This story started as a dream of a very particular scene, and then I started building a world and a plot around it, and holy cow, it's gotten away from me. But here goes.
Whoever knows pain is raised
From the fire that burns in desire
In 15:15 Metal, the Kirkwall roams the plains of Thedas. Much like tales men tell of the Nebuchadnezzar, the Galactica or Serenity, it's barely held together in some places, and it's been flying for longer than some people can remember.
On Level 14, Hawke hunched over a table, the light source below illuminating her face, with her eyes narrowed at the large clump of seaweed and coral that the Corporal hauled in. Salt water formed a puddle around it, and started dripping over the edge of the table and onto the floor. It stank, and a small part of her wished she didn't have to deal with it, but it was her job.
"Well, what is it?"
Hawke reached for a scanner and held it up to the clump, and then she reached into the back of her mind, recalling the memory of the last time she was on solid ground, and she could feel the sun shine down on her face, warm and bright and real. When she focused back on the object, she could see past the plant life and the coral, and there was a chain underneath.
"What the...?"
She whisked around to find a long metal pick somewhere along the walls of her work room, and then . . . no hammer. Shit. But this book should do. One, two, three well-placed knocks and the coral fell away, and Hawke could see a small tarnished metal chain.
"Where did you find it?"
"Wounded Coast. Standard survey. Captain brought us pretty close to the shoreline, and I almost tripped over it."
"Strange. Oh. I don't want to touch that."
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the Corporal's weight shift, uneasy and just a little impatient. She straightened her back, and rummaged through her desk for something . . . two pencils, held together in one hand, let her pull away strands of seaweed and Maker knows what else away. The chain grew longer, and she couldn't pull it free, it was stuck on something.
The constant hum of the ship's engine and systems was interrupted as the intercom crackled from the other side of the room. "Red Corporal to Level 10, Red Corporal to Level 10 for debriefing."
"Damn. Can I leave it with you?"
"Of course." She didn't look up, but used one of the pencils to turn the mass and held the scanner closer. When the metal of the door clanked open and then closed again, and after she counted ten loud footsteps of metal against metal, Hawke took a deep breath and set the scanner down.
It had been broken for over a year, but at least the lamp still worked, and she could still pretend to look through it. And the Red Corporal was none the wiser.
How long can I keep this up?
The chain was definitely stuck on something. Hawke pondered pouring an acid so that all the coral might dissolve, but then Salvage wouldn't have anything iif they could get anything out of this/i. Her posture worsened as she hunched in closer, picking away with the two pencils.
Something inside finally knocked loose, and the chain gained more slack as more coral and seaweed fell away. It smelled rotten, and Hawke was grateful that the Corporal wasn't there to see her make a face as she came close to harfing.
A piece of metal clinked onto the table, round and dark. A locket?
Hawke grabbed a tray from another table and started prodding the refuse into it to send down to Level 2. The necklace was tarnished, but still in tact, and if she cleaned it off, maybe she could coax out some details or whether there were any precious metals. Silverite? Wishful thinking.
She'd have to work fast before Corporal Vael came back.
She ran a hand through her hair and pulled at the collar of her lab coat before she nudged the door open, and she couldn't help but smile a little at the familiar smells of antiseptic and bandages.
When he wasn't with a patient, she always found him on the floor, leaned against the warmest wall of the clinic with a large book in his lap and sipping out of a metal cup. Hawke quietly walked up to the exam table and set the shallow tray down on it, giving him a few more moments to finish whatever sentence he was reading. His head was bent down so his long hair hid his face from view, but she knew that he had already seen her come in.
"Find something interesting?" He looked up, and his smile made her chest feel concave for a second.
"A necklace. Corporal Vael found it at the Wounded Coast," Hawke pulled her coat closer around herself against the cold of the room, and focused on the object on top of the bed of gauze in the tray and not at the man wrapped up in a red sweater that made his hair look almost golden.
He uncrossed his ankles, bent his knees, and pushed himself up the smooth metal wall. He stopped at a nearby sink to fill his mug.
"Thirsty?"
"Thank you. And cold." She smiled a little. He filled another metal mug from the sink, and by the time he made it over to the exam table, the water was near boiling from the small fire spell in his hands. She accepted it gladly, and the warmth of the mug and the hot water helped against the chill of Level 14. "You're not busy, are you, doctor?"
"Oh, no. Red Company didn't have any injuries." The doctor wheeled a stool over to the table and sat down, peering at the necklace. "You've cleaned it?"
Hawke nodded, her hands still wrapped around the warm metal. "Diluted hydrochloric acid to three percent. You'd thank me for not making you smell what it came in."
His nose crinkled. "Silverite chain. Pretty old." He reached inside his sweater and took out a pen, and carefully turned the pendant over. "There's a hinge, this is a locket. I can't believe the latch is still in tact." His eyes darted up to her. "You haven't touched this, have you?"
"No. I know better. Tweezers and pencils."
"Oh, good. Sometimes I come across stories of some pretty scary things enchanted into amulets and rings and things." The doctor went back to the necklace. "I'll take a picture of the engraving and see if it's in any of my books."
"Thank you. Vael went for a debriefing, he'll want to know more when he comes back."
"Mmph. He'll want to hold onto it." There was an edge in his voice she could barely make out.
"It's an artifact. That makes its place in my lab."
He didn't reply as he pulled down the imager from its mount on the ceiling, and he fiddled with the controls for a while, his eyes darting back and forth to the features on the screen. Hawke sipped at her water and watched him work. A series of beeps, and he hoisted the machine back up. "There," he whirled around on his stool to the terminal behind him. "I'll let you know as soon as I find something." He pushed his glasses back up his nose as the computer database started up.
"Thank you."
He turned back to her. "If Vael gives you shit, you can tell him to take it up with me. We'll see if he gets any of the good stuff next time he pulls a hamstring." A smile peeked from the corner of his lips and Hawke could feel a faint flutter in her chest.
And then she kept standing there.
"Aw, man." When she caught herself, there was a second of panic and then she tried to pass it off as fatigue. She stretched her arms out in an exaggerated yawn, but then she flinched forward at a jab of pain.
The doctor darted up and caught her, his hand flying to her lower back. "Hawke, you really should know better than to hunch over your table." A warm flare of energy sent goosebumps up her back. "I don't mind doing this, but it'd be much easier if you just put some blocks under the table legs and raised it up." He rubbed at the spot, and another wave of heat rippled through her.
Hawke wanted to melt. "I know, Anders. I just . . . haven't gotten around to it." She shruggled and smiled, and for a moment she was incredibly relaxed and he was so warm, and then she realized that he was still holding her, and she froze. "I . . . should go."
For a beat, he didn't move, and then he nodded, and the spot on her back felt cold when he withdrew his hand. Hawke picked up the tray and scurried out, eager for the familiar space of her work room.
Once safely inside, Hawke set the necklace down on her table, perched herself on her stool and promptly slumped forward, softly banging her forehead on the surface. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Dumbstruck and awkward and why him of all people? But she knew why - Anders was confident in his talents, and she wasn't. The fact that he was very easy on the eyes didn't hurt, either. But if anything came of it, it would draw unwanted attention, and Hawke was desperate to lay low and keep her position in Research instead of getting conscripted for field work. Hawke knew that she was not cut out for it; she had spent a long time running and doing odd jobs before joining the Kirkwall, and she had had enough. Leave the expeditions to the brave.
At some point, she must have fallen asleep, because the sound of her door clanking open made her straighten back up and she was grateful for Anders working on her back. The Corporal stepped in. "Hawke?"
"Yes, Vael." She rubbed at her eyes and face, glancing at the clock to see how long she had been out. Two hours. Shit. Last time he was here, she was easily distracted by the watery chunk of rock he brought in, but now there was nothing to keep her from fumbling like she always did when she saw him. "I managed to unearth this necklace from the debris, and most of the residue washed off after a very mild acid bath. Anders is running the image on the locket against the database to see if it means anything." Hawke watched him lean in to get a better look, his blue eyes positively captivating with the light from her work table, but suddenly she was more concerned with him reaching out with one hand. "I wouldn't touch it. It's silverite, which makes it very old, and we don't know anything about it or what it could do."
He straightened back up, eyebrows furrowed and he narrowed his eyes as he looked at her. "You don't think it's-"
"Enchanted? Maybe. I'll have to run some tests and read up on some history." He reached for it again, but Hawke saw it coming, and managed to catch his wrist. "Sebastian!"
"What, am I supposed to leave it here?" His accent was thick, and leave almost sounded exotic.
"I need to look into this. If it's as old as we think it is, it belongs in Research and Artifacts. At least until I can make sure it's safe." She started to feel uneasy with how he hadn't taken his eyes off of her. "If you don't like it, take it up to Captain Vallen." The corporal looked at her through hooded eyes, standing impossibly straight and making her crane her neck to look up at him from her stool, and she could almost be intimidated but she knew she was right.
Finally, Sebastian sighed, acknowledging her. "Alright. It stays here and you Fourteens can talk about it to the high heavens. But at some point, iI'm/i getting it back. I found it, it's mine." He bent his neck, giving her the slightest nod, took one last look at the necklace and left.
At some point, Hawke's heart rate slowed to a more manageable speed. Maker, he was infuriating at times. And she kicked herself again for letting Red Captain Isabela point out that his ass was especially enticing when he stomped away angry from something while in that snug black combat gear. Dammit, dammit, dammit.
A buzzer went off in the hallway, and Hawke got up to lock the necklace away.