There was something to her that made him feel… Strange. He felt his guard slip. He didn't feel the need to be ready to draw a weapon. She was a very sly thing, this Bethany Hawke, making herself look tiny, unimportant and invisible. Was this witchcraft or simply the life of a mage outside of the Circle in the southern lands that made her so… So transparent? So removed from life?
It intrigued him even more than her name. The only name he knew to read. The woman who held his true name on her own breast. Or so Hadriana said.
Thinking of her spoiled his mood instantly. His jaw was suddenly set and his teeth were grinding each other and he suddenly realised that the witch and the bitter fugitive had been staying there, immobile under the hanged man's statue and not quite staring at each other, for a while.
This was stupid. He could not ask this witch if she was indeed his Dominater. Not before he knew exactly what it was, and what it entailed outside of the Imperium. And even if she was the one he was supposed to serve for the rest of his life as the Tevinter custom wanted…
No, better not think about it. Fenris didn't have any luck with the book. Not that it surprised him. When one knew only nine letters in a whole alphabet and only a few of the sounds they made, they couldn't learn how to read complex words in one night, especially in a tome that was written by a scholar for his peers. He could trick her, like he had tricked his sister into helping him… But the way the elder Hawke was looking at him, he couldn't do it, not yet. Also, the title was explicit and might reveal exactly what he is looking for. Of Dominater and Bonding. So far, he had managed to read those four words. Another might have been glad to perform such a feat after a life of illiteracy, but Fenris was a busy man, one concerned with safety, survival and consumed by a will to know more that did not allow any place for patience. The night he spend trying to decipher the markings on the paper had left him frustrated, angry and tired.
What if he enrolled the aid of Varric Tethras? No, the man talked too much. He needed a plan to make this woman help her. Despite the fact that she was probably involved, she seemed much more malleable than her elder.
"When you told me that you'll be watching my sister, I didn't quite expect that." A snarky voice rang.
Marian Hawke was out of the alehouse, as if thinking about her had summoned the woman. She smelled a bit more of alcohol than upon entering the establishment. She was looking at Fenris as if he had offended her. It amused him.
"Now quit it, she's terrified."
Fenris looked at the little sister and saw the fear in her golden eyes. He sighed.
"My apologies." He said.
"No, I understand." She mumbled.
This was the first time he heard her voice.
There was no will beneath it. No malice, no happiness, nothing. But it tugged at his heart where the broken and patched up bond was lodged.
Fenris sighed and started to walk back to the mansion in Hightown. Another clue that made her his original Dominater, once he could actually read. This didn't felt as if she was casting a spell on him. The fact that her eyes never left the ground when she talked confirmed that. Hadriana's curse was getting in the way, though because if Bethany felt it, she didn't give any sign of it.
The sun was shining through the hole that was left unmended in the ceiling. Fenris did like to see the stars before going to sleep. He had awoken on his own, it seemed. No, not on his own. Someone was entering the mansion. It must be Hawke.
For the past few months, Hawke had often asked for his help in jobs. She always went with Varric to count the money, Isabela, the tavern wench, for lock picking and her sister, because she was very protective of her family. However, having an entourage of scoundrels and scrapers accompanied by squishy mages in robes or rags gave the axe wielding Fereldan a lot of work when fighting large groups. Since Aveline could not go on shady jobs anymore, that left Fenris to help draw the attention of those who thought they could take on Isabela in close quarters. Some of them might deserve mercy, after all.
He enjoyed it because he felt useful. However, all the merriment left when Marian Hawke brought her pet abomination along. Fenris had told her what he thought of it once only. It was the last time Marian took her sister on jobs that included Anders or Merrill. He thought it a very good idea.
Because Bethany was indeed nothing like a Magister. She was aware of the power she wielded, yet she was careful while using it and loathed to use it to hurt people, even if they deserved it by anyone's standards. She was very attached to her sister and she often smiled sadly when confronted to misery. And yet her own sadness was buried deep down in her, locked in a box she called heart, the key thrown in the sea or as Marian once drunkenly put it on a late night playing cards 'burnt on Dad's pyre. The Maker also pissed on it when Carver died'.
Fenris watched her grow, somehow. She was still a gloomy and aloof kind of person whenever she followed Marian at the Hanged Man, but on the job, she was focused and if she was discreet, she started to use it at her advantage. Isabela was not really a stranger to this change. The banter they exchanged put a smile on "Gloomy"'s lips that prompted Varric to change her nickname to Sunshine whenever the two women were together. It suited her. And Fenris preferred this girl to the naïve blood mage and the pushy abomination. Both would have been the most dangerous kind of Magisters, had they been born in another place.
It startled him to see that Marian had come alone. From Lowtown, she usually fetched many of their comrades in arms to get him last unless they went to Darktown next and she'd only just got Varric, Isabela and her sister.
But today, she was not accompanied. She nervously caressing the blade of the axe attached at her hip and waiting by the staircase that led to the upper floors.
"Hawke." He saluted.
"Fenris." She answered in kind. "Mind if we talk about something?"
Fenris gestured toward his 'living room' and she climbed the stairs. Once they were seated on the bench, she finally said:
"I won't bring my sister to the Deep Roads…"
"That is a wise decision, despite the need for distance from certain factions."
"I won't bring you either." She added.
"I suppose supplies will be scarce in the Deep Roads. Who will you bring?" he asked.
"Anders and Isabela. Varric is already on the list, but this is all I could squeeze in."
"I suppose you took Anders because of his Grey Warden expertise …"
It sounded like a good strategy, Fenris thought.
"And because we lacked a mage after I decided Bethany was not going…"
A small silence stretched between the two warriors. Fenris decided to fill it.
"You had already decided that before Bartrand gave you an excuse for it." He said.
It was an easy guess. It was the first news she had disclosed today and probably the reason why he came to see him. Did she trust him to keep her sister out of trouble?
"Indeed." She said. "I would like you to keep an eye on her… I know she can handle Templars and flee from angry mobs but that's hardly the only dangers an apostate has to face."
For the first time since they knew each other, Fenris finally saw the woman underneath the armour. The one that was responsible for her family.
"My father always entrusted me with her safety on his deathbed." She managed to say in a throaty voice. "He always meant for me to help her fight all the threats. He even let me train with the Templar recruits in Lothering to learn how to stop mages if Bethany ever forgot herself. But I probably won't be around for a month. Maybe two if something goes awry."
"I will watch her as I always did." Fenris said. "You need not worry about this."
Marian breathed deeply and carefully recomposed herself.
"I trust you to do the right thing, Fenris." She added. "This is not an invitation to turn her in or kill her for her own sake. I will know if any of your actions were not needed."
"I promise that I won't do anything to harm your sister unless she turns into an abomination right before my eyes." Fenris stated.
"Good."
When she left the mansion, Fenris went with her to say goodbye to Varric. Bethany was there too. She hugged her sister and retreated to the shadows when the gates closed behind her.
Fenris took a deep breath and called her name. This last minute discussion with Marian Hawke had made his plan easier to execute.