Cullen waited for the right time. Someplace public. Crowded, but not too crowded. During the daylight hours. Someplace where Hawke was unlikely to fight back. Someplace here she would be alone, and where he and a few trusted templars could take her in without causing a fuss. And then, during a morning meeting, Karras talked about Hawke by name to Alrik. The man had a picture of her. An unmistakeable portrait of Hawke, drawn in painstaking detail by one of the Starkhaven mages. An hour later the order for her arrest was issued.
A Lowtown vendor told Cullen that she had just seen Hawke ascend the stairway to Hightown. Cullen hustled up the stairs. Four carefully picked templars kept pace behind him.
Half way up he saw her standing on a landing, leaning against a wrought-iron railing, nibbling at small chunks of meat stuck through on a wooden skewer. She looked out over the city below, out toward the harbor. Cullen jogged the remaining steps two at a time and lunged at her before she darted away.
She stood tense and frozen as he tightened his grip on her upper arm. He couldn't tell if she planned to run but decided to chance that she knew better.
"Everything will go easier if you come with us quietly," he said. He motioned for three of his men to stay back but for Keran to come forward.
Hawke had seen what he had done. She narrowed her eyes.
"Hawke, your arrest was ordered this morning. Cooperate with us and no one will pursue your friends or your family."
"I saved your life," she said. "Yours too." She thrust her chin toward Keran. "Isn't that worth something?"
Cullen sighed before he could stop himself. He bit his tongue, straightened his spine and sucked in his gut. "Not any longer," he said through clenched teeth.
She tried twisting her arm from his grip. He squeezed back harder as he nodded to Keran.
"I'm sorry, Hawke," Keran said as he grabbed her free wrist and locked her arm behind her back. "I'm really sorry," he said again.
Cullen warned Keran to still his tongue, but the young recruit continued.
"If I had my way," Keran said, "I'd never say a word to anyone about what you are. Never. But others found out. I had nothing to do with it!"
"That's enough Keran," Cullen barked.
But the man didn't shut up. "Look, Hawke, I swear we won't let anyone hurt you. It's the least we can do."
That was when Cullen saw Hawke's arm slack as Keran's grip loosened. Just as she shifted her weight, Cullen slapped an open palm into her solar plexus and abruptly drained her of mana. She stumbled forward, face ashen. Keran grabbed her shoulders to keep her from dropping to her knees.
"Sorry," Keran said again. "I won't let you fall."
Cullen motioned for his other three men to approach slowly and Hawke gave him a look that pained him as she gulped back nausea, eying him with disgust.
"Do as I say, Hawke, and you won't have problems." Cullen wanted to believe the words he had just spoken.