The Champion
The smoke had finally cleared, revealing a fragile woman looming victoriously over the body of a giant brute slain by the sheer power of her mind, by the gift much feared and misjudged. She had struck the final blow with a lightning and staggered in exhaustion. She was Hawke; she accepted the challenge and had just ended the duel with the Arishok which revealed to the world who she was. An apostate. Hawke did not have second thoughts about that, nor did she have time to care about her own safety when the whole city was under such an imminent threat.
Hawke stepped forward proudly, looking around the throne room. The qunari honored the deal. Without saying a word, they followed one another out of the palace to leave Kirkwall for good. And then suddenly, the deafening silence exploded with cheering shouts and welcoming buzz, as if the crowd had just woken up from some kind of frozen sleep. The people in the room rejoiced – those were nobles and servants who had been held hostages by the qunari intruders. They were free now, and had their hero.
In an attempt to move out of the focus of everyone's attention, Hawke turned around to see where her friends were, and she immediately saw Anders swiftly approaching. He embraced her tightly, as if he had not seen her for ages, and Hawke locked her arms around his neck, relaxing and letting him hold her. Hawke cherished the moment, smiling happily: the weakness overwhelming her strangely felt so good now.
"I was afraid… that I'd lose you," Anders said, still nervous, his voice slightly trembling.
"I had to do that. It was the only way to stop the bloodshed."
"That's what I kept telling myself. Didn't help much," he admitted with a pained frown.
"I knew that you'd be my most dedicated supporter," she stroked his hair and gave him a well-deserved kiss.
Aveline watched the scene with the expression of slight surprise, which then changed to understanding. The Guard-captain, who accompanied Hawke all the way through this mission, sheathed her sword.
"Let's go, Fenris. Seems like we are not needed here anymore," she said to the elf warrior standing beside her.
Anders backed off a bit just to see Hawke's face, without loosing his hold of her.
"Just don't test me like this again," he said. His eyes got clouded for a while as he recalled the feeling of helplessness and dwelled on the memory of it. "I… couldn't even be there to heal you."
"Well, you still have your chance," Hawke pointed to her torn sleeve and a wound on the shoulder. She was lucky enough to dodge that blow, but Arishok's blade was too sharp and too bloodthirsty to miss its mark completely.
Anders thoroughly examined the wound, then put his hand above it, preparing to cast a spell.
"Meredith must be somewhere around. You should be careful," Hawke said cautiously as she looked around. She had already revealed herself to everyone, including the knight-commander, but Anders had not.
"There could have been her entire flock of templars watching, for all I care," Anders replied dismissively as he sent a flow of restoring energy towards Hawke's wounded arm, making its flesh mend.
How she loved it when he worked his healing magic… It occurred to Hawke that she would get wounded again and again just to watch him doing it, just to feel this touch of kindness and care.
"It's you I worry about. Now that everyone knows," Anders gave Hawke a troubled look.
"I don't think Meredith would dare harm me, not after all I've done to protect this city," Hawke reassured him. "But you should do your best to stay down, Anders."
"If they're after me, then… Justice knows what to do," he stated, his face briefly overshadowed with gloom.
"Justice should not worry," Hawke responded as if speaking about some friend of his, not the unpredictable spirit inhabiting his body. "Once you move to my place, I will gladly take the job of keeping the templars away from you."
She smiled warmly, and Anders could not help but smile back. If there were still any doubts remaining, about Hawke changing her mind, they were gone now.
…Fenris followed Aveline, looking suspiciously over his shoulder at the two mages.
"I don't like this. He is dangerous," he stated in his usual straightforward manner.
"Come on," Aveline replied with a playful challenge. "This woman has just defeated the badass qunari leader! She'll be fine, I guess."
"I've no doubt Hawke can defeat any enemy. But when it comes to defeating a lover… That would make things complicated, don't you think?"
"Probably, a happy Anders will not be that dangerous, don't you think?" Aveline pressed. She had always been at Hawke's side, and now she kept on defending her friend in this delicate matter because she herself knew how inspiring and renewing love can be.
They walked out of the palace and stopped nearby.
"I don't know," Fenris answered. "You weren't there in Darktown with us when he…"
The elf checked himself as he figured out it might not be appropriate to speak with a law enforcer about that, then continued:
"Let's just say, I saw evidence that he can't quite control himself."
The Guard-captain nodded; she knew what Fenris meant to say, but decided to keep it to herself.
"I see your point. But give it a chance. Mages love playing with fire – you can't do anything about that," she smiled.
"There you are," Hawke said as she and Anders approached, holding hands.
"What about mages?" Anders asked casually, having overheard a bit of Aveline's last phrase; then added, obviously addressing Fenris. "Same old 'all mages are evil' thing?"
"Not all," the elf replied ambiguously.
"With the only exception now messing with the evil one?"
"I'm watching over you".
"Stop fighting, boys," Hawke chuckled. "Give me a break!"
She waited for their eyes to fix on her, and then spoke again.
"I wanted to thank all of you. Without you, I wouldn't make it today."
Her friends nodded in acknowledgement and smiled.
"So, what does the hero of the day want to do now?" Aveline asked.
"The hero of the day wants to relax. Don't you all mind hanging in 'The Hanged Man' with me?"
"Sure. I'm done with my duty for today."
"I'm with you. Always," Anders put his arm around Hawke's waist.
"Let's celebrate," Fenris agreed.
"Varric will be excited to hear the story firsthand," Hawke said, trying to imagine what the story would look like after the dwarf had his way with it.
"…Or pissed off he missed everything," Anders suggested.
The four of them disappeared into the twilight grey, leaving the story yet to be told – one where the semblance of the end brings a new beginning; one which never really ends.