BLOOD TIES.
You can run from the Blight, but you can't run from what flows through your veins. Sometimes, family is everything.
50. Wood
Her first staff is carved from a pretty little branch that Malcolm found and whittled.
He barters for metal wire from the blacksmith and wraps it around the head of the staff, coiling it into swirls that glint green in the light of his spell wisp. It's a plain weapon, just the barest thing needed to focus her magic, but Asteria thinks it's the most beautiful weapon and carries it like Bethany carries her rag doll.
Leandra can't help but laugh, cradling a bawling baby Carver, when her husband returns home followed by a little mirror image, determinedly stomping along with her too-tall staff and tripping on it every few steps. "You couldn't have made it any smaller?" she shakes her head, leaning up to brush a light kiss against the side of his mouth.
He grins proudly, and pats their eldest daughter on the head. "She wanted it to be like mine."
36. Secret
"So. When are you bringing him to dinner?"
Asteria spun around, looking shocked. "Mother! I – what-"
"Oh darling, you've been making eyes at him for months. He is rather handsome," Leandra laughed, entwining her daughter's arm with her own. "Were you trying to keep it a secret?"
"I'd hoped it wasn't so...obvious," the mage replied, scarlet-faced. "I haven't even – he's very sensitive about mages, he might just –" Leandra waved an elegant hand to stop the rambling.
"He looks at you the same way, dear. Ask him over for tomorrow, I'll have to make preparations."
"You're...not upset?" Asteria asked hesitantly, pulling away gently. "I thought- I know you wanted me to marry someone noble..."
The slate-blue eyes softened as Leandra gazed at her eldest – no taller than herself, but with all the confidence and charm of her father. She couldn't walk through the Hightown Markets without hearing about her own daughter's exploits – all sorts of things that Asteria would never tell her own mother. But sometimes, when she looked at the tall elf with the strange markings and a sword like Carver's, she smiled like the girl that Leandra once knew so well.
"...You deserve to be happy, dear."
43. Summer
The month of Solace in Kirkwall brought incessant sunshine, heat, and dreams.
"Yay, Carver!"
The twins were six years old, and Bethany giggled as her brother bravely fought off the 'evil witch' with a particularly large stick.
"Gasp!- You have slain me!" the witch cried, summoning a small flurry of sparks at the end for dramatic effect. Carver grinned widely, one front tooth missing, and raised his 'sword' triumphantly. Bethany broke away from the tree where she had been 'magically bound' and gave her savior a wet kiss on the cheek, which he rubbed off with a disgusted pout.
"Ew, Bethy, that's gross!" His twin stuck her tongue out at him before twirling around to tug Asteria off the ground.
"Sister, can you be a dragon– " The little girl's innocent eyes grew wide and round, and suddenly she was no child but a young woman, face white with fear and lips open in a scream–
"Hawke!"
Asteria jolted awake, sweat dripping down the back of her neck and throat hoarse. "I – Beth – " Her cheeks were damp.
"Who's Bethany?" Merrill asked from the bedroll beside her. "You were...crying in your sleep."
"Our sister," Carver said grimly, appearing at the tent's opening. "You too?"
"Solace was always her favorite month," Asteria replied weakly.
19. Grave
Bethany and Malcolm have no graves to visit, no urn of ashes, not even portraits to look upon.
Carver keeps a scrap of red patterned fabric even in the Wardens, tucked carefully into the breastpocket of the tunic he wears beneath the armor. Asteria comes to the Hanged Man wearing an ill-fitted, dark grey tunic with metal pauldrons and crimson belts strapped all around her hips. Nathaniel never asks, and Isabela lies and tells her friend the armor suits her.
06. Dark
In the dark, his back is warm and firm against hers, his breathing loud and human against the scritch-scratching of darkspawn somewhere in the shadows. He says, "I'm with you, sister," while her shaking hands reach for the well of power that is almost drained dry.
Even exhausted, they move together like a well-oiled machine – she ducks beneath the sweep of his greatsword to blast the beast behind him with a Cone of Ice, and then they are running through the tunnels again, following the sound of each other's footsteps.
Five themes I took out of a 50 sentence theme challenge from LJ for Asteria Hawke from IAPverse.
In 43, the month of Solace is August.
In 19, the red fabric is meant to be Bethany's scarf and the armor described is the Fugitive's Mantle from the Mage Pack DLC, which was Malcolm Hawke's armor during his years as a mercenary. It amuses me that it fits f!Hawke so well ingame, since it was supposedly worn by her father...Somehow those proportions don't seem quite right to me.
I may finish the rest eventually, but this is probably going to be my set focused on family. I was trying to get a feel for Asteria and Carver's relationship because he's going to have a fairly big cameo in part 3 of Ignis Aurum Probat, which spawned this.
Comments and constructive crit would be lovely as always!