Varric sighed into his mug of ale. He didn't enjoy telling Hawke's tale without her permission but he couldn't let the Chantry boy leave thinking Hawke's life was only Hightown balls and card games in Lowtown.
"Did Hawke ever tell you about her tattoos?" Varric set his mug down and leveled his amber eyes at Sebastian who looked appropriately uncomfortable by the notable shift in tension within the room. Most of the gang had heard the story from Hawke's own mouth after she had downed numerous pints of ale.
Anders stiffened at Varric's words and closed his eyes as he took a deep breath. The dwarf swore he saw blue peeking out from beneath the healer's blond lashes. Isabella leaned against Fenris's shoulder, playing coy with the reserved elf, but her flirtations were a distraction from the flash of sympathy that shined in her eyes. Fenris kept his eyes trained on Sebastian. Varric knew that the former slave was fond of the Chantry boy; he was likely measuring his reaction to the story in an attempt to further understand where he stood with his new ally.
"No," Sebastian glanced at the others briefly before meeting Varric's gaze. "She dinnae tell me."
Varric choose to forgo his usual dramatic style in favor of a quicker, blunter delivery of the tale. Hawke had asked him to stop spreading rumors and he couldn't promise he wouldn't ever embellish her to a stranger, but not to one of them. Not to a man who held her so high on a pedestal.
"They were carved into her face when she was fourteen. She had been gathering firewood with her siblings," Varric paused as Sebastian interrupted him with a small involuntary gasp.
"She has siblings?"
"Had." Anders' breathed angrily, his eyes were open now and they were narrowed at his own mug. "She had a brother and sister, twins."
"A group of men came upon them, bandits, and Hawke held them off so the twins could escape. Instead of cutting her down, the bandits decided that she was too lively to waste." He paused, watching Sebastian's mild surprise turn to horror. "So they dragged her, and I don't say that for emphasis I mean they dragged Hawke back to their camp through the undergrowth of the Ferelden forest. There they proceeded to beat the fight out of our fearless Champion but they spared her face. While she was barely conscious they marked her in their own code." He traced two waved lines on his chin, similar to Hawke's, "Mage." He traced another down the side of his face. "Unbroken." He traced the last mark another wavering line on the other side of his face. "Red River Slavers. So don't think Hawke hasn't earned her silk slippers, Chantry boy, she's paid for them in blood thrice over."