For three long days, the troop trudged through cramped and dark tunnels, with Anders and Kattrin lighting the way. Finally, the tunnel began to brighten with a warm glow before ending at an enormous open structure. Thirty foot high pillars rose up to stone buttresses angling another twenty feet to meet the ceiling above. Each side had a river of molten lava flowing between the wall and the line of pillars, warming and lighting the expanse. They had arrived at the ancient dwarven highway.
Bartrand called for a halt and sent a scout forward. Anders could feel the taint of darkspawn clawing at his consciousness. So focused on the proximity of the darkspawn, it seemed to Anders that the scout had returned in no time.
"There's been a collapse – the way forward is blocked."
Fuming, Bartrand shouted, "What? Is there some way around?"
The scout anxiously replied, "Not that I've been able to find. The side passages are too dangerous."
Bartrand stood fingering his beard and shaking his head. Then he waived a single hand in the air before dropping it to his side. Calm and collected, he pulled back and punched the scout in the face.
"Useless!" he shouted. Looking around, he yelled, "What am I paying you blighters for?"
Anders looked around at the others in the entourage who were shrugging their shoulders in answer.
Bartrand's face became purplish before he bellowed, "Set Camp!"
Anders, Carver, and Kattrin all dodged out of the way as dwarves and humans scurried to obey Bartrand's order. Varric stood in the calm eye of the storm, people milling all around him. Once the tempest had passed, Varric motioned Kattrin to follow as he approached the angry dwarf. Anders and Carver also moved toward Bartrand, but kept a greater distance.
"Problems, Brother?" Varric sounded as if he were repressing laughter.
"Sodding Deep Roads!" Bartrand shouted. "Who knows how long it'll take to clear the path?"
Varric sounded like the voice of reason. "Shall we not try to find a way around, instead? Seems like the logical choice."
"You think I'm an idiot, Varric? The scouts say the side passages are too dangerous!"
Kattrin spoke up. "Don't give up now. We need to do something. Sitting out here in the open is just as dangerous."
"We'll take a look," Varric said, calmly. "If we come running back, screaming, you'll know staying put was the right decision."
Bartrand threw his hands in the air. "Fine, fine! Find a way around. Just do it quickly!"
Kattrin and Varric shared a look before they both shrugged their shoulders. Anders didn't find any of this remotely funny. The scout was right about the side passages. There were darkspawn everywhere in these blasted tunnels.
"This is why I left the Wardens," he growled. "I hate the blighted Deep Roads…"
Suddenly, Bodahn came running up to them, panic written across his face. "Er… I hate to add to your burdens, my friends, but I fear I must. I fear my boy, Sandal, wandered off. He's somewhere in those passages, right now! I beg you, keep an eye out for him. He just… doesn't understand danger like he should."
"How did he go missing?" Kattrin asked gently. "When did you last see him?"
"Not a half hour ago. I turned my back to hand out rations, and he was gone! He gets so easily distracted." Bodahn looked up, tears shimmering in his eyes. "Ah, I should have been harsher with my warnings!"
Kattrin placed a comforting hand on the distressed dwarf's shoulder. "We'll look for him. We need to search the side passages. We'll bring him back, if we can," she assured him.
"Poor Sandal! I can't believe he's done this!" Bodahn walked away, wringing his hands.
"Let's move quickly, then," Varric said grimly.
Kattrin pulled her staff from her back while Varric brought Bianca to hand and Carver pulled his greatsword over his shoulder. Anders followed suit, the presence of darkspawn itching along his skin.
"Be on guard. There's darkspawn everywhere," he said, grimly.
They followed the old dwarven highway to its crumbling edge. Kattrin sighed ruefully, turning away. The others searched the ruins while Anders walked to the precipice. He estimated there was about one hundred feet of empty space between the edge and where the highway resumed across the chasm. Lava flowed sluggishly beneath them, as far below them as the ceiling was high above them. Anders marveled at the sheer size of dwarven craftsmanship.
Varric's voice cut into his thoughts. "There's an opening here. Looks like the tunnel goes through."
"Let's go," Kattrin said as she took the lead.
Carver started to follow her but Anders cut in front of him. While he knew that her brother could carve a path through the darkspawn for her, Anders wanted to be close to her, to protect her as much as he was able. She would not be contracting the taint while she was down here. Not while he drew breath.
The tunnel curved to the left and then continued to a short flight of stairs. It was clear that the dwarves, and not the darkspawn, had created these tunnels. Darkspawn tunnels were roughhewn, carved out of necessity. These tunnels were still rough but had evidence of symmetry.
Kattrin halted the party after spotting the dim blue light of deep mushroom growing against the stone. The walls here were squared and shored up. Miscellaneous pits of varying depths dotted the tunnel. Anders looked around as she retrieved the herb, wondering at the machines and tools left behind. Had this been a mine? Were they mining lyrium or precious stones and metals? Or had they searching for the same thing that had brought Bartrand down into the depths?
The evidence of people, and not darkspawn, were all around them. The path ahead had crumbled into a pit below and was covered by a small bridge. Upon closer inspection, it was a well-made bridge that spanned the wide gap, sturdy enough to bear the weight of animals pulling carts. How long had this area been abandoned?
He heard the chittering growl of darkspawn at the same time the taint in his blood echoed their presence.
"Darkspawn!" he shouted.
Carver plowed ahead of them, swinging his great sword out in an arc and nearly cleaving the first darkspawn in two. Varric was firing arrows into the darkspawn horde, keeping them from overwhelming Carver. Kattrin threw a fireball at a Hurlock with a boltgun before he could fire it at Varric. Anders threw ice at the darkspawn surrounding Carver and soon they were glittering red chunks scattering across the dirt path.
They followed the tunnel as it twisted and turned, continuing to decimate the darkspawn that came at them. Finally, there were no more darkspawn. Anders sensed more in the tunnels ahead, but told the others that the immediate threat had been dealt with. They took a quick break, sharing a flask of water and before continuing.
Varric spotted a chest in an alcove on the left. Pulling out his lockpicks, he hummed a tune under his breath while he worked. After relieving the chest of its gold, they continued on.
The dusty tunnels gave away to stone made architecture, with a stone door on the left. The chittering sound echoed off the stone just before the darkspawn assaulted them. This battle went as quickly as the last. Anders felt his anxiety grow. It felt as if the darkspawn were testing them. The small numbers were easily defeated, lulling them into a false sense of security.
The door opened to more stone-worked tunnels. The ceiling was low in this area, causing Anders and Carver to haunch over as they walked. Kattrin continued without ducking, but she would have hit her head if she were to rise up on her toes.
The low tunnel opened into a cavernous room, pulsing with a faint blue light. Awestruck, the four companions stopped to stare at the raw beauty. Before them, a lyrium vein clawed its way through the rock, exposed in this room and giving off its magical light. Anders could feel the lyrium pull at Justice within him. The spirit longed to have another connection with the lyrium even though raw lyrium was poison to Anders.
There were two doors to choose from before the tunnel continued on. Varric tried the one on the left while Kattrin tried the one on the right. Varric's door opened to a collapsed tunnel. Kattrin opened her door to a large pit. Anders watched her give the dwarf a lightly teasing smile before going through.
There were stairs leading down into the carved bowl. Anders could see something glint on the other side of the cavern and stairs leading back up from the center of the pit to a blank wall on the left. Probably a hidden door, Anders thought.
"I don't like this," Kattrin said softly.
"Me, either," Varric replied.
Slowly, the four of them made their way down the stairs and into the large, open area. To Anders, it felt like an arena. As he looked around, he noticed the item he had spotted from across the cavern turned out to be a chest. There were two more chests, lined up against the back wall of the pit, shining invitingly.
Varric held Bianca in one hand and briefly patted his lockpicks with the other. Anders could tell that he was itching to open the chests but knew that this was probably a trap.
Kattrin held her ground in the middle of the pit, every one of her nerve endings firing with impending danger. All four of them were all feeling it. Without speaking, they formed a circle in the center of the arena, with Anders on her left and Carver on her right, all of them facing outward in preparation of an attack.
The minutes dragged on and they continued to wait. Finally, Kattrin shook her head. She knew danger was still lurking but they would attract darkspawn by just standing here. Darkspawn in addition to whatever was lurking in the shadows could be their death.
She gritted her teeth. Spinning slowly, she looked at everyone in turn, Varric, Carver, and Anders, before tipping her head in the direction of the staircase leading to the blank wall. They needed to draw out their foe, and Kattrin would be the bait. Varric and Carver nodded back at her. Anders pursed his mouth before silently moving back toward the lyrium filled cavern. Carver descended the stairs and stood in the pit. Varric stood next to her, Bianca held ready. Once everyone was in position, she examined the wall.
Before she could even locate the catch for the hidden door, she heard Anders shout, "Spiders!"
Kattrin turned to see three giant spiders gliding down from the ceiling. She threw a fireball at the one behind Anders before using her staff on the creature coming up the stairs toward her. She heard Carver yelling along with the ear piercing screams of the spiders.
Varric fired off two bolts, each hitting an eye. The spider moving toward them screeched and fell backward down the stairs. With the one in front of them dealt with, she looked up to see five more giant spiders sliding down on gossamer cords.
She heard Anders shout and throw a lightning bolt at the one closest to him. Unfortunately, this made him a target of the others.
Kattrin ran down the stairs, throwing her own burst of lightning toward the closest spider, pulling its attention off of Anders. She saw Carver run into the fray, his great sword cutting a path before him. The spider continued to lumber toward her, her staff attacks doing little to deter it. Not wanting the spider to get any closer to her, she threw ice at it before arcing her staff over her head to smash into the frozen carapace of the spider.
An ear piercing shriek pierced the air as an enormous body made it way down from the ceiling. This new spider was a monstrosity, taking up more than half the size of the pit. Kattrin felt a shiver run down her spine as the spider turned in her direction and pierced her with all eight of its eyes.
She distantly heard Anders shout "Kattrin!" before the monstrous spider turned its gaze on Anders.
No, she thought. Pulling heavily from the Fade, Kattrin gathered the mana required for her Firestorm. She pulled fire within her, igniting her hands, building power in her chest, before she directed the flow up and out of her. Large fire balls began raining down on the bulbous carapace and the spider shrieked again. Varric fired bolt after bolt into the spider's eyes, legs, abdomen. Carver had managed to hack off two of its legs. Kattrin pulled from the Fade again and launched ice at the spider, followed by another lightning bolt, and a fireball, all in rapid succession. The spider gave a final screech before crashing to the ground.
The sight of the monstrous spider as it lay there, covered in grotesque hair, with only three of its eyes and five of its legs, leaking puss colored fluid was enough for Kattrin to lose everything in her stomach. She heaved at the base of the stairs, trying to keep from looking at the spider taking up the majority of the arena they were standing in. Then the smell of the spider's innards hit her and her body revolted with renewed vigor.
When the dry heaving stopped, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She took a swig of water from her flask while looking around. Her eyes slid past the hulking corpse of the spider with barely a twinge from her guts. Swishing the water around in her mouth, she spied Carver and Varric standing over the three treasure chests at the end of the pit. She spit out the mouthful of water and continued looking around. There was no sign of Anders.
She quickly made her way around the spider to the other end of the bowl. Anders lying on the stairs, unmoving. She ran the rest of the way, taking care not to trip over miscellaneous spider parts. Kneeling on the rough stone stairs before Anders, she pulled a thin thread of mana from the Fade. He'd suffered several broken ribs and a concussion. Not wanting to further drain her own dwindling mana reserves, she beckoned into the Fade. Her call was answered by a spirit of fortitude.
Together, they worked to mend Anders' broken ribs and reduce the swelling in his brain. The spirit left her just as Anders opened his eyes.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
His eyes searched hers. "Thank you," he said quietly.
She used her fingers to comb a stray strand of his hair back. She watched as his face became closed off so she stood before he could rebuke her. Then she extended her hand to him to help him up. For a moment it seemed he wouldn't take it. With a shake of his head, he took her hand and she pulled him upright. She threw him a friendly smile and gave his arm a squeeze before turning to check on Varric and Carver.
Her brother and the dwarf were coming though the now opened secret door. She watched them traverse the stairs and the arena covered with broken spider corpses. Varric looked at her, his brows drawn together.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. That monstrosity was too much for my stomach."
The dwarf nodded. "Yeah, the visual is bad but the smell is worse. Let's get out of here."
The climbed the steps leading back to the room with the exposed lyrium vein. Kattrin could feel the magic sing in her blood. As she stepped into the continuing tunnel, she heard Varric ask Anders if he was okay. The blond mage replied he'd be fine until they got back to camp.
She followed the tunnel as it turned to the left. She caught sight of something light blue just outside the light of her staff. Turning, she spotted another deep mushroom. Everyone stopped to let her pull the mushroom and place it in her pouch before moving on.
The tunnel led to another open room pulsing with blue light. This time, there were at least three lyrium veins vibrating with their magic. The magic within her gave an echoing call, almost too painful for her to bear. Kattrin chanced a look at Anders to find him grimacing. His magic was almost as strong as hers but he had a spirit within him. Surely the spirit felt the call of the lyrium more acutely than even the mages.
There was another door to the left. Carver tried the door this time, but it wouldn't budge. Like the previous door, there was probably a collapsed tunnel behind it.
At the end of the room, there were stone stairs leading down. Kattrin walked partway down the steps only to come to a complete halt. Anders bumped into her before he, too, stopped in awe.
Willing herself to move, she marched to the bottom of the stairs to make room for the others. Before them stood a bloodied Sandal and an ogre, largest of the darkspawn. The ogre was completely encapsulated in ice, resembling a carving out of crystal more than a fearsome darkspawn.
Varric was the first to recover his speech. "Well, I'll be a nug's uncle. Isn't that Bohdan's boy?"
"Hello," Sandal called, the cheer in his voice giving no indication of fear or danger.
Carver belted out a laugh, startling Kattrin. "It is! The great warrior stands victorious!"
Kattrin approached the dwarf, kneeling before him. She pulled a bandage out of her pack and wiped some of the blood off his face. Questions spilled from her. "Are you alright? Are you injured? How did you do this?"
Sandal lifted a hand from his side, offering a round stone the size of his palm. There was a rune carved into its surface. "Boom," was the answer he offered.
"And how did you do that?" Kattrin asked, her awestruck gaze moving once again to the crystallized ogre behind the young dwarf.
"Not enchantment!" he exclaimed.
"Smart boy." Varric said, eyebrows climbing into his hairline.
Sandal then took off past them, back the way the group had come from. Varric shook his head and gestured to the others. "Come on. We still need to find a way past that collapse."
Kattrin eyed the frozen ogre for a moment longer before they continued past it and up a dozen stairs where the tunnel opened up. They had made it back to the dwarven highway. The passage to the right was blocked with rubble piled almost as high as the vaulted ceiling. The left passage lead to room cluttered with broken stones and statues of giant dwarves, with pairs of golems between them.
"What are those?" Kattrin thought aloud, feeling small. The larger than life dwarves towered above them.
"Those are the statues of the paragons," Varric said. "They're the dwarves who show someone how smart they are, usually by inventing something, and are punished by being made living gods, given a noble title, and put in charge of an entire house."
Kattrin paused in front of the statues, watching the dwarf walk past her, followed by Carver. She wondered if it was the Deep Roads or the signs that dwarves had built this underground highway that had made Varric ill-tempered. She looked again at the statue that was larger than life in more ways than one, speculating that ancient dwarves had probably made pilgrimages along these roads. She walked a handful of paces before she stopped again before a rock representation of a person. Anders stepped up beside her.
"Do you know what these are?"
"My father had books with pictures of these. I couldn't read them, but when I asked what they were he told me they were called golems." She looked away from the softly glowing stone to meet his honeyed gaze. He looked away.
"They are constructs created by the dwarves during the First Blight and animated by being infused with lyrium. These will remain dormant without a control rod – the device used to direct them."
Kattrin frowned. "That sounds terrible. Are they conscious?"
Anders crossed his arms. "You know, I'm not sure. I never came across any evidence that they have a consciousness but there is so very little written about them. During the Rebellion, there was an apostate named Wilhelm who had a golem. It sounds like his prized possession in his journals."
They were pulled away from thoughts about golems when Anders whipped his head around. Carver started shouting about darkspawn. The creatures were coming up a set of stairs ahead of them. Kattrin cast a fireball at the advancing group but before she could run into the fray, Anders grabbed her arm.
"Emissary!" he shouted.
Kattrin turned to see more darkspawn advancing from the way they had come. Among them was a tall, bald darkspawn with claws and elf-like ears, wearing a sleeveless robe. She remembered facing this type of darkspawn when her family fled Lothering. This corrupted monster was a kind of mage who could access the Fade and use blood magic.
As she finished that thought, she felt the darkspawn draw from the Fade. She shuddered involuntarily. That such a creature had access to the same power she had was repulsive.
Anders started casting the same time she did. He threw lightning while she cast a barrier over them. The emissary was struck by the bolt of electricity while fire gusted past them, travelling up and around the walls of the barrier.
Both Kattrin and Anders then launched into casting firestorms. The meteors crashing from the ceiling took out the emissary and the five darkspawn with it.
Turning to help Carver and Varric, she noticed the pair had killed the remaining darkspawn they had faced alone.
"Does anyone need healing?" Anders asked.
Carver had a few cuts and bruises but nothing too serious. After Carver was healed, they moved on.
Leaving the open area lined with paragons and golems, they descended more stairs into another wide-open area littered with small stones and other debris from the decaying structure. Lava flowed, hot and bright, to the left. On the right, aged pillars continued to hold up an awning of sorts over a door that wouldn't open. Next to the pillars were yet more stairs, this time leading up and up. In a niche just to the right of the stairs stood a solitary paragon with a chest at her feet. Varric had just succeeded in opening the chest when they were attacked by more darkspawn.
This fight was shorter. Once the creatures were disposed of, the group ascended the stairs.
Kattrin paused at the landing. "Shh," she said. "Did you guys hear that?"
They were all silently looking around while she strained to hear. After a few moments of hearing nothing but the sounds of their own breathing, Varric looked askance of her. Kattrin felt heat rush to her face. "I-I thought I heard something crash."
"You could be hearing parts of the Deep Roads collapsing," Anders supplied grimly.
Kattrin groaned. She did not want to think about the possibility of the aged tunnels finally giving way to the weight of miles of stone and earth above them. Being trapped or crushed were equally distressing.
They continued up the long flight of stairs to a closed door. Hoping the way wasn't blocked, she opened it. The large door swung inward silently. Kattrin peeked her head inside. She didn't see anything but she had an uneasy feeling. She wished that her ability to sense emotions worked on the darkspawn. Mustering her courage, she stepped into the room.
The ogre roared and charged at her. Fear pushed her to the other side of the room and back against another door. The mammoth darkspawn ran past her to crash into the wall to her left. Without turning, it bashed its fists against the stone, causing cracks to form. The ogre repeated its attack again. Understanding dawned as dread twisted in her gut. She couldn't let the ogre open a path for more darkspawn. Quickly, she pulled the surrounding rubble to her, forming armor from the rock. Then she turned and launched a fireball at the horned beast.
She looked over to see Anders casting ice and lightning as Carver struck the ogre with an overhanded swing. Varric was firing Bianca and shouting but Kattrin's pulse was pounding in her ears, shutting out all sound. She pulled heavily from the Fade, causing magic to pulse down her staff and activate the innate ice magic in the weapon. The magically suspended stone didn't impede her as she spun her staff around her, launching ice at the ogre with every flick and swirl. Using the last of the collected mana, she forcefully hit the stone floor with the butt of the staff. Fade energies traveled through the stone from the staff to hit the ogre from the ground up. Kattrin started to move closer to the beast except a click and a large snapping noise left Kattrin immobile. Looking down, she saw that she had inadvertently stepped on a hidden bear trap. The rusted metal jaws sank deeply into the stone surrounding her leg. She forced herself to look but she saw no blood. Maybe she wasn't hurt.
A fireball from Anders and the ogre was down. He started to make his way over to her when Varric pulled him to a stop.
"Everyone stay still and try not to make any loud noises," the dwarf said.
"I don't think I'm hurt," she called to them. Anders met her gaze, worry written on his face.
"What are they trying to do? Ruin my boots?" the dwarf groused as he slowly wove a path through traps that only he could see with Anders and Carver mirroring him step for step. Kattrin struggled to remain calm as she watched him traverse the seemingly invisible obstacle course.
When Varric said they were clear, Anders ran the rest of the way to her, pulling mana from the Fade as he did. He reached her, carefully pulling her into his arms to support her while his magic examined her. Varric and Carver reached them, with Varric instructing how to reset the trap while Carver struggled to pry the jaws apart.
"You're not hurt, thank the Maker," Anders breathed. Carver pulled the jaws far enough apart for Anders to lift her. The room spun as he turned. She was breathless and a little unsteady when he placed her on her feet, safely away from any remaining traps. Carver rolled his eyes at the two of them, huffed loudly, and wandered over to watch Varric work.
Anders stepped toward her again, closing the distance between them. Kattrin felt her heart quicken. He usually was very careful about maintaining personal space.
"Are you alright?"
Kattrin wondered that herself. If she hadn't formed the rock armor…
"I don't know," she answered, her voice shaky and unfamiliar.
"Please be more careful, Kattrin." His whisper was part command and part plea. His dark amber eyes searched hers, worry written in his features. And then he was gone, stepping away from her to check on the progress of disarming the rest of the traps.
She stood against the wall, trying to regain her composure. The bear trap had been enough to rattle her. Adding a distressed Anders on top of it was a little more than she could handle. She watched him as he watched Varric tinker. He really did care for her. Why did he work so hard to remain distant?
Luckily for her, the others spent a little more than an hour disarming the other traps, giving her ample time to find the brave, leader Kattrin from within and push her back to the fore.