Haven
Loghain stared down at his desk with a heavy brow. So many of these fools were against him. Why? He and Maric had sacrificed so much to protect Ferelden, and these idiots were fighting against him tooth and nail. Loghain would not fail to protect their home. He would. From the darkspawn and from Orlais. It just had to be done properly.
"Father!" Anora raced over to his side, clutching a letter as if it was a lifeline.
Loghain stiffened, worried something else had gone wrong, but Anora looked almost relieved, and nearly terrified.
"Anora? What's wrong?" Loghain pulled away from the desk, taken aback when Anora practically threw the letter at him.
"It's Cobian!"
Loghain froze before frowning. "Has he finally seen sense?" he asked as he opened the papers.
He hoped so. It would be good for Cobian to return, he could help them prepare for the war. He felt his frown deepen further when Anora shook her head.
"He is warning us about something extremely important however, and disturbing." Anora admitted. She grew a little paler, before taking a deep breath, calming herself. "Father, it's serious. Very serious."
"It would be if Cobian is risking exposing where he is by sending a bird to us. Was there an emblem?"
"Orzammar. Although it wouldn't have mattered anyway. He freely admitted to where he and his fellow Grey Wardens where," Anora explained.
She was struggling to pull herself back together. The sight made his frown deepen, so he finally read the letter. His mind nearly went blank when he read about the Broodmothers before it began to race. They were women, women captured by the darkspawn and-
His mind flashed to his mother's last moments and he aggressively shoved it back, nearly growling. Anora looked desperately at him, almost frightened and it made him ache to see his daughter so distraught.
"What are we going to do, Father?"
"Revealing this could cause a mass panic, just as Cobian mentioned in his letter." Loghain scowled. "But we cannot let the darkspawn forces grow. The women in the army will have to be pulled back, guarding inside the city walls instead of out with the main force, we could possibly leave a token of small female troops behind, but not too many. We cannot fall to panic though Anora, so steady yourself."
"I can't believe Cobian was actually so far down into the Deep Roads..." Anora grimaced.
"He is taking the darkspawn seriously, that's for sure." Loghain scowled. "He even mentions he saw the Archdemon, though it could just be a normal dragon for all we know."
"But if it isn't...?" Anora asked warily.
"Then we will fight and defeat it as Thedas has done before," Loghain said. "But we need to be united."
"If the Couslands were still here..." Anora trailed off mournfully.
"They unfortunately are not," Loghain sighed.
If they had been, Fergus would have dragged Cailan away from the battlefield, kicking and screaming. That boy was the one person who could convince Cailan from being too stubborn. But now Fergus was gone, and nobody knew if he was alive or dead.
The only Couslands left were Cobian and Oren, and Oren was so young, and had assassins after his head.
Howe's assassins.
There was no way in hell that Howe would get to Oren. Loghain wouldn't let him.
.:.
Haven was a weird fucking place. Faren was a little freaked out by the guards, then by the singing child, then by the shop keeper with bodies of Redcliffe knights hiding in the back of it. The only good part was that he got a pair of Antivan leather boots. Those were like catnip to Zevran if he recalled right.
Faren had waited for Epona the entire night, but she had showed up the next day, dark shadows under her eyes, but thanked him for waiting as they packed up camp and left. She hadn't said anything since then, not that he blamed her, but he did try to remain close by in case she had been distracting during the fighting.
He had not needed to.
Epona had easily dealt with the guards who attacked them, then opened the door to the Chantry and let them all in.
Then they had to kill the rest of the villagers and free Brother Genitivi from a secret room.
They were trying to protect Andraste's Sacred Ashes.
So they climbed the mountainside again, and it was bloody freezing. The temple itself was no better. The roof must have collapsed in some areas, burying parts of the temple in snow, and they had to fight their way through more cultists.
Then some crazy guy wanted them to put blood in Andraste's Ashes. Leliana and Wynne both looked like they were about to have heart attacks just at the man's words. Faren didn't care. He was too tired to deal with this shit. He just started stabbing when Lawrien threw a fireball into the crazy man's face.
That was when they learned afterwards that the Andraste they had been worshipping... WAS A FREAKING DRAGON!
.:.
Torph ducked behind a boulder when the dragon swooped down and tried to grab him. No thank you, he did not want to be picked up. Fuck that shit. Faren sat next to him, equally as horrified, while Torph debated if throwing a bomb at the dragon would work.
"How are we supposed to kill this thing?" Torph groaned.
"Lawrien is hitting it with a lightning storm," Faren said. "It's why I hid back here."
"She done?" Torph asked, fixing up his vial.
It would explode with lightning and ice.
He wasn't sure how well it would work against a dragon, but he was willing to give it a shot.
"Yeah, now throw it!" Faren yelled, running out behind their cover.
Torph launched his bomb, and it shattered and exploded off the dragon's leg, blasting a wave of lightning up it and freezing its talons with ice. Sten's sword swung down a moment later, trying to cut into its leg, but the dragon batted him away, and its tail slammed into Shale, knocking her aside.
Thank fuck that had been Shale and nobody else, because anyone else probably would have been sent flying back to Orzammar.
Everyone was hammering away at it, and of course, Faren just had to start climbing up it, the little psycho. Zevran looked like he was about to lose his shit at the sight.
Cobian swiped at its face, regaining its attention when it had swiped at Oghren. Morrigan blasted its side with a ball of lightning, then a hex, and a swarm of wasps to attack its eyes. It roared at her for it and prepared to breath out a mouthful of fire. Fuck, that would kill her! Morrigan's eyes widened, but she had no time to retreat back.
"MORRIGAN!" Lawrien yelled, reaching out towards her, a glyph forming beneath Morrigan's feet, but Lawrien wouldn't be fast enough to toss her aside.
Cobian regained the dragon's attention, whistling sharply, and it blew the fire straight at him.
"Cobian!" Wynne yelled.
The fire ended, but it had obviously taken its toll on Cobian and his shield. It's glimmer was gone, and there was a few burn marks on Cobian. He was shaking, but still on his feet, until his legs buckled and he hit the ground hard.
The dragon's head went straight for his unconscious ass.
"COBIAN!" Lawrien screamed, running for him.
Sten slammed his sword down on the dragon's snout, tearing into it with the heavy swing, but it flapped its wings, dragging them all in, or nearly all of them. Leliana had ducked behind cover, and Torph was behind his. Faren was also on top of it.
Faren who reached its head and stabbed his daggers straight into its eyes.
It screeched and breathed out another roar of fire, right above its head. Faren only just managed to pull his daggers free in time, but now he was free falling.
Lawrien tucked herself into a roll since she had been dragged along the ground by the dragon's wings, and threw out another glyph, just barely catching Faren's fall, giving him some time to land in a pile of snow instead of splatting on the ground.
Torph cursed. None of this was enough. Cobian was dragged out the fight finally by Sten, who dropped him next to Torph.
"Do you have anymore bombs, dwarf?"
"Working on it," Torph said. "Oi, Epona! Get over here!"
Epona rushed to his side, as Sten headed back for the dragon. "Torph-"
"Try shooting this arrow down the dragon's throat," Torph said, holding out the arrow.
Her eyes narrowed on it as she examined it. "It has a ball shape for the head..."
"It's a bomb prototype I'm working on," Torph said. "It might not work out, but may as well give it a test."
Epona nodded and bolted out of cover. "Open up its mouth!" she yelled.
It didn't take long. Alistair managed to draw its attention, slamming his sword off his shield, and it screeched at him, ready to launch another wave of fire. Epona fired in that instant, and the dragon's head exploded, splattering all their front line fighters.
"Ew..." Narascha shuddered.
"Sorry, Princess, but at least we know that arrow works," Torph mused. "I'll need to make more of those for the Archdemon."
"It was handy, even if the weight of it makes it more awkward to shoot," Epona said.
"I wonder if there could be a balance to that..." Torph shrugged. "I'm not much of an inventor to be honest though. I just like to tinker with shit. I'll see what I can do though."
"That was brilliant!" Oghren cheered. "We bet a dragon!"
"Is Cobian okay?" Lawrien asked.
"I'm fine..." Cobian said, approaching them slowly, wincing, even as Wynne hovered over him.
"I've healed his wounds, but he'll be stiff for a few days after those burns," Wynne said.
"I guess against a high dragon your shield is a little less effective," Morrigan said.
"It would seem so unfortunately," Cobian sighed.
"At least this was good practise against the Archdemon," Narascha said. "But I have the feeling that the Archdemon will be even more dangerous."
"Unfortunately yes," Wynne sighed. "I am dreading how difficult the fight will be, but you are Grey Wardens, and this is your duty."
"We know," Lawrien reassured, her face grim. "We know better than anybody."
Torph scowled at that. Yeah, only thirty years to live if they were lucky. Fuck.
Ah well, if he hadn't become a Grey Warden he would have been murdered back in Orzammar, so either way it didn't matter he supposed. This title gave him longer to live, and made it so that Orzammar couldn't stop him from carrying weapons around.
He loved that part of being a Grey Warden for sure.