All the credit for the Hawke character goes to SuzumeKirei at DeviantArt.

Enjoy!

Chapter 4

~.o.O.o.~

"It's been weeks Hawke. Don't you think you should at least talk to the elf?" Varric wondered suddenly, looking over his ale at his tipsy blackhaired mess of a friend.

Ever since the incident between Circe and Fenris she had done nothing but drive him absolutely up the walls. She was always stealing his health during battles, out of spite, to render him almost useless until Anders could heal him. Also she seemed to love finding ways to antagonized the elf with snarky and razor-sharp sarcasm and even worse so if he dared open his mouth.
Fenris had long since stopped growling his disapproval, since that only seemed to spur Circe on, and now he only fumed in silence at the occurrences. But everyone knew he was itching to – at the very least - swat Hawke upside the head, preferable hard, with the broadside of his greatsword.

Hawke was sitting across from Anders who turned to glare at the dwarf as he mentioned Fenris. He if anyone, was quite content with the elf's absence at the friendly gatherings in the Hanged Man and wouldn't mind it continuing. He also rather enjoyed the elf being shut up very effectively by Hawke at every turn. The only regrettable fact of the situation was the reason for the hostilities.
That reason had Anders glaring lightning at the elf in pure jealousy, every chance he got.

Hawke didn't pay attension to the mage as usual, to Anders dismay but she stopped shuffling cards and stared at the dwarf as if he had just suggested her to marry the latest suitor her mother had turned up.

"What?" She gasped in fake horror, clasping her chest.

"Was Fenris somehow miraculously invisible to you guys during our morale-boosting-trip to the Bone Pit? From which, may I add, we just got home." Circe sarcastically continued as she dealt the next hand.

"You know what I mean Hawke. Maybe… I don't know. Give the lad a chance?" Varric sighed in reply, scratching his head while arranging his cards. Isabela was giggling slightly at the display as she helped the barmaid distribute the new round of ale. She always found the fact of Varric caring so much to be slightly funny since he made every effort to seem the opposite.

"Varric, do I look like a charity to you?" Circe scoffed mockingly, making Anders burst into suppressed snicker alongside Isabela. Varric only sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"Maferath's balls, you're as stubborn as high dragon…" Varric muttered, shaking his head when Hawke stuck out her tongue at him.

"Charitable might not suite you, but I bet I could think of a few other things to describe you…" Isabela smirked as she undressed Circe with her eyes and placed her first bet.

"Ugh… You're worse than a bitch in heat…" Anders complained as he put in his bet and watched Circe smirk from ear to ear.

"I don't remember you protesting a few years ago." Isabela shot back, raising an eyebrow and looking hungrily at the blond healer.

"What can I say, desperation makes one do weird things." Anders snarked back in annoyance making Circe's smirk turn into full-blown giggling.

The light banter, drinking and card playing continued well into the night and Circe was happily drunk and content by the time she swayed towards the taverns door. Anders, who was painfully sober due to Justice's influence, followed her outside and asked if she wanted him to see her home. She waved him off with a grunt and huffed a deep sigh, shaking her head when he looked like a kicked puppy.

"Oh for pity's sake, fine! Stop looking like I ate your cat!" She exclaimed and rolled her eyes at the man when he lit up like a spark in a flourmill.

"I'm just concerned." He argued happily as a wide cocky smile spread across his features, making Circe scoff at him. Anders had been becoming increasingly flirtatious since the evening she'd thrown out Fenris and she knew exactly what was going through the man's mind.

"The only concern you have is what color my knickers are, and you know it." Circe quipped as she started moving towards Hightown with a sputtering and slightly blushing healer in a tow.

Reaching the Amell estate Circe invited Anders on a whim, she was tired of being alone and cold at night and decided to try some of Isabela's unwelcome advice.
But as soon they walked into the parlor, they were all but attacked by a near frantic Gamlen. They were both taken aback as Gamlen started rambling and of course he ended up yelling at Circe for snarking something about inferiority complex.
He was worried for Leandra who had not showed for their regular meeting and he couldn't find her. The two hotheads ended up in a heated gruff, with Anders in the middle desperately trying to mediate, until Bodahn came out of his quarters to help the healer break them up.

Bodahn suggested Leandra might be with her suiter and mentioned the white lilies she'd gotten and Circe felt as if the floor had disappeared from right under her as all the fight momentarily drained from her system.

"Wait, white lilies? Shit, I know something about that…"

"Well don't just leave me waiting! What?!" Gamlen shouted angrily at her.

"There's a killer in Kirkwall sending white lilies to his victims before he takes them." Circe choked out in a strained voice, already turning around to head out the door.

"He's murdered several women already…"

~.o.O.o.~

Anders had gone hastily to fetch Fenris and Aveline – seeing as how they were closest and how Aveline was sure to kill them if she wasn't, at the very least, notified - while Circe went to meet up with Gamlen in Lowtown. The group had very nearly missed Circe when she disappeared into a foundry following a trail of blood stains.
Since then she had been unusually quiet, none of her usual jokes and snarky comments filled the air as she led the group in cold determination. The friends held back from bantering much and everyone was more than worried.

As they descended into the foundry's cellar they had found Alessa dead - the woman they had rescued from DuPuis a couple of weeks back - and they had met heavy resistance from shades, desire and rage demons.
Not long after they found the dead woman - carelessly left to rot on a shabby cot in a forgotten part of Kirkwall's endless maze of underground tunnels - they came across a shrine-like living space. It was filled with tomes of the foulest kind of blood magic, and overseeing it all, was a painting of a woman bearing a huge resemblance to Leandra.
Every comment from Circe's friends as they quickly rummaged through the mess of papers and books, fell on deaf ears and she was clutching her staff so hard she was visably shaking.

"I need to find her. Now…" Circe forced out between her teeth as she turned abruptly around to continue further into the winding hallways beneath Kirkwall.

It hadn't taken them long to fight their way to the inner most chamber and now they stood eye to eye with the mad mage who had kidnapped and killed so many women over the years.

"I have done the impossible. I have touched the face of the Maker and lived." The mage said almost in reverie, before launching into a tirade of nonsensical, proud madness about searching and finding the right characteristics in bodyparts.

"I've searched far and wide to find you again, beloved, no force on this earth will part us." the mage finished as he revealed his abominable 'creation' with such twisted pride and love it made everyone present want to gag in utter horror.

Circe stood frozen to the ground, eyes nailed to the staggering piece of dead flesh that didn't belong to the head attached to it and hardly seemed to recognize the hordes of enemies risen from the ground by the power of the mad mage. She only had eyes for the heinous creature wearing her mother's dead, twisted face.

Aveline and Fenris took the brunt of the attack, trying their best to protect Hawke when they heard Anders call out a warning.

"MOVE! NOW!"

The warriors both turned in time to see Circe impaling a desire demon on her staff before they had to throw themselves out of the way of a massive hemorrhage followed by a tempest so fierce it literary shook the foundation of Kirkwall itself.
The fight continued on in that manner, Anders on the lookout sending spells out left and right, while Aveline and Fenris tried their best to fill in the gaps of Circe's enraged onslaught.
As the third desire demon went down, the mad mage's shields dissipated and Hawke forgot everything other than him. Her attacks was both vicious and brutal and it didn't take long for the maddened mage to get overpowered.

But as the mage fell to Circe's savage assault, as did the abomination he had stitched together with death, blood and madness.
Circe scrambled to catch what was left of her mother before she hit the ground as her friends walked up behind her.

"There is nothing I can do… His magic was keeping her alive…" Anders said quietly, sharing a somber look with Fenris and Aveline.

"I knew you'd come." Leandra smiled, looking almost serenely at Circe.

"Don't I always?" Hawke forced out, trying to make light of an impossible situation. Leandra told her not to fret, that she was now free from the wicked man and that she would be going to see both Bethany and her father.

"But you'll be all alone…" Leandra continued with sad concern as she eyed Circe to the best of her ability.

"I'll be fine mother." Circe said sounding almost annoyed at the fact that even in the face of imminent death, her mother was worried for her. Leandra's parting words were those of love, hope and pride and as the last life left her Circe dropped the body and disappeared without a word.

~.o.O.o.~

"Hawke?" Varric said getting up in alarmed response to her violently barging into his not so humble abode in the Hanged Man. Her black hair was in its usual disarray, her robes and face stained with fresh blood and she was growling bloody murder.
Varric didn't say anything more before pulling out a couple of glasses and a bottle of brownish liquid. He put a generous amount in both glasses and put one in front of Circe. She downed it in one go, slamming the glass into the table as she growled an annoyed sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Now. Care to tell me what happened?" Varric said as he poured some more Antivan brandy into Hawke's glass. Circe made a guttural disgusted noise of bitterness as she downed the second glass before launching into a vivid and very colorful recount of the evenings events.

She had no more than arrived home before the pathetic excuse of an uncle came barging in, pestering her about Leandra's whereabouts once more. Then the blighted ass had the audacity to blame her and yell at her before breaking into a sobbing, pitiable mess. She answered him truthfully about why the mage had taken Leandra. That sent the man once again into angry ranting about how the templars where right and mage's should be locked up with no chance of pardon.
When he turned to reel on Circe she'd knocked him on his ass with force-magic before throwing him out the door with the promise of death if he dared set foot in her house again without her permission.

Circe took a pause while downing a couple of drinks before continuing.

"As if the whole blighted mess with mother and Gamlen wasn't bad enough…" she said between drinks.

"Fenris decided it was a good idea to show up…"

"By the looks of it, I take it was not a happy reunion…" Varric muttered chugging the last of his drink and pouring more for them both.

At first it had been just a nervous, well-meant attempt to be supportive but when Circe had asked him about his mother he had concluded that she had at least known hers, seeing as he had no memories of his.
That of course had Circe spitting lightning and force-waves at the elf quicker than he could dodge them and the two had ended up in a furious argument over magic.

"Magic killed your mother and still you refuse to see that it needs to be contained?!" Fenris had shouted at her as he blocked yet another force-blast.

"Oh that's rich coming from the coward fleeing even the possibility to regain the memories of his own mother!" Circe spat back, her entire being engulfed in the screeching, crackling of lightning as she drove the infuriating elf backwards towards the door.

"Get out!" Circe howled before releasing the fury of her lightning at the elf fleeing out the door.

Varric sighed in annoyance, rubbing his forehead as Circe returned to the present, downing one more drink. She was bristling with anger from retelling the night's events and Varric couldn't find it in his heart to blame her.

"I'll kill him myself…" Varric muttered before settling in to help Hawke drink her sorrows to rest.