A New Circumstance in Romance

Bending the elements and spirits to suit your needs was all very well – unless you were roommates with the Captain of the Guard.

"Hawke, please can you stop using your magic to tease the dog? He's already getting over-excited!" said Aveline, smirking under that insistent scowl. She wasn't very good at concealing her amusement in my antics.

"You love me really." I chirped, continuing to shoot pulses of bright lights from my fingers under the dinner table. We both giggled at the sound of the dog wincing and barking excitedly, the sound of his paws scratching the floor indicating that he was attempting to catch the light with little success.

Laughing loudly, Aveline eventually regained her composure.

"Hawke, please.." she drawled, causing me to retract my magic with a minor pout and a conciliatory gesture of shooing the dog out of the dining room.

Aveline stole a few minutes of my time after that discussing the recruitment of the new templars. At first, in a contemplative manner I indulged her eager suggestions that we should proceed with training, even prior to admittance to the Templar order, in order to utilize our chances at recruits. However, the conversation began to turn to the newly reformed Circle of Magi and how mages were still resisting in favor of roaming the Free Marches as an apostate.

"And what would you have me do," I said, "put myself in handcuffs and offer myself to the Circle to set an example? Do you really think as long as the Champion of Kirkwall is a mage – and free – that anyone would think you as anything more than a hypocrite?"

The tremors in my voice rose as my mind shot back to Meredith threatening the mages of Kirkwall, remembering how I had tried to save them. Ultimately, the cause was hastened by Anders' actions. Surrendering to them was one of the hardest things I had ever had to do, but it had seemed to be the only peace that could be made in Kirkwall. What would the future have held if I had attempted to circumvent any attempt on a mages' life; only to find that the hatred for mages was such that my efforts would be fruitless.

Instead, Meredith was killed and myself with Aveline had held peace talks with the remaining members of the two sides. The templars were given confirmation of their status within Kirkwall as long as the treatment of apostates was revised in favour of rehabilitation as opposed to tranquillity. The hardest task was convincing the Circle of Magi that reformation was necessary in order to rid themselves of the more 'politically radical' templars lurking in their midst.

Without the assistance of King Alistair, this feat would've proven impossible. Surprisingly, he was very accepting of our proposed changes. Even with his history as a Templar, I had expected a much more reluctant attitude to the idea of changing centuries old traditions. In fact, his words were 'oh, that sounds like fun!' and he then proceeded to crack jokes as Aveline and I outlined our plans in detail. Not a very serious King; but he was a very progressive one.

"Hawke? Your a million miles away."

Aveline touched my shoulder as if to alert me to her presence in the room.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, Aveline. I was just thinking about.. um, the patrol schedules for next week."

At these words, Aveline thrust herself across the desk to find a quill and began writing immediately. This was a common occurrence, Aveline was one of the most efficient people I knew. Sometimes I wondered if she was even human.

Clearing my throat, my brain started to devise an improvised idea in regards to the patrol schedules next week. Aveline was too wrapped up in discussing every layer of the plan that she didn't seem to notice my initial hesitance. Kirkwall had far from forgotten the fight between the mages and the templars but it wasn't a topic that many chose to dwell upon. In fact, all diaries and journals written during this time were currently being cased up and sealed as pieces of Kirkwall's history.

As for Aveline, she moved into my estate when Anders fled Kirkwall. She had witnessed first-hand the atrocities that he had committed yet still served as confidant for me when he disappeared. She was, by all definitions of the word, a true friend to me. Neither of us had someone special, so we would spend many a night laughing about how men were simply too much work for either of them to deal with. It was a tragic lie that we told ourselves whilst simultaneously knowing that the lonely nights were at times hard to bear.

Anders & I had been happy together; right up until about three years after the Qunari left Kirkwall. After that, I noticed Anders looking sullen and throwing more enthusiasm into his manifestos and free-mage speeches than in his career, his life, his home or his partner. Though it tore me apart to discover that he had fled Kirkwall after the battle, part of me felt relieved that perhaps Anders could finally find himself again. As for Aveline, she appeared to be a passenger in her own love life, whilst a commanding officer in every other aspect of herself. She waited years for love to find her again after the death of her husband; but nothing ever seemed to feel right, from what she recalled to me. That sense of belonging to someone was instead replaced with the realities of keeping her guards alive.

One year on, whilst Aveline & I are striving to build a better Kirkwall, it has dawned on me that with inspired change comes new circumstances and perhaps new beginnings.

We'll see, won't we?