Author Note: This was a scene I thought of for Hawke and Fenris, set about ten years after they ran from Kirkwall. The family have set up a lovely little home in a cottage, but that life is about to be crushed.
They had come for her and her son; her daughter and husband they might leave if they were lucky, unless they tried to interfere.
Her daughter, Arissa, shuffled in front of twin brother, arms outstretched. She was dressed in little more than a cotton dress and shoes, but still she stood defiant, a white braid trailing over her shoulder held together by a pretty pink bow.
Hawke stepped in front of them all, and the Templars stiffened as she did so. They may not have been scared by a young girl with a scowl, but even in their number they were not so confident standing before the Champion of Kirkwall; the woman who had felled the Arishok in single combat and had defeated not only the First Enchanter of Kirkwall, but its lyrium addled Knight-Commander as well.
She could hear the shuffle of footsteps behind her and knew it was Fenris sidling closer to their children.
"Leave." There was a heavy warning in her voice, and she truly meant the threat it offered.
The closest Templar swallowed, an action even she could see beneath his heavy silverite helmet. "We… we've been ordered to apprehend you and your son. You are apostates." The group of Templars seemed to gain a little confidence as their leader spoke their order.
"Leave." The threat came from Fenris this time, the single word a growled order.
The air was heavy and cold, like the damp of a winter morning chill. Neither group moved, barely even breathing to disturb the uncertainty that lingered. Hawke's gaze slid to the side where her dark wooden staff leaned against the wall, the stone encased with its twining wooden fingers dull from not being used. She could grab it, but that would expose her children behind her.
It was a risk she was not willing to make.
And she was still confident enough in her abilities to face them without her staff, though her magic would have had a more focused impact with it. It was obvious the Templars weren't going to leave, not even with the stand off they had now.
The Templar leader's hand twitched towards his sheathed sword, an action made obvious by the heavy gauntlet he wore.
Hawke's fingers flexed at her sides. "Do not make me fight you."
"Then come with us peacefully."
"I will come with you," Hawke said.
"Hawke!" Fenris barked at her from behind, but she ignored it with a wince.
"I will go with you if you leave my son and family alone."
The Templar leader didn't even consider the offer. A move that might be the most foolish he'd ever made. "We will take you both, and we will have no choice but to cut down those that stand in our way." His shadowed gaze beneath his visor shot to Fenris over her shoulder.
"You are fools," Fenris muttered.
And then the stand off was over. The Templar's fingers gripped his sword and yanked it free, the arc of the blade swinging towards Hawke. She stepped back to avoid it, momentarily losing balance, but shoving a foot back to right herself. As the Templar group stepped forward, Hawke let a cold blast shoot from her curled hands that she'd pushed out in front of her.
Ice crackled over their armour, their shouts trapped within their cold cases.
Fenris let out a yell, rushing forward and pummeling his full weight into the side of a frozen Templar. He crashed back and shattered into pieces of clear glass and dark blood.
The terrified shriek of Endel, her son, sent her wheeling around to find him staring in fear and disgust at the pieces. She wanted to shield him from the view, steal him away, but the sound of cracking meant the Templars were breaking free of their ice prisons, and Hawke had no choice but step away and grab her staff.
"Take your brother and run!" she yelled at Arissa, the girl not hesitating as she gripped her brother's sleeve and yanked him away, the small figures sprinting to through the door to the back exit of the cottage.
A Templar shattered his cage and lunged at Hawke, who side stepped the attack and cracked her staff down on the back of his neck as he stumbled past. Fenris had stolen a sword from another Templar who had been foolish enough to try and sneak behind the elf. Fenris slashed across the Templar's chest, slicing through his plate armor slicing as though it were little more than paper. With his chest exposed, Fenris plunged his fist into the Templar, his rage making his lyrium tattoos glow like fierce white flames that licked at his skin.
A scream pierced through the small hut, and both she and Fenris' anger fled to drained looks of fear.
Fenris yanked his arm back, blood covering his hand and then turned to block a Templar's path towards her. "Go!"
She did as commanded, rushing through the door at the back and skidding to a halt to find her son spread on the ground, crawling back from a Templar, and her daughter gripped in his free hand, Arissa struggling, biting, and kicking with every strength she had.
Anger made Hawke act and she stabbed her staff forwards, magic bursting forth in a strike of lightening that sounded like bells across the Templar's metal armour. The man jerked and twisted, her daughter dropping from his grasp and stumbling away.
When the Templar's skin sizzled to black, Hake dropped her staff to her side and panted, falling against the doorway as sweat beaded on her skin.
"That's was amazing, mum!" Arissa called and clapped her hands together. Endel apparently didn't think the same as he stared wide-eyed and pale-faced at the dead Templar before him.
Footsteps pounded behind them and Hawke lurched from the door frame, spun around and raised her staff, instantly lowering it as Fenris sprinted into the room. His fear dissipated as his eyes fell on the Templar and then on his family alive and safe.
"We have to leave," he said.
"No arguments here," she replied, her words gasped between heavy breaths. Fenris strode past her, bundling up their son in his arms, and Endel clinging to him as though his father's arms were the only safe place left. It broke Hawke's heart to see it, to know that his life from now on would be one fight after another.
All they'd wanted was to live in peace, to live away from the struggles of the world. They deserved that much after everything that had happened.
"Come on, my sweet," Hawke said with a soft voice to her daughter, who took her mother's offered hand and squeezed it. They took one step to the back door before it burst open and a heavy armour plated Templar barrelled inside, swinging a two-handed sword before him.
Fenris almost toppled back, Endel clutching onto him so tight his small fingers had turned white. With a shove, Hawke forced Arissa behind her, Fenris putting down Endel and stepping beside Hawke to take on the beast of a man before them.
With as much energy as she cold muster after years of disuse, she brought up her staff, magic sparking at the tip; only for it and herself to be swatted away like a fly by the Templar's tree-trunk like arm. She yelped as she crashed into the wall, the wind gasping from her and she struggled for a moment to regain it.
Through her blurred vision she watched Fenris rush forwards, catching the Templar's next blow with his own sword, the sound of metal crashing throughout the small room. She searched the small, bare room her lungs relaxing to find her children huddled to one side of the room, scared but unharmed.
Hawke used her staff to push herself to her feet just in time to watch as the Templar forced Fenris toppling back, his sword flying from his grip and spiralling across the wooden floor.
For a moment the world seemed to stop, as well as her heart, as the Templar raised his gigantic sword above his head. Fenris stared up at it wide-eyed and defenseless.
"No!" Hawke shrieked, barrelling forward and dropping her staff in her haste. Shoving a hand out, the magic burst forth and sent Fenris flying back across the room and safely away from the Templar's blow.
Hawke was not so fortunate.
The sword slashed across her chest as the Templar spun around in response to her yell and she let out a scream, the blow and pain forcing her onto one knee.
The sweat now poured freely over her face and her body shuddered. It took every remaining strength to keep the force field up around her family, keeping them protected behind the magical barrier, whilst also keeping them away from her. She could hear Fenris' frantic shouts, muffled through the barrier, his fists pounding against the magic in his desperation to reach her.
The Templar stood over her hunched form and removed his helmet, his ice blue eyes piercing down into her own as she tipped her head upwards.
"You should have surrendered, apostate," he grunted. "Now your whole family will pay for your insolence."
It had been meant as a final insult, but the words were like fuel to Hawke's burned out anger. She felt it flame within her and glanced down at her blood-covered hands.
Blood.
The thought was like a rock sinking into the pit of her stomach and her gaze flickered to find Fenris'. He knew what she was thinking as soon as he caught her gaze and his calls stopped, his face paling to a deathly white and then his protests took on a renewed urgency.
"Hawke, no! Not even for this!" he yelled, his balled hands pummelling against the barrier and sending ripples of magic from the impacts. But the magic held.
She'd once been told of an apostate mage who had fled the Circle and used blood magic to protect her sister. Hawke had condemned the mage, saying there was never any excuse for blood magic. Never.
And now she understood completely.
Her brows pinched together, the most she gave as an apology to him in that moment and his scared expression hardened. He gripped his children and forced them to turn away, but he did not. He continued to watch her, his eyes once so full of love now cold.
The blood tingled against her hands and in the wound on her chest, like an extra pulse of life. Though she had never learned or even thought of blood magic before, now it flowed through her like it was natural, an extension of her already powerful abilities.
The Templar's eyes narrowed as the magic knitted together the slash across Hawke's chest and he realised with a strike of fear what she was doing. With a yell he brought down his sword but it halted in mid air as Hawke's hand shot up to meet it. Dark red tendrils snaked from the stains on her skin, coiling around the metal blade and catching the Templar's arm. He grunted as he tried to yank away, but failed.
Hawke rose to her feet, a primal, deep power coursing through every part of her being. Forbidden and deadly, but at the same time exquisite. The tendrils of magic snaked further over the Templar until the dug their way through his armor and he yelled out in pain as they spiked through his skin and crawled into his body.
Hawke twisted her fingers and the magic danced at her command, crushing his bones and stabbing through organs.
It was a few more minutes of horrified wailing before the Templar dropped to the ground, a mangled, bloodied mess. The tendrils crawled back to Hawke, disappearing in a puff of black smoke.
The barrier around her family fizzled away and her children turned back to face them, Arissa bounding across the room to envelope her mother in a hug so tight it took her breath away. Hawke knelt down to her level, pushing a curl of pure white hair behind her ear whilst trying to block the view of the corpse behind.
"You two go grab anything you need and meet us outside, ok?" Hawke said, and Arissa nodded, grabbing hold of her brother as she sprinted out of the room.
As the children left, all that was remained was the heavy air of unspoken words that lingered like storm clouds between her and the man she loved.
She took a step close to him. "Fenris-"
He stepped back, the action cutting deeper than the wound she'd received from the Templar.
"Don't," he said, his voice flat and emotionless.
Hawke dared another step, reaching out to him, but stumbled to a stop as the lyrium tattoos on his skin flared white. His lip curled in anger, but his eyes shone with tears he refused to let free.
She let her hand drop to her side, every part of her suddenly gripped by the pain of his dismissal. Her breath was cut short, her heart feeling like it was ripping from her chest with every beat as he glared at her with such disdain and hurt.
As her daughter scurried back into the room, followed by her brother at a slower pace, Hawke wiped the tears from her cheeks. "Ready to go?" she asked, plastering a forced smile to her face.
"Yep!" Arissa said, not noticing the tension in the room. Endel, more observant and in tune with his surroundings, gave a wary glance between his parents, his dark brows pinching together.
Fenris stooped to retrieve the sword he'd dropped and slung it into his leather belt. "We're leaving." Hawke made to fall in to step behind them until Fenris swung around and raised a hand. "We're leaving," he repeated with emphasis.
She stared at him, her gaze flicking to her children, both of them now uncertain and stiff.
"They're my children, you're my husband. I love-"
"No!" he belted so strong her lips snapped together. "We're leaving. I think it's time you joined Anders." He straightened himself.
Hawke glanced between Fenris and her children, a tear slipping free. "Keep them safe."
"Nothing will harm them."
She nodded, swallowing down the emotion that threatened to tear her apart. His hand twitched towards her face, but he seemed to catch himself before it cupped her cheek. Their gazes locked and she could see the heart break the crinkled his brow, the uncertainty twitch his lips, before they set into a tight line. He stared at the ground and then ushered his children away.
When they had disappeared from view Hawke crumpled to her knees and gasped for breath between sobs, the world becoming a swirling blur of darkness.