Sacred Ashes

After several hours of climbing a mountain, fighting through ruins and even overcoming a high dragon they finally reached the Temple of Sacred Ashes. Only to discover that there was a final test known as the gauntlet overseen by an immortal man known as the Guardian. Leliana found the tests gruelling but her desire to see the final resting place of Andraste compelled her to keep moving forward.

Although her faith wasn't the only reason she had come so far, her companions had brought her far, even if they weren't true believers like her. Besides her in this quest were the Grey Warden, Alistair, the former Templar seemed to be as overwhelmed with the Temple as she was. There was also Morrigan, the Witch had little to no interest in just about anything they did, so it came as no surprise that this Temple didn't arouse her curiosity. At the head of the group was their leader the Grey Warden, Elissa Cousland, it was difficult to discern what she though of the whole situation but she could tell that she was annoyed by the countless tests to reach the Urn.

They had just completed a test including ethereal bridges and walked through the door and Leliana felt her heart lift as she saw a staircase on the other side of the room leading up to the Urn. Their final test was a wall of fire standing in their way, their only help being a small altar with some sort of inscription on it. Elissa moved towards it and read it out loud.

"Cast off the trappings of worldly life and cloak yourself in the goodness of spirit. King and ****, lord and beggar, humble yourself before the Maker and be born anew in His sight". Elissa had a puzzled expression on her face and turned back to ask them, "any idea what this means?"

Alistair looked just as confused as she did while thinking. Leliana considered in silence, 'cast off trappings' as in all trappings. It couldn't actually mean what she thought.

All of a sudden Morrigan started Laughing, "is it not obvious? This Guardian wished for us to remove our clothing".

"What?!" Alistair blurted out. "No, that can't be it, what kind of test would that be?"

"The kind that tests out resolve" Elissa answers calmly. "Morrigan's right, everything off"

Leliana felt unnerved as everyone began to remove their armour and clothing, she trusted her friends with her life, but it wasn't her life they were talking about.