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The Last of the Couslands	By : MistressofMagic Category: +A through F > Dragon Age (all) > Dragon Age (all) Views: 4401 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Bioware and EA own everything associated with the Dragon Age universe. I am making no money off of this fan fiction.

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Chapter 30
The Ruined Temple
The large wooden doors opened and Bridget assisted Genitivi into walking inside the temple. A rush of cold air flew past Bridget, removing the hood of her cloak. Bridget shivered. If it was possible, the temperature inside the temple was lower than that of the outside air itself. Alistair, Leliana, and Zevran piled in behind her, closing the great door behind them. Bridget turned to Genitivi to ask him where he thought the Urn might be, but closed her mouth and smiled warmly. Genitivi had tears in his eyes as he looked around in awe. He limped over to a nearby rock, engraved in an ancient language and ran his hand over its surface. Bridget glanced around the main hall of the temple as well. All though they had to keep their guard up, as there were plenty of cultists around, Bridget couldn't help but find herself in a beautiful surrounding. Snow blanketed the hard stone floor and here and there stalagmites grew, each glittering in the distant firelight. The temple held an air of mystery…among other things. Genitivi slowly walked back up to her and smiled.
"It's beautiful…isn't it?" he asked.
Bridget nodded. Genitivi looked back at the rock again and said,
"Do you mind if I stay here? I will be of no use to you anyhow with this leg, and I would love to take some notes."
Bridget smiled.
"Of course, Genitivi. Do you know what we may expect once we begin to explore?"
A grim look replaced the one of glee Genitivi wore before and he sighed.
"Traps. Lot's of them, too. It is good that you have two well trained rogues with you; I expect these traps to be nasty ones, so watch yourself. Also, I'm sure the majority of the cultists from the village are here so be mindful of them as well."
Bridget nodded.
"Traps and crazy cultists people, got it."
She turned to leave before Genitivi placed a hand on her arm. Bridget turned and looked back at him and saw traces of fear swimming in his eyes.
"I do not know if this is true or not…but I thought I overheard Erik speak of dragons…keep your guard up, and good luck."
Bridget cringed at the thought of more dragons and thought back to the horrible beast that Flemeth turned into. Bridget knew that the Arch Demon would be ten times worse than Flemeth, or any other High Dragon for that matter, so she figured she may as well get some dragon slaying skills in the process. Bridget thanked Genitivi and turned to the others. She nodded to them and led them into the center of the temple, by the large bonfire. They stood next to it for a few minutes as Bridget thought over their options.
"Where should we go first?" she asked.
Alistair looked around.
"Well, there's an entry way on either side of us, and then there's the stairs leading up to another level. I vote stairs!"
Zevran looked at him.
"Why stairs first?" he asked.
Alistair shrugged.
"I heard an old saying that if you want to get something, you have to climb up before you can reach it."
Zevran drew his brows together.
"That makes absolutely no sense; you do realize this…don't you?"
Alistair sighed.
"Oh fine, let's just move on."
Despite Alistair's statement not making any sense, Bridget opted to head for the staircase. They were immediately ambushed by a few archers and a mage. The mage was fairly tough to kill, and Leliana nearly took an arrow between her eyes. Thankfully she ducked in time and Zevran made quick work of the man who attempted to kill her. Soon enough the battle was one and they were all covered in blood.
"You know, if there's a dragon here…it can probably smell us already." Alistair noted.
Bridget sighed.
"Don't remind me." She replied.
She walked over to the southeastern passageway and pushed open the door, only to be immediately thrown backwards as a Bronto came out of nowhere. Alistair rushed over to quickly help her up and after rejoining the battle, helped Leliana and Zevran take down some more cultists that appeared. Bridget cursed the mages as they were extremely tough to kill. One had completely paralyzed Alistair with a Glyph of Paralysis. Bridget hit him with her shield four different times before he finally could take no more and died. Alistair was released and shook his head. At last all the enemies were dealt with and they could search the room for treasure. Leliana picked the lock of a nearby chest and Bridget withdrew an elaborate looking key.
"This must open up a door somewhere back in the main hall, maybe down one of those other passageways." She stated.
Bridget pocketed the key and led the others out of the room and back into the main entrance. They were once again ambushed (if you could call it that, these cultists were getting rather predictable) and were dealt with quickly. Bridget pulled an arrow out of her shoulder; thankfully her armor had caught it, and snapped it in two.
"Damn, I'm really getting sick of archers."
Everyone else agreed. Bridget chose the southeastern passageway, and for once got lucky as that was the room hiding the locked door that the key went to. Bridget placed the key in and turned it, cracking the door slightly. She peaked inside to see more cultists, however, these looked unarmed and were chatting about something.
"What are they whispering about?" Alistair asked softly.
Bridget furrowed her brow. She distinctively heard 'Andraste' several times. By placing the broken sentences together, Bridget deduced that they were speaking about Her…but it was the way they were speaking about the Prophet that made her stomach turn. She turned to the others and whispered,
"They're talking about Andraste…but the way they speak of her…it's like she's alive."
Leliana's eyes widened.
"That isn't possible though…Andraste is with the Maker now…"
Bridget looked at Alistair to see a worried expression on his face.
"What is it, love?" she asked softly.
Alistair looked at her and the others and said,
"You don't think that dragon Genitivi mention has something to do with this…do you?"
Zevran raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
Alistair shrugged.
"I don't know…maybe they think the dragon is Andraste or something…"
Before Bridget could respond, the cultists' discovered them and grabbed their weapons. Bridget and the others ran into the room and were able to dispose of the cultists before any of them had reached their weapons. Zevran found another key as he searched through the nearby chest and brought it to Bridget, who was frowning at a large book set on the table.
"What is that?" Zevran asked.
Bridget took a deep breath and turned to look at the others.
"It's a tome…all about dragon's blood." She stated grimly.
Alistair rubbed the back of his neck.
"Something tells me that's not good…" he replied.
They returned to the main hall and climbed the stairs once more. Bridget placed the key in the middle door and turned it. She smiled as she heard the distinctive click and slowly opened the door. The group stepped into another large room with more stairs, but had no time to look around as a mage attacked them. Zevran quickly snuck up behind him and slit his throat. Almost immediately after he did so, a large Ash Wraith appeared in the middle of the room. Bridget cursed herself now for not bringing along either Wynne or Morrigan, as these demons were partially immune to physical attacks. It took a lot of hits before he finally went down and didn't reappear somewhere else. Bridget wiped her forearm against her forehead and sighed. She and the others slowly climbed the stairs, no body dared to sheath their weapons just yet, and soon they came across another door.
"Maker's breath…" Leliana whispered.
They entered a large circular room that had a large, elaborate statue of a woman in its center. The statue had her hands cupped out in front of her as if she had just given something to someone.
"Is that supposed to be Andraste?" Alistair asked slowly.
Bridget and the others approached the statue but unfortunately didn't get to admire its features as another Ash Wraith appeared. This one, Bridget guessed was a higher ranking in its hierarchy because it was even harder to kill than the previous one. Now that the Wraith was dealt with, Bridget noticed Leliana went back to examine the statue. The ceiling was cracked and spilled sunlight onto the statue's form…making it seem even more sacred. Alistair crossed his arms and stood next to Bridget.
"You know, I've always wondered how people sculpt Andraste. I mean, how would they know what she looked like? She could've looked like Zeus for all we know!"
Bridget chuckled and playfully hit him in the arm.
"You might want to watch what you say; we still don't know what's ahead of us."
She turned and led the others up some more stairs and towards another door. Bridget was right, they didn't know what lay ahead in the mysterious temple…but what they discovered was more shocking than any of them were expecting.
A/N: This chapter is short, I apologize! This was all I had time to come up with though. I've been slammed with schoolwork this week, and the terrible plague known as writer's block has taken me! :( Hopefully next week I will be back to my normal updating schedule and can write you guys a much longer chapter. I apologize if this chapter sucks in any way…writer's block is a terrible, terrible thing. Anyways, hopefully the next chapter will be coming shortly. Thanks for your continued support!
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The Last of the Couslands