We'll be going back and forth between the two groups until their arcs are finished and they meet back up again. So right now we'll be following Alistair and Ciara's team that are heading to Redcliffe. Hope you enjoy!
Honnleath
Ciara wasn't used to not having Lawrien's endless energy and joy by her side. It was a little odd, but somewhat peaceful. Now instead of Lawrien, she had Narascha and Torph teasing each other endlessly, while Alistair groaned and complained and hesitantly led them to Redcliffe (with Ciara carefully correcting him whenever he got lost on the path.) At least they kept her preoccupied, she supposed. Sten was boring holes into the back of her head, or Narascha's, and it was getting rather annoying.
They had left Lothering a week ago, and had been slowed down by all the swarms of villagers fleeing the south and going up north. Epona had said it would only take them about three days or so to find a Dalish clan, so at this rate Lawrien and the others would catch up to them in Redcliffe much earlier than Ciara had anticipated.
More problems grew as they travelled the main road too. People began to recognise them from the wanted posters, and more than once did they have to detour and escape people trying to capture their bounties. It had cost them a lot of precious time. They were further down south than Ciara was comfortable with at this point. They should have reached Redcliffe already. It was ridiculous.
It was a scream that startled her out of her thoughts. Down the dirt road a family came rushing up towards them, the father carrying his daughter, while the mother dragged their son along by his wrist.
"Don't go to Honnleath!" the man cried. "We're under attack by darkspawn!"
"They're already in Honnleath?" Ciara choked.
"We have to go help them!" Alistair said, but Ciara held up her hand.
"Wait, Alistair, we can help them, but remember the Arl is also ill," Ciara said. "We might be on a limited amount of time."
"The woman is right." Sten eyed her. "We must stay focused on the mission."
"We can't just leave these people to die!" Alistair bristled.
Narascha ushered the family away. "Villages fall in every Blight," she said. "But if we can do something about it I would like to."
"I guess nobody else is there to help them?" Torph crossed his arms. "Poor fucks."
Alistair grimaced. "But Ciara is also right. If we leave Arl Eamon for too long and he..." Alistair shivered. "I don't know what to do!"
"We don't know the entire situation in Redcliffe, but we do know Honnleath is under attack," Ciara said. "But it is the same in the south. Hundreds are dying right now."
Alistair's frown deepened, but he shook his head. "We're going to help. We're Grey Wardens, we help people."
"Actually I think Grey Wardens are more about stabbing darkspawn," Torph said.
Alistair twitched. "Do we need to have another chat about Grey Wardens, Torph?"
"Maybe talk as we head for battle," Narascha cut in, swiping by both of them. "The whispering is loud, there are a lot of darkspawn in that direction, so be prepared for battle if we're going in."
"This is a waste of time," Sten grumbled, but followed.
"Yes, well, the boss has spoken," Torph huffed, but stayed at the back of their group, axes out.
Alistair flushed. "I'm not the boss!"
"You're leading this group, even if Ciara said she'd pitch in and help," Torph snorted.
Narascha let out a battle cry somewhere in the distance, and as Ciara looked on, perched on at a highpoint, she saw Narascha charge. There were darkspawn stringing up some helpless men and women, some still alive, kicking, squirming and sobbing. Narascha cut the darkspawn down without any mercy, Sten right by her side. Alistair rushed to the people, undid the nooses around their necks and yelled at them to flee. Ciara threw a dagger at the darkspawn that lunged out the shadows for Alistair. Her dagger pierced the back of its head, and it crumbled to the ground with a broken off cry.
"Thanks, Ciara!" Alistair smiled, shoving another civilian back down the path they just came from. "Go, go! Don't stop running! We're here to help!"
A series of explosions went off further into the town where Narascha and Sten were cutting their way into. Screams grew louder as more of Torph's bombs (at least Ciara hoped they were), went off.
Ciara ambushed darkspawn from the shadows, slicing their necks, gutting them from behind, all while Alistair pushed his way through, his sword and shield not once faltering. They sent more people away, yelling at them to run.
It took some time to get to the main square, but oddly enough, Ciara saw no children or elderly bodies on the way there. Her brow furrowed at the thought, and Narascha threw her a surprised look, but she didn't speak on it. No, Narascha charged the alpha hurlock that tried to rush Torph. Torph yelled and scrambled back, climbing on to a house while Narascha blocked the hurlock's blade. Ciara immediately began cutting into the hurlock alpha's back, twisting her daggers into the openings in its armour. The hurlock screamed, kicked out at her, but Ciara danced nimbly out of the way, avoiding the hit. Narascha twisted her axe and spun, cutting its head clean off with a howl.
"Thanks, Nara!" Torph jumped back down, tucking into a roll and climbing back up to his feet. "Motherfucker went right for me. Gave me a heart attack!"
"I can't blame you." Narascha grimaced, even as Ciara searched the area.
The whispers of the darkspawn were muffled, as if they were in another room. Her frown deepened at the thought.
"There are still darkspawn in the area," Ciara said. "Be on guard, all of you."
"One thing I noticed." Torph frowned. "There ain't no children or elderly lying dead."
Alistair paused. "Huh, yeah, you're right." Alistair threw up his hands, cheeks flushed. "I mean that's good! Really good, but where are they?"
Ciara frowned. "Unless they barricade themselves somewhere, but where exactly?"
"By the Ancestors!" Narascha suddenly cried, startling them all.
She stood before a statue in the grassy area at the centre of the square, staring at it with wide eyes, and pale as a ghost. Ciara hurried her way, while Torph choked. Alistair and her threw each other baffled looks at the pairs reactions. Sten simply looked annoyed.
"Narascha?" Alistair tilted his head.
"That's a golem," she said shakily.
"What the fuck is a golem doing here?" Torph approached warily, eyes just as wide as Narascha's.
"And why didn't these people activate it?" Narascha frowned. "If it's here to defend them the golem would have torn right through these darkspawn!"
"Perhaps they don't know how to activate it," Ciara offered.
"Um..."
Torph never sounded that nervous. As one they all turned to Torph, Torph who shifted on his heels before reaching into his backpack and pulled out some kind of rod. Narascha froze.
"Torph?" Narascha voice had taken on some strangled noise.
"Yeah...?" he asked hesitantly.
"Where did you get that?"
"Okay, long story short, Faren did his whole automatic thieving shit, and stole it off a guy and his goat when we were leaving Lothering. I thought it looked familiar, so I stole it off of Faren before we all split up," Torph said. "The kid didn't notice, probably hadn't even noticed he had it, so yeah..."
"I mean, it might not be for the same golem," Narascha said weakly.
"Yeah, maybe not..."
"I don't suppose there was a password you stole too?" she asked quietly.
"No..." Torph shook his head. "Sadly not..."
Alistair grimaced. "I don't think I've ever seen these two so nervous. It's kinda freaking me out."
Ciara smiled. "It is rather strange, isn't it?"
"Oh yes, very strange," Alistair said dryly. "Like how about the strange weather we're having today, and not how our two psycho dwarves are freaking out?"
"Wardens," Sten called, making them all pause. He stood in the doorway of a house, and stared at them as if they were complete and utter fools. "Down here."
"Thank you, Sten." Ciara smiled.
"Do you ever get the feeling he is going to eat us or something?" Alistair whispered to her.
"Whatever do you mean?" Ciara chuckled.
"He always stares at us with that intense gaze in his eyes," Alistair muttered. "It's weird."
"I suppose you do look juicy and tender," Ciara teased.
"Yes, that is just what I wanted to hear," Alistair snorted. "Actually, maybe he'd go after one of the dwarves first?"
"I think Narascha would put up too much of a fuss," Ciara admitted.
"She'd probably punch his face!" Alistair laughed. "And Torph would probably steal his teeth or something."
"Our dwarven friends are lively people." Ciara smiled, following Sten inside what looked more like a brewery than anything else.
It had alcoholic drinks stocked on many shelves. A lot were shattered of course, probably from the darkspawn chasing after the people trying to escape. Alistair followed after her, the dwarves on his heels, muttering quietly to each other.
"I wonder why they chose to hide down here rather than run," Alistair mused.
"Perhaps they have a strong shelter to hide in?" Ciara suggested.
"I swear if we find some lost dwarven empire down here..." Torph snorted.
Narascha chuckled. "That would be surprising."
They descended into what looked more like a study, a mage's study. Alistair frowned, tilting his head. "Do we have an apostate here?"
"No." Ciara shook her head. "There was once a court advisor for King Maric who was a mage, Wilhelm Sulzbacher. He fought with King Maric and Teyrn Loghain against Orlais." Ciara eyed the journals, all about binding demons, and grimaced. "Although this might have had him captured and trialled as an apostate before his death."
"His death?"
"Yes, but I didn't see any records of how he died," Ciara admitted.
"How do you even remember all this crap?" Torph asked.
"When I see something one time I remember it." Ciara shrugged. "I don't know how it works, but my mind retains information very efficiently."
"That must be handy," Torph snorted.
"Until you remember all the traumatic things you've seen and cannot forget," Ciara said, smiling. "Then yes. Very handy."
Torph and Alistair both winced.
They came across the next group of darkspawn, and a mage instantly tried to burn Ciara with a wave of fire.
"Get behind me!" Alistair yelled, shoving his way in front of Ciara. The hurlock's flames hit his shield, and Ciara shivered when a familiar spark of his Templar abilities brushed over her. It made her hunger for lyrium, a craving deep within her, but the darkspawn blood sang gently in her ears, soothing away the desire.
She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.
An explosive sent the hurlock flying, Torph darting beneath a table when another hurlock tried to gut him. Narascha swung her axe, taking off its head and grinned sharply.
"And here I am protecting you again, duster."
"Yeah well we're not all maniacs, Princess."
Ciara deflected a blade from the shadows as a shriek tried to cut Sten down from behind. Sten eyed her, curious, but Ciara ignored him and parried daggers against the shriek's. Alistair came in from behind and stabbed its back, cutting it down.
.::.
It took them almost an hour to fight through all the darkspawn and enter a giant study with a purple glowing wall. Narascha had no idea what the glowing wall was, just that it was to do with magic.
"That is quite the shield." Alistair whistled.
Of course that drew all the darkspawn's attention. Narascha cursed and charged, cutting down the first one, while Torph threw another explosive, throwing a group of darkspawn off their feet.
"Of course, just alert them," Sten sighed, and joined her side.
Alistair laughed sheepishly. "Sorry?"
"Less sorry and more fighting!" Narascha yelled.
"Yes, Princess!" Torph chuckled.
"She is quite demanding, isn't she?" Alistair 'whispered' to Torph.
Torph sniggered. "Oh yeah."
"If you two gentlemen have time to gossip, maybe you could help us defeat the rest of these darkspawn," Ciara reminded them.
Thankfully this group wasn't too difficult to kill off. Sten finished off the last one with a great swing from his sword, while Ciara and Alistair approached the shield. A huge crowd of people hid behind its wall, much to Narascha's amazement.
"If we had these kinds of shields down in the main roads," Narascha marvelled. "It would certainly have helped keep the darkspawn back."
"Y-You weren't sent by the Bann were you?"
The man behind the shield looked nervous, but hopeful, and the other men, women and children behind him perked up.
"We're Grey Wardens, good man," Alistair said soothingly. "We didn't hear from your Bann, but some of your fellow townsfolk managed to escape and found us on the road."
"And now more people know of us," Ciara sighed, smilingly fondly. "You do remember we have a bit of a problematic situation right now, yes?"
She was hinting rather heavily, and yet it took Alistair a moment to think of it, blinking hard at her. He jumped, gasping.
"The bounties!"
Torph cackled. "There was a reason she didn't mention the word, boss. She was hoping nobody remembered them. Now you've gone and given them a reminder."
Alistair groaned the moment Torph said 'boss', but groaned again at the explanation, shaking his head. "Oops?" he offered.
"I don't care about any bounties!" The man ranted, peeved. "Nobody has done anything to help us, so thank the Maker you were here to save us. To think they put bounties on the only people who have helped us. None off us would ever turn you in."
"Good to know," Ciara said. "Are you able to bring down this shield, sir? I can't see a way to from our side."
"A good thing considering the darkspawn," Alistair chuckled.
"Yes, yes, my father had it built." The man waved a hand, and the shield came down. "Thank you again for saving us. My name is Matthias. It's so good to see some friendly faces."
"Let's get you all out of here safely," Alistair said. "One of us will go up first to make sure everything is clear then-"
"I can't go yet. I..." Matthias threw a helpless glance back, towards a doorway.
Ciara frowned. "What's wrong?"
"My father, Wilhelm built this study, and gave me access to the protections within it in case I was ever in danger. But I only knew how to safely activate those defences up to this point. My father always forbade me from going in any deeper," Matthias explained. "My daughter, Amalia was terrified of the darkspawn and ran inside the laboratory. We managed to stop the other children following her but we couldn't stop her in time. I don't know how she made it past my father's defences but one of the men tried to follow her and he was instantly killed. You could go after her though right? You could save my daughter?"
"It was probably her bloodline," Ciara said. "You said your father made these defences that can be activated by you? It would be the same for her. He would have tied it to your bloodline and history."
Matthias paled. "He wasn't a blood mage-"
"Not like that. No, but mages are usually developed from magical bloodlines, and if his magic was used to be in service of protecting you, it would have been tied to his descendents." Ciara grimaced. "So we will have to fight our way past those defences."
"Sure we can't just leave the kid to figure her own way out?" Torph groaned. "It's not like the defences can hurt her."
"How long has she been down there for?" Alistair asked.
"A day now."
"Alright, she's clearly lost," Alistair sighed. "We better go find her."
"I swear if we die down there-" Torph complained.
"Or find some ancient lost Thaig-" Narascha began.
"Yeah I don't like any of this already!" Torph groaned. "So y'know what? I want something out of this."
Alistair scowled. "We're not taking their money, Torph-"
"The golem outside gets to go with us, yeah?" Torph huffed.
Alistair paused. "Okay that's actually reasonable."
Ciara laughed softly. Narascha smirked, because yes, it was, and she was impressed. She thought Torph would have asked for money first.
"In reward I'd happily give you that damn golem up there to use as a battering ram," Matthias said, though he shifted awkwardly, nervous.
"And how are you going to give it to us without a rod of control?" Narascha asked.
Torph smiled coyly. "Yeah, was wondering that myself, Princess. You didn't activate it to fight off the darkness, so how are you going to give it to us?"
"I can get it..." Matthias squirmed.
Torph snorted. "Not if I've already got it." He pulled out the rod, tossing it from hand to hand.
Matthias sighed. "Okay, I can't give you the control rod, but I can give you the password."
"Now?" Torph asked.
Matthias crossed his arms stubbornly.
Torph shrugged. "Alright. Afterwards then, and if you try keep something from me again, I'll see if the Princess here will break your legs for me."
"Torph!" Alistair protested.
"Alright, alright!" Torph held up his hands on surrender. "A leg. But that's just for you, boss. Just for you."
"I meant no legs!" Alistair paused. "And stop calling me that!"
"I probably could do it pretty easily," Narascha said, and Matthias whined.
Ciara sighed. "We're certainly making friends here." She walked past, headed straight into the doorway, and disappeared around the corner.
The rest of them followed, Sten ducking under the doorway with a grumble.