The Deep Roads

"I heard everyone panicking over your return," Oghren said, walking out in front of them when they had reached one of the opening tunnels into the Deep Roads.

Ciara saw Narascha smile and nod.

"Yeah, the populace knows I've returned, and that I'm a Grey Warden," Narascha said. "And I take it you've also heard we're going after Branka. I'm surprised you'll willing to help people working for a prince who wants to use her for their own political gain."

Her tone sounded rather amused.

"Eh, I'll ignore that part," Oghren grunted. "The fact is you're actually going to go look for her, and I know what she was looking for. So if we pool our knowledge, we can find her. Well, how about it, Princess? Want to work together?"

Lawrien grinned when Narascha glanced at her. "I'm happy to."

Narascha chuckled. "You've got the Commander's blessing, Oghren."

Oghren laughed. "What can I say? I'm a charmer."

He belched, and Zevran wrinkled his nose.

"Charmer..." Zevran grumbled. "Yes, indeed."

Faren sniggered.

Ciara tilted her head. "Aren't you Branka's ex husband, Oghren?"

Oghren scowled. "I am still her husband! I'm the only one here who still cares about her as a person, not some symbol to leave in the Deep Roads so she doesn't offend anyone."

Narascha chuckled. "I can't comment on that one."

"Yeah, yeah, kinslayer," Oghren scoffed, but he didn't sound convinced by the 'kinslayer' part. He sounded more amused than anything. "Surprised you never strangled Prince Trian years ago to be honest. He was always a snobbish asshole."

Narascha snorted.

"So why aren't you with Branka at the moment?" Faren asked.

"Tis not obvious?" Morrigan wrinkled her nose. "She ditched him the first chance she got."

Oghren scowled. "She's not wrong. It was a stupid move. If she had taken me with her, Branka would have been back ages ago. But I forgive her."

"Well let's get going," Narascha said. "Branka isn't going to find herself, and the sooner this is done and dusted, the sooner we can deal with the Archdemon."

"We best remain wary in case it is actually hiding down here," Ciara sighed. "I've let notes explaining the situation back in the Grey Warden estate just in case any of our fellows come by, but I doubt any will be due to come here for months yet."

"That's unfortunate." Cobian frowned. "We could use all the help we could get."

"Are... are the Deep Roads small in height?" Epona asked, a nervous twinge to her voice.

Lawrien grimaced. "Do you want to stay behind?"

"Elfy scared of being in the dark?" Oghren grinned.

"Scared of shooting my allies in the dark," Epona said, eyeing Oghren. "Best watch out for that."

"As if your puny sticks can do me much harm," Oghren scoffed.

"Maybe when they are embedded in your head."

"Children, play nice, or we'll turn this field trip back around," Lawrien mocked.

"Yes, mum," Oghren chuckled.

.:.

"I feel like I'm finally starting to understand the scope of what the dwarven lost..." Wynne said softly, a haunted look in her eyes.

They were in Caridin's Cross, slowly making their way along.

"Perhaps..." Narascha whispered. "But not really. We're dying out. The taint has left so many of us unable to have children, or has weakened us to the point where having a child would kill us. My mother managed to have three before her strength bled out."

"And you, Narascha?" Wynne asked gently. "Did you ever-"

"No." Narascha shook her head. "I'm terrified of it. I made a mistake, I watched my mother give birth to my little brother, and she died trying to bring him to this world. And Bhelen killed Trian and sent me to my death. I don't even want to know what mother would have thought of such things."

Torph paused, he saw the tear slid down her cheek and reached out to hold her shoulder. Tears didn't suit Narascha. She shouldn't be left crying at the pain. No, she always braced herself against it, fought it and tore at it until it suffered as much as she did.

"Don't cry," he said quietly, so nobody would hear. "You'll make yourself ugly."

Narascha snorted.

"There used to be a dozen roads to all the different Thaigs, but not in our lifetime though," Oghren said.

"Wilhelm found me somewhere down here," Shale said, staring at the walls. "I just wish I knew exactly where."

"I wish I knew, but I don't remember Uncle Maric ever saying," Cobian admitted.

"I hope one day the dwarves will be able to reclaim their lost Thaigs," Leliana said softly.

"I doubt it," Narascha admitted. "The darkspawn breed too quickly, their armies too large, and Orzammar's people aren't repopulating fast enough to keep up the fight against them."

Torph grimaced. "No wonder people keep joining the surface dwarves."

"Yeah..." Narascha sighed.

Torph patted her back. "C'mon, let's see how many darkspawn we kill today."

.:.

Epona did not like the Deep Roads, no matter how wide and vast they were. She missed the open sky, the fresh air and the forests of Ferelden. It must have been around two weeks already since they left Orzammar, and Epona longed to go back above ground and seek out fresh air again. There was no natural light in these halls. Caridin's Cross was just rock, and so was Ortan Thaig, filled with giant spiders, deepstalkers and darkspawn.

The only things valuable they found in Ortan was a scavenger who seemed to like Ciara a lot. Ciara who had been very warm and kind to the man. Lawrien hadn't been in his presence for a minute before she ran away and threw up, whimpering and running her nails over her arms, and whispering about the taint over and over again. It took Cobian finding some apparent important documents in the ruins and his excitement over them to calm Lawrien down.

He had explained to Lawrien about a young girl in the Shaperate looking into her house history to keep Lawrien distracted.

Whatever emotions that scavenger corrupted by the taint was feeling, they had certainly overwhelmed Lawrien.

Epona hoped that wouldn't be too much of a problem down here.

The second valuable thing was a sword from an apparent admirable topsider, Willem Trailmont, which Faren had held. Epona wasn't sure what the connection was there, but Faren had been desperate to get a hold of all the pieces of the sword. He had laid it down at the grave, but hadn't told them why he had wanted to do so.

It had been strange, and not even Zevran had been able to charm the information out of him.

Faren had remained tight lipped.

The third and last thing they found was a journal from Branka, but the problem was the Anvil wasn't here.

It was in the Dead Trenches.

What concerned Epona even more was that her journal had opened up again with only two words written down that night when they camped.

'Ghilan'nain. STOP!'

That had left a horrible dread in the pit of Epona's stomach.

What had Ghilan'nain done exactly?

.:.

Cobian winced. The whispers were so loud. Why were they suddenly so much louder? Epona actually flinched and pressed herself back against the tunnel walls with a small, pained gasp.

"Epona-" Lawrien reached out to her, wincing.

"It's so loud!" Epona hissed through gritted teeth.

Whispers upon whispers. So loud and much and it threatened to make Cobian almost crumble. He had never heard so many darkspawn before. Their companions all looked concerned, even as Ciara gritted her teeth and knelt down, sneaking her way over to the end of the tunnel, and right up to the ledge.

Cobian saw the colour drain from her face.

The rest of them followed slowly, hiding amongst the rocks. It looked like more lava down there-

No, not lava. Those were torches. Cobian felt a cold sweat run down his back. Those were darkspawn carrying those torches, hundreds upon hundreds of darkspawns. This army was bigger than the one at Ostagar.

Faren crumbled against the wall, eyes wide. Torph covered his head and curled up against the ground, squeezing his eyes shut, while Leliana began praying feverishly under her breath, having gone just as pale as Ciara had.

Epona suddenly yanked Narascha and Ciara back, who had been closest to the edge, and Cobian found himself falling over from a strong gust of wind as the Archdemon flew past them, flying high above. They all quickly hit the ground, retreating behind cover, as the Archdemon landed on the bridge.

Epona clamped her hands over her ears when the Archdemon roared so loudly, that it pierced Cobian's ears and left him stunned. If it did that to him, a human, by the Maker, Epona, Faren and Zevran, their ears!

The Archdemon blew out purple fire from its mouth, then flew off into the distance again, as the horde of darkspawn began to march.

"Sodding Ancestors..." Oghren breathed out, shaking. "That was the Archdemon... wasn't it?"

Epona nodded grimly, sitting up slowly. "It's ordered the darkspawn to march to the surface..."

Lawrien gritted her teeth. "Dammit."

"W-Well..." Zevran began, a wobble in his voice. "Never let it be said that life with you lot isn't interesting, right, Faren my dear?"

Faren breathed in shakily. "That thing was huge... how are we supposed to beat that?"

Lawrien's scowl deepened. "We stab it a lot," she said as she rose to her feet.

"Maker, preserve us," Leliana prayed, kneeling again, hands cupped in front of her face.

"Can you ask him to smite the Archdemon while you're at it?" Torph asked, his hands shaking hard, staring off after where the Archdemon had flew off too with terror filled eyes.

This had shaken their confidence, Cobian could see that much clearly, but it didn't matter right now. They needed to get moving. Lawrien nodded at him, her eyes growing hard, and she pulled Ciara up to her feet, while Alistair shakily followed suit, clutching the pommel of his sword hard.

"Let's get moving," Lawrien said warily.