They'd skirted through the wilderness close to the seacoast for the past few days, making better time as Hawke was able to heal both herself and others of some of the weariness of travel. Isabela loved travelling this close to the sea, the salt flavoring the wind and making the air more solid than the insubstantial nothingness of the inlands.
The larger group had set up a late camp a few hours from Rialto, the cities coming closer together as they neared Antiva City itself. Their current camp was high on one of the outlying hills near the sea herself, the view astounding as the moon rose over the soundlessly crashing waves in the distance. There was a refreshing lack of bounty hunters and bandits alike in Antiva, the Crow's hold being so strong on nobleman and criminal alike and Isabela took the precious moment of safety they had found here to enjoy the call of the ocean again.
Merrill had banked their fire well back into the trees but the pirate could just make out it's winking light from her vantage point out on the open hillside. She sighed and settled back into the long grass and gazed out at the ocean.
"Do you miss her Isabela?" Hawke's soft voice was back to normal, its smoothness sliding through the darkness.
"Which her would that be?" was her lewd reply.
"That her," Hawke asserted, thrusting her chin towards the sea beyond, "Your true love."
"I do, she's like no other lover." Isabella sighed out and plucked an unoffending blade of grass from the hill. The silence wrapped around them in a cool comfort, free of the fears they'd been travelling with for so long. She felt more than saw Hawke settle on the grass beside her, and then glimpsed her hair glowing in the moonlight, "Although, if you'd like to give her a run for her money…"
Hawke's laugh split the night and she turned her warm gaze to the pirate, "I don't think I'd ever measure up."
"I don't know, I could always ask Fenris what he thinks," Isabella grinned, still gazing at the sea beyond.
"And when he guts you for it I'm not going to help you in the slightest," came Hawke's easy reply. Her smile faded to a slight frown, "Thank you, for coming for me."
"Don't mention it."
"No, really, Isabela…"
"Really, don't mention it. I'm horribly uncomfortable with these suicidal heroic rescues."
Hawke's muffled laughter reached her ear and the woman who had come to be Isabela's only friend wrapped her warm hand over hers, saving the nearly unrecognizable blade of grass in the process. Isabela laced her fingers through her friend's, still watching the rise and fall of the ocean's waves.
"I've never had a friend like you, one that I could really depend on. You've always stood by me, even when I was being a selfish prig," the words came out awkward and quickly, and she surprised herself voicing them, "I wouldn't have left you in there for all the gold on the seas."
"And I'd even rescue you from hundreds of angry Qunari in single combat," Hawke's light hearted reply came, "That's what friends do anyhow."
"Yes, well," Isabela cleared her throat, "You, friend, owe me a ship."
"I'll see if I can't dig one up for you."
She chuckled, standing and helping Hawke to her feet, as she inhaled to respond to her friend a slight crack from the woods around them alerted her, Hawke's head whipped around seeking the noise as well.
Isabela moved forward quickly, Hawke taking her flank and moving off of the exposed hillside and into the cover of the woods. Seeing the mage move into the darkness towards where the sound had come from, she angled into camp, a sharp head nod all that was needed to put her friends on alert. Varric continued his tale even as he readied Bianca and she motioned Fenris after Hawke with a single quick gesture in the direction the woman had gone.
She leaned down and woke Merrill with a gently placed finger on her lips and the elf's eyes snapped open, instantly on the alert. The three of them began to ease away from the contained light of their camp just as a terrific crashing came from where Hawke and Fenris had vanished.
Hawke came storming into the camp, her magic snapping around her in barely controlled fury and with an angry gesture guided the figure behind her into the light. The cheery light from the fire winked on the tall figure's hair and drew gold from the dirty blonde locks and cast the stubble on his chin into a dark shadow.
"A—Anders?" Merrill's startled voice cut through the thick silence.
Fenris pushed into camp behind them, his face contorted with rage and Hawke moved closer to him and put a gentle hand on his shoulder, which he shook off angrily.
"Well call me Andraste's knickers, where did you crawl up from Blondie?" Varric eased Bianca onto his shoulder.
"I've been searching for Hawke since I heard about Sebastian's attempt to make her Tranquil," Anders replied.
"That was a foolish move, he was expecting that," Hawke cut back at him, still standing close to Fenris.
"We—I wasn't about to let him get away with that!" Anders turned to confront her, his words rushed and angry.
"What would you have done? Blown up another building full of innocent people?" Fenris spat the words at him and was rewarded by watching Anders flinch.
"That was necessary. You see what's come of it, the mages everywhere are fighting for their fre—"
"Oh shut up Anders. You've brought civilization practically to its knees with your causes," Hawke cut him off. "Hundreds of people died that day, good people, people who didn't want a damn thing to do with your blighted revolution."
Isabela watched Anders turn to face the woman who had spared him, and wondered if she had imagined the pain in his eyes. The apostate measured the closeness she kept to Fenris and the stiffness of her posture and seemed to wilt.
"So.. Anders.. how are things going? Find a nice little revolution driven apostate to curl up with yet?" Isabela drawled out, sidling over to the man's side. She was unsure how stable Fenris or Hawke were after the events of the past few weeks. Hawke hadn't spoken of what had happened to her in the Towers and none of them had asked.
"What? No. Of course not. Anyone I come into contact with is in danger. I couldn't.." Anders stammered.
"Yes. Tell us about the dangers of being your friend, mage," Fenris snarled at him, "Tell us about how someone we trusted would chain us, torture us, spend days trying to break us! Tell us all about it."
"Fenris, that's enough," Hawke's hard tone snapped through the elf's tirade but she laid a soft hand on his arm. Isabela watched, amused, as the elf turned from her and stormed off into the darkness of the woods, Hawke following.
"Maker, did all of that really..?" Anders let the question hang in the air.
"No, of course not, I'm sure they were just having tea for days inside the Towers!" Isabela leaned back and quirked a sarcastic smile at him.
"I tried to come for her. I wouldn't have let them—"
"Oh lay off it already Blondie. She's out and we're moving on," Varric interrupted.
Anders crumpled onto the ground at her feet, shaking, "She should have come with me, I would have been able to keep her safe. Why did she even go see him?"
Isabela knelt down beside him, "You know that wasn't going to happen. She's still mad as a wet bull at you."
"I changed the world," the words came out as a hoarse whisper, "It comes at a price."
"But you're not the one paying that price dumpling, everyone else is," She motioned off into the darkness that Hawke had disappeared in, "She was in horrible shape when we found her."
"Why aren't you angry with me?" Anders turned his face up to hers.
"Oh, I am, sweetling, I just never let things like that get in my way." Isabela patted him awkwardly on his shoulder.
"What happened in Starkhaven?" Anders leaned back to rest on the damp ground, collecting his robes around himself to ward off the chill.
Isabela sat down next to him, angling her back to the warmth of the fire, "She wanted to see our choir boy about this quest of hers she's on again. Something about that damned relic they found in the deep roads. Grey Wardens showed up again to collect Carver, guess she figures this is the next step in keeping her brother safe."
"I never should have picked up the damned thing," Varric added.
"Anyhow, we snuck her in to see him and they started their old cat fight about the Chantry again. Next thing I know we hear she's been dragged off to the Towers."
"The way I heard it was that Sebastian himself carried her there in his arms, and she was wearing a dress as pristinely white as her hair!" Varric grinned.
"Can you even imagine Hawke owning something like that dwarf?" Isabela stared at him.
"I think she would look lovely in a gown, she doesn't take any pride in her appearance, she really ought to.." Merrill began.
"After that we heard about the Rite and started working on getting her out of there. Sebastian is a clever bastard though." Isabela plucked a dagger from her boot and began making doodles in the dirt with it.
"I know all of that, I meant, what happened to Hawke?" Anders cut through her retelling.
"Nothing I can't handle," Hawke's voice swam through the darkness, emerging before the woman herself did, Fenris shadowing her.
"See? She's fine," Isabela patted Anders on the back awkwardly and stood, brushing the dirt from herself. She sheathed her dagger back in her boot and offered a hand to the tired mage on the ground. Anders grunted and took it, his warm hand engulfing hers. She let her hand linger slightly, giving him a warm smile that summed up her desire to put the uncomfortable topic behind them and move on to more pleasant things. She gave him her best crooked grin and cocked her hip at him, "Come on Blondie, you can bunk with me tonight."
"Do you really think that's wise…?" Anders began.
"Oh shove off Anders, it's not like you haven't seen me naked before."
"He is not staying here!" Fenris was livid, the words snarling out of him. Hawke leaned into him, catching his arm again, the contact setting the magic embedded into him glowing.
"We'll deal with this in the morning. No point in tackling this tired," Hawke soothed.
"No! That monster shouldn't even be alive! We should take his head back to Sebastian!" Fenris continued to pull forward but was clearly unwilling to drag Hawke with him.
"Fenris!" Hawke's sharp hurt tone turned the elf's face towards the woman.
"Come on now elf, if we started abandoning our own for every fault we'd all be dead in a ditch by now." Varric leaned Bianca across his knee for emphasis.
"Well isn't this a pile of darkspawn shit. What do you want to do Fenris? Lock us all up until we agree to do what you want? Sound familiar? Hmm?" Isabela crossed her arms beneath her breasts and eyed the shaking man, "Anders can spend the night with me, and if you want to discuss that you are certainly welcome to… join us."
She sauntered slowly over towards the elf, her hips swaying deliberately and tried to not toss a grin at Hawke rolling her eyes. She ran her eyes down his form slowly and then back up again, grinning the whole while, "Well, elf?"
Fenris snorted at her and shook his head, "I will make my camp elsewhere then and return tomorrow." He tugged at Hawke's light hold on his elbow.
"Don't be ridiculous, it's safer for all of us to stay here," Hawke squirmed her way between them, forcing Fenris to look at her, "Come to bed with me. We've all had enough."
Isabela grinned over Hawke's shoulder at him and winked. He threw his hands up and surrendered, turning his back to them and storming into his tent. Her friend sighed audibly and her shoulders dropped, her hand with its wrist still raw coming up to rub at her temples.
"Maker I thought I was done with this," Hawke's soft voice said to the night.
"Hey, you alright? Want me to stab one of them for you?" Isabela placed a concerned hand on the back of the one person in the world she considered a friend, seeing for the first time the weight that she carried on her shoulders, the problems of the world all coming to rest on her because no one else would pick them up.
"Heavens no, I'd just have to hear them complain about it hurting," Hawke's tone was light but the set of her shoulders hadn't changed.
"Go to bed love, all of this can wait til tomorrow. And both you and Fenris could use a little..cheering up." Isabela pushed her forward with a playful shove, "I'm going to go see if Anders still remembers that little bit with the electricity…"
"Isabela!"
"What?" She grinned.
Hawke shook her head, laughing, "I give up! I do!" Her friend disappeared into the tent she shared with Fenris. Isabela heard a few moments of hushed conversation and then nothing and smiled and headed back for her own tent.
"You turning in then pirate?"
"You could call it that, yes…" She grinned again at both Varric and Anders, Merrill turning a pleasant shade of pink.
"Want me to take this watch then?"
"Ahh.. not necessary. I won't be sleeping," She grinned at him.
Varric laughed and heaved Bianca up with him as he stood, "Well then, I'll see you two in the morning."
"I'll just be going back to sleep then, over there, farther away..." Merrill babbled to no one in particular, leaving Anders alone with Isabela.
Isabela turned to face the man, giving him a slow appraising look down and returning to his face, "You're looking alright for a man on the run mage."
"Isabela, I hardly think this is the time for –"
"What better time? We may all die tomorrow, might as well enjoy today!" Isabela trailed a lazy finger along the inside of his wrist. She liked the way he'd leaned out over the last few years, he had never been even a little out of shape but now there was a wiry tenseness to his build from the hard months moving around. Anders grabbed her wrist gently as she started to make headway up his arm.
"This isn't a good idea." He stated, running a careful touch down her jawline.
Isabela twisted her wrist free easily and pushed a cocoa colored finger against his lips, "It never is."