by Milton Garby
"Hurmph!" Shale grunted indignantly.
"Nobody told me of any deliveries being made from any other guilds today." The guard said suspiciously.
"If your master does not want it, then we'll simply take it elsewhere." Morrigan spurned blithely. "Perhaps to Arl Eamon as a 'get well present'. I'm sure he'd value such a rare and powerful siege engine that can crush entire armies. And I'm also sure your master won't at all be furious with you when he finds out you so absent mindedly denied him this once in a lifetime gesture of esteem from the best engineers and enchanters in all of Ferelden."
"Alright, alright!" the guard relented. Morrigan smiled slyly, amused by how easily she could manipulate such simple-minded men. "Go to the armory and tell the master-at-arms about your delivery and ask him where he wants to put this damned thing."
The two mages and Oghren entered the manor, with Sten acting as Shale's handler, without any problems, but left Shale outside the front door. Aedan, Alistair, Zevran and Leliana, dressed as new recruits followed Erlina to the back. They made it around the grounds without any problems until they were found by a tall, heavily muscled man with one dead eye and crooked teeth. "What's this?" he demanded.
"Careful." Erlina whispered. "That is Howe's master-at-arms, Ser Cormyn. He is a very dangerous and vile man."
"Ah! You must be the new recruits we've been waiting for!" The ugly knight concluded. "Well, step lightly, now. I haven't got all day. I want you new bloods to come with me to the armory." They all followed the haggard knight into the armory, and the knight was surprised by the "liaisons" from the Circle of Magi and the Dwarven Merchants Guild were waiting for him.
The armory was actually rather impressive. Every weapon any warrior could specialize in hung neatly on the racks. Swords, bows, axes, hammers and spears, all well cared for and ready for use. The only thing wrong was that horrible stench in the air. It was so thick Alistair almost choked on it. It was like rotting flesh left out in the middle of summer after being steamed in an oven! Oddly enough Ser Cormyn seemed very comfortable with the ungodly stink in the air as he spoke with Morrigan and Wynne as they covered their noses.
Where was that stink coming from!? Alistair looked over to Aedan and saw his fellow Warden's face was blanched and his eyes were wide with horror. "Aedan? Aedan, what's wrong?" Aedan did not answer. It was like his ability to speak was stolen from him. Alistair had never seen Aedan like this before. Aedan faced down ogres and abominations like they were nothing. Hell, he took on a High Dragon and Flemeth without so much as batting an eye in fear. What could cause him to act like this all of a sudden? Alistair followed Aedan's gaze to the far side of the room and found the source of Aedan's distress and was equally horrified by what he saw.
Four severed heads being suspended from the roof with a rope looped through their mouths and chopped neck holes. They were all in an advanced stage of rot with flies buzzing around them and maggots crawling in their open mouths and empty eye sockets, but Alistair could still make out some of their features. One was probably a young man with auburn hair and a strong jaw. The other looked like a woman judging from the smooth features of her decaying skull, with ragged black hair. The third one looked like an old woman, her hair was grey and brittle, and the flesh on her skull was like wet then dried paper. The last one was in the most advanced stage of decomposition and practically the size of an ox's skull! Alistair couldn't make out any of his features, but it was definitely a man judging from the massive, bushy and now grimy beard that hung from his gaping, maggot ridden mouth, and had what looked like a stab wound in its eye socket. And they were all hanging over a giant ugly maul planted into the floor that looked like the bastard son of battle-axe and a war hammer. Sweet, merciful Maker! What did these people do to earn this!?
"Impressive ain't they!?" Ser Cormyn boomed enthusiastically. "We got thems when we took Castle Highever!"
"Castle Highever?" Aedan asked stunned.
"Aye! Howe took the old teryn by surprise and massacred the whole lot of them in one fell swoop!" The knight laughed vilely. "Six hundred years of history and they all get wiped out in a single surprise attack! And boy, let me tell ya, the whole town was pissed! If hatred were a weapon we'd all be in our graves right now!"
"Who were these people? Wh-what did they do?" Aedan's voice almost cracked
"I'll tell ya what they did, boy. They was on the wrong side at the wrong time." Cormyn seemed to get some kind of sick pleasure from Aedan's shock. He put his muscled arm around Aedan's shoulder familiarly and pointed to the rotting heads. "Take a look! That one there was called Ser Gilmore, I think. He was the captain of the guard, for all the good he did. That old biddy was the Cousland's nanny or something. And that other one was Mother Mallol, the family's Chantry mother. Couldn't call on the Maker's protection when they needed it, it seems."
"And you killed them?" Aedan asked as his voice returned.
"Well. After a long, and enjoyable stay in Howe's dungeons we did. Such a shame you weren't here then. We had all kinds of fun playing with these two while they was still kicking and screaming." Cormyn bragged. Everyone in the room was disgusted by him.
"And that last one?" Aedan pointed at the giant, severed skull. "Did you torture him to death, too?"
"Him!? You don't take a rabid beast home to yer mum, ya put it down!" Cormyn guffawed. "That there was Ser Argyle! The master-at-arms to the Cousland family, and right royal nightmare!"
"How did he die, then?"
"With difficulty!" The ugly knight bragged. "Let me tell you son, you'd never in yer whole life seen such a nightmare! If the Maker had ever created a cross between man and beast this was it! With that damned maul of his he cut down and smashed dozens of our soldiers, maybe even a hundred in one bleedin' night! It wasn't until the sorry bastard was a pin cushion full of arrows and exhausted was I able to get behind the shaved bear and chop his damn head off. And it was hard, too! Almost broke me sword hacking on his thick neck!"
The light and anger was starting to return to Aedan's eyes, but Cormyn was too full of himself to see it. "Why do you have their heads hanging here?"
"Oh, that was Howe's little stroke of genius." The soon to be dead man answered obnoxiously. "He hung them here himself to tell our new recruits how we deal with those who defy Howe and side with his enemies. And as a little sport we make bets to see if anyone can lift that damn Argyle's maul of the ground without being crushed by it." All of Aedan's companions could feel the murder build up inside Aedan. Like a bubbling cauldron left over a raging fire.
"And no one's been able to pull it off?"
"Ha! It took me and three of our strongest survivors to carry that thing here!" Cormyn scoffed. "I doubt anyone but that filth-loving, freak of nature, Argyle, could ever use such a weapon. Let alone lift it."
It took every fiber of Leliana's being to prevent her from crying at all of this atrocity. How could anyone inflict such pain on good people whose only crime was doing their duty, let alone laugh about it!? The Maker stands in judgment of all in the hereafter, but these deviants were a blemish in His sight and deserved Aedan's judgment now.
Wynne saw the horror in Aedan's eyes and felt her heart break for him, and this disgusting excuse for a sentient being filled her up with a rage she had never felt before. Now she truly did understand Aedan's lust for revenge and could no longer fault it. The only thing she could hope for was that Aedan didn't become that which he despised.
Oghren understood the Warden's feelings of anger and betrayal, the same kind he felt when Branka sacrificed their whole clan in deep roads, turning their men into ghoul fodder and their women into 'spawn spitters. Though what Branka did, no matter how screwed up it was, she did to possess the single greatest artifact in their race's history so that it may regain their empire's glory. But this nug-humper, Howe, did it to steal riches that weren't his and to prove that his pie-prodder was the biggest around. Warden what every your thinking about doin', make it long, make loud, make it last. Oghren thoug
ht to himself.
Sten had seen sights like this before in Seheron, the Tevinters would do this as an intimidation tactic on the Qunari. It never worked. The husks of the slain served no purpose, and the dead are meant to rot and be devoured by the scavengers of the earth. Sten never understood why the bas always thought desecrating the bodies of their enemies was so infuriating. What he did understand, though, was that you do not suffer betrayal, especially when someone seeks to do it only for his own advancement. Gaining a higher standing is meant to be earned not stolen, and these poor fools have insulted the wrong bas. And now their end will be excruciating.
Zevran was familiar with sightings like this. In Antiva princes, merchants and the Crows, of course, would do this as a way to show what happens to those who cross the path of those more powerful than they are. They, however, had never met Aedan. He could see that Aedan was ready to commit murders so Zevran deftly began sliding out one of his daggers and walked behind one of the guards. He'd let the Warden have this revolting excuse for a master-at-arms and couldn't wait to see what kind of a mess he'd make out his body.
Alistair could feel Aedan's anger as well. He could feel his own arm tighten on the grip of Katriel, however, it would be his fellow Warden to have vengeance on these bastards. Alistair felt the same feelings as Aedan when he saw the abused and rotting remains of Cailan at Ostargar. But what the darkspawn did is in their very nature, what these cretins did is terrible and just plain…evil! Normally Alistair would try to convince Aedan not to do anything rash, but if he wanted to take his vengeance out all of these sons-of-bitches he wasn't going to stop him.
Morrigan never had a family, in fact it was something she thought she never really needed. Flemeth taught her that coddling ones offspring was a weakness that crippled most people. But being around Aedan made her realize that Flemeth was wrong about many things. Aedan was the strongest, best man she had ever met, and he credited everything he was to his family. It was this love of his family that made him fight on when other men would have been broken. And these men blatantly desecrated the remains of his family member like some kind of sick trophies. It was now that Morrigan truly understood the reason behind Aedan's strength and will to persevere: where there was loss, there is also revenge.
Aedan approached the desecrated heads of his family's most loyal vassals with burning tears of hatred streaming down his face. How dare they commit such atrocities against such noble people and then call them the traitors!? Aedan's purpose for being here melted away, all his sense and reason was overpowered by the raw, seething hatred and vengeance that was possessing him like a ravenous demon!
"Please! I beg you." Erlina pleaded quietly. "Do not place my lady's life in danger for your revenge."
But Aedan could not hear her. Everything was being drowned out by the sound of Aedan's pounding heart and tensing muscles as his hand glided on to the shaft of the Bear's Maul. Aedan's eyes burned red as his reaver abilities flared, and his heart flared with rage as his berserker instincts prepared to kick in. Nothing else mattered: not the queen, not the darkspawn or the Blight. Aedan had only one purpose for existing now.
"By the way, boy." Cormyn called. "What was your name?"
"Aedan…." The Warden seethed hatefully.
"Aedan…what? You got a last name attached to that?"
"COUSLAAANNND!" Aedan screamed as he ripped Argyle's axe off the ground with one hand he effortlessly swung the huge axe head down below the hideous bastard's knees, cleaving his legs clean off!
Cormyn fell back on the ground, his arms flaying around furiously in pain, the stumps that used to be his legs were kicking about in great speed as blood spurted out like a fountain. Aedan wasn't done with this miserable cur just yet. Aedan stomped his foot into the screaming man's gut to keep him still for the coup-de-gras. "W-wait! Please, wait!" Cormyn begged. The last thing the ugly knight saw was the hammer coming down on his repugnant face. The hammer crushed his skull with a sickening… "CRUNCH!"
"RRRAAAARRRRGHHH!" the furious Warden roared like the choirs of hell as he laid waste to every soldier in the armory like a possessed rage demon! Zevran slit the throat of the guard he was behind while Alistair and Sten cleaved the others with their swords. Lelian accurately shot arrows into the oncoming guards as Wynne set up protection spells on her allies and Morrigan brought down lightning on their foes. Erlina crouched down in fear, covering her eyes and ears from the bloodshed happening in front of her.
The aura emanating from Aedan burned like a crucible of red and black as he reigned down destruction and gory horror on anyone foolish enough to get in his path. "Wh-what in sweet Andraste's name is that!?" One of the guards cried as the man-shaped slaughter-house made his way down the hall. "Kill it!" they cried. The Warden swung the axe and hammer heads back and forth at anything that was breathing in front of him, screaming like a madman and frothing like a rabid dog!
Three more of Howe's men charged Aedan with swords and frightened cries. The enraged Warden swung the maul's axe head in wide arc across all three men's torsos. The axe head sliced through their armor like paper and spilled their intestines like a sack full of sausages! All three crumpled to the ground screaming in ungodly agony, trying to hold their guts in their bodies as they slowly bled to death.
Another guard, a big ape of a man with a greatsword, attacked Aedan with an overhead strike. Aedan blocked the sword strike with the shaft of the maul and kicked the guard so hard in the crotch Aedan felt his testicles pop underneath his mailed boot! The man doubled over screaming a falsetto while clutching his ruined genitals. Aedan brought the hammerhead down and squashed his screaming head like a grape!
Aedan Cousland would not be stopped, he would no longer be denied. He strode down the halls killing everything that was breathing in front of him. In the trail behind him, he left behind a wave of cleaved torsos, smashed skulls, severed heads and broken bodies. Those few sane enough to not challenge him begged for mercy. Aedan granted none. Aedan licked the blood from his lips and pressed forward.
Anora couldn't believe what she was hearing outside. What was going on? It sounded as if a crazed beast was attacking the manor. Anora pressed her ear as close to the enchanted door as she could to listen to what was happening, but all she could hear was the panicked screams of Howe's men and sickening sound of flesh and bone being carved. Suddenly there was a loud *thump!* against the door, like someone's body had been thrown against it. Anora listened to what sounded like a grown man whimpering and heavy footsteps approaching. "P-please! Please!" the man on the other side of the door begged and sobbed. "I had nothing to do with what happened at Highever! I just work for—eeeghaahh!" Anora covered her mouth and tried to remain silent as the sound of a blade carving flesh was followed by painful screams. The screams soon turned into a long, disgusting gurgle as the man's life slowly left his body and his blood began seeping under the doorway, staining Anora's dress where she kneeled. What was out there? For the first time in her life, Anora was utterly afraid. "My lady? My lady!" cried a familiar Orlesian accent. Erlina?
"My lady, I have brought the Grey Wardens!" The elf called out faithfully.
Anora breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank the Maker! I would greet properly…" the queen called trying to sound confident. "But I'm afraid we've had a major setback."
"Where is Howe?" Growled a menacing but familiar voice.
Strange. Didn't this man care about what kind of setback they had? "My 'host' was not content with keeping me under lock and key, so he had a mage enchant the door so that only he can open it."
"And?" The same voice asked uncaringly.
"You need to find the mage, who will most likely be at Howe's side, to disable the magic." Anora explained.
"Howe has a mage with him? Good that will make thing more...entertaining."
Anora could scarcely believe her ears. "Entertaining? Who am I talking to?"
"I am Aedan Cousland." The voice finally answered. "Now just wait here a moment, Anora. I have busine
ss to take care of."
Anora listened to Aedan footsteps trail off and wet sound they made as the stepped in the blood of his victims. That was Aedan Cousland? She could barely believe it. She hoped to the Maker that Aedan would do what was best. But still she hoped he would give that bastard Howe exactly what he deserved.
Aedan and the others busted into Howe's lavished bedchamber only to find it empty. "Search the place." Aedan ordered. "See if you can find anything of use, or explaining Loghain's plan."
"Look here!" Alistair called with some sheets of papers in his hand. Papers bearing the Seal of The Grey Wardens. "I recognize these missives. These were signed by the members of the Order from Orlais."
"Hold on to those, Alistair. They may be important later."
On the far side of Howe's room was a steel door that lead downward. Down into the dungeons. Aedan could smell the sickly scent of death and deviance in the air coming from that place. The walked down and found a single guard standing post in front of a cell. "What in the name of…!?" Before the guard could register what was happening a pair of strong arms emerged from the cell behind him and expertly snapped his neck like a dried out twig. The owner of those hands grabbed the keys to his cell and out emerged a seasoned, but strong looking man with long hair and a peppered beard. "You have now idea the music a set tumbling locks sounds like when you've been in cell as I have been." The man stated in a light Orlesian accent.
"Wait, I know him!" Alistair announced excitedly. "He was one of the Wardens at my Joining."
"Yes, Alistair, I remember you, though we have not been formally introduced. I am Riordan. Warden of Jader and liaison of the Wardens of Orlais." The man introduced formally.
"How is it you were not killed at Ostagar?" Wynne asked.
"Because I was not there. When the Blight began I was stationed in Val Chevin. We were to bring all of the Warden of Orlais and our support troops to aid King Cailan against the the darkspawn. When we arrived at the border Teryn Loghain's forces had barred from entering, and that's when we learned that the Grey Wardens were being blamed for the failure at Ostagar. We decided to send someone to find out the truth so that we might still end the Blight before it spill out of Ferelden's borders. As a native of Ferelden I volunteered." Riordan explained.