10

I woke up late that afternoon and went around to finish up various miscellaneous errands, including going over to the Chantry and telling Sebastian, the archer with the nice voice, that I had finally killed off the last of the Flint Company Mercenaries that he wanted dead and informing the owner of the mine that we had cleared out that the dragons were gone. Somehow, the mine owner ended up giving me half-shares in the mine. Weird. Also, the place was apparently cursed because a crazy Tevinter had killed a bunch of slaves there back when the Tevinters were still occupying Kirkwall. I was beginning to think that the rampant insanity in this city wasn't actually a recent development.

I thought about trying to convince everyone to go back to the Wounded Coast to kill Tal-Vashoth and look for Seamus Dumar, but I was pretty sure that Carver, at least, would kill me if I tried to get him to do anything after the all-nighter we had just pulled. After a while I ended up wandering down to Darktown to visit Anders.

"Hey," I said cheerfully, walking into the clinic.

He smiled. "You know, I had another friend like you once. She was constantly getting into trouble and dragging everyone around her along for the ride."

"Let me guess, her name was Olivia,"

"Got it in one. I should apologize. I got a bit weighty the last time we talked. I'm sorry for putting that on you."

"It's fine. I mean, you'd just had to kill someone you cared about because he'd been made Tranquil. You had a right to be upset. Besides, I don't mind. If you need to get anything off your chest, I can listen. You can tell me anything."

"Anything? Be careful what you offer. I just hope I didn't seem too selfish when I told you about Justice. I figured a willing host, a friend… it had to be better than playing the demon and haunting some corpse."

"Not so much 'selfish' as 'impulsive'. But hey, at least he got a nice body."

Anders looked upset. "Are you hitting on me? Don't go there… it won't end well. I don't want to hurt you."

"Oh come on, you aren't seriously saying you're afraid of getting in a relationship because it opens the possibility of going badly, despite the fact that there's an equal probability that it won't?"

"No. A year ago, maybe we could have had something, but I'm not that man anymore. I'll break your heart, and that would kill me as surely as the Templars." He sat down on a barrel, looking depressed.

I rolled my eyes. For some reason, I seemed to be doing that a lot lately. "Well, sitting here debating philosophy isn't going to help anything. Let's go find something interesting to do."

I ended up dragging him, along with, Varric, Isabella, and Fenris, who had literally nothing else to do except sit around in Danarius' mansion, out to the wounded coast.

By the time we had finished killing off all the Tal-Vashoth, I was seriously regretting bringing both Anders and Fenris along at the same time. They had spent the entire trip bickering about mages.

"Will you two quit it?" I finally asked, exasperated.

"So you agree with me?" Anders and Fenris said simultaneously.

"Oh, I agree with Anders. Fenris, mages are not inherently evil and freeing them will not necessarily result in them taking over. It is, in fact, possible to have a society that does not involve oppression of any ethnic group. It's just that nobody has tried to create one before."

Anders gazed at me adoringly while Fenris looked skeptical.

"NOOOOO!"

I instantly turned toward the sound of the scream. "Come on! It sounds like someone is in trouble!"

"You know," said Varric conversationally, "I'm beginning to see why Little Hawke says she has a hero complex."

The scream had come from a young man in expensive yet painfully clashing clothes kneeling on the ground next to a dead Qunari with that unpleasant Winters woman we had run into at the keep standing over them. "Ashaad!

"You killed him!"

She did not seem particularly sympathetic. In fact, her reply was downright nasty. "Time to drag you home, Seamus," she added after she was finished insulting him.

"Bit rough for a rescue," I commented.

"Competition? Go away. The Winters- I- have already claimed him."

Seamus glared at her. "You are not getting rewarded for murdering my friend! I'm going back with these people." She attacked us.

It was two dozen on five. They didn't stand a chance.

We took Seamus back to his father's office at the keep, where the viscount seemed extremely relieved to see him. "The Winters killed my friend," complained Seamus.

Viscount Dumar looked confused. "I thought you were captured alone."

"Ashaad was a Qunari. And I wasn't captured, I left!"

"Well, the official story is that you were abducted. So many people hate the Qunari, I'd rather not have it spread around that my own son is a Qunari fan." Seamus looked furious.

"Yeah, maybe I should go," I said awkwardly, pointing over my shoulder at the door and beginning to back away.

They suddenly realized that I was still there. "Oh, thank you," said the viscount, handing me the reward, "Bran! Get her out of here so I can continue arguing with Seamus."

After we left the keep, we went down to the Qunari compound at the docks to find Javaris Tintop. "I am so not going in there," announced Isabella at the entrance.

I shrugged. "Okay." She scurried off.

"What's up with her?" asked Anders.

"No idea." We went into the compound.

"There you are," hissed Tintop when we reached him. "I've been waiting for, like twenty-four hours."

"We had more important stuff to do. Like investigating a couple missing persons cases."

"Whatever."

The Arishok arrived and sat down in the huge throne-like chair at the top of the stairs. Fenris stepped out from behind me and said something in the Qunari language. "The Qun from an elf?" said the Arishok in surprise. "The madness of this…place."

"Friend of yours, Fenris?" I asked.

"Friend of no one," he replied darkly.

"Well, that's cheering."

"Right," said Tintop. "Anyway, the Tal-Vashoth are all dead, so I'm here to open negotiations for the explosive powder like we agreed."

The Arishok looked at him impassively. "No."

"He's not getting it," Tintop whispered to me. "Make your chatty elf say something."

I looked at Fenris expectantly. "Qunari do not abandon their debts. I humbly request clarification."

"He imagined the deal for the gaatlok and invented a task to complete."

"Then we have wronged you," said Fenris politely. "Do you want us to kill him for you?"

"What!" exclaimed Tintop.

"You killed the Tal-Vashoth. He isn't good enough to be killed by you. He is unworthy. You however keep good company. Let him live. And leave."

We did.