The Dalish Commander (The Daughters of Thedas Book 2)

15: The Baroness

Soundtrack:

Requiem for the Nameless Dead ~ Adrian von Ziegler (The Fade) 

After getting lost a couple of times, we finally found our way out of the crypt and into the village. We walked past graves and towards the gate where we were stopped by a guard who looked like he had no idea what he was doing. "Halt! Who enters the Blackmarsh?"

"We are Grey Wardens," I answered. "Trapped here."

"Trapped?" he sighed. "Then you're just as we are, locked in this endless nightmare. We've been here so long, at her mercy. I almost forget what it was like before." He motioned towards the manor. "There's a spirit that's come to free us. Perhaps you could help him? If only that were possible."

We walked into the village and followed the shouting. We passed by a villager that seemed to be trying to rally his neighbors."Hear me, people! She is evil incarnate! The countless evils I've seen her perpetrate in there... I'm ashamed to even recount them aloud! She orders our children stolen in the night so she can —" He was cut off. "No! Unhand me, you thugs! Let me go! Don't let them take me! No!" Like the villager earlier, he too disappeared.

"She doesn't sound like a pleasant woman," Nathaniel commented.

We found a crowd gathered around the gate leading to the manor. At the center of the crowd was a heavily armored man that was obviously a spirit. He was glowing white and had a shield and mace at his back.

"The mansion will not protect you, fiend!" he shouted. "Come out and face your crime!"

"We aren't afraid of you any longer!" a woman shouted. After a pause and more shouting, she added: "The witch hides! Break down the door!"

"Be cautious, my friends," the spirit warned. "The Baroness has power within her lair and she well knows it. We rush in at our own peril!" We joined the crowd. The spirit noticed our arrival. "And who comes now?" The crowd parted around us.

"That makes me feel so much better," Ainnileas said. I had to have gotten my sarcasm from him. "I don't like having all these Shems' eyes upon me."

"That is something I have yet to get used to."

"They're not going to start throwing stuff at us, are they?"

"Be still, Father."

During our exchange, the spirit had looked each one of us over, his eyes lingering on my father before finally resting upon me. "Are you more minions of the Baroness?" I raised a brow at him. "Or yet more helpless souls she has tormented?"

"We are Grey Wardens, brought here against our will," I answered.

"I cannot say what a 'Grey Warden' is but clearly you are a stranger." He looked at my father. "As well as you, spirit. Perhaps it is a sign. I am Justice. I have watched this place and seethed at the wrongs visited on these poor folk and now I seek to aid them."

The woman who'd shouted earlier spoke again. "Once, we lived in the real world and the Baroness ruled over us." I could see the sadness in her eyes. "She took our children and used their blood to work dark and evil magic." The man next to her rubbed her back in a comforting way.

"Blood magic," Ainnileas said. He shook his head. "She no doubt used them to feed her vanity."

"Indeed she did," the man took up the story as the woman wiped away tears. "And when we burned down her mansion, she cast one final spell that brought our spirits here. We have been trapped ever since, still under her rule."