Author's Note: This is the final short which features Varric Tethras, and Herah Adaar.

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age, this is owned by Bioware.

Say You Will

Varric really hated that Bianca had lied to him about being the leak for the red lyrium. He hated her even more when she finally confessed that she wasn't his soulmate, she didn't even have a soulmate. So he'd spent all this time, hating his friends for having soulmates who loved them for no damned reason. And then, the nobles of Kirkwall had to go and elect him Viscount when he complained about the lack of funds for his new building project. Sure, it was a blast to drive Seneschal Bran up a wall for all the times he'd been a jerk to him and Hawke back in the day, but this Viscount thing was seriously a pain in the ass. Moreover, there seemed to be never ending reams of paperwork for him to read and sign.

And today for whatever reason a mercenary band called the Valo-Kas wanted to speak to him.

"I could always tell them that you are busy sir," Bran suggested helpfully.

"No send them in," he said. Besides Aveline and Hawke would never let him hear the end of it if he sent them away. Now he had some time to ponder if these mercenaries would be as colorful and interesting as the Chargers.

There were only two people, an attractive female Qunari with green eyes and impressive horns, and a red haired female elf.

"So is this all of you?"

"No sir," the Qunari replied. "There are three more of us. Kaaras is currently on baby-sitting duty." When he continued to look puzzled, she added, "He's keeping Marcus and Twitch out of trouble."

If he didn't know better, he would have said that she'd just uttered his soulmark words. Instead he asked, "and what might your names be?"

"I'm Herah Adaar and this is Maia Lavellan, my second in command. We, the Valo-Kas mercenaries are interested in offering our services to you."

"And why would I be interested in hiring you?"

"If you will forgive me for saying so, Kirkwall is a mess, if you want to make it a prime port city, then you need to clean up the filth. We can help you in that endeavor." She said all this confidently as a statement of fact.

As loath as he was to admit it, Herah did have a point. "Fine then, I accept your offer."

As they began to negotiate on price, he heard a loud crash and a blond haired human male and a brunet haired dwarf female burst into the room. "So did you get us the deal Herah?!" the dwarf yelled.

"Sorry about that," Herah apologized. "That loud person is Ria Cadash, aka. Twitch. And that human over there is Marcus Renwick. Don't let his silence fool you; he can be quite rambunctious when he wants to be."

Suddenly, Bran came in, trailed by another Qunari, a male. "I'm so sorry sir," Bran said. "These ruffians interrupted your meeting."

"And apologize for the disturbance my friends caused." Suddenly the Qunari did a double take. "Wait are you Varric Tethras?"

"Yes, I am." It was annoying to constantly have to answer that question.

"Wow! I'm like a huge fan of your works!" he yelled. "You're the reason I left the Qun, back when the Arishok was here in Kirkwall."

Varric wasn't sure if he could wrap his mind around this, so he just glanced at the rather interesting tableau of figures that he might just incorporate into another book once he finished his story about the Inquisition. "Well that is good to know," he said.

Herah Adaar was no stranger to fear and danger. A constant fear was that she'd be captured by the Qun and be made into a saarebas, or the Chantry would try to put her in a Circle. Fortunately, with the new Divine, one of those fears had fallen to the wayside. However, now she was faced with a new conundrum, a potential soulmate. She knew that being soulmates was why her parents fled the Qun to start a new life just outside the Free Marcher city of Cumberland. She'd always dreamed of meeting her soulmate and now she wasn't sure what to make of him. Varric Tethras was a famous writer and the new Viscount of Kirkwall.

"Are you all right, Herah?" Kaaras inquired. She'd met him a few years back when she was part of another mercenary group, when he'd just freed himself of the Qun. They'd ended up leaving the other group in disgust of their leader's racism against all Qunari.

"I just think I may have met my soulmate." It was hard to watch Marcus and Maia flirt and to observe as Twitch wrote letters to her soulmate, who was a baker in Ostwick. Kaaras, who hadn't met his soulmate either would understand.

"Well after this job is done, talk to him." Kaaras was never wishy-washy, he favored decisive actions, which was why he was reliable back up.

"I'll think about it," she said.

"So wait you're telling me that you might have met your soulmate, and you haven't told her." Even with a swollen belly, Aveline was a force to be reckoned with. She already had two noisy boys whom she and Donnic adored.

"Well, yes that would be it, but part of it is that someone once lied to me about being my soulmate."

"I honestly don't care! Tell her that you suspect that she's your soulmate and let the chips fall where they may."

"Fine, I'll talk to her." So after the Valo-Kas finished cleaning up the streets of Kirkwall, Varric requested to speak with Herah.

"So I have something important to tell you," he admitted. "I think you might be my soulmate."

Herah smiled. "I actually was about to say the same thing. Can I see your words?"

"Only if I get to see yours," Varric replied.

"It's a deal." She unbuttoned the armored vest she normally wore and revealed his handwriting on her collarbone.

Varric pulled his glove off, and rolled up the sleeve of his left arm, showing her words on him.

"So what happens now?" she asked.

For someone who claimed to be an expert on this romance stuff, Varric was stumped. "I don't know," he admitted. "But we can find out together."

"I like the sound of that."

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed these shorts and please read and review.