Chapter 1
Leandra Hawke, nee Amell, was sitting on the edge of a cloud. Or at least that's what she thought her living sons, Garrett and Carver would tell to their children, her grandchildren. She hoped that those kids would never have to hear the gruesome story of how their grandmother had died – even though, knowing her sons, she knew that they both would have their own ways to inform this to the children, one way or another. Garrett would joke his way around and explain something along the lines "grandma got some lilies" and "the next thing you know, you are chasing a zombie-building magister in the dephts of Kirkwall". Carver would be angry towards his brother for letting Leandra's death to fall so early upon her and probably find a way to blame Garrett. On the other hand, who knows.. Maybe her death was the only thing that was required to bring her two sons a bit closer. Maybe it was the thing that made Carver forget his jealousy and forgive him all those years living where he felt was Garrett' s shadow. Maybe it was the one thing Garrett would take seriously and not make jokes about.
Her thoughts quickly moved to the day she had died. She remembered Garrett's hands holding her as the two changed goodbyes and then.. she had just let go. It had been so easy. It had been like falling asleep. And when she had awoken, she didn't feel a thing. Even the happiness that she probably would have felt seeing her long-dead family members after so, so long time had been in vain in death. She had to say that that, not feeling anything, was probably the worst thing about being dead. That and not knowing what was going on with those left behind. Oh, and also being dead and not being alive. That sucked too. But the feeling-thing... This must be what Tranquil's life is like. Leandra swas about to thank the Maker for her daughter being saved from that fate, but then she quickly changed her mind. Was what happened to her any better than being a Tranquil?
As Leandra was sunken deep into her thoughts, her also deceased daughter, Bethany, had also let her mind to wander. What would it had been like to live in that big mansion Mother had told Garrett had bought to his family? She was pretty sure Garrett would had let her to live there too. She wouldn't have ran to join the templars like Carver. Not that they would had let her to join since she had been a mage.. No, I mustn't think things like these, she thought to herself. I mustn't think ill about my twin brother. Or anyone, it would be mean. And Bethany wan't a mean person. Everybody had always told her that. That she couldn't even hurt a fly. That there was no mean bone in her body. Hm. "Everybody" was mostly her old friends from Lothering. She wondered how they had been doing. Not all of them could be alive. From what she had heard from Mother, even her own family, equipped by a mage and a promising warrior had escaped only barely. How could all of her friends had carried the same kind of luck her family had? It just wasn'y possible. "I guess this is the part where I should feel sad or bitter", she mumbled under her breath. Or would have mumbled if she took breaths nowadays. She hadn't carried the luck that saved her family. She had run too fast, too carelessly, too recklessly. It was ironic, when you thought about it. She had ran for her life, but it had led her to the situation where she had no life to run for. It had took three years and one ogre for her to see her beloved father again. After the ogre had hit, everything had went black. She had still heard Mother's scream. Then, out of the blackness, her father had appeared in front of her eyes. "Don't worry, pup", he had said. "I am here to take you home." Bethany had been glad to let go from the life she had so tightly tried to hold on to in her badly wounded body. The paradise she had been allowed to fly into was her father's, and it was the Hawke family's Lothering home. It had had all the furniture, all the paintings, all the things just like they had been when Bethany's father, Malcolm Hawke had died. Her father had indeed took her home. "I know that you don't have to stay here", Father had said, "because the decision of where you decide to stay in is, er, eternal. But I would consider myself very lucky if you wanted to spend infinity with here waiting for your mother." Bethany had said yes without even a single second of hesitation.
She was rudely shaked off from her thoughts when there was a knock on the door. Who would be coming to their paradise? Unless.. Bethany's thoughts went to her brothers. No. No. No, no, no. They are both too young...
TO BE CONTINUED!