Dragon Age: Awakening

Chapter 16: The Architect

Chapter 16: The Architect

 "Eck." I grumbled, crinkling my nose up to the stench that swirled around in the ruins. 

"Seems like the place for a broodmother to be living." Anders chuckled, I shot him a look and he quickly looked away.

I took a deep breath, "We need to be ready for anything." I looked at my companions. This is it, it had to end here.

We crept through the dark caverns silently and constantly seemed to be going down, either hills or weathered stairs that were breaking apart under our feet.

"Is this part of the Deep Roads?" Anders asked as he slid down a slope and swiped away the cloud of dust that he had created.

I shrugged as I looked around, "It doesn't seem to be." I said as I looked at the walls which were made of a strange squishy substance like the substance in Kal'Hirol. I shook my head, "I have no idea, to be honest." I sighed.

Anders twitched his lip slightly, "I don't like this." He said in a low tone.

"You are the only one." Nathaniel muttered nervously as his head jerked around at a hiss that echoed through the caverns.

"At least it won't be boring." I joked, smiling at the corner of my mouth and Nathaniel who grimaced as he unsheathed his daggers.

I pulled my bow off my back and continued walking through the tunnels. The tunnels opened into an immense cavern and the path we had been following changed from dirt to stone as we approached a bridge, at the end of the bridge there was a large ancient building that was shaped like a dome.

I narrowed my eyes as I stared at the bridge, that hiss wasn't just our imagination, this is a trap. I glanced over at Anders who nodded, he was thinking the same thing. I rolled my eyes and chuckled slightly at this whole scenario.

"Nowhere to go but forward." Justice said bravely.

I nodded and walked forward carefully, I held my bow tight in my hand as my eyes darted around the bridge.  A shriek echoed through the cavern.

"There!" Justice pointed to the end of the bridge where two slug creatures had flopped out of a couple of those fleshy tubes; one of the creatures slowly stood up on two long legs. On the creatures back there were several long spikes that protruded out.

"There's more." Nathaniel hummed nervously as he readied himself, several more of the slugs were beginning to stand up and surround us.

"Shit." I muttered and quickly loosed an arrow into the skull of one of the worms and my other companions quickly began fighting.

I rolled out of the way of one of the long spikes that the slug used as arms and slid my bow to the side, unsheathing my daggers in one quick movement. I sliced off the legs of the creature and jabbed my daggers into it. 

"Move!" Anders yelled, his hands were covered with fire as he lunged forward. I rolled forward just as a fiery mass escaped from the palms of his hands. The mass exploded close behind me, propelling me forward, the creatures shrieked out in pain as they burned in the fire storm Anders had created.

"I'm fine. I'm good." I called as Anders jogged over to me, I stood up and brushed off my armor slightly and walked over to grab my bow.

We walked down the bridge and into the large ruin and down a set of spiral stairs, the ground at the bottom was covered with the fleshy substance. I crinkled my nose as my boot sunk in it.

I quickly unsheathed my daggers when I heard footsteps echoing around us.

"And so we meet again." The Architect's soft voice swirled around as he stood on the balcony at the top of the stairs where we had just come from.