Disclaimer: Still not mine

Prompt: forest


For The Trees

He terrified her. Anders, that is. She loved him – Maker, how she loved him – but some days he scared the ever-loving shit out of her. And Alianne Hawke was not a woman easily frightened.

It wasn't that she thought he would hurt her. Not physically, at least (emotionally... well, she would be the first to acknowledge that he would always, always choose his cause over her and one of these days that was going to tear her heart in two). No, what worried her was his blasted crusade. She supported mage freedom – after seven years of living with Anders, she suspected that even the most stalwart templar-sympathizers would have doubts – but the way he went about it... there was no way that could end well.

The Hawkes had had a neighbor back in Lothering, a neurotic little man named Marcus who Mother had always accused of "missing the forest for the trees." With Anders, Hawke suspected that it was the exact opposite: he was so busy staring down the forest that he missed the trees. "Mage freedom" wasn't about freeing individual mages for him, not anymore. Now it was about the concept, the ideals of "justice," "freedom." Nothing else mattered; not him, not her, not the unfortunate mages who happened to get caught in the crossfires of his vendetta. He couldn't see the people whose lives he affected and one day that fact would be the ruin of them all. And it would be Hawke who was left to pick up the pieces, just like always. She prayed she was up to the task.