"There! To your left!"

Jongdae ducked, cackling from excitement, just as a shot of frost soared over his head. He landed on his knees, spun around, and with his right hand - the ever trusty Zevran blade - he sliced through two back legs of the spider now threatening their existence. Two more reeled down from the shadows above, their web strings glinting in the meek torchlight, and several already lay dead. His was now the largest, perhaps the queen of this entire den. Poison dripped from her pincers, a fowl smell clogged his brain, and the other six legs were more than enough to keep her steady. All that and Jongdae felt only the rush of battle. Adrenaline raged through his veins, awakening him like wine awakened the senses of mere ordinary human beings. 

"This one's mine!" he shouted, fiery smirk in place as the giant arachnid twice his height turned upon him. "Challenge accepted!" he called to the beast.

Beside him, Kris snorted. "Trying to steal all the thunder, aren't you?" The qunari grunted at the same time he swung his greatsword. The massive blade pierced the body, guts and blood spilling forth, but that one didn't stun it either. Perhaps they were unequally matched after all. But who was keeping tally? Certainly not Jongdae. While he and Kris kept the beast from encroaching closer, several arrows flew across their shoulders, one narrowly missing Jongdae's head, but it landed right on target in spite of that, right in the eye of the spider. 

"Get those pincers!" Kris yelled, making another sweep. He loosed another leg from the body, showering Jongdae in foot long hair that clung to his body and made him itch.

"Thanks," he said unglamorously, hacking upwards before he dived left to avoid another squealing attack.

Jongin suddenly appeared by their side, shield in place as the mouth of the creature snagged towards them. They collided heavily, Jongin pushed backwards onto the ground, but a second later he was back on his feet. All three of them regrouped when the spider retreated, and before it could attack again, they rushed it. A freezing spell landed over their heads, then another, then a stream of energy that smacked it right between the eyes, momentarily befuddling the spider. It was the moment they had waited for. 

"Now!" Jongdae shouted. 

Behind them were the dying throes of one of the remaining spiders. Chanyeol shouted in triumph; Sehun screamed.

"Two left!" yelled Suho, who had crawled up on a safer ledge and was monitoring the whole battle.

"We know, thanks!" cried Baekhyun. Several more arrows flew past Jongdae's line of vision, further hampering the spider's deathly blows. Beside the second smaller monster, Luhan and Yixing battled alongside Tao who had shown an aggressive streak of fighting capabilities. Both he and Alistair were blurs amid the legs which were as as tall as some humans, the bodies the size of small shacks. Only Kyungsoo was missing. 

"Damn that ungrateful darkspawn!" joked Baekhyun more than once. Kyungsoo had of course slipped past the spiders before they descended, scouting around farther tunnels to scope out what might be ahead. And, he completely missed the danger behind.

"More loot for us?" Jongdae suggested. Meanwhile Luhan plunged his sword into the body of the second last remaining spider, and all their attention was then on the queen. 

"Loot?" Jongin scolded, mid-swing. "What loot can you possibly find on this thing!?"

Everybody ducked a second later when the queen spit a sickly green, putrid smelling liquid from .

"You know all those empty phials I keep on my person at all time?"

"No?" screeched Jongin. 

The collective forces of the mages, swords, arrows and blades finally tipped the queen onto her side. Legs jittered, pincers quivered, and the entire body gave one last shudder before it came to a halt, completely dead. A puddle of green ooze seeped from under the body, and Jongdae grinned. He wiped his daggers, slipped them into their sheaves, and then drew out one of the bottles, walking cautiously towards the poison. "Well, that's what they're for. See, I'm a collector at heart!" 

"He's a madman," Chanyeol bemoaned. Nobody else, however, cared to stop him. Not even Suho, and the dwarf had had plenty to say before about Jongdae's apparent lack of self-preservation in the face of dangerous essences to bottle. 

"Where's Sehun?" asked Jongin. The boy stepped out from around one of the other dead spiders and shook his body, as if that might shake off the noxious odors and bodily desecration. 

Only then did Kyungsoo reappear. "No darkspawn ahead, but hey, I heard fighting?" 

Eleven pairs of eyes just glared at him. 

They'd been walking for perhaps three or four days. Their scouts had long since left them behind, both the soldiers of House Kondrat and Jackson's company. They'd been mildly helpful, but only with navigation. The only fighting before today's poisonous spiders including warding off a few spiderlings, a pack of enraged rats, and one lost nug still with its owner's brand which they swept up and carved for supper. Bestiary in the Deep Roads was minimal thanks to the presence of the darkspawn. Their taint was evident anywhere they dwelled or passed through, affecting not only the fertility of any species that came into contact with it, but also serving as a presence to scare lesser beasts away.

Perhaps, thought Jongdae, they might have kept that advice for themselves as well. But then, what's an adventure without possibly coming out alive but sterile. No biggie, really, not when compared with the treasures he would carry out. This poison especially... when distilled into the right consistency with the right herbs, then laced alongside a blade and stabbed into an unsuspecting body: lethal. So lethal. Jongdae could make a true fortune from this stuff. Not like Chanyeol with his amateurish collection of Deep Roads fungi and mushrooms. 

"Shall we take a rest?" asked the warrior now. 

"No." Yixing shook his head. "We should put some distance between ourselves and these poisonous fumes, in case there are any lingering affects. Kyungsoo? You'll lead the way?"

The shorter man nodded and lead them away.

They slept in the shade of a cave-in. Belowground, Jongdae lost track of true time. To Suho and Kyungsoo, they seemed to keep their bearings better, but by now Jongdae was just along for the ride. However long it took them to find their way out became immaterial. Travel together, keep a watch over Sehun, enjoy his time cozying up to the dwarf. Life wasn't all bad as long as they stayed alive. 

This 'night' while they rested, he stayed up to keep watch. Suho accompanied him, and for a long time they remained quiet, observant. Suho chewed on a strip of meat, Jongdae twirled and twirled his blades. Frequently, he caught the dwarf staring at his hands, wonder with just a hint of fear in his eyes, perhaps even curiosity.

"Don't want to try it?" Jongdae teased.

Immediately Suho looked away. "Of course not," he said gruffly. He tugged his collar, already stained through with the sweat of the Deep Roads. Like everyone here. They had passed several channels of magma before, the dwarven highways staying well above the surface, but even once they were past, the glow of it aded the air, as did the heat. Without it they'd likely freeze, but instead they sweated it out and carried on. Only Yixing did not seem quite as affected it; no doubt he carried a spell that eased his comfort, but if such was true, he did not share his knowledge. The elf mage slept silently against a large stone, staff laying lengthwise beside his robes, head bobbing and his long arms crossed against his chest. Suho followed Jongdae's gaze and also, curiously, shuddered and looked away.

"Something wrong?" asked Jongdae.

Suho didn't answer. 

"You act like you're scared of him," Jongdae pried.

After a few moments, Suho finally answered. "I'm scared of everybody. Wouldn't you be, if you were me?" Definitely a throw-away response that avoided the point. 

"Yes, but Yixing...?"

"What about him." He spoke softer, so lightly that Jongdae had to lean closer to hear him. 

"I thought dwarves were less susceptible to magical influence. You should be less scared of him than anyone here-"

"Yes, but I'm not any less susceptible to...." Suho stopped shorted, threw a hand over his mouth and hiccuped, as if passing through a mental check of something he did not want to remember. "Never mind."

Jongdae's smile unwinded slowly. "So there is something..." However, he didn't push it. If there was any secret to learn, he would find out with time. He changed the subject instead. "So after we get out of the Deep Roads..."

Suho took another moment to grunt. "What about it." 

"You will keep traveling? With us?"

"Who's us?" the dwarf counter-asked. 

"Ahh, but that actually is a good question." One for which Jongdae had no answer. "Shall we play it by ear then? You and I?" 

"Say what you want," Suho murmured sullenly.

He fell silent once more but did not throw off Jongdae's shoulder when he leaned against him a few minutes later. They stayed that way until Jongin woke up and urged them to sleep, then they drifted off into dreamland. Ahh, but then dwarves did not dream. What a lonely existence. The thought amused Jongdae as he rested his eyes and let sleep do the rest. Perhaps that accounted for Suho's small hand finding Jongdae's arm before he too fell into a doze. With nothing to dream about, maybe Jongdae was his anchor while he drifted into that lonely, visionless realm?

"Where are you going?" Jongin asked, his voice low but strong. Kyungsoo, far from continuing to rest, was already moving around like he intended to go somewhere. 

"I want to get a head start, see what's around the next bend."

"By yourself?" Jongin challenged. 

Kyungsoo smiled and let his hood drop behind his neck. He took great pleasure in the looks of mistrust people gave him. In this company at least, he wasn't bothered by their revulsion. Instead, it gave him courage, a sick kind of satisfaction when people shrank bank from his touch or turned their heads away. There was power in the unknown, in being a mystery, something otherworldly, something dark. 

"I have before."

Jongin stared back bravely for a few seconds. "Fine. Take someone with you though."

"Oh?" He pulled his eyebrows up. "Is that an order? Fine then, I'll take Sehun."

Immediately Jongin glared. "No. Someone else. Chanyeol, maybe. Or Baekhyun."

"So many demands." Kyungsoo clicked his tongue. "First it was anyone, now you give me only two options. Alright, alright, you play around as the boss here, I'll abide by your word." He kicked Chanyeol in the with the toe of his boot, relishing for a moment in the affronted cries of the tall warrior. "Hey, you. Wake up. Come with me." 

Chanyeol was sluggish at first, but as they begin to wander, he woke up quick enough, especially at the first sounds of something echoing in the distance. 

"What was that?" 

Both of them paused. Kyungsoo listened. "Nothing worrisome. Maybe a deepstalker. Or a bronto. Or a hurlock alpha."

"Darkspawn? Here!?" Chanyeol hissed, but Kyungsoo was already laughing.

"Keep your sword sheathed, I'm only joking."

Apparently his companion didn't find the joke funny. He shrugged and they moved on together. 

"Why do you insist on scouting ahead, alone. Isn't that just as dangerous?" Chanyeol asked.

It was, Kyungsoo figured. But with only one or two set of footsteps, anything they discovered would be less likely to hear them than if they all marched together. Their written maps were already exhausted. Baekhyun carried one copy of an ancient set of lines and swirls, crude, old and unfinished, and even the dwarves in the Shaperate would admit that dwarves hadn't traveled the subterranean highway this deep for centuries. Not since the first of many Blights after the darkspawn were discovered and had overwhelmed everything. Thaigs destroyed, and then lost, entire highways blocked, either from rock slides, collapses, or done intentionally to keep the darkspawn at bay. They started deeper in. Then slowly, one by one, thaig after thaig was lost until only Orzammar was the left. 

Kyungsoo and Chanyeol paused beside the crumbling statue of an unnamed forgotten Paragon. Before the great stone structure stood a signpost, halfway blurred from the crumbling dust. They had reached a four-way intersection. 

Kyungsoo hummed. "This is why... because this is important, and I need time to meditate on which way to go."

Chanyeol scoffed. "Meditate? On a rune no one, not even the dwarves can remember how to read? Don't you mean you already know which way to go?"

"Something like that," Kyungsoo admitted. But in his mind he wasn't looking at the rune. He was imagining himself far away, in another dark and dampened space, lit by the everlasting torches that never went out, burning for centuries long after the dwarven empire had fallen to ruin. There, below the torch, on a stone table, rustling as one against many sets of parchment and scrolls, was the image he needed.

"How, if you've never been here before? Even the best map we were given doesn't show this many possible forks."

"I don't need a paper map," Kyungsoo shushed him. He needed to focus, to remember.

"Next thing you know, you'll be telling me it's all in your head."

"But it is... I've seen it."

There, he remembered, his brain searching for just the right parchment. 'Learn these, memorize these, Kyungsoo. One day you might need it. One day perhaps you will...' 

"We go left," he spoke suddenly. 

"Left," Chanyeol echoed hollowly. "I don't believe you. How can you know. The dwarves don't even know-"

"I didn't learn it from a dwarven map, Chanyeol." 

If the warrior had any questions for that, he did not speak them. Instead, Chanyeol's jaw dropped ominously low. A second later he shut it with much difficulty. Kyungsoo might have laughed at his expression, but he didn't think it would do him any good. Kyungsoo carried a borrowed crossbow. Chanyeol was skilled at the greatsword. In a heated moment, perhaps, Chanyeol could slice him open with one good swing before Kyungsoo could even fit a bolt to his bow. 

"Let's explore this way for a bit. Then we can return to the others."

Their way was lined with more Paragons. Chanyeol didn't like them. He regaled Kyungsoo instead with tales of golems, great stone creatures that looked inanimate but could be controlled through sorcery of some kind. It didn't matter that supposedly the secrets for binding golems had been lost forever, Chanyeol stared at every Paragon warily. They treaded lightly through a few more cave-ins, muttering vaguely about how Kris would surely enjoy crawling through the cramped space between fallen rocks and stonework. When Kyungsoo was satisfied there would be another accessible tunnel to follow after this one, they turned back. Only then did Chanyeol begin to annoy with him questions. 

"Why us though?"

"Hmm?" Kyungsoo murmured, confused.

"You started following us, back in Ferelden. You even saved Sehun's life a few times. And you've never really said why." 

"Perhaps I was minding my own life, and Sehun just looked so pretty passing by."

Chanyeol snorted. "If that's what you want us to believe, then fine." 

"You don't believe me?" Kyungsoo preened. "What, have you never noticed his shine? A real diamond in the rough."

Again, Chanyeol rolled his eyes. "More likely, you just want something from him. Why flirt with the boy when he can barely withstand it anyways?"

Oh, so had they noticed? Kyungsoo wondered. Chanyeol always seemed the most dense, but if anyone guessed, it wouldn't matter anyways. "Can't I flirt if I like someone?"

Chanyeol exhaled slowly, and it might even have been a laugh. "Sure, fine, but I will remind you that Sehun's the future Arl of West Hills, so you know... uhm... good luck with that one."

West Hills, of course. Kyungsoo smirked. It was highly unlikely they'd ever return there, but then life had a way of throwing out both the expected and the unexpected. Sure, maybe it would happen as Chanyeol naively believed. 

"Seems to me, the last I heard, there were two sons ahead of him in the succession, and quite the set of murdering cousins."

Let Chanyeol and the others continue to believe the only reason Changmin and his elder brother Yunho wanted Sehun dead was because of his father's title. Kyungsoo wouldn't mind keeping the mystery alive. As for Sehun's two older half-brothers, Junsu and Jaejoong, whether or not they lived or died to inherit the title didn't matter, not in the grand scheme of the world. Something bigger would come, one day, something so large it would sweep half of Ferelden into turmoil. His master had dreamed about it, seen it in a trance, and this time it would be no mere Blight. A tear in the sky, in the very fabric of the universe, ripping open the Veil itself. Was it true? Would it happen? And when? There were no solid answers, but better if they stayed clear of Ferelden. Better if they stayed clear of Orlais. How far might they go, to avoid the inevitable? Kyungsoo had just one mission left, a personal one, and then he would disappear. Maybe take Sehun with him, if he could. 

West Hills? A minor arling on the fringe of all civilization? How petty were the humans of this world, enjoying only the things they could see, touch, experience. Wealth, it would run dry. Power, someone could take it away. Knowledge, it could be forgotten. Even people could be lost if you weren't careful. Family could die, friends could perish, and a sickness could dwell in one's own body, slowly corrupting everything it touches from the inside out. 

Maybe they would die in these Deep Roads. Maybe that would a merciful way to go. Some people came here intentionally to die. Grey Wardens, when they hear the Calling. Convicts, and those who join the Legion of the Dead, no honor left except to fight the darkspawn til death and hope for redemption. Fools maybe, all of them. But then perhaps Kyungsoo was a fool as well, believing in some other end. Maybe they'd all die here, maybe later. But either way Kyungsoo was still dying...

Chanyeol opened his mouth to retort. Kyungsoo had forgotten they were still arguing about Sehun. 

"Wait, hush a moment..." He threw out his hand, listening, sensing. Even Chanyeol didn't argue, suddenly alerted to Kyungsoo's posture. 

He spun left, then right. They'd reached the intersection again, but from one of these other tunnels Kyungsoo felt their presence. He wasted no further time worrying about the future.

Get up, now. Get everybody and run! This way! To me now!

"What is it?" Chanyeol was already pulling his sword. They could hear them now with just the ear. Perhaps it was redundant to say it out loud. 

"Darkspawn." 

Chanyeol's eyes went wide, for this was something they hadn't encountered yet and Kyungsoo had hoped to avoid. 

Got it. On our way, Minseok's voice echoed through his mind.

"We have to get the others!"

"They're already coming," said Kyungsoo. Calmly, belying his fear, he readied his crossbow and checked his satchel for bolts. 

"What?!" Chanyeol shrieked. "How?" 

"Are you really going to waste time now? They can probably hear them coming. Now come on, the darkspawn will be coming from the right," Kyungsoo pointed down a darker set of tunnels, "and it's up to you and I to hold them off until the rest of us are past." 

Chanyeol choked down his distress and finally began surveying the area like a true soldier. "We can take the high ground from there," he quickly assessed.

Kyungsoo nodded, happy enough to let Chanyeol take charge of the battle until reinforcements came, if they came in time. His own thoughts echoed laughably in his mind. Maybe they would die in the Deep Roads. But Kyungsoo wanted to live yet. 

3,375 words

Hoorah! Excitement once again. I love battle scenes. I mean, doesn't everybody? /casually kills giant poisonous spiders. 

Oh right, but maybe they will die in the Deep Roads? Or, nah... there's light at the end of the tunnel, literally. I think we'll be out of it by the end of the next chapter. This was just a necessary mulling of two different Sehun-related plots, gaspsss. Anyone frustrated yet? Lol if so I'm sorry! xD

Rosie