Bethany was first down the trapdoor, carefully dropping to the ground as silently as she could then taking stock of the room while she waited for the others. It was huge, a cavernous space lit with a mixture of filtered sunlight and magelight. Was that...shouting she could hear? Bethany could feel her fingernails digging into her palm in frustration, but she would be no use to her mother if she got herself killed by rushing in without thinking.
She was glad of her caution a few minutes later, when the demons started to attack.
By the time they'd found Alessa's body, and Quentin's notes, and had seen the bizarre shrine to the woman who looked like her mother, Bethany understood too well what fate her mother faced. Her mother's locket held tight in her hand, she opened the final door and at last saw him, the blood mage, the man who would murder her mother out of some misguided attempt to user her body to recreate his dead wife.
Quentin was crouched over a table, and on it was...a body. Bethany stared in horror: there was no doubt this time, it was Bethany's mother.
Bethany cast downwards, dragging the invisible lines of force pulling through the ground to gather under the mage, holding him still where he stood.
He made a strangled sound of protest, but before he could cast anything Salma blasted him with a blue wave of anti-magic power. He staggered back slowly, his motions sluggish.
"No," cried Quentin, his voice distorted. "I'm so close! Let me finish!"
Keran came at him from the other side, lunging at him with his sword. Quentin threw up a protective shield and suddenly the room was full of shades. Leliana and the three templars regrouped to fight them, but Bethany only had eyes for the woman on the table.
Her mother was in some sort of suspended sleep, like the state Keran had been in when they'd rescued him. Bethany held her hand above her mother's mouth: she was still breathing, but very slowly. There was a horrible array of knives set up beside her, but the only blood Bethany could see was a few stains on her clothes, presumably obtained while "helping" Quentin when he had pretended to be injured. It looked like they'd arrived just in time.
All Bethany wanted to do was wake her mother up and take her away from here, to somewhere safe. But as much as it hurt to admit, she didn't have time to wake her, and under the circumstances her mother was probably safer asleep. Bethany turned towards her mother's would-be murderer and prepared to fight.
Bethany was not a bloodthirsty woman by nature, but Quentin was going to die.
It was not a protracted battle. Quentin was a powerful mage, but there's only so much blood magic can do when the odds are five to one. Lacking her staff, Bethany reached her hand to his chest and threw him to the ground with a combination of physical and magical force, his knees hitting the dirt with a satisfying crack. "You...bastard," she said. "How dare you..."
"Bethany! To your left!" cried Leliana. Bethany looked up and barely dodged the claws of the desire demon that was all that was left of one of Quentin's earlier victims. By the time Bethany had taken care of the demon, Quentin was dead.
Bethany spent a moment looking at his corpse with a strange sense of dissatisfaction. Then she rushed to her mother. Bethany closed her eyes and cleared her mind, trying to dispel the magic binding her mother in sleep without causing any harm.
Once she was done, Bethany looked down, and held her breath. Her mother's skin was looking much less pale, but she still seemed to be asleep.
"Mother," said Bethany. "Mother, can you hear me?"
"Mmm?" said her mother. "Marian? Have you come to save me? I knew you would."
"No, mother, it's me, Bethany," she said, joy overcoming her mild annoyance at always being the second Hawke sister.
"Bethany?" said Leandra, opening her eyes. "Oh, Bethany, thank you. I'm sorry, I knew it would be one of my brave daughters who came and saved me."
"I forgive you," laughed Bethany, and leaned down and gave her a hug.
"Is he...dead then?" she asked, looking across to the scattered remains on the floor.
"Yes," said Bethany. "Very much so."
"I almost feel sorry for him," said Leandra. "He was such a sad man, and he obviously missed his wife very much." She rubbed her eyes. "But I'm still glad that he is dead." She shuddered. "That was...not an experience I wish to repeat."
Bethany helped her off the table, and Bethany's mother looked around at the others. "Ah, and Leliana of course, thank you as well. And who else do we have here...templars?" Her voice quavered slightly, and Bethany could feel her mother's hand tense on her arm.
"Nice ones," said Bethany.
"If they saved me, they must be nice," said Leandra. "Thank you ever so much."
"Just doing our job," said Keran, with a smile. "Now let's get you back to the surface, and we can report back to Meredith that there's one less blood mage stalking the city."
"I told you there was a blood mage," said Salma.
"Lucky guess," said Jacob.
In a further stroke of luck, just past Quentin's grisly workspace they found a door leading back up to Lowtown, and it wasn't long before Leliana, Bethany, and her mother were back at the Amell estate.
Leandra collapsed gratefully onto a sofa and sipped at the warm milk she'd been given by a concerned cook. "Remind me not to be so quick to help random strangers," she said. "Or at least not to follow them into abandoned foundrys."
"Did you not suspect anything before then?" asked Bethany.
"Oh, most certainly," said her mother. "But by that point he had quite a grip on my arm, and from his mutterings I got the feeling that calling for help might make him desperate and violent. So I decided that it would be wisest to play along quietly and wait for one of my marvellous children to come rescue me. Which you did." She beamed proudly at Bethany.
Bethany blushed. She wasn't used to being the great hero, it was all rather intimidating. "It wasn't just me who rescued you..." she began.
She was interrupted by Bodahn giving a soft knock on the door. "Mistress Amell," he said in an apologetic tone, "your brother is here to see you."
"Oh no, Gamlen!" she said. "I completely forgot! He must have been so worried!"
Bethany's uncle stomped into the room and then glared at his sister. He didn't look particularly worried. "Where have you been? he asked. "Hours I've been sitting at home, waiting, and yet here you are swanning about on the sofa without a care in the world. And then when I try to walk through Lowtown to come visit you there's all these templars about, making a fuss about blood mages or something. Not that you care about how hard life is for us ordinary people."
Bethany's mother blinked at him, and then took another sip of her milk. "Sit down, Gamlen," she said. "And let me tell you about my day."
When Marian arrived home from her meeting with the Viscount there was even more of an uproar, especially once she saw the lilies sitting forgotten in a vase on the sideboard. Bethany found herself the centre of attention again, and while it was nice to be appreciated she quickly decided that she was glad that Marian was usually the one in the spotlight. Bethany certainly didn't feel like a hero, she'd just done what anyone would do, and all this praise made her feel uncomfortable. Was this how Marian felt all the time? Eventually things calmed down, and Anders came to check that Bethany's mother was genuinely unharmed by her ordeal, and Bethany managed to escape to the garden with Leliana.
The day had been warm and sunny, and the night was still balmy, a cool breeze rustling through the leaves of the trees overhanging the little bench by the fountain where they sat. Bethany let out a sigh and rested her head on Leliana's shoulder.
"Well, at least we got to spend today together in the end," she said.
"Very true," said Leliana, gently rubbing her back. "Although this was not quite what I had in mind."
"Sorry about dragging you into all this," said Bethany, giving Leliana a kiss on the shoulder. "But I am so glad that you were with me. If you hadn't been there...I'm not sure my mother would still be alive."
"Do not underestimate yourself," said Leliana. "I did very little in the end. And I am glad that I could help, I owe my life to your family, it is only fair that I repay the favour. You are all very dear to me, I would do anything to keep you safe."
"And I you," said Bethany, smiling at her. Leliana smiled back, but she looked a little pensive. Bethany stayed quiet, giving her space to say whatever it was she had to say.
"Do you think you will work with them, these templars who wish to help the mages?" she asked at last.
"Yes, I think so," said Bethany. "I've been so lucky, so protected all my life, I think I have a responsibility to use the gifts I've been given to help others. And the Gallows...Circles aren't pleasant places at the best of times, but that place is a prison. Maybe if we can find a way for the mages and templars to work together, we can make things better."
"Maybe," said Leliana. "I hope so." She leaned her head lightly against Bethany's. She still gave off an aura of tension. The breeze stilled, and the garden became quiet enough that Bethany could hear faint sounds from inside the house. From what she could tell, Isabela, Varric and Marian were celebrating Bethany's mother's escape from death with a drunken serenade.
"Do you remember my friend, Revered Mother Dorothea?" asked Leliana.
"From Lothering? Of course!" said Bethany. "I always liked her. And you know her from Orlais, as well, yes?"
"Indeed," said Leliana. "She is nearly as dear to me as you are, when I thought all hope was lost she saved me, and reminded me that the Maker is there for all his children. We still write to each other, she and I, little things mostly." Leliana sat up. "Do you know much of the politics of the Grand Chantry in Orlais? How the Divine is chosen?"
"Um," said Bethany, wondering at this sudden change of subject. "Not really. Divine Beatrix has been the Divine for as long as I can remember. Is it decided by the Grand Clerics after the last Divine has died?"
"Ah, no, but that is a common misconception," said Leliana, smiling. She seemed more at ease now, back in the comfortable role of storyteller. "They used to choose the Divine that way, but it became very corrupt, there were all sorts of scandals. Grand Clerics would take bribes or face blackmail, and some of the women who became Divine...well, it was the Maker's will, but they are not the women I would have chosen. Some say that one of them was secretly a man! Anyway, it was eventually decided that the Divine herself should choose her successor, with the name only to be revealed after her death. That way, her choice was between her and the Maker."
"I see," said Bethany.
"Maker willing, it will be a long time before Divine Beatrix's successor is chosen," said Leliana. "But she is old friends with Revered Mother Dorothea, and some say that Dorothea herself will be chosen next as Divine. The Grand Clerics are not happy with this, they have been harassing my poor friend and trying to blacken her name, they would rather the Divine be someone they feel they can control."
"Oh my," said Bethany. She tried to imagine sensible Revered Mother Dorothea from Lothering as the Divine of the Grand Chantry. "Do you think it's true?"
"Who can say?" said Leliana. "Noone knows but the Divine herself. But she has certainly been working more closely with the Revered Mother, and asking her advice." Leliana laughed. "She says it is quite scary, to have the ear of the Divine. But as you said yourself, when we are given a gift, we have a responsibility to use it to help others."
"Yes," said Bethany. "And yes, that must be quite scary! I don't know how I would handle that sort of influence. I think I'd always end up asking other people for advice myself."
Leliana held up a finger with a smile. "Exactly!" she said. "And so she writes to me, and her other friends, to ask what is happening in Kirkwall, and in all the other places the Chant is sung."
"Oh," said Bethany. Then, as she thought back over the earlier parts of their conversation, "Oh. Is that why you were asking about the templars? So that you could report back to the Revered Mother?" Bethany was sure that Leliana would never deliberately put any of them in danger, but it was still...disturbing, to think of her as indirectly reporting things to the Divine.
"Not like that!" said Leliana. "I would never betray a confidence, or act as a spy. I love you, I would never take advantage of your trust in that way. But you must understand, the Revered Mother is as concerned about the oppression of mages as we are, and she has been greatly disturbed by what I have told her of their treatment in Kirkwall. Unfortunately, until today, it seemed there was no way to oppose that oppression without supporting those like Anders who would undermine the Chantry's control completely."
"So she would support these templars, then?" asked Bethany. "And oppose the Knight Commander?"
"Not directly," said Leliana. "She does not have that sort of power. But you would be surprised by how much can be done indirectly. If there is some way to help, I am sure she will offer it. Information does not flow only one way, you know."
"I see," said Bethany. Leliana made a good point: having a friend with the ear of the Divine could definitely be useful, especially when the Grand Cleric in Kirkwall refused to act. "Well, thank you for telling me. And I will keep you updated about anything I learn from the Circle. I trust you to know what details to leave out to keep people safe."
"Of course," said Leliana, smiling, and she gave Bethany a kiss. Bethany leaned into the kiss, Leliana's lips were warm and comforting.
"Do you think we can really change things here?" she asked.
"Who can say?" said Leliana. "The Maker has his plan, all we can do is try to follow his will as well as we are able. But there is always room for hope."