The Calling Read-along: Chapter 6

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THE READ-ALONG

What is this? The read-a-long is an opportunity to do a long distance book club with other Dragon Age fans, where once a week one chapter will be discussed in David Gaider's tie-in novel, The Calling

[Official book teaser blurb]After two hundred years of exile, King Maric has allowed the legendary Grey Wardens to finally return to Ferelden. When they come, however, they bring dire news: one of their own has escaped into the Deep Roads and aligned himself with their ancient enemy, the monstrous darkspawn.

The Grey Wardens need Maric's help, and he reluctantly agrees to lead them into the passages he traveled through many years before (see: The Stolen Throne), chasing after a deadly secret that will threaten to destroy not only the Grey Wardens but also the kingdom above.

If you've read it and have Thoughts or Feels, comment to discuss! Discussion can be serious or snarky, but please keep it constructive and not destructive.

(If the first person who gets to this post can start a comment thread entitled 'Serious Discussion' and a second one for 'Snarky Discussion', I would greatly appreciate it.)

- Chapter 1 (16-Apr)
- Chapter 2 (22-Apr)
- Chapter 3 (29-Apr)
- Chapter 4 (06-May)
- Chapter 5 (13-May)

[Chapter 6--Synopsis]Chapter 6 Synopsis

Maker, my enemies are abundant.
Many are those who rise up against me.
But my faith sustains me; I shall not fear the legion,
Should they set themselves against me.

-- Canticle of Trials 1:1

Back to Bregan. He is not dead, but captured once more. He feels strange. He muses about the differences between himself and Genevieve in their perception by the other Wardens, their goals in being there. The Architect is there, watching him in his cell and asks him, "You hear it, do you not?" Then, "We search and search for their prisons, and when we find one, we touch the face of perfection and thus desecrate it forever."

In talking to the Architect, Bregan realizes that he is becoming corrupted, and in a fit of self-pity (?) confesses to the Architect he never wanted to become a Grey Warden and his reasons for doing so--to please his sister.

The Architect leads him from the chamber and first reveals the horde of darkspawn digging, towards an Old One, Bregan's thoughts intimate, then his plan: that to eliminate the threat of a Blight, the differences between humans and darkspawn should be erased, and all humans to become Grey Wardens. Bregan's response was curiously apathetic, considering it. The Architect then leads him to the surface and offers to let him go, but Bregan decides, instead, to hear the Architect out further, to ally with him for the stated goal of ending the Blights forever.