Soft candlelight illuminated the bedroom. A man with shaggy white hair leaned back on the headboard of the bed, arms crossed over his chest. White lines swirled and crossed over most of his visible skin. Against his skin's dark hue, the lines stood out in stark contrast. A slow smile played upon the corners of his lips.

Fenris kept his eyes fixed upon the figure standing in the doorway. She stepped forward slowly, languidly, her bright blue eyes fixated upon his green ones. Marian reached up and allowed the sheer robe to slip off her shoulders and pile into a heap at her feet. Fenris's eyes widened at the sight of her skimpy black underwear and breast strap, and he sucked in a breath as he felt a twitch below his stomach. She smirked at the sound and approached him on the bed.

Marian's hands slid up his thighs leisurely, stopping just before reaching his now obvious arousal. Her lips ghosted over his collarbones and up the side of his throat, planting soft kisses against his skin, but always careful to avoid his routinely painful lyrium markings. His hands settled on her waist, marveling at how soft her skin was over the lean muscles that allowed her to swing her staff around as if it weighed nothing. When her mouth found his earlobe, his fingers dug into her skin as he sucked in another breath. Her hands, still on his thighs, began inching upwards once more…

Fenris jerked awake as a heavy weight slammed into his midsection. He bolted upright, lyrium tattoos flaring from adrenaline, only to find the weight on his stomach was a grinning, dark-skinned little girl with unruly black hair and bright green eyes. She giggled at the sight of him, then slid off his stomach and the bed and bolted out through the bedroom door.

The elf sighed, combing his fingers through his hair in an effort to tame it into some semblance of order. He trudged into the kitchen to find the little girl, who could be no older than two, straining to reach a tin of crackers on the counter.

"Here, Bethany," he said as he handed her one. The girl shrieked in delight and ran off, stuffing it into her mouth.

Fenris watched his daughter stamp across the living space they shared, babbling incoherently as she played with the few toys that littered the floor. She looked more and more like her mother every day, apart from having his skin tone as well as slightly pointed ears, but Hakwe always insisted that Bethany looked much more like him. He smiled at the memory, before his good mood slipped away as his thoughts turned to his lover. Or rather, her absence.

Hawke had been gone for almost six months now. Though she had written to him several times, he still worried about how much she was missing with Bethany. This was an important developmental period for a child, after all, and he wasn't so much worried about his own parental skills as he was that their daughter wouldn't recognize her own mother when she finally returned.

Unbidden, the memory of Hawke's departure flashed in his mind. Her determined expression as she told him under no uncertain circumstances that she would go alone. His own tumultuous emotions as he knew logically that someone had to stay and care for Bethany, but also knew in his heart that he wanted her safe, whether that was him going with her or her not going at all. They had argued, but eventually he had conceded that she was the better choice to help deal with the threat of Corypheus, whom Hawke had faced before. Thus, Fenris was forced to stay behind.

Hawke had joked that perhaps she shouldn't write back to him because it would just make him want to join her in her adventures. Fenris responded that if he had his way, she wouldn't be going at all, let alone by herself on such an incredibly dangerous journey. Marian's lighthearted expression fell, and after an awkward silence he told her that she didn't have to bother with letters, but that her safe and expedient return would be sufficient. Despite this, Hawke still wrote to him.

While he missed her company dearly, at least he had Hawke's words for comfort; he would read the letters aloud to Bethany, and it helped keep his reading skills sharp. She had sent a letter when she arrived in Skyhold, the hold of the new Inquisition, detailing some of the people there. ("I think you'd be most interested in Dorian, really. He's funny and has enough sass to compete with my own sarcasm, but he's from Tev- he's a ma- he's not from around here, so some of the customs confuse him.")

A second letter told him about the trip to the Tevinter ritual tower ("yes, it's Tevinter ruins. You can stop scowling now") and the discovery that the Wardens were using blood magic to fuel their insane plan ("yes, it's blood magic. You can stop scowling now"). She then explained that Erimond, the man responsible for manipulating the Warden mages into binding themselves unknowingly to Corypheus, has retreated to Adamant Fortress. Hawke wrote that she and her Warden contact are headed there to scout it out, and see if it's able to be taken by siege. ("I'll write again after the attack; Cullen says it should be pretty straightforward, if not easy, to take the fort since it was built before modern siege equipment. You remember Cullen, right? From Kirkwall? He was there when Meredith when insane and turned into a glowing statue. Good times, right?")

Both letters were signed with her love, and a promise to return home to him and Bethany soon.

It had been a few weeks since Hawke's last letter, and it was about time he receive another one, if her usual pattern was anything to go by. He glanced out the window; the letters would come tied to the leg of one of the most monstrous crows he had seen in his entire life, and it would stare at him with beady red eyes as he carefully untied the paper. Then it would fly off, before Bethany had time to try and pet the "ber!," as she called it.

Almost as if it had read his mind, there was a sharp rap on the window pane, and Fenris found himself eye to eye with another of the intimidating creatures. And tied to its leg was another letter.

He couldn't help but feel his chest swell with emotion as he retrieved the letter. He had expected it sooner, and had consequently worried that something had happened to Hawke, but was relieved to find that she had simply been delayed.

While Bethany played with a doll in the corner, Fenris sat himself down on the bed and opened the letter. But instead of Hawke's nearly unintelligible scrawl, he found himself faced by Varric's careful lettering.

"Fenris,

I can't tell you how much I wish I wasn't having to write this letter. The siege of Adamant Fortress was a success, but there was a complication. There was a bloody archdemon, and an explosion, and we were all falling. The Inquisitor saved us, she opened a rift into the Fade and caught us in it, but in the rift was a Nightmare demon. Hawke saved all our lives distracting it so we could escape.

I'm sorry."

The letter slipped from Fenris's limp fingers and fluttered to the ground. He stared blankly at the space where the letter had been, Varric's uncharacteristically awkward words bouncing around his skull. Complication. Archdemon. Explosion. Inquisitor. Rift. Nightmare. Distracting.

After all Hawke had been through, all she'd endured and bled for and fought for, all the death and sorrow she'd pushed past, after all that her last moment was being a distraction?

"No," he whispered. No, Hawke wasn't dead. He refused to believe it. She'd endured the loss of both of her siblings, the Deep Roads, being nearly sliced in half in battle with the Arishok, the murder of her mother, the battle of Kirkwall, and an incredibly difficult pregnancy and childbirth of a daughter that neither of them were prepared for. She had dealt with all of that, and one little nightmare demon wouldn't be the straw to break the hawk's back.

"Daddy?"

Fenris looked up to find Bethany looking at him warily. She'd noticed his mood plummet. He held his arms out to her, and she ran into them, burying her face in the hollow of his throat. His arms wrapped around her and held her tightly. He closed his eyes and inhaled his daughter's scent, fighting back the prickle of tears that threatened.

Bethany pulled back but stayed within his arms. "Mama?" she inquired, cocking her head to the side. Fenris could swear he felt his heart break even further in that moment.

"She won't be back for a while," he murmured. "But she WILL be back."

And although those words were meant more to soothe Bethany than to reassure himself, he paused and actually considered what he'd said. Slowly, a plan began to present itself to him, and he narrowed his eyes in thought. After a minute he nodded and stood, suddenly feeling more driven to do something than he had in months.

"She will come back," he repeated forcefully, more to himself than anyone. And in order to make sure she did, he had to get started. "But first, I need to go to Skyhold."