The darkspawn approached at an unprecedented speed, and sightings of the Archdemon soon became commonplace.
On the night before the darkspawn were estimated to arrive in Denerim, Alistair and Morrigan performed her ritual. It took them a little less than an hour, and when they came out of the bedroom they had cordoned off, neither of them looked well.
“How was it?” Kitranna asked them. “Did it work?”
Alistair made a face. “Well, that was horrible,” he grimaced. “I feel a bit sick.”
“Thank you ever so,” Morrigan growled. She was looking a bit pale. “But yes, it did work. Providing nothing else kills you tomorrow, the slaying of the Archdemon will not result in the death of a Warden.”
Kitranna beamed. “Great!” she took Morrigan's hands. “Hopefully that didn't traumatize you too much.”
“Hey!” Alistair protested.
Kitranna rolled her eyes. “And I hope you weren't traumatized either.”
“Thank you.”
The next day, the darkspawn were fast approaching Denerim. There were fires on the horizon, as the darkspawn approached and torched the surrounding fields.
Kitranna shook her head. “This doesn't look good.” she said, looking out from the outermost wall of the city.
“It does not,” Eamon agreed.
They had called the civilians in from the surrounding area, pulling them back to defend the city. They had gathered all their forces together, and hopefully they would be enough. The armies were marshaled just outside of Denerim, defending the walls. They were getting restless.
“They want a speech,” Alistair groaned. “I don't want to give anyone a speech.”
“You're the king,” Kitranna said with a shrug.
“I'm not the king yet,”
“Look, they don't want to hear a speech from me,” she said.
“What about Anora?”
“Oh—good idea!” Kitranna nodded. “Let's go get her.”
Anora, dressed in ceremonial plate armor, was more than happy to give a speech to their gathered forces.
Anora stood on a dais in front of their army.
“Before us stands the might of the darkspawn horde!” she called out over the crowd. “Gaze upon them now, but fear them not! We have removed the usurpers within our midst, and now we may defend against the monsters at our doorstep!” she gestured to Kitranna and Alistair at her side. “We could do none of this without the Gray Wardens—the woman who stands before you is a mage, one who has brought all of us together to fight the darkspawn! And this man, Alistair Theirin, is the younger son of King Maric, and has returned to us in our time of need! Today, we avenge the death of King Cailan, and all those lost at Ostagar! Today, we defend Denerim! Today, we show the Gray Wardens that we remember and honor their sacrifice!” Anora raised her hands, and the crowd roared its approval.
“Nice words,” Kitranna said, her eyes on the horizon as she watched the glow of the darkspawn army’s torches approach. “We better back them up.” she took her Spellweaver off her back, and the army turned as one to defend the walls.
The darkspawn came at the gates of the city en masse, hundreds of them, throwing themselves at the walls with abandon.
The air was thick with the smell of ashes and hot metal, and electricity and lyrium from the spells being cast. Everything was in utter chaos, and it was all Kitranna could do to keep herself upright and fighting.
The fight was long and brutal, just to keep them from getting inside the city. At long last, however, one of the ogres bashed its way through the main gate, and they were forced to pull back some, to try and prevent the darkspawn from getting to the rest of the city.
There were so many darkspawn, hundreds of them, thousands. Although the army did what they could, many darkspawn slipped past, and soon Denerim itself was on fire.
The Archdemon made itself known soon, surging over the walls of the city to spout more flames over both the buildings and the army. Its roar was deafening, sounding even over the screams of the Darkspawn.
There was a break in the battle, where Alistair and Kitranna found each other, and Riordan managed to find the pair of them.
“You should go to Fort Drakon,” Riordan said, gesturing with his sword. “That is the highest point in the city—we will have the best chance at reaching the Archdemon there.”
“What about you?” Kitranna asked, panting and favoring one leg.
“I will attempt to reach it from here,” he said. “You will have to cross the city—we should not all go to the same place.”
“We can head through the Alienage,” Alistair said. “They might need help there, anyway.”
Kitranna agreed, and she, Alistair, Fiona, Zevran, Leliana and Morrigan all headed to Fort Drakon (Kitranna had not wanted Morrigan to be in the fight, but she insisted, and there wasn't much anyone could do about it).
The Alienage was under siege by several ogres and a wave of smaller Darkspawn. They met Shianni at the gates, which were being attacked by an enormous ogre and an Emissary.
“Some of the Dalish came by to help,” Shianni said, gesturing to a contingent of Dalish elves armed with longbows. “Most of the soldiers and everyone else are at the walls, though, and it's not like we're going to get reinforcements--”
The gate gave a shudder and a nasty cracking sound was heard. There were some archers on the roofs, and they let their arrows fly, but it didn't seem to be enough. The ogres still burst through the gates, and Kitranna and company spent precious time fighting them off to give the Alienage footing again.
The Dalish seemed to work well with the Alienage elves, in spite of their different blood. Perhaps it was simply that all people worked well together when under threat of death. In any case, once that wave of ogres was defeated, Kitranna and the others hurried on while the Alienage shored up their defenses.
The Archdemon was enormous. Kitranna's memories of it from the Deep Roads had made it smaller than it actually was, but now, seeing it winging over the city, she could truly see the massive size of it.
Riordan did get a shot at it. He had climbed a high tower and when the Archdemon had swing by, he leapt onto its back. He jammed his blade into it again and again, wounding one of its wings, but it threw him off. They didn't see where he landed, but it was a long, long fall.
They sped faster to Fort Drakon, now that were only two Wardens left.
Fort Drakon was overrun with darkspawn, the Archdemon evidently having understood what the Wardens would do and instructing its darkspawn to block their path. They fought through the fort, assisted some by the Denerim Guard, who did not go down without a fight themselves.
Finally, they got to the roof, where the Archdemon rested. Its wing was too damaged for it to fly properly, so it skulked on the roof, angry and dangerous.
Fiona and Kitranna hurled a lightning spell at the dragon, which it shrugged off. Alistair and Zevran held off the darkspawn that the Archdemon called to aid it, while Leliana positioned herself near one of the ballistas so she could try and use it. Morrigan went for the dragon's remaining uninjured wing, alternately freezing it and sending stone shards at it.
Wave after wave of darkspawn attacked, trying to stop them from getting at the Archdemon. Everyone was exhausted, and Kitranna muttered a curse as she realized that she had drunk her last mana potion.
At last, however, the Archdemon was slowing, one of its legs cut through to the bone, a burn on its side and face, both wings crooked and broken.
Kitranna's group wasn't in much better shape. Fiona had a broken leg and was off to one side, a barrier keeping the darkspawn off while she tried to mend her leg. Alistair was defending Fiona, but visibly flagging, but face covered in sweat. Morrigan and Zevran were back to back, Morrigan with lyrium potion dribbling from the corner of her mouth and Zevran's hair in disarray and a shallow gash in his chest. Leliana had climbed up onto a parapet and was shooting anything that came close, but she had a cut over one eye and blood was trickling down the side of her face.
The corpses of several mages and soldiers littered the roof, and those who were still alive were grappling with darkspawn. Three soldiers were trying to get the single remaining ballista to work but it too appeared to be on its last legs.
Kitranna was the only one near the Archdemon.
She had run out of both lyrium and elfroot potions ages ago, and her mana was dangerously low. She had resorted to manipulating the raw Fade, her spells becoming less controlled and more explosive as she did so—she was pretty sure she'd injured one of the archers with an ice spell that had backfired, but she couldn't stop now.
The Archdemon stumbled, and Kitranna wheezed out a laugh. It attempted to spit fire, but only a small flare erupted from its mouth, instead of the enormous gouts of flame that were normal.
Kitranna gritted her teeth, reached for a spell that would bring down the beast, and—there was nothing. She had nothing left in her. She snatched at the Fade for something, anything, and her arms crackled weakly with lightning.
She cursed, and ran forward.
She'd lost her Spellweaver, but she spotted another blade on the ground and snatched it up. She heard Morrigan shout her name but she ignored her, barreling forward with the last of her strength.
She got the Archdemon in the throat, dragging the blade down while the beast roared in rage. It thrashed and spat, and acid blood rained down on her, hot on her face. She growled and thrust the sword up, almost cutting its head off. She got to her feet and yanked the blade out, only to jam it deeply into one of the Archdemon's eyes.
The Archdemon screamed, and everything was enveloped in light. She heard her companions and the soldiers shout, but she couldn't see anything. There was simply light, everywhere.
Then the light died, and all the strength went out of Kitranna's legs.
Kitranna's chest heaved. She was covered in blood and she could smell it in the air, a copper tang mixed with something else that stung her nostrils. She fell to her knees, one hand still clutching the slippery handle of the sword. The body of the Archdemon collapsed, its head falling on one of her legs, and Kitranna had to work her way out from under the heavy beast.
“Kitranna!” Morrigan was the first to reach her, grabbing her face tightly and looking deep into her eyes.
Kitranna smiled. “It worked,” she croaked. “Still alive.”
Morrigan looked conflicted for a moment, then lunged forward and pressed a hard kiss to her lips. She tasted like blood and lyrium, and her lip was split, but Kitranna eagerly returned her kiss. Neither of them had any strength for a healing spell, and Morrigan was so tired that she sunk to her knees beside Kitranna.
“I love you,” Kitranna whispered.
Morrigan closed her eyes and pressed her forehead to Kitranna's. “I...” she whispered, and bit her lip. “I...I know.”
Kitranna smiled. “I'm glad.”