by Milton Garby
"Well shave my back and call me an elf! Branka!?" Oghrean yelled in genuine joy and surprise. "By the Stone, I barely recognized you!"
"Oh. Oghren. It figures you'd find your way here. Hopefully you can find your way back more easily."
Branka's eyes looked to Aedan suspiciously. "And how shall I address you? Another hired sword for some lordling sent to come find me? Or just the only one who didn't mind putting up with Oghren ale-breath?"
"Be respectful, woman. You're talking to a Grey Warden!"
"Ah. So an important errand boy, then. What is it you want? Is Endrin dead? That seems most likely. He was on the old and wheezy side last I saw him. Are you here for one of his would-be replacements?"
Aedan looked at her with hate in his eyes the memory of Laryn's fate burning in his mind. "I was here for one of those would-be replacements, but now I'm here for you. Just. You."
Branka waved the Wardens threat off like it was a fly in her face. "Ooh, very intimidating Warden, but you'll find I'm not impressed. And I don't care who wins the election, they can put a drunk monkey on the throne for all I care. Our protector, our greatest 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 very thing in which the ancients forged their army of golems and held off the first Archdemon to arise is so close I can practically taste it!"
"Oh, but let me guess there is a problem." Aedan surmised.
"Yes." Branka spoke with a face as hard as the walls of the Deep Rods. "The Anvil lies on the other side of a gauntlet riddled with traps set by Caridin himself to prevent intruders from reaching it. I have given up everything and sacrificed all that I have to reach the Anvil of the Void."
"Bullshit!" Aedan yelled. "You didn't sacrifice anything. You only sacrificed others, like Laryn and Hespith! Do you even remember them!?"
"Enough questions!" Branka spat down at them. "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 rests."
"What has this place done to you!?" Oghren cried. "I remember marrying a brilliant girl. A girl you could talk to for just a moment and realize her brilliance!"
"I am your Paragon." Branka answered as both fact and warning as she receded back into the shadows of the Deep Roads.
~XoXoXo~
Aedan was further disgusted with Branka as she explained how she let her own House become infected with the taint, as if her skewered logic made up for what she did to the people of her House. As their Paragon, it was her duty to watch over and protect them but she knew, she knew exactly what was going to happen to the women tainted with the blight, but she let it happen so that they could become broodmothers and then she'd have an endless supply of darkspawn to test Caridin's traps. Aedan never wanted to kill a dwarf more than he did right now.
Never had Aedan been so glad to have an apostate and two assassins in his company as well as several warriors. When they entered the gas chamber Morrigan created a vortex to suck out all the gas in the room so they could reach the levers and turn off the gas.
When they entered the room full of traps and guarded by golems, Leliana and Zevran disarmed the traps, while Shale provided protection from the golems and then smashed them into pebbles. The last trial of the gauntlet was some kind of Spirit Apparatus, a giant stone carving with the angry face of past Paragons carved into it. It summoned the spirits of dead dwarven warriors to fight them, but they were still capable of being killed and the apparatus was destroyed when they smashed the anvils that seemed to give the apparatus life. Was this somehow connected to the Anvil of The Void?
At last the entered the chamber in which the Anvil was housed. A giant chasm with veins of lyrium jutting out of the ground like giant, glowing roots and waterfalls of lava springing forth from the walls. Like Orzammar it was harsh, yet majestic, and at the very edge of the chasm, surrounded by massive veins of lyrium stood their objective…The Anvil of The Void.
As they entered the found themselves surrounded by an entire squadron of inactive golems that were just standing in the chamber. The way they were standing was as if they were in formation, and the way they stood was reminiscent to soldiers standing at attention, waiting for orders from their commander. In the center of the formation, standing in their way to the Anvil, stood a massive golem of iron and steel, vastly superior to all the other golems in the room. The golem easily towered over any golem Aedan had seen and was laced from head to toe in Tevinter and Dwavern runes. Was this meant to be the commander of these golems? "Welcome, strangers." The massive golem suddenly said in a booming voice that seemed to echo in its hollowed body.
"Another talking golem. Sure, why not?" Aedam responded blithely.
"My name is Caridin. Once, longer ago than I care to think, I was a Paragon to the dwarves of Orzammar."
"The Paragon smith?" Shale questioned. "Alive?"
"Ah. Now there is a voice I remember. Shayle of the House of Cadash, step forward." Caridin beckoned.
"You know my name? Was it you who named me? Was it you that forged me, then?"
"Have you forgotten?" The living construct sighed sorrowfully. "It has been so long. I made you into the golem you are now, Shayle. But before that you were a dwarf, just as I was. The finest warrior to ever serve in the army of King Valtor and the only woman to ever volunteer." Caridin explained
"The only…woman? A dwarf?" The golems eyes were wide and full of shock and disbelief.
"I laid you on the Anvil, here in this very room, and put you in to the form you now possess." Caridin revealed to his former comrade.
"The Anvil of The Void…That is why we are here. That is what we seek."
"If you seek the Anvil, then you must care about my story, lest you be doomed to repeat it."
Aedan could practically see where this was going. "So you want something, right? Everyone does."
"I do. Though I made many things in my time, I rose to fame and earned my status as Paragon based on a single item, The Anvil of The Void. It allowed me to forge a man of stone or steel as flexible and clever as any soldier and as an army they were all but invincible, but I never told anyone the cost."
Aedan could see that this was a tale more tragic than he thought.
"No mere smith, however skilled, has the power to create life. To make my golems live, I had to take their lives from elsewhere."
"This sounds akin to bloodmagic. Very dangerous, very unpredictable and capable of untold ruin in the wrong hands." Aedan stated.
"You couldn't be more right, human." The Paragon agreed. "I originally took only volunteers, the bravest of the Warrior Caste willing to lay down their lives for the dwarven people. But King Valtor became greedy. He began to force people, casteless and criminals, his political enemies, all of them were to be given to the Anvil. Their bodies torn asunder and their souls trapped within the Anvil only to be caged within the body of a golem."
"So this thing enslaves souls? It robs them of their free will to be all but slaves to the will of a control rod? Heh. It sounds like you earned you fate."
"Indeed. A fitting and poetic punishment, laced with irony. When the rivers of blood flowing and echoes of screams from this place became too much I refused to make more golems for King Valtor, and so he ordered my own apprentices to turn me into a golem. It took feeling the hammers blow myself to realize the height of my crimes. My apprentices knew enough to forge me into this form, but not enough to fashion a control rod and so I retained my mind."
The golem turned towards Shale and looked upon her beseechingly. "You were amongst the most loyal, Shayle. You remained at my side throughout and in the end I sent you away, out of mercy with your."
"I…I do not remember." Shale admitted sadly.
"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."
Branka came charging into the chamber with madness in her eyes. "NO! The Anvil is mine! No one will take it from me!"
"Shale!" Caridin cried. "You fought to destroy the Anvil once. Do not let it fall into unthinking hands again!"
"You speak of things I do not remember. You say we fought. Did you use our control rods to do so?"
"I destroyed the rods! Perhaps my apprentices eventually learned how to replace the rods. I do not know. But if so then all they'll need is the Anvil to make all the slaves they need." Caridin turned to Aedan, if he had a face it would have be twisted with yearning. "You! Please! Help me destroy the Anvil! Do not let is enslave anymore souls than it already has!"
"Don't listen to him!" Branka raved. "He's been trapped down here for a thousand years stewing in his own madness! Give me the Anvil and you'll have an army of the likes you've never seen!"
"Branka! You mad, bleeding, nug-tail!" Oghren yelled, trying to get through to his wife. "Does this thing mean so much to you that you cannot see what you've lost to get it?"
"Look around you. Is this what our great empire should look like? A cramped tunnel full of darkspawn-spume? The Anvil will allow us to retake our glory!"
Aedan turned to face the made Paragon and stared her down with hatred burning red behind his eyes. "The Anvil enslaves souls! I cannot allow it to exist! And after what you've done to your own House, Branka, I cannot allow you to exist either!"
"So it fights with Caridin, then? Good, that seems right." Shale agreed.
"Surely you cannot be serious?" Morrigan protested. "The Anvil is a marvel, an object that creates life. Surely you aren't going to waste this opportunity. You could rival the Maker with this relic. I swear if you destroy it, you will regret it in the end."
Aedan glared at Morrigan dangerously. "Use it? You mean make people into slaves? How would you like to be the first on the Anvil!?"
"You would not dare!" The witch denied vehemently.
"You think so? You think if I was like Branka that I wouldn't?"
"I'd rather not risk it. Very well, destroy it then." Morrigan lamented. "If it means that much to you."
"Thank you, stranger." Caridin said relieved. "Your compassion shames me."
"NO! The Anvil is mine!" The mad Paragon screeched, her voice resonating throughout the forge. "You will not take it from me! Not while I still live!"
Aedan drew out his axe and faced the insane woman. "Well, that's easily solved."
"Branka, please! Don't throw your life away for this." Oghren begged his wife. He looked to Aedan pleadingly. "Just give her the blasted thing! She's confused! Maybe when she calms down we can talk some sense into her!"
Aedan looked to Oghren. "She is not the woman you married, Oghren. She's too dangerous to have the Anvil, and her crimes demand punishment!"
"Bah! Caridin's not the only Paragon smith here!" Branka screamed and raised a lyrium laced rod above her head. "Golems, obey me! Attack!"
Suddenly all the golems awoke and broke their formation, ready to obey the one who held control over them.
"A control rod!" Caridin screamed. "My friend, please! You must help me fight her, I cannot beat her alone!"
The fight commenced. This was the largest number of golems they ever faced and they were in close quarters, the golems had the advantage. Wynne set up a barrier to block the golems from pulverizing them with boulders, while Morrigan threw lightning and thunder at them. All the warriors charged the golems and tried to push them back while Zevran and Leliana set explosive traps around them. And Oghren engaged his wife. He swung his hammer, intentionally hitting her shield. "Branka, please! You don't have to do this!"
Branka blocked her ex-husbands attack and swung at Oghren with unrelenting viciousness. "Out of my way! I never loved you, you sodded ale-rat! That's why I left you! You only held me back! And you won't stop me from taking what's mine!"
Oghren continued to fight against his wife, but refused to unleash his full strength on her. He couldn't bring himself to kill his wife. Branka could sense his weakness. Using her mace, she knocked Oghren's hammer out of his hands and swiped him across the face, knocking him senseless to the ground. She stood over him and raised her mace to finish him off. Blood spurted from her mouth and there was a searing pain in her back. Aedan's hunting knife found it way between the plates in her armor and between the vertebrae in her spine.
"That was for Hespith and the rest of your entire House." Aedan whispered venomously. He twisted the knife, everything beneath her waist went completely dead and she fell to the floor like a boned fish. Aedan kicked the control rod out of her hand.
Branka vainly tried to crawl to the Anvil. As if her coveted prize was still within her reach. "Th-the Anvil. I…I can hear it…calling to me. I can…almost reach it." She sobbed pitifully.
Aedan looked down on the once mighty Paragon Branka, his face twisted with hate and disgust as he watched her pathetically crawl to Anvil. He stopped her crawling by placing his foot right on top of her head and slowly grinded it into her skull. "And this one…is for Laryn!" He raised his boot above her head and stomped on her temple with all his might. Her skull exploded beneath his heel and her brains splattered all over the cavern floor.
The golems, no longer under Branka's control, broke off their attack and resumed their formation. Everyone gathered around Aedan, and Oghren looked upon the splattered remains of what used to be his wife. Aedan saw the look in his eyes. It was not anger or sorrow, in Oghren's eyes but pity. He spent two years holding out hope for his wife's return, hoping that she'd return from the Deep Roads. Instead she let the Deep Roads turn her.
"Listen to me." Caridin called. "Another life lost because my invention. I wish no mention of it ever made it into history."
"Yeah, you ain't kiddin'." Oghren agreed. His voice was filled with disdain trying to cover up sorrow. "Stupid woman. I knew the Anvil would be the death of her."
Caridin turned to face Aedan. "But at least it ends here. Thank you for standing with me, stranger. The Anvil waits there for you to shatter it. But before that, is there any boon I can offer for your aid, a final reward before I am freed of my burden?"
Aedan looked over to Oghren with remorse. "Oghren, you've lost the most to this thing. What do you want?"
"Er, I…I don't suppose you could bring Branka back? Make her a golem like you?"
"I would not do such a thing to her, even if I could." The Paragon golem answered truthfully.
"Somehow, I didn't think so. Well, then I don't want anything that would remind me of…this. Best to just leave it behind." Oghren stood and thought for a second. "There is still the matter of the election. I mean, we still need a Paragon to get the Assembly's support right?"
"For the aid you have given me, I shall set hammer to steel one last time and give you a crown for you chosen king." Caridin marched over to the Anvil and picked up a smithing hammer and set to work on forging a crown of precious metals and lyrium. To watch a Paragon smith work his craft was truly an honor for a topsider and all who bore witness. Caridin presented Aedan with a crown more worthy than either candidate deserved. "Here you are, stranger. A crown that befits a king, forged by the hands of a Paragon."
Aedan relieved Caridn's hands of the crown with respect. "And as I promised, I will destroy the Anvil." Aedan approached the glowing Anvil and could hear the humming and feel the power radiating from it. He could faintly hear the screams of the trapped souls within. He grabbed the smithing hammer and smashed the wretched relic with all his might. The Anvil of The Void exploded into white light and shattered into pieces.
"If I still could, I'd be shedding tears of joy right now." Caridin walked over to the ledge of the chamber. "You have my eternal thanks, stranger. Atrast Nal Tunsha. May you always find your way in the dark." Caridin dropped himself over the edge, his body fell quietly into the lava below, and at last he was free.
Before they left they found the golem registry of all the brave dwarven warriors who willingly sacrificed
themselves to become golems. Their bravery could not be forgotten. They took a rubbing of the registry and would take it the Shaperate to be recorded in the Memories. Perhaps Shayle's name was amongst these dwarves. Their business here complete, they now made their way back to Orzammar.
Back In Orzammar….
At last it was finally done, all the political bullshit he had to put up with in Orzammar was now behind him. Aedan went into the Chamber of Assembly and presented the crown to Prince Bhelen on behalf of Caridin. His throne secured and the crown on his head, the first kingly order Bhelen called for was Harrowmont's execution, to be carried out immediately and anyone who spoke out against it would also be killed. Aedan didn't give two shits, he didn't care for Harrowmont and dwarven politics weren't his problem. As Aedan left the Chamber of Assembly one of Harrowmont's supporters in the Assembly spat at him and called Aedan "traitor" to his face.
"What did you say me?"
"You heard me surfacer!" the dwarven noble spat.
Aedan grabbed the dwarf by his throat and dragged him out of the building and over to the ledge of the walkway.
"What are you doing, human!? I demand that you unhand me!"
"Let's have a little test shall we, deshyr. Let's see which on the Ancestors favor more. You or gravity?"
"You-you wouldn't dare!" Aedan tossed the dwarf off the walkway and heard him screaming on his war down. He watched the miserable dwarf bounce off several roofs and into the Market District with a thud.
"Is he dead?" Asked Alistair.
"After hitting those rooftops and landing on the ground? Nah. Just fucked up." Aedan hocked a loogie over the edge and it splattered right on the gravity-bound deshyr's face.
"I give you ten points for accuracy and ten more for height!" Zevran praised.
Aedan looked back into the Assembly. "Anyone else wanna call me traitor to my face!? No? Fuck you, then!"
Aedan walked over to the palace and waited to be addressed by King Bhelen, who was now being sworn oaths of loyalty by the other houses.
"You have proven yourself and more, Warden." Bhelen complimented.