When we arrived, I was hit with such a strong feeling of recognition. I looked around me, trying to place why it looked so familiar. Alistair had the same look on his face. "You too?" he asked.

"I've never set foot in Orzammar or the Dead Trenches, but I feel as if I'd seen it before. I..." I crept over to the edge and looked down into a gorge. It was filled with Darkspawn.

The horde was massive, filling a gorge with their numbers.

"Alistair." This was the gorge I'd seen in my dreams. I looked up and around and soon saw the rickety bridge I'd seen the Archdemon standing on.

"I know. I've seen it too."

Alistair and I crept closer to the edge when suddenly the Archdemon himself barreled upwards. We took a couple of steps back.

"Maker's breath!"

The Archdemon landed hard on the bridge. His back was to us as he belched fire and roared. We crouched and watched him.

"What are you waiting for?" Oghren asked. "Now's your chance!"

I shook my head. "We don't have an army behind us," I said. "And if we attempted and failed, the Darkspawn would take it out on the Dwarves first before completing their campaign on the surface." I wasn't going to admit it out loud, but Alistair and I had no idea exactly how to kill the Archdemon.

Oghren grunted.

"Wise words, Warden," Sten said, respect in his voice.

Alistair and I looked at each other as the Archdemon reared up and slammed his forelegs down on the bridge. The gathered Darkspawn began to march off. The Archdemon took flight and flew off into a different part of the Trenches. We watched him fly off and stood. So The Dead Trenches was indeed the lair of the Darkspawn.

~~~

We followed the path and came upon a group of Dwarves battling Darkspawn.

"The Legion gives no quarter!" one cried. "Send 'em to the Stone!"

They fought like demons and Alistair and I matched them in skill. We ran ahead, cutting through Darkspawn and an ogre like water through filth. The Legionnaires ran after us once they all lay dead.

"Well, Grey Warden," the commander said. "I'll give you credit for backbone. You've dug a line through the 'spawn. Still no sense in your head, but you've got skill."

I ignored the attempted insult. If I'd had any sense, I wouldn't have been tainted by a sodding mirror nor joined the Wardens. "You know I am a Grey Warden?"

"I recognize a fighter of Darkspawn. It marks you. It's why we in the Legion of the Dead abandon our lives so we can face them without fear. It's a sacrifice I understand the Grey Wardens are familiar with. What do you want here?" The Legion of the Dead would be a treasured ally against the Blight, as from what I understood from Duncan's lessons, they fought to the death against the Darkspawn between Blights.

"I am Realin and I am looking for allies."

"The name's Kardol. This is an odd tactic, recruiting on the frontline. The Darkspawn pitch their camps in our tunnels between your 'Blights', you know."

"I am aware of that."

"Our place is here, Warden. And watch yourself. Drunks make poor allies."

Oghren grumbled something under his breath.

We left the Legionnaires and continued on our journey through the Trenches. Even though they were referred to as trenches, they were far from that. They weren't any different from the halls and tunnels we'd been in previously. Aside from having more Darkspawn. After cutting our way through various Darkspawn, ogres, spiders, and Shrieks, we came upon a tunnel lit with a red firelight and we went inside.

~~~

We made our way through the winding tunnel to another massive hall. Surprisingly, we weren't ambushed by Darkspawn or spiders. We traveled through abandoned halls and rooms until we crossed a bridge. Halfway across, we were surprised by Shrieks. The bastards just pop out of nowhere. Bit unnerving if you ask me. They died as quickly as they appeared.

"I wish they wouldn't do that!" Leliana cried.

"Maybe the Crows should give them a job," Morrigan said.

"Very funny," Zevran retorted.

We crossed the rest of the bridge without incident. We emerged into another great hall. And no ambush waiting for us. Odd. I'd been expecting one. As we followed the hall, we suddenly heard a female voice.

"First day, they come and catch everyone."

I stopped, surprised.

"Where is that coming from?" Zevran asked.

We continued on more cautiously than before. The farther we went, the more we began to see the similar flesh and blood mess that we'd seen in the Tower, although this was clean compared to the mess there. This looked more like fleshy sacks while the Tower looked more like those sacks had exploded.

"Second day, they beat us and eat some for meat. Third day, the men are all gnawed on again. Fourth day, we wait and fear for our fate." We seemed to be coming closer to the source of the voice. "Fifth day, they return and it's another girl's turn."

"That's not disturbing at all," Alistair said.

"Sixth day, her screams we hear in our dreams." Not only was I creeped out at the rhyme but also at the way she was saying it. "Seventh day, she grew as in her mouth they spew."

"Eww," Leliana whispered.

"Eighth day, we hated as she was violated."

"I know that voice," Oghren said. The voice was growing louder. "I just can't place where."

"Ninth day, she grins and devours her kin."

"Lovely," Zevran said.

I looked over at him and saw him shudder.

"Now she does feast, as she's become the beast." The voice was louder now.

We turned a corner as she began her poem again. We slowly walked towards a blond Dwarf crouched down and sifting through debris. She realized we'd approached her and she stopped mid-sentence and stood. She slowly turned towards us. She looked like she'd been down here for ages. She looked warn and her face was darkening around her eyes as if she hadn't slept since she came down here. Her eyes betrayed the madness within.

"By the Stone!" Oghren exclaimed. "Hespith?"

She ignored Oghren and looked me up and down. "What's this? An Elf? Exotic and impossible," she said. That was a first. Being referred to as exotic, that is. "Feeding time brings only kin and clan. I am cruel to myself. You are a dream of strangers' faces and open doors."

I looked over at Alistair. "Is this Darkspawn corruption?" I asked. I hadn't seen anything like this before. "It looks... different."

"Corruption!" Hespith cried. "The men did that! Their wounds festered and their minds left. They are like dogs, marched ahead, the first to die."

Tristan whined. I placed a hand on his head.

"Not us. Not me. Not Laryn. We are not cut. We are fed. Friends and flesh and blood and bile and... and... All I could do was wish Laryn went first. I wished it upon her so that I would be spared. But I had to watch. I had to see the change. How do you endure that? How did Branka endure?"

"Are you from Branka's house?"

"D-do not talk of Branka, of what she did. Ancestors preserve us, forgive me. I was her captain and I did not stop her. Her lover and I could not turn her." Now we knew the real reason she'd left Oghren. "Forgive her... but no, she cannot be forgiven. Not for what she did. Not for what she has become."

"What did she do, Hespith? What did Branka do?" It sounded like she was no longer the great Paragon she had been before descending into the Deep Roads.

"I will not speak of her! Of what she did, of what we have become! I will not turn! I will not become what I have seen! Not Laryn! Not Branka!" She turned and ran.

"What was she talking about?" Oghren wondered aloud.

"The taint is driving her into madness," Alistair said. "I'm sorry, Oghren, but she is well on her way to becoming a ghoul. Or worst." I didn't like the sound of "Or worst".

Oghren nodded.

"What did Branka do?" I wondered aloud.

We went in the direction she had fled and heard Hespith's voice again. "She became obsessed. That is the word but it isn't strong enough. Blessed Stone, there was nothing left in her but the Anvil. We tried to escape but they found us. They took us all, turned us... The men they kill... They're merciful. But the women, they want. They want to touch, to mold, to change until you are filled with them..." We followed her voice into a hall that led to a tunnel. "They took Laryn. They made her eat the others, our friends. She tore off her husband's face and drank his blood."

"I'm starting to think there is more to this than the taint," Alistair said.

Leliana looked like she would be sick at any moment.

"And while she ate, she grew. She swelled and became grey and she smelled like them. They remade her in their images. Then she made more of them." I swear the color drained from Alistair's face. The deeper into the tunnel we went, the more of the... debris... we came across. It smelled like nothing I had ever smelled before. I also felt like a group of Darkspawn would come running towards us any minute. "Broodmother..."

"What the Maker is a broodmother?" Zevran asked.

"I have no idea," Wynne said.

"Nothing pleasant," Alistair said. He had a look on his face as if he did not like what he'd just heard.

Ahead of us was a bend in the tunnel. We crept forward and took the bend. A roar caught our attention and we all took a couple of steps back. Before us was the Broodmother.

She was the biggest creature I had ever seen. Her skin was grey and she had several tentacles waving about on each side of her.

"Maker's breath!" Alistair cried.

"By the Creators!" I said at the same time. Had this creature been Laryn once? It was hard to imagine this creature was a corrupted Dwarf.

She roared and swatted a tentacle at us. Alistair, Sten, and Oghren jumped to the right. Leliana, Zevran, Morrigan, and I jumped to the left. Tristan raced forward, dodging it while Wynne sidestepped to the right. Oghren, Sten, and Alistair raced towards her, swords drawn. Morrigan and Wynne used spells against her, while Zevran, Leliana, and I used our bows. Yes, Zevran and I were archers as well. A tentacle sent Sten backward. And he was a hard one to knock back. I'd only seen it twice before. They had to keep an eye on her tentacles as well, it seemed. Between our arrows, the Mages' spells, and the others' melee attacks, it wasn't long before she gave one last howl before slumping and moving no more. Oghren gave the Broodmother one final blow to make sure she was indeed dead.

"That is where they come from."

We looked up to see Hespith on an outcropping above the Broodmother.

"That's why they hate us... that's why they need us. That's why they take us... that's why they feed us. But the true abomination is not that it occurred but that it was allowed. Branka... my love... The Stone has punished me, dream-friend. I am dying of something worse than death. Betrayal." With that, Hespith turned away and disappeared into the darkness.

"We need to find Branka," Wynne said. "And soon. If what Hespith has said is true, then I fear she has gone mad down here."

"More like Anvil mad," Oghren muttered.

We found our way out of the Dead Trenches.