A Sword of Mercy
Part 6 of 6
Healing
Empty
If there is one word to describe how Marian Hawke felt right now it would be empty. The battle was over, they had not freed the slaves, but the pride abomination was dead.
And Fenris…
No she could not think about that…not yet anyway.
She shuddered as she slipped beneath the water again, she had needed a bath after all the fighting, fortunately the Minanter River was right there. The water was cold being the fact that it was still early spring, but at least she was able to wash off the blood and sweat of the day's battle.
She emerged from the water slipping her tunic over her head, she padded softly back to their camp, the small fire warmed her after her rather cold dip. She found herself a little homesick for the Amell estate, and the hot baths that Orana would prepare for her.
But Kirkwall was not her home anymore; the Templars would likely kill her for what she had done there. Besides, the estate, the title, that had always been for mother. It had always been Bethany who had dreamed of Orlesian silk dresses and lace petticoats. Hawke had never felt truly comfortable in that life.
She was a warrior not some pampered noble doll.
But if she had been then maybe Fenris would not be…
STOP IT!
Hawke pushed those thoughts back, pushed back the anger and the guilt, what had happened to Fenris had been her fault, and she took full responsibility for it.
For once though she wished that victory could have come without such a high price, it was however a price she was willing to pay, so in the end maybe that was all that mattered.
Maybe it was the only thing that mattered.
She approached the first of the two tents, quietly; carefully she pulled back the flap. Amethyne slept curled up in Hawke's bedroll, a sheathed long sword, pulled against her chest like a child's toy.
Hawke felt sorry for the girl, a girl of thirteen or fourteen should have other things on her mind besides killing things. Unfortunately she could not give Amenthyne the innocence that she had lost back. The elven girl had turned a corner, and there was no going back.
Her mind drifted back to the battle, and what Amethyne had cast aside there.
IOI
Fenris and Hawke danced around the abomination, looking for a nice soft spot, if they could wound the creature, bring it down to its knees they could end this fight with a swift swing of their swords, but the creature would not give them that chance. It was powerful after having fed on the life energies of the slain elven slaves.
Hawke tried to weaken it with her Templar abilities, but the creature's power seemed to be almost limitless.
Fenris darted in again, eager to swipe at the back of the creatures knees; unfortunately it was ready this time. As he moved in the creature swung its powerful arms. The spikes on its forearms tore through the Tevinter Elf's stomach, he gasped as the Abomination swatted him like a bug, he hit the wall with a sickening wet snap.
Fenris! No!
Hawke charged again wailing in rage, she had no idea if her friend was alive or dead, but she could not help him yet. Not until this foul bastard was dead.
With only one opponent to focus on the Abomination now had the advantage, Hawke was tiring and the creature's strength was limitless from all the magic in the air.
It seemed like this was the end.
"MASTER!"
The voice of a very angry Amethyne drew the creature's attention; the girl's eyes were cold as stone as she glared hatefully at the beast. Hawke could not see Mercy anywhere, had the spirit been destroyed, or had she fled back into the fade?
Hawke tried to draw the creature's attention, but it was no use.
The Abomination advanced on the girl.
"You want magic Master?" the elf asked tauntingly.
The creature flattened the girl with one of its fists, Hawke shrieked in agony.
Only Amethyne was not dead, she phased through the beast using her gift, she became solid again only once she stood atop the creature's arm. She darted up its arm and shoulder without fear.
She drew the dagger that Hawke had been training her with; when she reached the creature's shoulder she leaped.
She buried the blade deep into the creature's eye.
The abomination roared in torment.
"We fight as one apprentice," Mercy appeared behind the creature, her blade severing the tendons in the back of the Abominations legs.
It fell.
Amethyne was not done, the glow that surrounded her grew brighter, she shone like a star.
"YOU WANT MAGIC! HERE IS ALL THE MAGIC YOU WANT!"
The Abomination's body drank the power, it grew larger, but then something began to happen. Its flesh began to bulge out, light shone from its eyes nose and mouth. The creature let out a sound that could only be described as a whimper; it was too much, too fast. It gazed at the girl with its good eye imploring her to stop.
The girl glared back hatefully.
"Those without mercy deserve none." She growled, "For Cyrion, for all of them, you DIE!"
The abomination exploded.
IOI
Hawke stared down at the sleeping girl; she gently brushed her fingers across her face.
The girl stirred.
"Cyrion?" she asked.
Hawke's heart lurched.
"No dear it is only me," she replied.
The elf starred at her with those sad green eyes. She was in mourning for her lost guardian and the other slaves as well, but there was something more there now.
Her eyes shone with cold determination and resolve.
"Never again," the elf whispered.
Hawke gave her a questioning look.
"I won't let it happen, Ser Hawke, never again," Amethyne's eyes burned with purpose, "I want you to teach me, train me to be like you and Ser Fenris. I want to destroy the Magisters, the hunters, the slavers. They will free the slaves they hold captive, if they don't I'll…"
She hushed the girl. This was not the time, the girl needed to heal, before she should make such a pledge.
Hawke understood that now.
"I'll train you, but there is more to fighting then just dealing death. If you must fight, fight for people that need your help, your protection, and never believe that innocents should be sacrificed for your own goals. The heart, the hands, and the head as my Father once taught me. Otherwise you will become as evil as the Magister."
As evil as Anders and Justice.
The elf listened, Cyrion would not have wanted her to become like the Magister. He would want her to fight for people like themselves. To defend others, and punish those who would do evil, without becoming evil herself.
That would be Amenthyne's goal.
That would be her revenge.
Tears flowed from her eyes as she embraced Hawke. She sobbed, mourning her fellow slaves, and mourning the innocence in herself that had died.
Hawke knew the feeling all too well.
She stayed with the girl, until she fell asleep again. Silently quietly she left her tent.
One other needed her attention tonight.
IOI
After the battle Hawke ran to Fenris, he lay in the corner of the chamber, his belly ripped open his breathing labored.
He was dying.
Amethyne lay unconscious on the floor next to what remained of the dead Abomination. Mercy drifted over to Hawke and Fenris her glowing eyes filled with sadness.
"He is leaving now." She murmured.
"NOOO!" Hawke wailed; she turned to the spirit, her eyes blazing with fear and anger, "Help him! Please! HELP HIM!"
"He is going to his rest, a release from his pain, is that not better?"
"No it isn't," Hawke snarled, "WE HELPED YOU DAMN IT, and now you will just stand there and let him die! How could you!"
The spirit had nothing to say.
For the first time in her life Hawke did something she never had thought she would do. She did something that she had nearly done the night Bethany was taken away to the circle.
She begged.
"Please, if you can save him do it!" Her eyes were filled with tears, "PLEASE, HE IS ALL I HAVE LEFT."
The spirit's resolve broke.
"I can save him," she said, her voice pained, "but if I do, you must do something for me."
Hawke wanted to scream, how the spirit could bargain at a time like this, it was no better than a demon.
"If I save him I will be gravely weakened," the spirit sighed, "I will likely never be strong enough to enter your world again. That means that my apprentice will be all alone here. If I save the wolf, the man…the man you are growing to love. I must ask you to take care of Amethyne for me. Those are my conditions."
Love?
Hawke had always cared for Fenris…but?
She nodded, she would walk into the void for a friend, she would do this for Amethyne and Fenris.
The spirit nodded, she approached the injured elf.
"Such sad music," Mercy said regarding his marking, she touched his chest.
The world turned white.
IOI
Hawke looked down on Fenris, asleep on his bedroll; it had been hard carrying him back here herself. Mercy had been forced to flee back to the fade through Amethyne after he had been healed.
An ugly red scar graced his perfect abdomen now; still it could have been worse.
And that would have been a waste of a perfectly handsome elf.
Hawke reached to touch the scar, to make sure it was healing properly.
Fenris's eyes snapped open he seized her hand.
He growled.
"It is only me" she said in a soothing tone.
He sighed, regarding her with that hard stare of his, any anger faded.
She helped him sit up just enough to have some water, he nodded gratefully to her.
"Amethyne?" he asked.
"Asleep," Hawke replied, "She saved us today, she save you."
He grunted thoughtfully at that.
"We cannot let her go Hawke," he said grimly, "with that spirit guiding her she is too dangerous."
Hawke tended to agree, she did not tell Fenris about the deal she had made with Mercy.
That was hers to bear and hers alone.
"Which is why I will take her, I will train her. I will teach her the meaning of compassion beyond what a spirit would think. I won't let her turn into another Anders Fenris, I swear it."
He considered this in that broody manner of his.
She had always found that kind of sexy.
He nodded, "I agree."
"Will you stay with me?" she asked, "Will you help me?"
He paused, gathering his thoughts before he replied.
"The magisters will not forget this Hawke; another will come for the girl. She is too powerful for them not too, and then there is this Witch King the Magister spoke of."
Hawke nodded she worried about this as well. Someone powerful enough to convince a Magister's own guards to abandon him. That was a person to be concerned about.
"You will need my blade in the coming months I think," Fenris said coolly, "I will help you in this."
She smiled gratefully, glad for his support.
He gave her a strange look.
"Are you well Hawke?"
She thought about saying that she was fine or that he need not worry, but the words died on her tongue.
"I am not all right Fenris," she said her eyes filling with pained tears, "but I will be…in time."
A hint of a smile came to Fenris's face; there was the Hawke he remembered.
He glanced down at her bare feet and legs, realizing then that she wore a shirt and nothing else.
He blushed slightly.
She looked down, realized what he was thinking and laughed lightly, it wasn't like he had not seen her naked before after all.
She lay down next to him, he placed an arm around her, he was still too sore to be intimate with her tonight, but he could at least hold her.
She took comfort in this.
"Fenris?" she asked.
"Yes?"
"I…I don't know if this will work between us."
He found that he did not know either, but he was willing to try.
She smiled warmly at him, "But I'll try if you will."
Fenris chuckled.
It seemed that you did not need magic to read minds after all.
He held her for the rest of the night, in the morning they would be off again, the three of them.
He found that he looked forward to that.
EPILOGUE
A lone figure paused in what had once been Hawke's campsite outside of Tantervale. He sniffed the air like a bloodhound. He could smell Hawke on the air; he could taste her on the wind.
He was getting closer.
He was a tall man and gaunt, his bald head was shiny when he removed his hood, which was one reason that he never did. The other reason was his face.
It was not very pleasant.
His skin was gray and peeling, his eyes were cloudy and dry. His black tongue worked inside his mouth as he searched for the bitch who had betrayed them.
The bitch who had tried to murder them.
He cared nothing for the mages anymore, or the Templars, they would kill each other now…but Hawke…Hawke deserved their special attention.
Hawke would suffer. She would burn.
The man smiled at the idea.
He had once been known as Thrash, a bounty hunter in Lowtown Kirkwall, but now he had another name and a new calling.
To punish a murdering, betraying bitch.
He walked back to his horse, it whickered nervously, it did not like it's rider but had no choice to obey.
He flung himself up into the saddle.
Magic crackled against his skin, it formed hair and a ponytail on his bare scalp, feathered paudrons made of fel energy danced on his shoulders.
"We are coming baby," it hissed in not one but three different overlapping voices, Hawke would have recognized two of them.
And she would have known despair.
"We are coming, no one escapes Justice forever."
The creature rode on.
The hunt continued.
Not the End.
More on the Witch King in Chant of Darkness. Also I am not done with Hawke, Fenris, Amethyne, or Justice…Another story coming soon. Until then enjoy the stories.