"Bloody Chantry-boy shot off my hat."

"I told you not to poke your head up over the wall."

"I was trying to do some reconnaissance on the enemy. How else was I going to do that if I didn't stick my head out and look? Unless you'd like to magic up some slits into this giant wall of ice for me to peek through."

"Yes, Carver, because that wouldn't be a completely frivolous use of magic, and a really stupid thing to end up getting caught by the Templars and dragged off to the Circle over."

"All right, all right, I wasn't suggesting-"

"Of course you were, you lout, you just didn't think- actually, that's pretty much always your problem-"

"Well, I beg your pardon, your highness-"

Marian smirked at her two younger siblings. "Carver. Bethany. If you two are quite finished…"

Bethany blushed. "Sorry, sister."

Carver merely rolled his eyes. "The usual plan, then?"

"If you'd be so kind."

Sebastian was the first to notice something happening. "They're on the move."

Aveline twisted around to try and get a better view while still keeping herself behind cover. "Where?"

The archer pointed towards the other wall where three figures had hunkered down several minutes ago. Two had left the protection of the wall and were flanking to the sides, using various obstacles littering the city street as cover while leaving one of their number behind at the fortified post. "Looks like Marian to our left, Carver flanking to the other side. That… that can't be right."

"Why would they leave Bethany, of all people, to hold the center position?" Aveline muttered. "This doesn't smell right."

"Well, whatever we're going to do, we should decide quickly." Fenris rose and flung a quick shot over towards Carver's position just to test the range. The snowball dropped short by a few feet.

"Advance. Right up the middle. Varric, Anders, keep Marian pinned down as best you can while we move. Everyone else, try for Bethany if you get a clean shot. Move."

Marian chuckled to herself as her friends – all of them under the command of Aveline – moved out in a wedge formation with the tall redhead at the point. They were staying low and moving slowly, and she could see Varric and Anders along the left side of the wedge, balls of tightly packed snow in their hands ready to throw, just waiting for her to show herself. Flattering that Aveline thought her the most serious threat, but this time she wasn't, and her friend was going to pay for that error.

Bethany waited as the others closed in slowly but inexorably. She and her siblings were outnumbered, seven to three. By all rights, she, Marian and Carver shouldn't have stood a chance. But the three of them were no strangers to this type of warfare, and they had quite a few tricks up their sleeves.

She glanced to her side, saw Marian make a fist and then a quick, downward pulling motion.

She was up and throwing before her sister had even finished the gesture.

Anders didn't even see the ball of white coming, but he certainly felt the impact, and then the sudden, numbing cold as he was flung to the white, powdery ground. "Oh, Maker! My eyes! My eyes!"

"I've got you, Blondie! Hang on, you're going to be ok! Just hang on!"

Suddenly, over on the other side of the attacking wedge, Sebastian was screaming, too. "She got me in the ear! For the love of Andraste, Bethany, why the ear?"

Merrill was on the verge of panic, lying prone on the ground and trying to cover her head. "She's like a demon! She doesn't miss! What do we do?"

Aveline caught a solid shot to the forehead and staggered, but through sheer stubbornness, clawed her way back to her feet. She sputtered, spitting snow out of her mouth. "Push forward to the fountain! Use it as cover! MOVE!"

"This is suicide!" Isabella cried out, just barely ducking out of the way as another snowball went whizzing past overhead – the first of Bethany's shots to miss. "Bollocks! They've got us in a crossfire! Mffffff!" She went down under a furious barrage from Carver and Marian. For a moment, she fought to try and stand, but then abruptly, her struggles ceased and she lay deathly still.

Merrill crawled over to the insensate woman, flinging herself over Isabela's body in a vain attempt to shield her, and her mouth opened in a wordless scream. Fenris reached back for her, attempting to haul the smaller elf away from their wounded comrade by main strength, but the slight Dalish clung to her friend with a strength born of madness. "They're killing us…" she whispered. "They're killing us!" Louder. "Enough! We surrender!"

Aveline whirled on her, staring at her as if she'd gone mad. "Merrill, no. There's still a chance! Still a- OOOF!"

Bethany's snowball caught her solidly in the back of the head and sent her sprawling awkwardly facefirst into the snow.

"Hands up, Broody. It's over." Varric raised his hands up over his head and motioned for Fenris to do the same. "Ok, Hawke, you got us!"

There was no response, just a long, eerie silence that was eventually broken by a sharp, girlish giggle from Bethany's position and then a snowball launched high into the air, almost straight up.

Varric grumbled. "Ah, -tits.-"

There was another from Carver's position on a similar trajectory, another from Marian's, then two, three, four more. He stopped counting.

Fenris curled up into a little ball on the ground. "Duck and cover!"

The bombardment lasted for only a minute, but it might as well have been a year.

By the time, everyone managed to drag themselves inside the house and by the fire, they were all sneezing, sniffling, and generally miserable. Everyone, that is, except the Hawke family, of course. Marian puttered about, thrusting mugs of warm cider into feebly grasping hands, Bethany capered back and forth, smugly crowing about how she'd gotten someone "right in the eye" or "taken so and so down with one hit."

Even Carver was smiling as he tossed another log onto the fire.

"Your sister is a -machine.-"

He smirked. "And now you know all about our secret weapon, dwarf."

Bethany cackled. "No one expects. NO ONE expects! The little slip of a girl has a throwing arm that could take your head off!"

"Well, it's not so much the power as the accuracy," Marian snickered, folding her younger sister into a hug.

"Right in the ear!" Sebastian let out a tortured wail as he lay curled up on a nearby divan. "Why the -ear?-"