The Carta
"I've never been down here before," Narascha admitted.
"Lucky for you." Torph smirked.
Dust Town looked as shitty as ever, but Torph grinned at the sight of it. It was familiar as the back of his hand, so hunting down Jarvia would be a piece of fucking cake as far as he was concerned. They had brought nearly the whole crew down here, probably a bit overkill, but good to take on this branch of the Carta at the very least.
"H-Have you got a coin to spare, m'lord?"
Torph paused at a young dwarven woman. "Nobody's called me that before."
She must have missed the brand on his face, or thought he was a surface dwarf with a temporary one.
"Please?" she asked miserably. "It's for my son. He hasn't had any clean clothes to wear, or anything to eat today. Neither have I."
"Here's twenty silver," Narascha said, pressing the coins into her hands.
"Thank you. To think that a stranger would be kinder to me than my own family who threatened to barred me from their halls until I..." the young woman shook her head. "I refuse! I can't even bare to think of it."
"How did you end up down here? You ain't casteless," Torph said.
Her face was clean. There was no brand mark there.
"No, I'm not..." she said, miserable. "My name is Zerlinda. I was from the Mining Caste. We weren't wealthy, but we've never gone hungry before either. Now it's all gone and it's all my fault. Ancestors curse me, but there is nothing I can do to set it right!"
"Oh no..." Torph groaned. "You didn't... not with a casteless..."
Leliana tilted her head. "What's wrong?"
"I fell in love. He seemed so exotic! You know, tough, smart, and so confident. He made it seem like he had to bow to nobody. Your friend is right, he was casteless, and I think..." Her eyes hardened. "No, I know he was just trying to father a high caste child so he could petition to join a higher caste family. My family."
Lawrien looked disgusted. "He left you here?"
"After I gave birth to my son? Yes."
Torph groaned. "Fuck."
Zerlinda's eyes grew teary. "Yes... my son is casteless, just like his father... I was stripped of my caste and disowned, unless I agree to abandon my son to the Deep Roads and pretend I never had him."
"No way, that is awful!" Leliana gasped.
"Assholes." Lawrien crossed her arms, then scowled and brought out more coins to press into Zerlinda's hands.
"Careful," Torph warned. "If people see us giving her too much money, they'll rob her blind."
Lawrien's jaw tightened.
"Torph, you remember Bella?" Narascha asked him.
"The barmaid who owns the Redcliffe bar?" Torph blinked. "Yeah, why?"
"If we give Zerlinda enough coin, could we send her and her son there? Maybe they could work for her. They won't survive out here."
Torph grimaced. "No, not unless she becomes a noble hunter or sweeps the streets, but she doesn't have the connections to get those jobs like the others have. She'll have to rely on begging, and that rarely ends well."
Leliana frowned. "It might be the best way to go about this."
"Zerlinda, how do you feel about going to the surface?" Lawrien asked.
"I... I had thought of it, but it is daunting... but there is no caste up there, and the humans from what I heard don't care about lineage."
"It depends on the humans, but most of the working class don't," Torph said. "It won't be easy, but you might be able to make a start for yourself and your kid if I call in a favour with an old friend of mine."
Zerlinda's eyes brightened. "You could do that for me?"
"You'd have to work hard."
"I'm not afraid of that." Zerlinda's voice was full of determination.
"For now maybe you should stay with us. We'll be heading to Redcliffe soon enough, and Torph can see about getting you a job," Narascha said.
"Y-You want me to stay in the Grey Warden estate?" Zerlinda's jaw dropped.
"I'll bring you there," Leliana offered.
"But why are you all helping me so much?" Zerlinda asked, a little more hesitantly.
"Because I clawed my way outta here," Torph said. "I don't want to see people thrown in it, especially not a new mum and her baby. Babies don't deserve to live in this shithole."
Zerlinda's eyes softened at that. "If it give my son a chance to live, then I will go."
She reached behind the doorway she had been taking shelter in, and emerged with a sleeping baby cradled in her arms.
Alistair's eyes softened. "He's so cute."
"How about you go with them to make sure they get safely back into the Warden Estate?" Ciara offered.
"Okay, I'll do that, as long as you're all alright with that?" Alistair eyed them all.
"Go for it." Torph nodded.
They didn't walk very far when a very familiar voice caught his attention.
"Well, chew me up and swallow me whole." Torph grinned and whirled round to see Leske. "I never thought I'd see you back here. What happened? Did you miss getting spit on?"
"I came back to get you into trouble, salroka." Torph grinned, patting his shoulder. "How you been?"
"I've been having to get myself into trouble since you left," Leske said. "But, y'know, I got really good at it. So what you doing back here? Not crawling back to die in the Deep Roads left right?"
He actually looked a bit concerned about that.
"Not yet." Torph crossed his arms. "It's bad, Lesk. I gone and made a Grey Warden during a bloody Blight."
"Sodding hell," Leske cursed. "Are you alright?"
"As good as I can be. The Grey Wardens have these treaties to gather an army, but the treaty for these snobby bastards just had to be with their king, and since there is no king, they are bitching about it instead of gathering their weapons and marching," Torph scoffed. "Now I've gotta put a sodding king on the throne."
Leske's jaw dropped. "You have to put a king on the throne?"
"I know, it's insane." Torph groaned. "So what happened with the carta since I left anyway? I've seen some roaming the main streets."
"Jarvia's way of mourning was to kill all her competitors and then claim she was Beraht's wife to his family topside, so now she has all his deals," Leske said.
"Fuck, that's cunning of her." Torph whistled.
"King Endrin's death really opened new ground for her. All the guardsmen have been in the Diamond District, so Jarvia moved right in."
"So you working with them still?"
"Stone, no! You think Jarvia would accept me with open arms after we killed Beraht? She'd murder me."
"Well Bhelen wants me to kill Jarvia to put him on the throne, apparently it would make him popular despite him not being the one to do it, but fuck it." Torph shrugged.
Leske grimaced. "She'd kill me if she ever found out I knew this, but well after Bhelen took Rica up-city the carta claimed your old home. They put a back entrance in with storage tunnels, probably leads down to Jarvia's base." Leske's eyes shifted about. "Now I better get out of here before anyone sees us together, but, uh, tell me how it goes, yeah?"
"Will do, duster."
.:.
Epona hated that they were ambushed in Torph's old house the moment they stepped inside, but thankfully the carta ambush was easily dealt with considering how many of them had joined this job. Torph was sitting on the table, smirking down at the dwarf cowering in Narascha's grip. Narascha who had the man up against the wall, held up by his leathers.
"Sodding ancestors! You lot fight like the Archdemon!" the man stammered. "Please, don't kill me!"
"We want answers," Narascha said coldly.
"I was just doing what Leske asked. Said Jarvia gave the word to make sure that you never left, Torph."
"Leske?" Torph raised a brow.
"He told us he'd get you here, and that all we needed to do was take you out. You don't disobey Leske, y'know. He's Jarvia's top man! They've been together for years!"
Torph cackled. "What a moron! Did he not remember seeing the Grey Wardens fight before when we killed Beraht?"
"You're finding this awfully amusing." Epona scowled. "Isn't this your friend?"
"He actually did something smart," Torph whistled. "And is being fucked by Jarvia? Damn."
"Really?" Narascha sighed.
"What? I'm impressed. I mean I was hoping Rica would claim him as family and have him move up with her, but she didn't and now he's made the most of it." Torph shrugged. "Too bad the poor sod forgot I'm an asshole with good friends."
"Let's get them." Lawrien grinned wolfishly. "I've been wanting a good fight since we got into Orzammar."
"Same." Narascha chuckled.
"B-But there will be too many of us inside-" the thug protested.
"Good. We'll kill them all too." Torph grinned. "Now tell us."
.:.
The Leske of this morning had been sad that he had to get Torph killed to prove his loyalty to Jarvia. Torph was his oldest friend, but Leske needed to do whatever it took to live, even if it meant breaking a piece of his own sodding heart to save the rest of him. He had told the others to make it quick and clean. That should spare Torph some pain at the very least.
That Leske had been an idiot.
He had not expected all these fuckers coming in and tearing through Jarvia's entire base. They were all covered in blood. All the Grey Wardens and their companions. Torph looked amused too, even as Jarvia tried to mock him.
"I'm the one who holds the leash here," Jarvia said, nodding at Leske.
"Woof," Torph mocked.
Leske huffed at that. "You're about to go against Jarvia's best men and women. At least show a little concern, Torph."
"Best men and women?" Torph laughed. "How cute. Hey, Jarvia, did Leske ever tell you how I burned Beraht and his men alive down here in this very room? Might have even been on that very same spot you're standing on now. It's hard to remember, I've killed so many things. Swarms of undead, abominations, demons, darkspawn, and you think any of you make me bat an eye?"
The blonde Grey Warden's grin, the same blonde human from before when they killed Beraht, looked amused. Leske's stomach sank. What was Torph talking about? Undead? Abominations? Had the sun really addled his head?
"Jarvia, Jarvia, Jarvia," Torph continued to mock, his voice sing song. "This is adorable, but I have no time for you, and I can't believe you've been thinking about me all this time. It's sad really. But I need your corpse to put a king on the throne. Nothing personal, but go ahead and just die already."
The female dwarf was there in an instant, her axe tearing clean into Jarvia's chest, earning a pained cry. The others Wardens were charging in too, arrows and spells flying. Leske tried to move, to go to Jarvia, but Torph tackled him to the ground and pressed an axe to his throat, still smirking.
"Get off-" Leske protested, but Torph shoved him back down.
Torph grinned. "Trust me. You ain't wanna get in my group's way."
"Dammit, Torph, this is the bloody Carta we're talking about-"
"And we're Grey Wardens." Torph's grin grew sharper. "I already said none of you make me bat an eye, and if that's my reaction, the laziest fuck on this team, then you're fucking screwed."
Leske went to protest, but he realised everything had gone silent. There were no spells being thrown, or blades clanging off each other, not even an arrow. He looked around and gasped.
Death. There was death everywhere.
.:.
Torph watched all the blood drain from Leske's face.
"Sodding hell." Leske trembled. "You just killed them all like that..."
All Jarvia's Carta was dead, and Jarvia herself had been cut down by Narascha. Kinda fast, but well, there were a lot of them here, and they had been dealing with a lost of shit over the past few months.
Carta dwarves just didn't really matter much anymore in comparison.
"Did you forget the last time the Grey Wardens did this?" Torph rolled his eyes. "And last time there was less of them, and no Grey Warden me. We're crazy, salroka."
"Hell yeah!" Lawrien cheered.
"And ain't you lucky you're alive even after betraying me, you fuck." Torph stood up, stretching out his arms. "But I get it. You needed to do something to keep yourself alive. I don't blame ya. Just don't do it again, or I'll make you watch everyone around you die again."
Leske, somehow, managed to grow even paler at that.
"What will you do about your friend?" Epona asked, an arrow notched, but not aimed at Leske.
"Oi, Leske, you got two choices. Stay here in Dust Town, or join me on the surface and we'll see about finding you a job," Torph said.
"I..." Leske looked stunned.
"Yeah, you, you fuck. I left you here last time because it was a shit hole I was in, but now I'm friends with the Warden Commander." He jerked his thumb at Lawrien. "And also out of fucks to give."
"The surface...?" Leske trailed off uncertainly.
"If you discount the Blight it's not half bad. Work hard and you'll probably find your way," Torph said. "Or you could wait for Bhelen to be king. It might be a while, but he wants casteless to fight."
"The fuck?"
"I know right?" Torph snorted. "Apparently I might have started that thought process, or at least made it from a tiny thought into 'holy shit let's go' with the whole Proving shit, either way you got until I leave Orzammar to decide."
"...Thanks, salroka..." Leske still looked like shit, and it made Torph sigh and nudge his arm.
"I don't blame you."
"I know."
"Then stop pouting. You're alive. You've got options. Just give it some thought," Torph said. "Either way I'm fucking outta here once the boss finishes looting bodies."
"I'm funding us!" Lawrien yelled back.
Narascha shrugged. "She's not wrong."