Author's Note:

Hey guys! Sorry, it's been a couple weeks since I published the last story, but I've been really busy. My birthday was on the 8th, and I got Legacy and Mark of the Assassin ^_^ I've already finished playing both of those, so you can look forward to a couple stories based off of them in the near future. Also, I had a little difficulty writing this, because I decided to dip into Bethany's inkwell for it, and I had some trouble remembering this quest... I sort of cut it short since it was taking so long to write- I don't know if I'll ever write a second part for this story to conclude the quest...

By the way, if you have an idea for a story or a plot that you want me to write with my Rathina Hawke, I'm willing to hear suggestions. Hopefully I'll have the next story up here pretty soon, too, as I'm mostly finished.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and as always, please review! :D

Hey there! So, earlier today, Rathina thrust her journal into my hands and told me to write a story about Anders. After what he did, I think she still has difficulty talking about him... Totally understandable, I guess. She thinks it's her fault. I think we all want to remember him as he was, not how he ended up... except Fenris, maybe.

Well, I wrote this about the first time we ever met Anders at his clinic. It was an interesting experience- he was the first apostate I'd ever met in Kirkwall. Anyway, I wound up cutting this a little short, because Rathina was getting impatient... Please enjoy!

-Bethany

Tranquility

Bethany Hawke yawned, her mind buzzing with boredom. She lifted her head to frown at the clouds scuttling across the sky, almost like ants crawling over an anthill. Next to her, Varric was trying to joke with Fenris, who ignored him and gazed impassively at the nearby alienage. Finally, Varric gave up his attempts at cheering up the broody elf and shoved himself off the building they were leaning on.

"What's taking Hawke so long?" he groused. "I'm about to go in after her myself." Bethany didn't even have enough time to open her mouth before her sister stepped out of the run-down building, looking harassed.

"Speak of the devil," Fenris murmured, straightening and turning to look at Hawke. Bethany pushed away from the wall and brushed dust off her robes.

"How did it go?" she asked, lifting a curious eyebrow.

"It's packed in there," Hawke groaned theatrically, gesturing with her hand for them to listen and follow as she moved away. "There's more people in there than there were on the boat we took to get here!... Well, maybe not, but you get the idea." Bethany trotted along behind her sister's slightly longer, quicker stride, listening with wide, curious eyes as her sister described the scene. Fenris strode along beside her, watching silently, as Varric asked all the questions.

"What did you find out?" he demanded.

"Well, after some persuasion, they told me that the Grey Warden is in Darktown," she announced. She raised an eyebrow, glancing back to read their reactions to her next bit of information. "They said he's from Ferelden- apparently he knew the Hero, too."

"Cool," Bethany said with a grin, blinking with some surprise.

"Small world, huh?" agreed her sister with some sarcasm. "It's nice to know that you can have a decent, illegal living as a refugee." Varric chuckled.

"What's he doing in Darktown?" asked the dwarf.

"He heals Ferelden refugees for free," she answered. "It took a lot of convincing before they believed that I wasn't trying to hurt him."

"How come he left the Grey Wardens?" Bethany wanted to know.

"Beats me," Hawke answered, shrugging. "Why don't you ask him yourself?"

"Are we going now?" Bethany asked, her eyes widening with excitement. Hawke hesitated, her gaze flicking down to the dwarf.

"Sunshine, I don't know if it would be safe for you to go to Darktown," Varric put in. Bethany's lips tugged down into a petulant frown.

"Why not?" she wanted to know. "I can take care of myself!" She scowled in frustration- her sister was always so unnecessarily protective of her. It was annoying.

"Well, there are all sorts of bandits and Carta dwarfs down there..." Varric answered her question a little concernedly. She turned to her sister with wide, pleading eyes. Hawke wavered, her icy gaze narrowing slightly with internal conflict.

"You'll take me with you, right? Please, sister!" Bethany begged.

"Bethany, Mother wants me to keep you safe..." Hawke hedged.

"Well, even if we get attacked, I'll stay out of the way and let you and Fenris get them," Bethany promised, her eyes begging like a puppy. "Please, Rathina, I just don't want to be stuck in the sewer that Gamlen calls a house..."

"All right, you can come," Hawke relented with a sigh. "Stay close to me, okay?"

"Of course!" Bethany agreed readily, grinning triumphantly. "Thank you, Rathina!"

"Don't mention it," Hawke answered, rolling her eyes. She growled something under her breath as she led them to Darktown.

After a swift encounter with some annoyed Ferelden refugees, in which Bethany convinced them that they weren't trying to hurt the apostate healer, they finally made it to Darktown. As Varric had predicted, they were attacked by a few Carta dwarfs, but between the four of them the dwarfs were dispatched quickly. Hawke rose from looting the bodies and paused, looking around like a dog searching for its owner.

"Something wrong?" Varric teased.

"Err... I don't know where to go," she admitted with a frown, her cheeks flushing. Fenris actually laughed aloud, a surprisingly rich, deep chuckle reverberating through the air. Bethany glanced at him curiously out of the corner of her eye.

"Didn't the woman give you any directions?" Bethany exclaimed, exasperated.

"Uhh... I think she said... go north?" Hawke guessed, a frustrated scowl tugging the corner of her mouth down. "She said to look for the house with a single lit lantern."

"Woah, Hawke, lost?" Varric exclaimed with a snort. "Too bad Daisy isn't here, she'd love to see this!"

"Oh, shut up," Hawke growled.

"I thought you would've done a lot of business down here when you worked with that smuggler?" Fenris commented, giving her a sideways glance that Bethany didn't miss. Hawke shrugged, chagrined.

"Bethany did all the navigating," she explained. "I can't read a map to save my life. We never came to this part of Darktown, anyway." Bethany smirked, drawing her shoulders up with some pride.

"Oh, really? Well done, Sunshine," Varric chuckled, reaching up and clapping her teasingly on the shoulder. Bethany rolled her eyes.

"I'm glad you approve of my abiility to read pictures," she answered a little mockingly. Jeez, Rathina is rubbing off on me... Turning back to Hawke, she asked, "She said to go north?"

"Yeah." Hawke paused, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "Let's go this way," she decided after a moment, striding straight forward.

"Erm, sis? You might try going the other way," Bethany suggested, muffling laughter and catching Hawke's arm. Rathina gave her a blank stare.

"Why?"

"That way's south," Fenris pointed out in his velvety baritone voice that rippled with another chuckle. "Bethany's right. We should go that way." He pointed out a path to their left.

"Ah, yes," Hawke said, blushing and looking a little flustered. "I just wanted to take the scenic route!"

"Of course, sister," Bethany retorted, rolling her eyes. "Maybe into a few more Carta dwarfs, right?" She took the lead, turning down the path, occasionally casting her gaze to the sky to judge their direction- a trick her sister seemed unable to figure out. To her credit, Hawke followed at her heels, an impatient scowl on her face.

"Is this it?" Bethany asked a while later, stopping in front of a small building- more of a hut, really- with a single burning lantern dangling in front of it.

"Ah, yes," Hawke answered, relief spreading across her features. She strode over to the door. "Should we knock?" she wondered, amused.

"I wouldn't bother, we're going in regardless," Varric responded, smirking. Hawke shrugged and shoved the door open. They were met by a strange sight.

A man with blonde hair and a feathered cape stood over a slightly bloodstained cot with a little boy laying on it. The boy's eyes were closed, his breathing shallow. Nearby stood two other adults- his parents, maybe? The blonde man was obviously working complex magic over the boy; he whispered under his breath, his hands glowing blue and hovering over the boy's body. A drop of sweat slid down his nose, and he absently lifted a hand to wipe it off. Bethany could practically hear Fenris's disapproving scowl. She ignored him, watching the healer with wide, curious eyes.

Hawke waited silently in the doorway, a slight frown on her face, mirroring Fenris's expression. Varric stood silently at her elbow, gazing off into space with a glazed, indifferent expression.

Finally the healer stepped back from the cot and turned away, burying his face in his hands with a tired sigh. The boy jumped off the cot and raced over to his mother, throwing his arms around her and embracing her tightly. The boy's father walked over to the healer, putting a hand on his shoulder and murmuring a few words of gratitude. Then the family turned and left, skirting around Hawke and co. with frightened glances.

Fenris shifted, causing his armor to rustle.

The mage whirled around, snatching up a long, wooden rod leaning against the wall. Wait, not a rod- a mage staff! Bethany instinctively reached for her own staff- the one she'd inherited from her father- surreptitiously stepping behind her sister at the same time. She thought she saw the mage's almond colored gaze follow her movement.

"I have made this place a sanctum of healing and salvation! Why do you threaten it?" he shouted. He glowered at Hawke and her companions- Bethany thought she caught a glimmer of fear in his gaze. Her sister could probably read his expression like a book...

"Why the hell would we be threatening you? Do we look like templars?" Hawke demanded, gesturing to Bethany with an amused glimmer in her eyes. She made no move to reach for her daggers, but Bethany knew that didn't mean anything. Her sister could snatch up her daggers in the blink of an eye. The healer's gaze roved over Bethany's staff before they locked eyes. She thought she saw a glint of blue, and she suppressed a shudder.

"No," the mage admitted after a moment, stepping back and leaning his staff against the wall again. He turned to eye them suspiciously. "Did the Wardens send you to bring me back? Because I'm not going. Those bastards made me get rid of my cat..."

"Your cat. Right." Bethany could see the difficulty with which her sister suppressed rolling her eyes. Varric snorted, but he managed to pass it off as a violent coughing fit. Even Fenris lifted his eyebrows, but Bethany couldn't read his expression. For that matter, she didn't think anybody could. Except maybe her sister.

"We weren't sent by the Wardens," Bethany told the healer, a little irritated at the others' behavior.

"Then why are you here? You look healthy enough to me." He frowned at them, still wary.

"Maps," Hawke answered, businesslike now.

"What makes you think I have maps?"

"You were a Grey Warden before, weren't you?" she asked, a little tauntingly. "We need maps to plan an expedition to the Deep Roads."

"You would go into that cursed place voluntarily?" He lifted his eyebrows, surprised and skeptical. "Why?"

"I need a vacation," Hawke answered sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Will you give us the maps?" He leaned back against the wall, thinking.

"What's your name?" Bethany interrupted, her gaze glowing with curiosity. His almond eyes swept over to her calculatingly, and she thought she caught another flash of blue. Strange.

"You can call me Anders. What's yours?" he wanted to know, looking genuinely curious and somewhat relieved at the distraction. He had a kind expression, Bethany thought. But there was something else in his gaze that she couldn't quite put a name to, making him look a little harried.

"I'm Hawke. This is my sister, Bethany, the dwarf Varric, and... Fenris." Hawke cut back in to the conversation, shooting Bethany a glance that made her cheeks flush with annoyance. Obviously her sister didn't want her speaking to this mage, but she couldn't see any harm in it. She noted a slight hesitation in Hawke's voice before she spoke Fenris's name, and she wondered at it

"Hawke? I've heard about you," Anders commented thoughtfully. He turned partly away from them, lowering his chin and frowning slightly at the ground, deep in thought. He seemed to nod to himself before turning back to them. "I will give you the maps. But I have a condition, first. A favor for a favor, if you will."

"There's always a condition," Hawke sighed. "What is it?"

"I know a mage in the Gallows. A friend of mine. I have a plan to free him, but the templars may have found out, so I need help. If you help me, I'll give you the map," he promised.

"Templars? Is that all? I may as well just take my chances with the darkspawn." Hawke rolled her eyes.

"If we have to fight templars, it's because they decide that anyone who befriends a mage deserves to die," he answered harshly. Touchy subject, Bethany noted. The strange glint in his eye stood out even more now- she was starting to recognize what it was. She shifted, uncomfortable with his words. She spoke again.

"As just as his cause is, it frightens me a little... the templars don't need another reason to hunt us," she murmured, mostly to her sister.

"We should leave the mage where he is," Fenris growled. "Find another way into the Deep Roads. Another possible blood mage running around is the last thing we need."

"Karl isn't a blood mage," Anders retorted hotly. Hawke glowered at all of them, and Anders' mouth snapped shut, but he continued to scowl at Fenris, who did likewise.

"I understand your concern," she said to both Fenris and Bethany, "but we need those maps. We can't afford to wait too long." Bethany sighed, but she nodded her acquiescence.

"Do what you will, but I'll kill the mage myself if he tries to summon a demon," Fenris answered, still frowning but looking slightly less hostile. Hawke nodded, pleased, and turned back to Anders.

"If you still want me to help you, meet me at the Chantry tonight," he told her.

"We'll be there," she promised, turning to leave. Fenris strode out ahead of her, his gait catlike and controlled, although Bethany caught a glimpse of his burning gaze. Varric stepped out behind him. Bethany started for the door.

"Wait." Bethany turned, arching an eyebrow. Anders was watching her curiously.

"Do you need something?" she said.

"You're an apostate, too, aren't you?" he guessed.

"I am," she answered a little curtly, drawing herself up. "I've never been to the Circle. I've been free all my life."

"You're lucky, then." He sighed, running a hand through his dirty blonde hair. "I'll see you around, I guess. Perhaps we could talk more later. It's a pleasure meeting you."

"Coming, Bethany?" Hawke had poked her head back in the door, impatience apparent in her shocking blue eyes.

"Err, right." Bethany glanced back at the mage, who was watching her closely, and nodded to him before darting after Hawke. What an odd, interesting man. She gave her sister a sideways glance and saw her eyes narrowed, a little troubled, as she led them back to Lowtown.