Dragon Age: Origins | The story behind Cousland

Chapter 18- A Paragon of her kind

Chapter 18- A Paragon of her kind

"Let me be blunt with you," A dwarven woman, Branka most probably, says. "After all this time, my tolerance for social graces is fairly limited. That doesn't bother you, I hope."

Oghren laughs. "Shave my back and call me an elf! Branks? By the Stone, I barley recognized you!"

The woman sighs. "Oghren. It figures you'd eventually find your way here. Hopefully, you can find your way back more easily." She then proceeds to look at me. "And how shall I address you? Hired sword of the latest lordling to come looking for me? Or just the only one who didn't mind Oghren's ale-breath?"

I open my mouth to answer, but Oghren stops me. "Be respectful, woman! You're talking to a Grey Warden!" I brush my brown hair out of my way and deeply blush.

"Ah, so an important errand boy, then. I suppose something serious has happened. Is Endrin dead? That seems most likely. He was on the old wheezy side."

I raise my eyebrows. "How do you know I'm not just helping Oghren?"

"Because nobody helps Oghren. At best, Oghren's need to find me happened to coincide with the needs of someone more important."

Oghren scoffs. "You are impossible! This Grey Warden's come all the way from the surface to ask your help picking Endrin's successor."

"I don't care if the Assembly puts a drunken monkey on the throne. Because our protector, our great 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 means by which the ancients forged their army of golems and held off the first archdemon ever to rise. It's here. So close I can taste it."

I glance at Alistair and then look back at Branka. "But of course, there is a catch."

"The Anvil lies on the other side of a gauntlet of traps designed by Caridin himself. My people and I have given body and souls to unlocking its secrets. This is what's important. Kings, politics... all that is transitory. I've given up everything and would sacrifice anything to get the Anvil of the Void."

I sadly sigh. "Does that include Hespith and the others of your house?"

"Enough questions! If you wish me to get involved with this imbecilic election, I must fist have the Anvil. There is only one way... Warden. Through Caridin's maze."

I nod my head. "Then come with us." She gets down from the rocks and starts to follow us. Alistair grabs my hand and smiles at me. I flash him with a bright smile, but when I turn my face back to the road I have to bite my lip so I won't cry. Everybody's right. We shouldn't be together, it's wrong, really wrong. I deeply sigh and look at the maze. "It looks like we need to turn the valves in some order," I mutter and look at them. "I remember my Nana, she would always make me do puzzles, so maybe I can solve this one too." I start to examine them. Then it clicked. "This is a story! We must turn the valves in the order of the story." I say and look for the first valve. "The first dwarven kingdom was founded in a time beyond even the history kept by the Shaperate." I turn this one, a lock from the door falling.

"I think I found the next one," Alistair says. "Beneath the there are also which displayed cultural practices that are completely foreign to the dwarves, such as the construction of temples and the veneration of a pantheon of deities." I nod at him to turn it. Another lock fell.