The Deep roads entrance was deep in a huge ravine, the only way down across a rickety bridge that hung over an enormous chasm.
“I fell down a set of stairs once,” Nathaniel said, looking down into the chasm. “They looked rather like that set,” he pointed to the stairs that wound down the side of the ravine.
“Hopefully, none of you is clumsy enough to fall,” Kitranna said. Even so, they moved very carefully down into the pit. The ruins looked strange under the light of the sun, the chasm looking almost like a wound gouged in the ground.
They could all feel darkspawn nearby, and as they went further down, the chasm turned into a proper cave. They found a group of darkspawn dragging a dwarrowdam in heavy plate armor down the tunnel. She managed to kick off the darkspawn holding her and snatch an ax from off the ground. Kitranna and her group moved quickly to assist, and dispatched the darkspawn.
The woman's chest heaved and she took off her helmet to get a better look at them. She had black hair and Legion of the Dead tattoos on her face, and there was a Casteless brand on her cheek.
“Well,” she said, out of breath. “That was...close. For a moment there I thought I really was going to join the Legion of the Dead.”
“You alright?” Kitranna asked, putting her weapon away.
“Might have cracked a rib, but it's hard to be sure,” with a wince, she pressed a hand to her side. “Everything hurts.”
“Anders?” Kitranna said.
“On it,” Anders moved forward, hands already lit with a healing spell.
“I'm fine,” the woman protested. “I just need to catch my breath...”
“You need a lot more than that,” Anders said with a frown. “Let me deal with that cracked rib before it punctures a lung.”
“I did crack it? Dammit...no wonder it's so hard to breathe...” the woman sighed, and Anders guided her to sit down so he could heal her.
“What's your name?” Nathaniel asked.
“Sigrun,” she said. “I can't stay here, I need to head back--”
“Back where?” Kitranna asked. “What are you doing here?”
“The old fortress of Kal'hirol,” Sigrun explained. “There's something going on there. I think the darkspawn are breeding an army.”
Kitranna sighed. “That's just what we needed,”
Sigrun nodded. “My Legion contingent went to investigate, but Kal'hirol was...too much for us,” she looked at the ground. “It was a massacre. And now I...I'm the only one left.”
Kitranna cracked her knuckles. “S'pose I have to clean that up then,” she said with a grimace.
“What?” Sigrun moved to stand up, but Anders pushed her back down. “Don't—the darkspawn have changed, they're smart now! They destroyed the Legion forces, you can't--”
“I know they're smart,” Kitranna said. “Dealt with a talking one just a few weeks ago.”
“They took some of the women,” Sigrun insisted. Kitranna scowled.
“Dammit,” she ground her teeth. “Broodmothers, you think?”
“I know,” Sigrun growled. “I wasn't gonna stick around for that.”
“Smart.” Kitranna nodded, and looked down the tunnel. “You said they're smart, too? How smart? Like I said, we dealt with a talking one--”
“Did I mention Kal'hirol is a death trap?” Sigrun said. “Why do you want to go down there?”
“I'm a Gray Warden. It's my job to deal with this kind of shit.”
Sigrun shook her head. “Well—if you're going, I have to come with you.” she glanced at Anders. “You about done there?”
“Almost,” Anders said. “You're lucky you didn't get Tainted.”
Sigrun snorted. “That'll probably change soon.”
“Are you sure you want to come?” Nathaniel asked. “You do not have to--”
Sigrun shook her head. “Darkspawn, if left to their own devices, get up to all kinds of nonsense. These more than most.”
“That's definitely true,” Kitranna said.
Anders finished healing Sigrun and she stood up and put her helmet back on. “Come on,” she said. “Let's not waste any time.”
Sigrun lead them down into the ruins. The way to Kal'hirol was long, and the closer they got, the stronger the feeling of darkspawn was. Nathaniel, Anders and Oghren were all jumpy and kept flinching at shadows, but Kitranna knew that the darkspawn weren't on top of them just yet.
They came to an enormous cave, the ceiling so high that there was a fissure through which sunlight shone through. Despite the sunlight there were no plants or even moss, as there were clear signs of darkspawn encampment.
They stood on a ledge overlooking the ruins of a vast thaig, which must have been Kal'hirol.
“I don't know much about Kal'hirol, except what the others in the Legion told me,” Sigrun said, as they looked out over the ruins. “It used to be important—a center of learning for the smith caste.” she kicked at the ground. “When the fortress was lost, a lot of what they knew was lost too. They've never built anything quite like Kal'hirol since.”
“That's what all the smiths say, I'm guessin'?” Oghren asked.
“That's what the Legion said,”
Oghren grunted and waved a hand. “They always go on about how great the old thaigs used to be—trust me, they ain't missing much.”
Kitranna snorted. “Just because Branka lost it doesn't mean that everything that was forgotten is like that,” she said.
“Branka?” Sigrun looked at them curiously. “Paragon Branka?”
Kitranna nodded, and the group began to pick their way down into the ruins.
“Yeah, Paragon Branka,” Oghren said. “She went hunting for the Anvil of the Void—just about went crazy lookin' for it.”
“Wait...” Sigrun peered at Kitranna. “You aren't that crazy Warden who came from Orzammar to find Branka a few months back, are you?”
“Exactly so,” Kitranna said with a scowl. “That's me. The crazy Warden.”
“Sorry,” Sigrun raised her hands. “It's just—you went across the Trenches by yourself, right?”
“Not by myself!”
“Yeah—I was there too!” Oghren said.
Sigrun looked at Oghren. “Please tell me it wasn't just you two,” she said.
“No, no,” Kitranna explained, lending Sigrun a hand to help her down the cliff. “We had a whole party come with. And it worked out—no one died but Branka.”
They came to the bottom of the cliff, and spotted a lone dwarf on the ground.
“Jukka!” Sigrun cried, and hurried to his side. The others followed her. “Healer--” Sigrun looked at Anders. “He's hurt, bad—can you help?”
Anders kneeled down beside Sigrun and Jukka. “I'll try...” he looked doubtful.
“Sig...Sigrun...” Jukka croaked.
Sigrun put a hand on Jukka's shoulder. “It's me,” she said. “Be still, let the healer help.”
“Is there anyone else left from the Legion?” Kitranna asked. “Any other survivors?”
“No,” Jukka gasped. “No, no one—you must listen,” he reached out and grabbed Sigrun's shoulder. “There are—Broodmothers. They are breeding—I saw an army—you must stop them--!”
Anders pursed his lips, the glow of his healing spell growing more intense. He met Kitranna's eyes and shook his head.
“Beware the Children,” Jukka warned. “They are abominations, even among darkspawn...”
“The Children are here, too?” Nathaniel said, exchanging a concerned look with Kitranna. “This bodes ill.”
“What?” Sigrun looked from Jukka to Nathaniel, confused. “What Children? Whose Children?”
“Forgive me,” Jukka breathed. His breath rattled in his throat, and Anders pulled back, expression downcast. Jukka collapsed, dead.
“Ancestors look kindly on you, brother,” Sigrun murmured, then got to her feet. “We have to finish what the Legion started,” she told Kitranna.
“I'm pretty well aware of that,” Kitranna said. “How many Broodmothers d'you think there are?” she asked, and they began making their way deeper into the ruins.
“Too many,” Sigrun growled.
“A single one of those things is too many,” Kitranna said.
Before they could say anything else, they were swarmed by a group of darkspawn. There were no Children among them, and with the addition of Justice and Sigrun, they dispatched them more quickly than they would have otherwise.
“The Legion trains its people well, I see,” Nathaniel said, when they had finished, sheathing his blade.
“Oh, they taught me a few tricks, but I was fighting long before then,” Sigrun said, putting her ax on her back.
“Oh?” Nathaniel peered at her. “You fought in Orzammar's army?”
Sigru snorted. “Fighting for scraps of food,” she snapped. “For a place to sleep. For survival.”
“Oh...” Nathaniel was taken aback. “I—I didn't mean--”
“It's alright,” Sigrun assured him. “You're a noble.” her voice had a bitter edge to it.
“You Casteless, then?” Kitranna asked. “I saw the brand, but I wasn't sure.”
Sigrun nodded. “Yeah.”
“Casteless?” Justice spoke up for the first time, his thrumming voice making Sigrun jump. “What does that mean?”
“It means that me and my family don't have a caste,” Sigrun explained, peering at Justice curiously. “We aren't supposed to be part of dwarven society. We can't get jobs or buy houses or even go to places where someone who has a caste could.”
Justice nodded. “I see...” his expression was drawn, as he was clearly deep in thought.
The ruins of Kal'hirol were enormous, sprawling even wider than Orzammar. Darkspawn had taken up residence amidst the ruins, and the Veil was frayed and tattered in places. They picked through the ruins for an hour before coming to the main gate, the official entrance to the Thaig. The ruins outside were merely spillover from the old Thaig.
“The Legion got this far with no trouble,” Sigrun said as they approached the stairs that lead to the gate. She shook her head. “We got careless, and complacent. We stormed the main entrance, up those stairs. It was a disaster. The darkspawn were waiting—they turned the Thaig's old defenses against us.”
“Clever,” Anders muttered. “Not really something I like to hear in relation to darkspawn.”
“Is there another way in?” Kitranna asked. “Sounds like we should avoid the main gate.”
“Most of the old fortresses have hidden side entrances,” Sigrun said. “I bet this one does too, we just need to find it.”
Kitranna nodded. Neither Oghren nor Sigrun had any idea where the hidden entrance could be, so the group searched the courtyard. They hadn't been there for more than a few minutes before they were swarmed by Children, but fortunately, they were not so difficult to dispatch.
“You wanted to know what the Children were?” Kitranna said to Sigrun, pointing at one of the things with her sword. “That's what the Children are.”
Sigrun grimaced. “Never seen a darkspawn like that before...”
“Me either, not until the Blackmarsh,” Kitranna said. “Now you can't walk ten paces without tripping on the damn things.”
They searched the courtyard, some more, and Oghren noticed that one of the carvings on the walls had an odd look to it. He pressed down on the carving's face, and a door slid out of the wall.
“Heh,” Oghren grunted. “Secret doors. Always useful for sneakin' out without the wife noticing.”
“Not like that's too relevant now, though, right?” Kitranna said, clapping him on the back. “Come on.”
They walked down through a tunnel that reeked of darkspawn filth, and emerged into a larger series of halls filled with darkspawn and ancient traps. They cut their way through the darkspawn (Nathaniel helpfully disarming the traps), making slow progress through the tunnels. In addition to the darkspawn, both Kitranna and Anders could feel lyrium somewhere, the feel of magic making the back of their throats taste electric and the air strange.
The mood was tense. No one spoke much, and everyone jumped at shadows. The Keep had been thoroughly colonized by the darkspawn, and the tunnels reeked of blood and old meat. The further they went, the hotter it got.
Eventually they began to hear a strange sound—a clash of metal on metal, but with a peculiar, echoing quality that didn't sound quite right. The Veil began to wear very thin, so thin that Kitranna could feel the press of spirits upon it.
They came across an enormous hall, lit lyrium blue, and populated with dozens of dwarven ghosts, all locked in combat.
Everyone was silent for a minute.
“I've...never seen anything like this before,” Sigrun breathed.
“I have,” Kitranna said, remembering the ghosts in the Brecelian. “But not with dwarves.”
“They say the Stone remembers everything, that the memories are forever,” Sigrun said, not taking her eyes off of the phantom figures. “Is this what they mean?”
They walked through the crowd, but the ghostly dwarves paid them no mind. They came to a large gathering of dwarves, standing before a speaker.
Despite the insubstantial quality of his body, the speaker's voice was loud and clear, sounding as if he were flesh and blood. “For generations they have told you that you were nothing!” he boomed. “Swept you away like so much dust!” the speaker gestured, pointing out to the cavern below. “Now you are the only thing standing between them and the darkspawn that threaten our empire!” the speaker raised a fist. “Show them that you are not nothing! Show them that you can be warriors! Let the Stone tremble with the thunder of your footsteps!”
Sigrun looked up at the speaker, a pensive expression on her face. If one looked closely, one could just make out the Casteless brand on the ghost's face.
“You said you saw something like this before?” She asked Kitranna, not looking away from the ghost.
Kitranna nodded. “In the Brecelian—in an elvhen burial ground. There were ghosts there too, but not like this.”
“How were they different?”
“They didn't play out scenes, and it was just two. They knew when you were there and they didn't like it.”
“There was the Blackmarsh as well,” Nathaniel pointed out.
“Those weren't ghosts,” Anders corrected. “Those were spirits who had the memories of the people who lived there.”
“Maybe the Stone does remember everythin', like they always said,” Oghren suggested.
“I don't know,” Sigrun looked troubled. “Come on—let's keep going.”
They pushed forward, further into the ruins, and encountered more ghosts.
“They're gone!” a pale figure darted from one wall to the next, to meet another figure in the middle. “Everyone's gone! They've abandoned the Thaig! We have to follow—we can't stay here and get eaten by those monsters!”
“But this is our home!” the other figure protested. “We can't survive out there!”
“We can't survive here, either...”
“The Legion didn't know anything about this?” Kitranna asked in a quiet voice. Sigrun shook her head.
“No,” she said. “Nothing. I've never heard of this before.”
There were more ghosts, silent and locked in battle, and more darkspawn as well. As well as Children and Tainted spiders, they also met one or two of the talking darkspawn, but managed to beat them with little difficulty.
In the ruins of an empty house, they found another pair of ghosts arguing with each other.
“Mother, please! You can't leave me here!”
“Watch your little brother,” the other figure said, strapping a sword clumsily onto their hip. “Keep him quiet.”
“Mother—please, you don't know how to fight!”
“Oh, I've been in my share of scrapes over the years.”
The other figure let out a sob.
“Chin up, girl,” the mother said. “Someone must fend off the darkspawn. Dailan says that if we do then the Ancestors will look kindly upon us and...and forgive us.”
“We never did anything but be born,” Sigrun murmured, watching the figures. “It's not our fault.”
They came across more ghosts than darkspawn at this point. There was an armorer talking to a group of prospective warriors.
“These weapons were taken from the armories of Kal'hirol!” she said. “I ask only for volunteers who would rather die fighting than give in!”
The crowd before the armorer was uneasy.
“Sod off!” someone shouted. “You people left us for dead!”
“We should just take your weapons, and kill you instead!” someone else called.
“Then you will go to your graves knowing you murdered the one person who thought you worthy to defend Kal'hirol!” the armorer said, unafraid. “Do you want that?” she demanded. “Or do you want to prove your worth?”
“The defense didn't do much, did it?” Anders said, glancing around at the ruins.
“Not enough, no,” Sigrun said. “Not really.”
Further inside, they came across a pair of arguing ghosts.
“Those bastards left us for dead, and he wants us to defend their escape?” one of them said to his companion.
“Ah,” Nathaniel said. “So that was that the attack was for. Not a defense of their city—but merely a way for everyone else to escape.”
“We're going to die anyway,” the other ghostly figure said. “Dailan is giving us a chance to prove we're not worthless!”
“But we're not worthless,” Sigrun muttered, her lip curled.
“You're full of sod, duster,” he first speaker said. “Some of us are going to try to make it to the Surface. You in?”
“No—I'm going to do something right for once in my life!”
Sigrun shook her head, and they moved on. They came across more ghosts, more clashing of phantom steel, and more darkspawn.
Eventually, they came upon a most curious sight—two groups of darkspawn fighting each other.
“Press the attack!” Bellowed a darkspawn in armor similar to what the First had worn. “The Lost is mine!”
The darkspawn were scattered, many too busy fighting each other to even notice Kitranna and her group, and they continued on even deeper into the ruins. They found more ghosts—the end result of a fight with an ogre, more arguing, fearful and brave endings both.
Somewhere in the depths, they found an ancient worn plaque.
“May the Stone remember the defenders of Kal'hirol,'” Sigrun read. “'Who were born Casteless and died Warriors.” she knelt down next to the stone. “Died warriors?” she murmured. “He wanted them to be remembered as warriors. Warrior caste. And look..” she pointed. “He carved their names into the stone. Every last one.” she stood up and shook her head. “We can't just leave this here. We have to find some way to honor the memory of those who died here.”
“Sure, but be quick,” Kitranna said. “The longer we take here, the less I like it.”
“The fate of these people...was it just?” Justice asked Sigrun.
“I don't really know what you mean,” Sigrun said.
“Was it right that they had to stay and fight, instead of be with the rest of the city? It was brave, true, but was it just?”
“Doesn't sound like it,” Anders piped up. “I don't know a lot about dwarves, but that doesn't sound very fair to me.”
“It wasn't,” Sigrun said. “It isn't. It's not fair at all.” she shook her head. “But the Blight's not there to be fair.” she sighed as she looked at the tablet. It was very large, too big to fit in anyone's pack. “I can't carry this,” she said. “But—I can't just leave it here...”
“We could take rubbings,” Kitranna said. “Anyone have some extra parchment they're not using?”
“I do,” Anders said, handing Sigrun a sheaf of parchment and a stick of crumbling charcoal. “There, use that.”
“Thanks,” Sigrun accepted the implements and did a quick rubbing of the tablet, then folded the parchment over and opened her bag to put it in. “I hope it'll be safe in there...” she muttered.
“Here,” Nathaniel handed her an extra oilskin cloak that he had in his own pack. “Wrap it in this, then it shan't get wet.”
Sigrun beamed at him and wrapped the parchment up. “Thanks,” she said. She sighed. “I just don't know who'll take this...I can't exactly go to the Shaper or anything...”
“Worry about that later,” Kitranna snapped. “We need to get moving now.”
Sigrun nodded. “Sure thing.”
The feel of darkspawn was even stronger now, though one hardly needed to be a Warden to tell that. However, as often as they ran into hostile darkspawn, they ran into darkspan who were too busy fighting each other to bother with the Wardens.
Strangely, they heard the noise of a human voice, not a ghost or another darkspawn. They found a man who was trapped in a cage suspended over a firepit. He had been abandoned by the feuding darkspawn, it seemed.
“Thank the Maker! It's a relief to see someone who isn't one of those...monsters!” he said when Kitranna approached his cage.
“Nathaniel,” Kitranna said. “Help me get him out, would you?”
Nathaniel set to work on the lock.
“Why haven't they killed him yet?” Oghren demanded. “Why is he just there in that...cage? What's he doin' here in the first place?”
“Broodmother food?” Kitranna suggested. “You remember—they don't always kill what they eat.”
The man paled visibly. “I overheard Colbert talking about this chasm, and I thought I'd—I thought I'd come and sneak past the darkspawn to see if there was any treasure.”
“Looks like we just so happened to find a card-carrying member of the Moron Brigade,” Kitranna sneered as Nathaniel finally got the door open and the man stumbled out of the cage. “What were you thinking, going down into darkspawn territory?” she demanded of the man. “Sneak past them—Maker, why didn't I think of that!”
“Look—I did find something!” the man said.
“You thief!” Sigrun exclaimed. “Whatever you found doesn't belong to you—it belongs to the dwarven people!”
“Well they weren't here to defend it!” the man protested. “It's not stealin' if they've abandoned it!”
“No, then it's just grave robbing.”
“Look—you can have it if you want!” the man said. He pulled something out of his pocket and shoved it into Sigrun's hands. “My life en't worth this!” he ran past them, hopefully out to the surface.
“What did he give you?” Kitranna asked.
Sigrun showed them—a small tile with a flaming sigil on it that felt keenly of magic. “A rune,” she said.
“Looks like a masterwork rune,” Oghren said.
“Wonder what he could have done with this?” Anders asked. “I mean—he didn't look like much of a fighter, did he?”
“He could've sold it,” Sigrun said, pocketing the rune.
“Fair point.”
“Why did the darkspawn leave him alive?” Justice asked suddenly. He was staring at the empty cage. “Do you know?”
“No idea,” Kitranna said. “They've been weird for months, though. Keeping people alive is just a small part of a bigger issue.”
“Like the talking,” Sigrun said.
“Yeah, like that.”
Near the man's cage, they found a smithing anvil, entirely intact. Surprising, considering that all the other anvils and smithing tools they had come across had all been damaged in some way.
Oghren touched the anvil's surface. “Must be pretty old,” he grunted. “They make 'em differently these days.” he snorted. “Branka explained it to me once, but I'll be a nug's uncle if I can remember what she said. Crazy harpy.”
Kitranna patted him on the shoulder. “Come on,” she said. “Doesn't help to think on bad memories—especially not here.”
“I know, I know...” Oghren sighed, and they moved on.
Beyond the room with the cage was a tunnel that smelled strongly of meat. Darkspawn influence was very clear here, as there were meat-like growths on the walls and the Taint was so strong it was almost tangible. More Children attacked them, these ones larger and harder to kill than ones previous. They had long, many-jointed legs that they could stand on instead of scurrying on the ground, and when they were upright, they were the size of a cow.
Sigrun shook her head and wiped her face when they finished fighting them. “These things...” she muttered.
“Pretty disgusting, that's for sure,” Anders said, sidestepping the corpse of one of the Children with a disgusted look on his face. “Glad I don't have to get too close.”
“We are in agreement there,” Nathaniel said, putting another arrow to his bow, just in case.
Sigrun looked around at the walls. “Look what they've done,” she said, waving at the growths encompassing the ruins. “This is—horrible.”
“Haven't you seen this kind of thing before?” Anders asked. “You're with the Legion, right?”
“It's different, seeing it like this,” Sigrun said as they moved on. “Down in the Deep Roads—I don't know. There aren't any of these Children things, or the weird growths, or...” she heaved a sigh. “It's just different.”
The continued on, finding more Children and more quarreling darkspawn. Eventually they came to a long, long tunnel, where water dripped down the walls and weak sunlight shone through cracks in the ceiling.
At the end of the tunnel, two darkspawn and an enormous golem fought, the golem slamming one of the darkspawn down and then lifting him up by the scruff of his neck.
“The Architect sends many but does not come himself!” croaked the darkspawn still standing, stepping forward. “He is a coward! I will kill you, and he will know that he has failed to destroy the Lost! He will know that the Mother will tear him apart!”
At that, the golem ripped the darkspawn it was holding in half, and the remaining darkspawn finally became aware of Kitranna and her group.
“Who comes now?” he screeched, his voice worn and cracked as if he were unused to speaking. “I can feel you—I can smell you! You are no darkspawn! What trickery is he planning?”
“What is he going on about?” Anders asked.
“Does it matter?” Nathaniel muttered.
“Well, it might--”
Anders was cut off as the Lost shrieked “You will die, as all those who serve the Architect will die! The Mother demands it!”
The ensuing fight was exhausting. The golem was slow and clumsy, whoever controlling it not very adept, but it was hotter than an oven, too hot to get near, and arrows had no impact. The Lost was a mage, and excelled in throwing non-magical fighters away from him. Kitranna and Anders, as the only two mages, were split between hurling spells at the golem and shielding their companions long enough for them to get a shot at the Lost.
It was Justice who brought the Lost down, getting close enough to jam a blade through the darkspawn's chest, but the golem took longer.
Finally, both were dead.
“Must have been protecting the Broodmothers,” Sigrun gasped as she hefted her bloody ax onto her back. “Now we just have to finish them off.”
“You say that like it's easy,” Kitranna said. She and Oghren exchanged a look. “More than one...” she pursed her lips, then nodded. “You're right—come on, let's finish with this.”
They went down the tunnel where they suspectd the Broodmothers lay, and the smell of flesh and darkspawn grew even more strong.
At one point along the tunnel, several writing tentacles burst from the wall to try and ensnare them. Though they were easily dispatched, their presence was alarming.
Kitranna stared down at one of the chunks of dead meat, then exchanged a dark look with Oghren.
“Broodmothers,” Oghren growled.
“Yeah,” Kitranna gritted. “Come on.”
The Broodmothers writhed and shrieked at the bottom of a deep pit, too far for Kitranna's group to actually reach them. Even spells would have little effect, as the impact would be scattered and diminished.
“How do we get at them?” Anders said, staring down into the pit. Idly, he sent an arcane bolt down into the pit, where it hit one of the Broodmothers but didn't do much damage. “Nasty things, aren't they?”
“I don't want to look too close,” Sigrun said, peering over the edge with a wince, then drawing back. “What if one of them is someone I once knew?”
Nathaniel looked down into the pit, then up, to where there was an enormous, precarious metal object suspended on chains.
“There,” he pointed. “Maybe if we drop that, we can get them.” he said, then pointed to the chains connecting the metal thing (it looked like an old, out of use lamp or container of some kind) to the walls.
They set to work snapping the chains that connected the object to the walls, and it fell and broke open at the pit bottom, releasing a horrible smell of lyrium and the shrieks of the Broodmothers.
“Are they dead yet?” Anders wondered, peering into the pit.
“Looks like it,” Nathaniels said, his lips pursed.
Sigrun nodded. “I think we did it,” she said. Slowly, the shrieks of the Broodmothers ceased, and the darkspawn sense in the back of the Wardens' minds faded away.
“If the rest of my battalion were alive, they'd do something to honor you, I know they would,” Sigrun told Kitranna.
Kitranna gave her a ghost of a smile. “Nice thought. 'preciate it. But what I really want is to get out of here. You coming or not?”
“I—I don't know,” Sigrun rubbed the back of her head. “The nearest Legion outpost is through the Deep Roads, weeks away...”
“You should come with us,” Oghren said. “Could always use more dwarves in the Wardens.” he leered. “'Specially ones as good with a weapon as you.”
“Thanks...?” Sigrun said. “But—the Wardens? I don't know...” she straightened her back. “Even if the others weren't dead, I think I should go with you,” she nodded, and the group began to head out of the ruins. “We're caught between two factions of darkspawn—I've never heard of such a thing.”
“Me either,” Kitranna said. “But I'd never heard of talking darkspawn before this, either, so...” she spread her hands and shrugged.
“Going with you would go against my vow,” Sigrun said. “But...is that even allowed? Can you be part of the Legion and be a Warden?”
Kitranna snorted. “Like anyone's gonna say no to me,” she said. “If I say you can, then you can.”
Sigrun laughed. “You people seem alright,” she said. “And I'd be better off with you at my back than alone.”
“Exactly right,” Kitranna nodded in approval.
So they left the ruins of Kal'hirol to return to Vigil's Keep, this time with Sigrun in tow.