Shartan 9
The Rebel Slaves Flee
For twenty days and twenty nights the People ran,
With the footsteps of the legion ever at their backs.
No rest could they find, since their flight from Vol Dorma.
The People cried out in despair:
"Alas, that we ever left Vol Dorma!
Better we had died there than to be hunted like sport on the plains."
Among the People, some began to whisper of returning
To the city and throwing themselves
At the feet of their former masters,
And Shartan heard them.
Shartan Rallies The Elves
As the People paused to break bread at the foot
Of the hill the Tevinters called "the Lonely One,"
Shartan stood on the hilltop and spoke, saying:
"Some among you wish to flee back to your masters,
To throw yourselves at their feet and ask forgiveness.
You have left that path. It is already gone.
Your feet can never again tread the dust of Vol Dorma.
"He who asks for mercy of the masters
Will stand accountable for murder and theft
And be made example for the slaves of other cities,
That they might not have the courage to rise up.
"They will taunt you and humiliate you
While they hang you in the marketplace.
They will pelt you with offal while they call you
Broken, a coward, and a failure.
"A dog might slink back to the hand it has bitten
And be forgiven, but a slave never.
If you would live, and live without fear, you must fight."
And the People heard the truth in Shartan's voice,
And some cursed themselves and their fate and despaired.
And others began to fashion spears and bows
From the branches of trees, and girded themselves
With bark and scraps torn from their sandals
And dug pits in the earth with their hands.
The Elves Ambush The Legion
Darkness fell upon the Lonely One,
A night without moon or stars,
As the legion followed, like bloodhounds,
The trail of the rebels.
And when the hunters reached the foot
Of the solitary hill, they found nothing,
The trail of their quarry vanished, as if the People
Had taken wing.
The officers began to curse their men
And blame one another for losing the trail,
And the soldiers fell to bickering among themselves.
In silence all around them, the People crept out
From holes clawed in the earth, and with harvesting blades
And arrows chipped from stones,
Fell upon the unwary legion and slaughtered them to a man.
The Elves Celebrate Their Victory
And the People raised the blades of the fallen soldiers to the heavens
And rejoiced. And Shartan said to them:
"No longer are we hunted! We shall never again
Be prey, waiting to be struck down!
Let us take up the blades of our enemies
And carve a place for ourselves in this world!"
The People heard him, and girded themselves
In the armor of the dead
And sharpened ther blades and arrows
And prepared for war.
The Army of Andraste Arrives
As the People danced over the corpses
Of slain soldiers, a thunder filled the air
And the ground trembled, and a hush fell over them,
As they knew a terrible omen had come.
From afar, they heard the sound
Of ten thousand voices raised in song,
And the marching of a great host.
Shartan Goes Forth To Meet The Army
Seeing an army beyond counting gathered in the distance,
Shartan said to the People:
"Let us not fall into the jaws of the wolf together.
I will go alone and see what army comes,
Singing, to the land of Tevinter."
Across the empty plains, Shartan crept
To where the great host camped, the light from countless fires
Guiding him through the darkness.
Then a great hand clamped down upon Shartan's neck,
And he was lifted into the air. And he looked into the eyes
Of a towering creature, taller than any legion soldier, featured like a man
But covered in fur like a beast and bearing a mighty shield.
Havard the Aegis Greets Shartan
The creature spoke in a stern voice, saying:
"Why are you to come upon us alone,
Wearing the armor of our most hated foe,
When I can see you are no man of the legion?"
And Shartan answered him: "If you hate the legion,
Then I am your friend."
And the giant laughed, and set him back upon his feet,
Declaring: "Then the Aegis of
Alamarri bids you welcome!
Follow me to the side of the Prophet."
Shartan Meets Andraste
The Aegis led him to the center of the great host,
And Shartan saw that they counted men and women of all descriptions among them.
Many bore the scars of escaped slaves, and some had come west
From the coastlands, and they stood as equals beside the wild giant men of the South.
There, in the heart of them, sang a Lady radiant
And clad in armor of bright steel.
She paused her song to look upon Shartan,
And said to him: "All souls who take up the sword
Against Tevinter are welcome here.
Rest, and tell us of your battles."
And Shartan told her: "I cannot rest
While the People wait in darkness and fear."
So Andraste sent him with three of her attendants
To invite the People to come to her side.
And the People came, all astonished
To stand among Andraste's followers,
And she gave them food and drink and bade them sit
While Shartan gave her the tale of their uprising
And flight from Val Dorma.
When the tale was finished, Andraste said to Shartan:
"Truly, the Maker has called you, just as He called me,
To be a Light for your People.
The host you see before you march,
Bearing His will north, where we shall deliver it
To
Minrathous, city of magisters, and we shall tear down
The unassailable gates, and set all slaves free."
And Shartan looked upon the Prophet Andraste
And said: "The People will set ourselves free.
Your host from the South may march
Alongside us.
The giants of the South rose to their feet as one
And bowed. And Andraste said:
"It is done. We march as one."
Shartan 10
The Armies Clash on Valerian Fields
At Shartan's word, the sky
Grew black with arrows.
At Our Lady's, ten thousand swords
Rang from their sheaths.
A great hymn rose over Valarian Fields gladly, proclaiming:
Those who had been slaves were now free.
The legion fell before them
Like wheat before the scythe,
But the armies of Tevinter were numberless,
A sea of death which crashed upon
The Prophet and her army like waves.
Shartan Rescues Andraste
The host of the Lady
Began to falter. The legion
Turned spear and sword, fire
And ice upon them, and the warriors
Of the Prophet were scattered,
Divided from their commanders
By magic, penned like cattle for slaughter.
Shartan saw that walls of ice
Surrounded Andraste and her warriors,
And he rallied the People.
And with arrows aflame,
The walls of magic melted
And the Prophet and her warriors were free.
Andraste named Shartan her champion
And the Prophet stood beside Shartan
And shouted to her host:
"Behold! Our champion!"
And gave to him the blade of her own mother
From her own scabbard, Glandivalis, saying:
"Take this, my champion,
And free our people forever."
And the Prophet and the People
Struck down the mages of the legion
And claimed the field together.
And before them, empty,
Outstretched lay the land
Which led to the gates of Minrathous.
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