It's a cold winter night when Marian Hawke stumbles into the Chantry in Redcliff. There's a storm outside so harsh it feels like the whole building will collapse, but Sebastian doesn't notice anything but the woman and the young boy beside her.
She collapses on the floor, the child's hands the only thing stopping her from hitting her head on the cold stone floors.
Sebastian is the only person on duty and for a moment he's frozen still, before he leaps into action, running to the new arrivals.
"Help me support her," he tells he boy, the child at least seems to be in better condition than the woman. And that is when he sees it; her large stomach and the staff on her back. She's pregnant and most likely a mage. Sebastian shakes his head, deciding to not do anything about the possibility she might be a mage just yet, focusing instead on her being pregnant.
They seat her down on a bench while Sebastian fetches blankets and a dry robe for her, leaving the boy to dry her off and help her change as soon as she comes to a bit. At the same time he prepares a stew, noticing he'll have to brave the weather come morning to find something on the market.
He's more than prepared to forgo food so the child and woman will have enough to eat – it's not his first time fasting and the unborn child needs it more than him.
Sebastian goes to find two cots as soon as they've gotten the woman to bed, but despite looking exhausted, the boy refuses to leave her side to get sleep. So Sebastian sits down beside him in front of the fire burning brightly in the hearth.
"Might I ask who the two of you are, and what you're doing out on a night as cold as this?" The boy looks at him, exhaustion in his eyes as well as that certain haunted look people get when they've seen something bad happen.
"I don't have a name. Serahs Hawke and Fenris rescued me from my master. I mean, my former master. I'm free now."
"Then where is this Serah Fenris?" The boy looks up at him, and it's clear from the look in his eyes what had happened. Yet there is also a sense of pride there, at his words. Free now.
"Do you think you could tell me what happened? It might make it easier for me to help her when she wakes up."
The boy nods.
-
"Quiet. They're almost here." Marian thinks to herself that Fenris telling her to be quiet – therefor making a sound himself – is quite against the point, but she understands why he's nervous. She's six months pregnant – should have stayed home, away from here – but still helping him chase down slavers and magisters. The fact that she's a mage could have made hunting magisters quite the ironic act – especially with a former slave at her side – but it's not.
The sound of footfall reaches them – thankfully not heavy, that would mean armoured guards – and they get ready to leap into action.
They've done this many times before; ambushes, tipped wagons and fallen trees, glyphs cast on the road that will freeze or burn and distract some of the slavers or guards and hopefully not damage the persons they're trying to save.
So it should be easy this time too, or at least easy enough.
They hadn't known there would be a blood mage in the group; an error or deliberate act from the man who had offered them the information on the transportation of a young slave being sent to Tevinter ahead of his master.
Marian tries to shield Fenris as best she can, taking on the blood mage on her own, leaving the guards to him. It's a hard fight, fire and ice and lightning raining down, the ground beneath shaking with magical power as she attempts to throw the other mage off-balance enough that she'll be able to take him down. But he stands firm on his feet, and just as she's about to throw up a ward in front of herself, the other mage grins in a terribly frightening way as he cuts his wrist and instead sends spikes of ice at Fenris.
A terrible, terrifying, blood-curdling scream fills the battlefield and Marian grows cold, so cold, all other feeling but revenge filling her entire being and she does what she vowed to her father, her sister, brother, mother and Fenris she'd never do.
Her blood flows from an open wound, the only colour and warmth in a world that is bleak and cold and she lashes out in every direction at once, only avoiding the young boy because he had sense enough to run out of the way as soon as the fighting started.
The area is once again filled with screams, only this time those of her enemies and not her, and when she opens her eyes again she's the only one left standing.
Marian runs over to Fenris and falls down on her knees, cradling his head in her lap as blood trickles out of his mouth and the gashes down his arms.
But it's too late, even if she did know any healing spells. The light is gone from his eyes, his body already growing cold in her arms. A sob escapes her as pain and grief tears her apart inside until she wants to claw at her skin in order to tear it out of her body. Instead Fenris' blood seeps into her clothes, staining them as well as her soul.
"Are you alright, Mistress?" At first she doesn't understand where the question is coming from, but then she turns and looks at the young boy, no more than seven years, she thinks. He looks so scared that she feels a pang of guilt as the memory of what she did comes back to her. Marian tries to speak, but nothing comes out except another sob.
"Who was he? Was he kind? Is that why you killed those men?"
"His names is… was, Fenris. He used to be like you, once. Kindest man I ever met; trusted me even though I'm a mage and the man who was his master was a magister. "
-
"We've been traveling ever since. I'm not sure Serah Hawke led us anywhere in particular; she seemed so lost after she burnt Serah Fenris' body. We went through Lothering on the way here, or what little there is of the place right now, but it seemed to only bring her more pain. So we came here, after weeks of walking and barely speaking to anyone. I was worried we wouldn't get help in time, what with her belly being that big."
"Thank you, child, for telling me. And for staying with her, helping her. You're both welcome to stay as long as you need, and I'm quite sure she'll need you to take care of her now."
The boy yawns, then smiles at Sebastian.
"Now, you should go to sleep as well. Serah Hawke will need you in the morning."
"Goodnight messere… What's your name?"
"Sebastian."
"Goodnight Serah Sebastian."
