she's the one attacking. I'll help with them golems, anyway."

With that, the party leapt into action. Ayla went for Branka, knowing from the previous battles with golems that her own skills would be of little use against the stone golems swarming towards them. Branka was mere flesh and blood; she could deal with that, and spare Oghren the pain of having to strike down his wife. She caught the swing of Branka's axe on one sword, and spun out of the way of her shield as Branka tried to knock her down with it.

The others were trying to deal with the half-dozen golems that had been brought to life by Branka, trying to freeze and shatter them as they had done with the others. Fortunately, they had Caridin to help distract and fight the large number of golems, or it would have been a good deal more difficult, if not impossible. He took down one golem himself almost instantly, causing Branka to snarl with rage.

Branka was a better fighter than Ayla had expected; they traded blows rapidly, and she wasn't succeeding at getting through as often as she would have liked. Not to mention, Branka wore heavy armor, so glancing blows from her swords were ineffective. Ayla had thought that Branka was mainly a smith, and so would be a relatively easy target, but she was being proven wrong, and worse yet, Branka was stronger than she was.

Ayla was still faster, she knew; there was no question of that. It was for that reason alone that Branka had not yet been able to overwhelm her. But all of her speed and skill wasn't much help when there was no open target for her to strike. Finally, in her desperation to get in a straightforward blow that would allow her to pierce armor, she miscalculated, and Branka's shield caught her full in the chest, sending her flying backwards.

Ayla landed on the rocky ground with a thud, coughing, trying to get air back in her lungs; the blow had knocked her breathless. She was also trying to force her uncooperative limbs into allowing her to rise, but it wasn't working. And Branka was stalking towards her, eyes burning with madness and anger. Get up! She snarled at herself, but she could barely breathe, much less force herself to stand.

Branka was only a few feet away when Oghren suddenly stepped in between them, holding his greataxe defensively across his chest. "Don't make me do this, woman."

Branka had halted for a second, but she sneered in reply to his words. "You chose to side against me. You don't see the importance of what I'm doing for our people! Why should I care what you have to say now?"

She started forward, her shield shifting into place and her axe raised for the attack. Oghren didn't look as though he was moving to defend himself, and Ayla finally sucked enough air into her starved lungs to force her limbs to obey. She was scrambling to her feet when an arrow thudded into Branka's back.

She groaned and stumbled forward a couple of steps before turning to look. Leliana was behind her, though several feet away, and sent two more arrows in quick succession at the dwarven woman, her face set in grim lines. They struck home with deadly accuracy, one in her chest before she had time to bring her shield into place, one into her forehead, and Branka fell backwards, lifeless, her axe and shield falling to the ground around her.

Ayla watched as Oghren dropped his own axe, racing to Branka's side and kneeling next to her, his face wracked with grief. She looked away, wanting to give him his privacy, and walked past him with her eyes averted. The battle was nearly done; Sten succeeded in delivering a final crushing blow to a stone golem, shattering it as she approached them, while Caridin wrenched off the head of the only other remaining golem, bashing it to bits with its own head.

Ayla noted with relief that the party seemed relatively uninjured; Morrigan and Wynne were moving among the party, healing some minor cuts and bruises, but other than that, everyone looked well. Ayla's own chest was aching from the blow she'd received, but not badly enough that she felt it worth healing. Alistair's armor looked dented in some places, and he was holding his side where said armor was slightly caved in, meaning he probably had some cracked or broken ribs, but he smiled with relief when she came over to him. Wynne was just moving to heal him as she did so.

"Branka?" Aedan asked as she stopped in front of the others.

She gestured behind her to where she had left Oghren with Branka. "Dead, unfortunately. Leliana's arrows dealt the finishing blow."

"I did not wish to," Leliana said regretfully as she came up next to Ayla, having followed her over to the others, "but she was about to attack Oghren, and I was not sure he would fight back."

"Another life lost because of my invention," Caridin said heavily, having overheard their discussion. "I wish no mention of it had made it into history."

"Yeah, you ain't kidding." Oghren's voice came suddenly from behind Ayla, causing her to turn and look; he'd left Branka's body behind and rejoined them, looking more angry than grieved now. He shook his head. "Stupid woman! Always knew the Anvil would kill her."

Aedan sighed, looking at their dwarven companion with regret. "I was hoping we could get her to see reason, but it seems she wasn't willing to listen."

"But at least it ends here. I thank you for standing with me, stranger." Caridin gave Aedan another formal, odd half-bow. He then gestured to the anvil on the top of the cliff, behind them to the right. "The Anvil waits there for you to shatter it."

"Is there any boon I can grant you for your aid?" Caridin continued, looking around at them all. "A final favour before I am freed from my burden?"

Aedan turned to their dwarven friend. "Oghren? You lost more than any of us because of the Anvil. Is there anything that you would want?"

Oghren looked surprised that Aedan had deferred to him. He stared at Caridin thoughtfully. "Huh. Don't suppose you can bring Branka back? Maybe make her a golem, like you?"

Ayla felt terrible for the dwarf; he had come on this journey hoping to save his wife, only to lose her to her own madness. She couldn't even imagine what that would be like, to lose someone you loved in such a manner. As if thinking the same thing, Alistair came and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close to his side, and she leaned her head against his armored chest.

"I would not do such a thing to her, even if I could," Caridin answered soberly.

"Somehow I didn't think so," Oghren replied sadly. "Then I don't want anything that would remind me of . . . this. Best it's just done." He looked thoughtfully at both Alistair and Aedan. "There . . . is still the matter of the election. I mean . . . we still need a Paragon to get the Assembly's support, right?"

The Wardens both nodded in response, looking hopefully at Caridin, who answered, "For the aid you've given me, I shall put hammer to steel one last time, and give you a crown for the king of your choice."

The golem lumbered over to the set of stairs cut into the rock path that led up to the anvil, and picking up his hammer and some materials, began to work on creating a crown.

"While he's doing that, we should take a bit of time to rest," Aedan suggested, pulling out his pack. "Have something to eat, recover our strength so we can start heading back to Orzammar."

Everyone agreed, and they all sat down where they were and began to pull open their own packs, distributing the bits of bread, cheese and dried meat they had, and drinking from their canteens. Morrigan and Wynne went around finishing their last bits of healing before sitting down to eat as well.

"Thank you," Alistair said to Oghren as they ate. He was sitting only a few feet away from where Ayla sat with Alistair. "For asking Caridin to help with our cause."

"Well," Oghren shrugged, tearing off a strip of dried meat, "you Wardens did come all this way. Seemed like the thing to do. You held up your end of the deal."

"But . . ." Alistair looked confused as he regarded the dwarf. "Branka – I mean . . ."

"Died?" Oghren snorted, trying to look as though he was unaffected, and succeeding for the most part, though Ayla could see a bit of grief shining deep in his eyes. "Yeah, well, that was her own fault, with her mad crusade for that Anvil. You only promised to help me find her. You didn't say anything about not fighting back if she attacked you. No, you did what you promised. And you came all this way for a Paragon's help for the Blight. Didn't seem right to let you all go away empty-handed."

"Well, thank you, again," Alistair replied finally. "We couldn't have done it without you."

"Yes," Ayla agreed softly. "Thank you for stepping in and . . . protecting me. I was in trouble for a moment there."

Alistair looked at her in sudden alarm. "You were? I didn't . . ."

She shook her head at him, silencing him as Oghren shrugged, waving his hand. "Wasn't nothing. She'd already done enough damage. Couldn't let her do anymore. And anyway, I promised your Warden there." He jerked his head at Alistair, before standing up abruptly. "'Scuse me. Got something to take care of." He stalked away, back towards Branka, drinking from his flask as he went.

"Maker." Alistair was shaking his head, watching the dwarf as he walked away. "I can't imagine what he's going through. Are you sure you're all right?" He looked down at Ayla, his eyes bright with concern as he searched her face, touching her cheek gently.

She smiled fondly at him, placing her hand over his. "I'm fine. She knocked the wind out of me, is all. Oghren stepped in before she could do anything else. You know, maybe we should see if he wants to come along. I don't think he has anywhere to go, anymore, and he was a big help."

Alistair nodded thoughtfully, letting go of her and turning back to his food. "Yeah, I'll talk to Aedan about it later. See what he thinks."

It took some time for Caridin to complete the crown; Ayla fell asleep while they were waiting, and it was only when she felt the ground starting to shake from the golem's approach that she jerked awake. She'd been sleeping with her head in Alistair's lap; judging by his startled and sleepy look when she sat up suddenly, he'd fallen asleep sitting up with his head back against the rock behind him. Some of the others looked like they'd been asleep as well, scrambling to their feet as Caridin approached, though Sten was already on his feet and looked as though he'd been standing watch.

Aedan came forward to meet Caridin, gingerly taking the large, elaborate, golden and red crown from the golem's hands. "There, it is done," Caridin said solemnly. "Give it to whom you will. I do not wish to hear their names, nor anything more of them. I have already lived far beyond my time. I have no place here."

Aedan bowed formally to him. "Thank you for your help. I will destroy the Anvil, as agreed."

"That would please me, human," Caridin replied.

Aedan handed the crown to Alistair, who carefully wrapped it in his cloak and stored it in his pack, before heading towards the stairs leading up to the Anvil. Ayla and the others stayed where they were, watching along with Caridin as Aedan walked up to the Anvil. He picked up the hammer Caridin had left behind, and lifting it above his head, swung it down with a mighty blow, cracking the Anvil. Two more swings, and it shattered into several pieces, chunks and shards flying everywhere.

He dropped the hammer where the Anvil had been, and as he came back down the stairs, Caridin walked to the edge of the cliff at the base of the stairs. Ayla had a feeling she knew what the golem was going to do, and she couldn't blame him for it. He wanted an end to his torment, as the werewolves had, but the only end for him was permanent.

Aedan stopped next to Caridin when he reached him, and Ayla could hear the golem say to him, "You have my eternal thanks, stranger. Atrast nal tunsha . . . may you always find your way in the dark."

Before Aedan could reply, the golem flung himself over the edge of the cliff, into the river of flowing lava below. Ayla could hear the faint splash as he hit it. Aedan made his way back over to the group, looking grim and exhausted.

As he reached them, Oghren commented, "Well, that pretty much beat the sod out of how I imagined it. You ready to head back yet and share the news?"

Aedan nodded. "More than ready, and I hope it is a long time before I ever have to be down here again." Alistair gave a soft snort of agreement from next to Ayla as Aedan continued, "Let's get back to the Assembly as soon as possible."

Oghren shrugged carelessly. "Eh. Those deshyrs have been trying to destroy the city for years. Haven't managed yet."

"All the same, I think I'd like to get back to Orzammar as soon as we can," Aedan replied wryly. "Let's get going, everyone," he added, turning to the other party members. "We can at least make it as far as that hall again and rest there before moving on."

Everyone nodded in agreement, Ayla especially. Now that they'd finally accomplished what they'd come down here to do in the first place, she wanted to leave as soon as possible. From the looks on everyone's faces, they were all more than eager to get back to Orzammar.

They all made their way towards the entrance, Aedan and Oghren in the lead, and Ayla trailed behind a little with Alistair. "So, did Wynne say whether or not you're going to live?" she asked him teasingly, poking at the dented armor on his left side.

"Oh, well, she expects so," he replied, grinning at her before winking. "I might need some tender nursing care later, though."

She laughed softly. "Is that so? Well, that might have to wait until we get back to Orzammar, where we can have a little more privacy, and I can tend to you . . . properly."

"Properly, huh?" His voice was a husky rumble that sent shivers down her spine. "I'm going to expect some very proper and thorough care when we get back to that inn, then, my lady." Heat blazed in his eyes as he looked down at her, firing her blood in response.

She smiled, sending him a heated look of promise in return. "Do not worry, good ser, I swear you will be well taken care of."

"Maker," he growled. "We can't get back to Orzammar fast enough." She laughed in response, and he grinned at her before continuing in a more sober tone, "Seriously, though, I am glad that we all got through this okay. I was really afraid, for a while there . . ."

"Me too," she agreed softly, knowing what he meant. She had been afraid they would never make it out of these Deep Roads alive, but seemingly against all odds, they'd managed to succeed, and she was more than grateful for it. "But we managed to all get through it, together."

He nodded. "We did, and that means we'll get that last treaty fulfilled." He took her hand in his as they walked, stating firmly, "I promise you, we will get through this Blight together, too. I swear it."

"I believe you," she replied, squeezing his hand. Looking at the fierce determination shining out of his eyes, she realized that she really did. She couldn't help but believe him, and she was truly beginning to believe that they might have a future together after this Blight was over. She would do everything she could to make sure that came true.