With their new Golem companion by their side, they returned to camp. Collecting Shale had taken a bit longer than expected, but at least they had saved a few villagers from the darkspawn while they were at it... although it truly was a pity about the mage's daughter.
When they arrived at camp, Shale got settled in, well, as much as a rock-person could get settled in, then Leliana waved Caelyra over.
She wanted to admit something. That she had lied about why she was in Ferelden. That yes, she had been a bard at one point, but she had also been betrayed and that's why she had been in the chantry. A woman named Marjolaine, her old mentor, had framed Leliana for treason to Orlais, and after escaping weeks of torture she ran to Ferelden, to the Chantry, and to the Maker.
Caelyra didn't know why Leliana was telling her this, but thanked her for her honesty and then went to the dwarves to peruse their goods.
The dwarves bought all the junk she had picked up on her travels and then offered to sell her a pet rock. They thought that Shale might like it. Golems were of dwarvish creation so Caelyra trusted them and bought a pet rock for her new rocky friend.
Shale loved it and named it Herbert.
While browsing the dwarves' wares, Caelyra also came across some interesting looking crystals. They looked as though they would fit in amongst the cracks of Shale's rocky exterior and so she offered them to Shale. They connected with her perfectly and augmented her. Fantastic.
Shale was very pleased and told Caelyra that she was not like the other squishy humans. Caelyra didn't know if that was a compliment or not, but she'd take it.
It was now time to head out to Orzammar... again.
But first, since they had spent so much time off the beaten track, they returned to Denerim and to the blacksmith to see if he had completed that drake scale armour.
He had. But he was disappointed with it. It was imperfect. He would not give it to her, for it was flawed! Herren, his assistant, rolled his eyes and forced Wade to give them the armour. It looked fine to Caelyra. It wasn't something she would wear, nothing could compare with the armour she already had, but it was nice.
Caelyra offered Wade three more drake scales and he clapped with glee. Yes. With those he would make something so utterly fantastic and amazing and he would fix the errors of his first flawed craft. He was going to close the shop right now and get to work straight away. There would be no more customer orders whilst he worked on his craft!
Herren sighed, very loudly, evidently sick of Wade's obsessive need to make the finest armour from the finest materials, and shoo'd Caelyra and her group from the store while Wade worked.
Now they could get back on the road to Orzammar, and this time there would be nothing to distract them from their goal of speaking with the King of the dwarves and securing more aid against the darkspawn and the blight.
Just outside of Orzammar, however, were a group of bounty hunters.
The bounty hunters rushed at Caelyra and Alistair and yelled that Loghain sends his regards!
This was getting tiresome. Caelyra and her companions fought off the bounty hunters and delivered their own message to Loghain. By leaving their corpses on the frozen ground for more of Loghain's men to find.
Just outside of Orzammar were some markets where a few surface dwarves traded. Outside one of the stalls was a man who looked just like how the scavenger at Lake Calenhad had described. Caelyra quickly grabbed Sten and together they stood over the man.
The man was terrified of the giant before him, but he didn't have Sten's sword. He sold it to a collector back in Redcliffe. A dwarf named Dwyn. The dwarf she had encouraged to help fight against the undead that night.
This had come full circle. Caelyra sighed. She had promised to get Sten's sword back. If Dwyn didn't have it... no. He had to have it. They would return to Redcliffe after seeking aid in Orzammar.
Just past the markets were the great gates of Orzammar... closed shut.
A handful of men stood outside, arguing with the dwarf who refused them entry. Men who proclaimed themselves as King Loghain's. King Loghain. That was insulting.
Caelyra and her companions pushed through and demanded to speak with the King, they had important business. The dwarf barring entry lowered his eyes. No foreigners were allowed at this time. The King had died just a few weeks ago and politics were marring the ascent to the throne. No one would be speaking with the any Kings today.
Caelyra took out the Grey Warden parchment that demanded aid from the dwarves and showed it to the dwarf at the door. He gazed upon it and acknowledged it, and allowed them to enter Orzammar, however due to current politics he did not know what aid they would actually find in there.
"King Loghain's" men baulked. How dare this group be allowed into Orzammar but not they?
Feeling petty, Caelyra sneered at them. She told them to go back to their false king and complain to him instead.
Caelyra and her group waltzed past the demeaned men and stepped foot into Orzammar. The great hall that greeted them was immense. Statues of the ancient paragons, those who the dwarves revered, lined the walls, and bright lights accented each and every figure.
It was impressive. Caelyra had never seen anything like it.
Past the entrance and through some more great doors, Orzammar's Commons area circled around the inside of the mountain. Wynne murmured something about how for a small people, they sure made large areas. Caelyra would've laughed if not for a serious situation unfolding right before them.
Dozens of dwarves faced one another, arguing about who was the rightful King. Bhelen, the son of the previous King on one side or Harrowmont, the previous King's general and advisor.
It very quickly dissolved into violence as one of Bhelen's men killed one of Harrowmont's. With that death, a guard stepped in and both parties separated and ran off in different directions.
The guard waved Caelyra and her companions over and muttered something about how people from the surface shouldn't be here during a time like this.
There was a reason they were here during a time like this: Caelyra showed him the Grey Warden documents but there was nothing he could do — only a King could action the documents and, at this time, there was no King.
Since this next King would either be Harrowmont or Bhelen, by the sounds of things, Caelyra decided that she would need to speak to them herself.
Surely one of them could help.
Until next time! ⚔️🐲
All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, 