"After Kirkwall" – 2
"Aveline...Aveline!" Merrill says in a loud whisper, "Come and see, come and see this now! It's so beautiful." And waves Aveline over to where she stands at the edge of the trees, her finger to her lips indicating that Aveline be quiet in her movements. A small grunt escapes Aveline's mouth, moving quietly with all the armour she wears is asking the near impossible. The sound of her armour chinks as she moves, this is the best she can do at being quiet.
"What is it Merrill? Why do you need me? We're all tired and sore, can't this wait?" Merrill turns her large eyes towards Aveline, even more silvery in the full moon that washes the Wounded Coast and the camp they have made , and then turns her eyes again, looking in at the small clearing, inviting Aveline soundlessly to just look at what she has found.
There on the ground lie Hawke and Fenris unconscious in exhausted sleep. Still in full armour Fenris lies curled around her, arms enclosed about her figure, protecting her even in his own exhaustion. "Look Aveline, he's glowing!" and Aveline can see surrounding them both the faint blue light that emanates from Fenris, not bright and sore on the eyes when in the heat of the fight and using every skill at his disposal , but pale and soft, gently illuminating the air around them. "Do you think he knows how much magic he works in his sleep; do you think she knows how much her magic touches him? They have woven a powerful spell around each other. Each is concerned about the other so much; they use their magic to protect in sleep. Hawke's magic cares nothing for herself as his looks only after her, but it melds and weaves, nothing can touch them while they are like this. This is a great magic Aveline; I have never seen it before. I have read of it being possible, this is why Dalish are taught to care for the clan so much, the belief being that even in times when they were at their most vulnerable, the magic wrought from love could protect."
"Maker's breathe, but she's right." Thought Aveline, as she stared at the prone forms. She had, like all of them witnessed that kiss at the Gallows Gates between them. She knew theirs was a hard fought love, but kisses given at times like that...well, in highly charged emotional times, it didn't always mean that much in the aftermath. But watching them now... she hadn't realised... "It is very beautiful Merrill. But we shouldn't intrude."
"But Aveline, it is so lovely, you can actually see how much he loves her, even when he's sleeping, and I've never seen his tattoos glow like that. Oh... I could watch that forever!"
Aveline admitted to herself a small twitch of envy. Donnic was solid and deep in his love, but he would never glow and show passion for her like this. "Leave them be Merrill, we might wake them and that would be unfair. Besides, what would you do if they discovered you staring at them? That could be...interesting."
Isabella creeps up on both of them the sound of her earrings ringing gently as she moves, "What in the Fade are you two up to... Oh my! Why oh why can't I do that for a man! I can make them turn red easy as pie, but never blue – unless they died during...not something that has ever happened to me." She shakes her head causing her earrings to tinkle again clearing her head of the unwanted thought. "Could be very helpful in letting you see what you're up to..." Isabella turns to give an impish smile to Merrill. Merrill giggles softly and Aveline gives her a steely stare.
"It's very romantic...and beautiful, don't you think so?" Merrill gushes out,
"It may be so" says Aveline, "But it will not be enough to get them through what just happened,"
"Ah...but that's where you're wrong Aveline, this may be all that gets them through it." Isabella interjects. "Don't fret so much Aveline, after all they are coming with me, I'll look after them."
"You? Isabella, you can barely look after yourself! I dread to think of the trouble you will no doubt get them into. Trouble is the last thing they need. Please Isabella, take care. They need rest. They will need care and time. The consequences of what happened today will be felt throughout Thedas. Hawke will find that hard to bear, so many people have died and she will blame herself. She will need you to be her friend more than ever."
"Aveline, I am not as insensitive as you think. Trust me!"
Aveline guffaws and tries to contain her disbelief at Isabella's confidence.
There are more sounds of footsteps as Carver and Varric approach the women, curious as to what they are doing,
"Why are you spying on my sister?" Carver asks as three fingers come to lips in a warning to keep his voice down.
"I would have thought voyeurism was not your style Isabella, you enjoy the participating too much!" Varric rumbles, "Or is this your way of encouraging others to be more like you?"
"We are not spying, or indulging in your peccadilloes Varric." Isabella snarls back at them, "we are merely admiring a beautiful thing that Merrill has discovered."
Varric and Carver turn towards the two sleeping forms,
"When did this happen?" Carver asks, "I knew she liked him, but I didn't think it had gone this far. That kiss at the Gallows wasn't just for luck was it?"
"Oh, you poor boy," purrs Isabella, "You know so little of affairs of the heart. You have seen her only as the sister who always was one step ahead of you. You have been blind to the woman she is and the needs she has."
"I am her brother; those needs are not what I want to think about!" Carver retorts.
"Carver..." Varric interjects, "You were not here, you have not seen the effect your mother's death had on her, and you have not seen the torment she has gone through wondering if she did the right thing by you. You do not know how much she has helped all of us and pieced us all together again from our broken states. Fenris is the piece of herself that was missing. Don't judge her too harshly, she has done the very best that she could."
"I wasn't judging!...Oh all right, maybe I was a bit. I just wasn't expecting an elf to be my brother-in-law!"
Aveline coughs, "Carver, they are not wed...yet, but you are right, that kiss was not for luck and look, see for yourself." Aveline shrugs and indicates towards the pair.
Carver looks and finds himself a little in awe. As she lies there totally unaware of the presence of others around her, he realises he has been too harsh. He had always thought she had it so much better than he had, but he had been wrong. She just had it different. Becoming a gray warden had changed him, made him better and he had her to thank for that. He had said he was with her through the last few days, but that was only because she was his sister. Looking at her now he saw she was so many other things, most of them good and he liked her...and loved her because she was his sister. He had never been just a little brother to her, he was her family and she had tried so hard for her family. If Fenris was to become part of that, he could only welcome him with open arms. All her other choices had not been so bad, why would this one be any different?
"Well isn't it about time we all stopped gawking and let them sleep?" He addresses the group. They all stand around looking a little sheepish and begin to move away. Only Varric lingers. He looks at them both if only to make sure he has memorised every detail of this tableau. He doubts Hawke's story is finished and she will sail off into the sunset to live happily ever after with Fenris, but he knows his part in it is almost over.
"Thank you my friend, it has been a truly great adventure. You have given me stories to live on the rest of my life and maybe given me my own elf to look after." He turns to look down the hill to catch a glimpse of Merrill before she turns in, but sees Anders coming up behind him.
"Anders" Varric acknowledges the mage. "Come for one last glimpse yourself?"
"Something like that." Anders replies.
"Be careful...it's not a sight I can imagine would warm your heart to look upon as it has everyone else."
"Is it as bad as that? Well I've tortured myself enough watching those two, what harm can one more wrench of my heart do?" He peeks through the trees and feels the largest wrench yet. Varric catches the look of absolute heartbreak on his face, the complete loss of hope and feels a little sympathy sneak into his thoughts about Anders.
"Why did she not kill me Varric? I committed the worst kind of criminal act, I was ready to die, and it would have been easy. I betrayed her in the worst possible way, why did she let me live?"
"When have you ever known Hawke to do anything the easy way? You don't deserve to die easy Anders. She certainly was angry enough with you. She was ready to leave Kirkwall and leave them to their squabbling. Your actions led to forcing her into deciding on which side to support. But you are still her friend, I don't think she could live with the thought she had killed you, no matter how much you might have deserved it. Not one of us would have blamed her if she had. Not one of us would have stopped her. She has been a better friend to you than you have been to her. Her ability to overlook and forgive all of us our faults is remarkable. I think she believes as I do – that a man who could bring healing to so many people can't be all bad. Besides, you'll have Sebastian on your trail; he'll bring you that easy death if you still seek it."
"He left because of me didn't he?"
"Sebastian is a Chantry man, of course he left, he needed swift retribution for what you did and Hawke did not give that to him. She will be sorry that he left and she will be well aware that letting you live will mean that he will claim his inheritance in order to wage war on mages everywhere. She will hope that he comes around, but that is unlikely with him. He may well look for vengeance on her. She has given up a lot in letting you live. Don't waste it Anders, do something good with the life you have left."
"I will try hard to Varric. That was why she took me with her in that final battle, a chance to atone she said. She's sending me back to the gray wardens, you know that don't you?"
"Best thing for you, bit of discipline is what you need."
Anders smiles, this coming from the most self-indulgent dwarf he has ever met.
"Why did she support the mages? I thought Fenris' influence would have put paid to any of that."
"You do not realise how much he has changed since they 'settled their differences'. Hawke was the influence for him. She showed him that not all mages were bad, but she understood well enough how many bad mages there were also. He told me though that she had looked into the Rite of Annulment."
Anders looked suddenly intensely at Varric. "I know of this, they nearly invoked it at the circle in Ferelden. It is horrific and rarely used."
"He was worried that Elthina might be persuaded to use it. He said Orsino had mentioned it to Hawke as something he feared. But Elthina was not an easily persuaded woman, she would never have used it and there was nothing to persuade her that it was even a possibility. With Elthina dead Meredith took it upon herself to invoke it."
"So by blowing up the Chantry I brought about the very thing that everyone feared. Elthina was the only one who was keeping all that at bay. I have been so stupid."
"Hawke supported neither side more than the other until that point. That was what moved her. Not that she was a mage herself, or that she hated Templars, simply that Meredith was ready to kill innocents without cause."
"But Orsino became that which gave a reason for invoking the rite. I might not like the rite, but it was put in place to stop mages like Orsino." Anders shakes his head,
"And so we now have an incredible mess. Only we know that he did it afterwards. Meredith will now be viewed as a martyr and Hawke the apostate mage who aided the demon possessed. It won't matter that it was her who stopped him, no one will know."
"They will know Varric, you will tell them. You will tell your tale of The Champion of Kirkwall far and wide, it will spread like the story of the Hero of Ferelden and everyone will know. That, I think, will be your atonement." Varric looks at him horror stricken for a brief moment,
"Like I need to atone! I've done nothing wrong, unlike you, but you are right about telling the story. That is my talent and that is what I will do, I'll tell the tale of The Champion of Kirkwall to all that will listen and they won't be able to stop themselves. I am a master storyteller; I'll make sure Hawke will not be blamed for this fiasco."
"Will I be in your story?"
"Of course, you will be the ugly misshapen evil mage who tried to cast a love spell on the hero and when it didn't work, in a fit of jealous rage, tried to blow up our beloved hero as well as the whole of Kirkwall."
Anders laughs, "So much for telling the truth then."
"Well, the misshapen bit is a bit of artistic licence I will admit."
They start to move away from the trees, arguing over which bits of the story should be truth and which should not.
Fenris whispers in Hawke's ear, "They have all gone now, which one woke you up?"
"It was Aveline's armour that did it for me." She whispers back, "Aveline could never be quiet. What about you?"
"Merrill is not as sneaky as she thinks; she might be able to get past garden guards, but not me. Too many nights lying in ditches waiting for Denarius to catch up with me put paid to any heavy sleeping for me. Not one of them has any respect for privacy, what if we were not just sleeping?" Fenris' growls, annoyed at having been woken and having to pretend to be asleep for so long. Hawke turns round towards him, mischief in her eyes,
"It's only because they care Fenris, and besides, you do look so pretty when you glow like that." She giggles, remembering Merrill's outspoken fascination with Fenris' tattoos.
"She believes I do magic like you!"
"Oh you do Fenris, believe me, you do wonderful magic. They won't be back now, let's do some 'not just sleeping'" she reaches for his buckles but Fenris puts his hand up to stop her,
"Wait a moment...brother-in-law?" he looks at her quizzically with one eyebrow raised.
"Out of all the things they all said, that's the thing you want to talk about?" Fenris stares back at her and then nods. She stares back for a moment and then sighs, "Carver is very traditional, he just assumed..."
"Should we?" The question hangs in the air waiting for Hawke to answer,
"Fenris, marriage is a contract, for some it can be as binding as being a slave to someone. I don't want that you should ever feel like you are anyone's slave ever again. It is not something I would ever demand from you. We are together; I don't need a contract to make me stay with you." She looks in his eyes; he can see how earnest she is in not wanting to make this an issue,
"Hawke, slaves are not allowed to marry. They are bonded to one another by their master, for breeding purposes only. Children are born into slavery owned by a master who does not pay for them. They do not choose who they are bonded to." Fenris looks away for a moment, gathering his thoughts for what he wants to say next. He has to get this right.
"To be married is not merely a contract. It tells everyone that you are free, free to choose who you want to be with for the rest of your life, tells everyone; 'Here is this person that I love'. Carver's remark also indicates acceptance into a larger family, I have not known family for a long time, but I remember it feeling good, even though we were slaves. For the Fog Warriors, family was everything and marriages only made it stronger. Carver called me brother without even thinking about it. I liked it. I think I would like it even more to be called husband, I would be honoured if you would let me call you wife." He looks at her, pleading with his eyes, this is not another form of slavery for him, this is stepping fully into the world of free men and he wants to take Hawke with him.
"Oh Yes! Yes! Yes!" she hugs him and pulls him in close.
Hawke jumps up and moves to the point at the top of the hill where she can look down and see all the rest of their group around the camp fire and screams at the top of her lungs,
"WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!"
Varric looks up and then buries his head in his hands groaning, "Oh Shit!" over and over into his hands.
Carver looks at him puzzled, "Varric, is this not a good thing?"
Varric turns his head to look at Carver, "Oh yes boy, it is a very good thing, but it means the whole time we were talking up there, they were not sleeping, they heard everything."
"Oh Shit!"