Author's note: This was written for the Manisfestos Welcome group on BSN. The prompt was "leave."
Many thanks to Surelyforth for betaing this little ball of angst for me!
Amber Hawke paced slowly behind Anders. Her gaze flitted between the dagger in her hand, the aurora-like pink light in the sky from the chantry explosion, and the defeated posture of her lover. By all rights he should be exultant, but instead he sat there patiently waiting for his execution. Anders had begged her to kill him. She still didn't know if she could, or even should, end the life of the man she had learned to truly love in the past few years. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a familiar brogue.
"Hawke you know what must be done. Would you be waffling now if I had been in the chantry when this abomination," Sebastian practically spit the word, "blew it up?"
The chantry. Amber turned and stared up at the pink glow once more. Her eyes narrowed as she thought back to the numerous times she had awakened to Anders' cries as he was seized by yet another nightmare. She never let on to just how much he revealed of the abuses he had suffered at the hands of the Templars. She let him think it was his powers of persuasion (admittedly, he was just as good with the sad brown eyes as she had been as a child) and his blasted manifesto left all over the house that had won her over to his side. Amber walked around to where she could look Anders in the eyes. She had to place a hand under his chin to force his gaze to meet hers.
"Maker knows this won't be easy," she sighed, " but I have decided to defend the mages. I need you to help me, Anders."
Anders hurriedly got to his feet and placed a tentative hand on her cheek. "Are you sure about that, Love? I mean I.. Justice.. we deserve death, don't we?"
Amber blinked back tears as she pulled Anders in close. "Probably so, but I can't live without you. Both literally and figuratively. You're my healer.. my lover. If you want to think of this as a sentence you can. I sentence you to a life on the run with me, helping to see this war you started through to the end."
Anders kissed away a tear that had escaped before whispering, "Thank you for my life, I'll try not to make such a mess of it this time." Then his lips were on hers and he was kissing her with a passion that had been lacking for quite some time now.
The tender moment was ruined for Amber as Sebastian's voice rose in protest. "You can't seriously be allowing him to live after all he has done. If you will not dispense justice, then I will. I am leaving now, to return to Starkhaven, and when I come back I will bring with me such an army that there will be nothing left of Kirkwall for for these maleficarum to rule. Then I will find your precious Anders and I will kill him."
Amber glared at Sebastian, and raised her hand in a gesture that clearly said "fuck off" before Sebastian stomped away from them. Then she gently removed herself from Anders' embrace. "We need to get out of here, my love. If we time this right hopefully we can have this all sorted out and be on Isabela's ship before Sebastian has a chance to get even half-way to Starkhaven."
Anders squared his shoulders and picked his staff up from where he had let it fall to the ground earlier.
"Right. Ready to leave when you are, Love."
The End-ish
