Caelyra had survived the Joining: the secret ritual that transformed her from recruit to a proper Grey Warden. The shock of the taint that now swarmed through her blood and delivered waking nightmares upon her was harsh, but she was strong; she would overcome it.
Duncan and Alistair watched over her as she came to, climbed back to her feet, and became accustomed to the darkness that spread through her — the darkness that they all shared as Grey Wardens.
Duncan invited Caelyra to come with him for a meeting with the King and his advisors before the upcoming battle, as the king wanted to offer his congratulations for her success in becoming one of the fabled Wardens.
Before Caelyra joined Duncan, though, she remembered the key that the prisoner had given her and quickly liberated some items from a nearby chest. Skipping over to the quartermaster, she sold most of the goods, plus the armour of her deceased recruit-mates, and walked away with a tidy 20 gold profit.
At the war council, she met Logain, the King's strategist, and a bunch of different arguments.
Everyone was high-strung, tense, and didn't really want to work together for the greater good. The Chantry wouldn't allow the mages to help, Loghain didn't want help from the Orlesians (which was understandable, since they were once the great enemy of Ferelden), and Loghain didn't quite trust the Grey Wardens either.
It seemed like quite a mess but finally they put together a little strategy which involved Caelyra and Alistair ensuring a beacon was lit to signal Loghain's forces to move in. She inwardly seethed that she wouldn't be on the front-lines, in battle, but grudgingly accepted her role.
Alistair also seemed miffed about not being on the front-lines, but he also grudgingly conceded once he learnt it was a direct order from the King, saying something about how if the King asked him to put on a dress and dance he'd draw the line.
Despite the severity of the looming situation, Caelyra giggled and told him that she'd like to see him in a dress.
Horns blared and the battle began.
Caelyra, her trusty Xander, and Alistair ran across the great bridge of the Ostagar ruins and dodged flying arrows and whooshing fireballs. They had to get to the tower and make sure that the beacon was lit at the correct time to signal the surprise attack.
When they finally reached the tower, a mage came running out, shrieking about how the tower had been taken. That the darkspawn had tunneled up underneath, everyone was dead, dying!
Alistair took charged of the situation. The beacon had to be lit to signal the forces or the battle would indeed be lost. They would have to do more than just look on as some soldiers lit the beacon; they would have to do it themselves.
They fought through the courtyard, slaying various darkspawn left and right, then entered the tower.
In the tower were even more darkspawn, they had completely flooded the place with their filth, and blood and entrails already adorned the fixings. It looked as though they had been there for a lot longer than a few minutes.
Alistair rightly pondered what they were doing here. The tower was supposed to be clear of threat. At least they were able to do some fighting, however.
They climbed further up the tower, battling darkspawn the entire way. Caelyra didn't mind — she had wanted to get her hands dirty and numb her mind for a bit. Despite this not going to plan, she appreciated being able to run around and think of nothing but stabbing evil creatures.
They were almost to the top of the tower where they must light the beacon. Alistair said that the signal had likely already been given and that they must hurry to light it.
As they raced for the top of the tower, Caelyra nearly tripped over her own feet as she came face to face with a great darkspawn ogre who was eating the men who were originally meant to light the signal.
It tore the men to shreds, then charged at them, ready to eat them too.
The mage summoned a fire to light their weapons, Alistair prepared his shield, Xander barked and growled, and Caelyra wielded her now-flaming daggers. They had to take this creature down. She had never even seen a creature like this before!
Fueled by grief and battle-rage, the group fought the hulking creature, whittling its health down bit by bit over the lengthy battle, until finally Caelyra yelled, leapt, and stabbed her fiery daggers into the beast, felling it.
She had killed it. She had actually killed it.
With the corpse of the brute stinking up the floor, Alistair raced for the beacon and lit it. It's flame huge and bright. Hopefully it had been lit in time.
Suddenly, a ruckus. Alistair and Caelyra whipped around to see two dozen darkspawn descending upon them. The death of the ogre must've called to them and they had sped through the tower to find out what had happened.
Arrows flew. Guffaws and roars echoed all 'round. Harsh, guttural laughter that was painful to the ear.
Pierced by a volley of arrows, Caelyra fell to the floor. Her last thoughts of her parents as all faded to black.
Until next time! ⚔️🐲
All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, 