"Shave my back and call me an elf! Branka? By the Stone, I barely recognized you!" Oghren laughed, shaking his head.
"Oghren. It figures you'd eventually find your way here. Hopefully, you can find your way back more easily. And how shall I address you?" The Paragon eyed Zevran and me, "Hired sword of the latest lordling to come looking for me? Or just the only one who didn't mind Oghren's ale-breath?"
"Be respectful, woman! You're talking to a Grey Warden!" I glanced in surprise at our dwarf. He sounded seriously aggravated by her flippant dismissal of us.
"Ah, so an important errand boy, then. I suppose something serious has happened. Is Endrin dead? That seems most likely. He was on the old and wheezy side."
"How do you know we're not just helping Oghren?" I asked, raising my chin.
"Because nobody helps Oghren. At best, Oghren's need to find me happened to coincide with the needs of someone more important."
"Arrrgh! You are impossible! This Grey Warden's come all the way from the surface to ask your help picking Endrin's successor." He was really fired up over how she was treating us.
"I don't care if the Assembly puts a drunken monkey on the throne." She began pacing, "Because our protector, our great invention, the thing that once made our armies the envy of the world, is lost to the very darkspawn it should be fighting. The Anvil of the Void. The means by which the ancients forged their army of golems and held off the first archdemon ever to rise. It's here. So close, I can taste it."
"But, of course, there's a catch." I commented, suppressing a sigh.
"The Anvil lies on the other side of a gauntlet of traps designed by Caridin himself. My people and I have given body and soul to unlocking its secrets. This is what's important. This has lasting meaning. If I succeed, the dwarven people benefit. Kings, politics... all that is transitory. I've given up everything and would sacrifice anything to get the Anvil of the Void."
"Does that include Hespith and the others of your house?" I challenged, watching her as she continued to pace.
"Enough questions!" She stopped and glared at me, "If you wish me to get involved with this imbecilic election, I must first have the Anvil. There is only one way out, Warden. Forward. Through Caridin's maze and out to where the Anvil waits."
"What has this place done to you?! I remember marrying a girl you could talk to for one minute and see her brilliance."
"I am your Paragon." She sneered, walking away from us.
"She's right." Zevran was by the barricade when I turned to talk to him and Oghren, inspecting it, "Unless Ana uses magic to move it, we're only going forward."
"We need a Paragon." I rubbed my temples, "Even if it isn't what we expected."
"Too bad there isn't another one alive." He shook his head, and we started again.
We'd found her, but who knew if we'd actually get her help. The Anvil was lost hundreds of years ago. It might not exist anymore.
My eyes widened, "Oghren. The Anvil was guarded by golems that were created by it, right?"
He frowned, glancing at me as we kept walking, "Yeah. That's what the tales say."
"So... it's possible there are golems that live, and that they guard it still. Right?"
"Yeah..." I could see the cogs working in his mind. He understood what I was getting at.
"Caridin... He made them, right? He angered the king, right? What if... Do we know how golems were made?"
The dwarf stopped in his tracks, Zevran doing the same, "Volunteers. Scores of men and women volunteered to be made in to the golems. But that's a rumor I heard."
"Do you think it's possible that he was forced to become one, as a punishment?"
"Sod it, he could still be alive, if that was the case!"
"Exactly!" I grinned, "We might not need her help, if we can find him. That is, if we're right."
"What are we waiting for?! Let's go find the sodding Anvil!"
My laughter was short-lived when Zevran spotted the first corpse; bodies, the size of dwarves, lined the way. Guided us to where the mad Paragon waited for us. Her men lay dead, and I had a feeling she was to blame.
"I needed people to test Caridin's traps. There is no way to break through, except by trial and error. I sent them in..." Branka's voice reached us before we'd even stepped foot in to the new chamber, "They were all mine, pledged to be my house, and they didn't want to help. They tried to leave me, even my Hespith... But even she couldn't understand that when you reach for greatness, there are sacrifices. As many sacrifices as are needed." A chill went up my spine, and I shuddered.
"Darkspawn ahead." I murmured in warning, "She's pitting us against them to clear the path, I bet."
We cleared a path through them, moving to another room. These caverns were never ending. Good thing I wasn't claustrophobic. Or adverse to dead bodies. We saw even more corpses of dwarves along the way.
I started coughing before the other two joined me in the next room. It took me a second to recognize the haze.
"Poisonous gas!" I called out, whirling around and putting up a hand to stop them, "Don't come in!"
"Ana! There are valves on either side of the room!" Of course Zevran had already assessed the layout and thought of something, "They might control the output of the gas!"
I started to the left, but one of the four golems in the center came to life. It pounded the floor, shaking it, and I stumbled.
"Oh my god, they're all alive!" No sooner had the words left my lips, than the other three shifted, "Shit!"
If I was dodging their attacks, I wouldn't be able to hold my breath very easily. I didn't have enough time to concentrate and ground myself to draw magic to me, before they swung or threw boulders.
"Turn the valves! If the air clears, we can help!" I could hear the frustration in his voice.
"Arrrgh! You stupid golems! Over here!" Oghren waved his arms.
That grabbed their attention for all of five seconds, but it was enough for me to sprint to the pair of valves on the left side. A giant rock crashed in to the wall behind me, just above my head. I crouched and stared, wide-eyed. One of them charged at me, and I screamed, rolling to the side. I raced to the other side of the room and had barely twisted the fourth and final valve, when something hard rammed in to me.
Almost half an hour later, I woke up to gentle shakes of my shoulder.
"Ow." I groaned, sitting up cautiously, "What happened?"
"Sodding golem knocked in to you. Sent you tumbling."
"The fight was a bit messy, but we made sure none of them came close to you, after that."
I frowned, "Did the air clear first? Or did you just charge in?" I took their expressions as an indication that they did not in fact wait, "I'm not dead, yet."
Zev gave me a half smile, still concerned.
"We have to keep going." I struggled to my feet with both of them helping me, "I'm fine. Let me just..." I planted my feet, feeling the magic pool in the palms of my hands and blanketed it over the three of us, "There. I should have done that to begin with, but I wasn't thinking about it. We should be protected from just about anything, now."
"The traps are obvious." The assassin observed, "We simply have to disarm them."
We proceeded with caution, not wanting to trigger anything that would activate the golems that lined the sides of the room. Thankfully, we were able to avoid fighting them.
"What is that?" I blinked, trying to figure out what we were seeing.
A large statue... thing... hung from the ceiling, hovering above the ground by two feet. A face on every side, their eyes glowing with purple sparks. An anvil rested several feet in front of each of them.
As we sidled closer, the whole thing turned, and we were staring at a different face. Spirits spawned, and the fight began. Three waves later, and I was starting to think we were doing something wrong.
Oghren fell against one of the anvils, and it lit up. Eyes wide, he yelled for us to all touch the sodding thing. As soon as we did, the electricity died in eyes parallel to where we were and a dark liquid poured from the sockets instead. The anvils were the key. Systematically, we put out the sparks, until even the liquid stopped. The door at the end of the passage swung open. I let out a breath in relief.
Six golems, three on each side, stood tall on either side of the path, leading toward another one. The one at the head of the group was bigger, more defined, than the others. Also, it was made out of metal, not rock. A quick searching glance, and I saw the Anvil of the Void. It was on an overhang, suspended over the river of lava below.
I motioned for Zev and Oghren to stay behind me a few feet as I approached the metal golem.
"My name is Caridin. Once, longer ago than I care to think, I was a Paragon to the dwarves of Orzammar."
"Oh, thank the Maker." I breathed.
"If you seek the Anvil, then you must care about my story, or be doomed to relive it."
"Caridin? As in the Caridin? Of Caridin's Cross?" I clasped my hands in front of me, unable to believe my ears.
"Though I made many things in my time, I rose to 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. No mere smith, however skilled, has the power to create life. To make my golems live, I had to take their lives from elsewhere."
"Sounds like blood magic." the elf muttered, "A dangerous road."
"The darkspawn were pressing in. Originally, I only took volunteers, the bravest of souls willing to trade their very lives for the chance to defend their homeland." My heart started to break, "But King Valtor became greedy. He began to force men... casteless and criminals... his political enemies... all of them were to be given to the anvil. It took feeling the hammer's blow myself to realize the height of my crimes."
"Sounds like you earned this." I turned to Zevran, who was disgusted by Caridin's words.
"Aye. Trapped forever in my own creation. A fitting punishment, I suppose. My apprentice 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."
I opened my mouth to respond, but hurried footsteps distracted me. Branka had finally arrived.
"No! The Anvil is mine! No one will take it from me!"
"You! Please... help me destroy the Anvil! Do not let it enslave more souls than it already has!"
I glanced between the two, then made my decision and slowly crossed to Branka.
"I'm sorry, Caridin." The words left a nasty taste in my mouth.
"What? No! We have to destroy the sodding thing! What are you doing?!" Oghren's voice sounded so far away, like it was coming through a, well, tunnel.
I kept my eyes forward, offering a smile to the Paragon in front of me. She grinned in triumph and laughed.
"Hah! Face it, Oghren, you lost! The Anvil is mine, finally!"
Standing beside her, my smile grew in to a savage smirk, and she made a strange noise. Almost as she was being strangled. The mad Paragon turned her head, a stunned expression on her face. As she slumped to the ground, the lava light bounced off the hilt of my dagger, the blade buried deep in her back.
"The Anvil enslaves living souls! It must be destroyed." I growled at her as she took her last breaths.
There was a long silence until the other Paragon spoke, "Thank you, stranger. Your compassion shames me."
My eyes rose to his, and I quirked an eyebrow, knowing I was wearing this woman's blood. A woman I had just brutally murdered. And he was saying my compassion shamed him? Strange word choice, but I would go it.
"Another life lost because of my invention. I wish no mention of it had been made in to history." Caridin said sorrowfully.
"Yeah, you ain't kidding. Stupid woman! Always knew the Anvil would kill her." her widower muttered angrily.
"But at least it ends here. I thank you for standing with me, strangers. The Anvil waits there for you to shatter it."
"It was good to meet you, Paragon Caridin." I bowed my head respectfully, "I intend to ensure that your warnings about the golems are heard by the Circle of Magi." Wynne would want them to know.
"Is there any boon I can grant you for your aid? A final favor before I am freed from my burden?" his tone was hopeful. After all he had suffered, he wanted us to demand something for helping him. Unfortunately, he was right; we needed a token for the election.
I took a deep breath, "I'm sorry, but I need a Paragon's support to settle an election. I hate to ask."
"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."
And off he went, to the Anvil, to forge us a tribute. Several minutes went by as we looked around for anything of interest to take with us back to Orzammar.
"What is this, do you think?" Zevran asked about the large stone tablet as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
"It is the Golem Registry." Caridin had finished the crown and lumbered over to where we waited.
At the bottom of the list were the words "We honor those who have made this sacrifice, let their names be remembered."
"Fart me a lullaby! It's a memorial... of all the dwarves who became golems!" Oghren slapped his leg, "If there was some way of getting this back to the Shaperate in Orzammar, I'd bet they'd brown their trousers! And pay good gold for it. Probably both."
I dug around in my pack, searching eagerly for a piece of parchment and a stick of charcoal, "Does anyone have..." I trailed off as they appeared in my face.
I took them gratefully from the elf, spreading the paper over the names and running the charcoal over it. He took the tracing from me and rolled it up to fit in his bag.
Caridin handed me the newly made crown, "There. It is done. 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."
"I will destroy the Anvil, as agreed."
"That would please me, human." his voice was shaky with suppressed emotion. I wasn't sure if the other two could hear it as clearly as I could, but I knew he was relieved it was finally over for him. He would be free soon.
I walked up the rise with determination, looking over my shoulder to see that I had gone alone. Zevran motioned for me to do it. By myself. Symbolically, I suppose, it would be the Grey Warden destroying the instrument of enslavement. Picking up the hammer Caridin had used moments ago, I used all of my might, strengthened my arms with the magic. Brought the hammer down and shattered the Anvil of the Void. As it lay in pieces, smoking, Caridin approached and took a good look at my handiwork.
Then, he walked to the edge, "You have my eternal thanks, stranger. Atrast nal tunsha... may you always find your way in the dark." And he allowed himself to fall.
"Noooo!" I screamed, racing toward him, but I couldn't get there fast enough.
He was swallowed by the lava as I collapsed to my knees, an inch from going over, myself. I hadn't thought about how he would die. If I'd had to guess, maybe he would just cease to work. But, no. He'd had to actually kill himself, to end it. Tears streamed down my face, and I screamed in to the void. It made sense, why it was called the Anvil of the Void.
"We set camp here for the night. Tomorrow, we'll make the trek back to Orzammar." I raised my voice just loud enough for them to hear, then retreated in to myself.