The next day
Cullen was walking across the bridge into Hightown with the express intent on going to Hawke's estate. Since he's been invited to join the family for dinner, he's only been over two or three times per week – he didn't want to take advantage of their generosity, but he had no such thoughts about dinner today. Early into his rounds, he had heard murmurs of Carta activity in the slums the prior night. As the day progressed, however, he heard of the slaughter of a half-dozen Carta thugs and two assassins mentioned in passing by a City Guard. The guardsman had said that the only evidence of the opposing force were red-shafted arrows, burn marks, and missing hunks of flesh.
Red arrows.
Hawke paints the shafts of her arrows red to keep track of her marks. If Hawke was hurt, he would blame himself. He let her go into Darktown alone. He knew it was dangerous. He had to find out.
It was earlier than when he normally arrived, and so Bodan informed Cullen that Olisa was in her room. When walked up to her open bedroom door, he was relieved to see her sitting in the middle of the floor fletching arrows. She seemed unharmed.
She looked up when she heard the clank of his armored boots approaching, and had a knife at the ready. She smiled when she recognized the Templar, and returned the knife to its spot in her boot. He admired, briefly, the fact that she was always at the ready – even in her own home.
"What brings you by Cullen?" she asked as she returned to her chore.
He fidgeted in embarrassment at how silly he was being. Worried when nothing happened. "I had heard rumors about Carta activity in Darktown last night. I had just wanted to confirm that you were unscathed."
"Oh," she smirked. "I'm hale and hole. So is Dagger. No bumps, bruises, or blemishes to speak of. The buggers only really sucked my supply of explosive arrows dry, hence the fletching." She put aside her work, and stood to walk towards him. "I appreciate the concern Cullen."
He swallowed nervously again at his foolishness. Of course she could take care of herself.
Bodan walked up the stairs then, "Messere. I am sorry for the intrusion, but you have an urgent message from the Viscount's office."
Hawke walked past Cullen and quickly read the card. "The Arishok has requested my presence by name. I am to go immediately." She sprinted down the nearby hall and pounded on the second door, "Marianna. Qunari compound. Full armor and weapons. Get Fenris. I've got Varric. Two minutes." She rushed back to her room and closed the door with a hurried, "Sorry. I'll be a minute" just as her sister yelled, "Understood! Meet you at the Hanged Man!" in response.
Cullen was surprised that she was out and running down the main stair even before Marianna had left her own room. Just as she was about to head out the door with her hound, she turned and yelled up to the balcony, "Wanna tag along Cullen?" Cullen was shocked, surprised that she would even consider to include him in her endeavors, but followed seemingly without hesitation despite his shock.
As Olisa, Dagger, and Cullen practically sprinted through the streets she explained between breaths and weaving citizens, "Had a few run-ins with the Qunari before. And their outcasts. Met the Arishok too. Read up on them. Asked Fenris a bunch of questions. He knows the Qun and such. It's not really the brightest idea to keep them waiting."
As the trio bolted through the door of the Hanged Man, Isabela whistled sharply from the bar to draw Olisa's attention, "Where's the fire Hawke?"
"Qunari compound. I know, you've got a 'thing'. One of these days you've gotta tell me why you're so afraid of the ox-men."
She pounded on the door to Varric's suite, "Varric. Hawke. Business. Now."
The dwarf was out of the door faster than Cullen would've thought possible, then they retraced their steps across the tavern. As they exited the Hanged Man Marianna and a tall elf with a broadsword, who must have been Fenris, were waiting for them. Hawke briefed her people on the situation as they walked quickly to the dock's entrance in Lowtown.
As they came upon the Qunari compound Hawke instructed with a pointed look at each person as she addressed them, "Varric, Cullen, and Dagger you're on watch. Fenris and Anna are with me."
When the other three had left and entered the compound, Varric looked up at the taller man with narrowed eyes, "What brings you along Temply?"
Cullen drew his eyebrows together at the mention of the new, and not quite welcome, nickname, "I was at the estate when the message came. Olisa requested my assistance with the matter."
"Hmm..." Varric hummed in thought.
After a moment Cullen asked, "Why have us wait outside?" He would've preferred to be in there. Simply, if this had been a matter of importance to the Templars, he would have preferred to have as many men with him as possible in a potentially hostile situation – it had worked well for him in the past.
Varric chuckled, "Hawke treats the Qunari as potentially violent and dangerous. She likes a backup plan. And she likes continuity. Split the archers and two warriors per squad. Which means I'm de facto leader until her return," he smirked.
"Why do you follow her? Why not lead yourself?" Cullen was genuinely curious.
Varric snorted a laugh, "Because she's Hawke. And I'm not Hawke. She's been doing this kind of thing for a long time." They heard the scrape of the gate just then, "I'll tell you a tale over a pint sometime. Elaborate a little."
As Olisa and the others approached Varric muttered, "Twilight's red-faced. Can't be good."
"So this is lovely," Olisa rolled her eyes. "Remember the gaatlok and how Javaris wanted it? Well the Arishok thought it would be a good idea to have a decoy handy if someone wanted to steel it. Turns out the decoy was something called saar-qamek."
"A poisonous gas that oftentimes turns one mad before they die," interjected Fenris.
"And Javaris has stolen it. A lot of it." Olisa turned fully to look at Varric, "Tell me you've been keeping tabs on him."
Varric shrugged, "Sorry Hawke. But the Coterie would be our best bet."
An hour later they were deep in Smuggler's Cut and had just cut down some Carta.
"I'll scout ahead," Hawke announced as Varric began to loot the bodies.
Hawke returned within a few minutes, "Mercenaries just outside the cave. At least a dozen and a half. There are rocks on either side. Varric you take the right, and I'll take the left perch. Fenris and Anna you take center. And Cullen and Dagger, I want you flanking. Sound good?" As soon as they exited the cave they executed Olisa's plan. The bands of mercenaries didn't stand a chance.
Only if a plan could work perfectly every time.
They were in some dingy alley in Lowtown. Olisa had decided that she'd be the one to jam a crowbar into the barrels of toxic sludge, as the others busied themselves with endless waves of mercenaries. Varric was on a high stair picking off the swarms of enemies. Fenris, Marianna, and Cullen were taking care of everything else in the toxic gases. Olisa had left Dagger behind with the guardsman, because she didn't know how the saar-qamek would affect the hound. The absence of the hound's fighting and Olisa's archery had a profound impact on the overall effectiveness of the group – or it could just be the overbearing toxic fumes, Marianna thought wryly.
As the last barrel was forced shut, an enraged elf and her men decided to join the fray. By the time Marianna cut down the last foe, everyone was exhausted. Olisa ran up the stairs by Varric pointing and shouting, "Those are people's homes! Search them for survivors!"
Just as the stairs and higher ground started to overflow with vomiting, coughing, and crying people, Aveline and a band of guardsman entered trailed by a few healing-trained Chantry sisters. Cullen walked up to Aveline, and asked that she send a guard to the Gallows for some much needed spirit healers.
The exposed skin of Cullen's neck and face were red and blistered. His eyes burned, his nose and mouth tingled. He even had blisters in his scalp. He saw Varric and Fenris being tended to by a Chantry sister applying elfroot salves to their skin. Marianna was standing off to the side anxiously awaiting her turn. Marianna and Fenris looked as bad as he felt. Fenris a little more so, the skin of his feet and biceps were raw and swollen. Varric seemed to have suffered the least, his high perch had kept him out of the worst of it. He didn't see Olisa there with the others, and he scanned the crowds for her. He spotted her, back turned to him and crouching in front of a mother with two small children on the opposite stair.
When he reached her and turned to her, he saw just how bad the toxic fumes could mar one's flesh. Her face and neck were blistered, red and swollen, even one eye was almost swollen shut and oozing. Her hands, which were exposed since she wore her more casual leathers with the yellow vest and gloveless guards, looked like large seeping ulcers. Her delicate, strong fingers had received the brunt of the damage as they had held the crowbar that stopped the flow of the poisonous Qunari gas. He called over a Chantry sister to hold the pail that Olisa had for a vomiting child, and took the rogue by her elbow and led her over to the other stair. He had to struggle with her for her to just sit beside him against a wall, and await the Circle's spirit healers.
A quarter of an hour later, eight Circle healers, led by Orsino, and a couple Templars arrived. Cullen and Olisa had already washed their wounds, and Olisa's hands were wrapped in damp linens, but it had hardly stopped them from burning. Orsino had offered to heal Cullen first, but he directed him to Olisa. Cullen walked over to another healer for treatment.
When they were healed Varric gathered them all up, including Aveline, and told them go to the Hanged Man for drinks as soon as they could. Cullen tried to decline, but Varric persisted.
"C'mon. You should treat yourself. You just pulled off an amazing act of heroics. You deserve a pint Temply."
Olisa elbowed him, and he sighed and accepted the dwarf's offer. He had to see to the return of the Circle mages, and write a report first, however.
Marianna had stayed behind to help Aveline and the Chantry sisters see the last few people home, and clear the dead off the streets, so Olisa walked to report to the Arishok with Fenris and Dagger. After learning that the Qunari indeed couldn't leave Kirkwall, the trio headed to Hightown together. Her clothes were sticky and itchy from the poison, and she could not stand to be in them all night. Fenris must have had similar thoughts, as he removed his gauntlets and tucked them into his belt.
"It feels like Antivan fire ants crawled up my pants," she said as she resisted the urge to scratch herself inappropriately in front of the elf.
She was rewarded with a soft chuckle and a smirk when he saw her squirm, "That was the Knight-Capitan with us this evening, correct? When are Templars needed for matters with the Qunari?"
Hawke shrugged, "Yes, that was Ser Cullen. He was already at the estate, so I asked him to come along. I knew Aveline was on duty, so he filled her role."
He smirked again, "Aveline would not appreciate that, I think."
They parted ways at the Amell estate, and Hawke told him that she'd stop by his mansion to make sure he got his spiky arse to the Hanged Man.
She told her mother that they saved a lot of people and were going to celebrate, so she headed to her bathing chamber and rinsed her body and hair of any residual poison. She piled her clothes, that she hoped weren't ruined, and informed Bodan of their condition. Since she didn't feel like sitting in thick leather in the dank tavern, she changed into a pair of tan well-fitted soft sheepskin pants, a thin white wool sweater, and a matching light steel breastplate, gauntlets, and grieves that Marianna and Leandra had given her for her birthday. Which she had yet to wear other than for training. The breastplate fit her like a glove, and curved over the tops of each breast. It left her back exposed save for four thick belted leather straps. The gauntlets covered from wrist to elbow, which she preferred that or fingerless. The grieves were knee-high and went well with a pair of leather boots she had already owned. Once she raided the kitchen, she had missed dinner after all, she left and met Fenris at his mansion. He was, too, dressed differently. The only piece of his regular armor he wore was his chestplate, which was over a long-sleeved blue tunic. The leggings he wore were also brown, and not his usual black.
Isabela, Varric and Marianna were already at the tavern drinking when they arrived. Varric had abandoned his favorite duster for his second favorite, a darker copy of the favorite, and it looked as though Marianna raided Isabela's closet. Since Marianna seemed to have not returned to the mansion, Olisa figured this was a good assumption, especially since she was wearing a loose shirt that somehow seemed to be revealing despite it being oversized. She was also wearing a pair of skin-tight leggings, Olisa didn't know Isabela owned a pair of pants.
When they settled at the table with a pint in hand, Olisa went over the last conversation she had with the Arishok. About midway through, Isabela snuck off to her usual spot bar-side. Aveline came in then, still in full armor, and grumbling about mad civilians. She quieted down when Olisa explained the part where the Arishok wanted to leave, but couldn't.
They were all well into their second round, when Cullen came in. He was still wearing Templar plate, but it was a common set, probably from before his promotion. He looked stressed and worn-out, Olisa wondered if anything happened when he got back to the Keep. She scooted over on the bench, knee-to-knee with her sister, to make room for him to sit.
Varric poured Cullen a pint from a nearby pitcher, and spoke as he passed it to him, "So Temply, I believe I owe you a tale of Hawke." He turned towards the sisters, "Shall I start at Ostagar or after?"
Marianna had her tankard to her lips, so Olisa answered, "Storyteller's preference."
Varric started at Ostagar. Even though Cullen had heard of the loss of the Hawke sisters' brother, he learned a few things he hadn't about Varric and Aveline.
Varric decided he was done when he got to his own first appearance in the Hawke family's tale, no need to talk about their apostate friends, and asked him if he wanted to hear anything else like something from one of his fictions. Cullen declined.
Marianna had downed four and a half pints of ale, and started rambling about some Orlesian philosopher. Fenris seemed interested, and was even asking questions and interjecting amongst her drunken slurs. Cullen was busy having a conversation with Aveline, he found it quite interesting that she was Ser Wesley's wife. Varric was eating stew.
And so Olisa was bored, so she spun around in her seat and looked for Isabela. The pirate was in the midst of failing to get her bad poet to leave her alone, so Olisa decided to help her fellow rogue.
She walked over to the bar, and leaned over the Rivaini's shoulder to whisper in her ear, "I'll get him away from you, if you come back to the table."
"Deal."
Olisa walked up to the bad poet, and whispered something in his ear. What ever it was, it did the trick – the man's mouth hung open and he scurried away.
The companions played cards, chatted and drank well into the night.
Cullen and Olisa were walking Marianna home. Fenris and Aveline had left earlier in the night, so they were stuck with the task of keeping the Hawke warrior upright and moving. Currently she was wedged between the two others, and they were both carrying pieces of the guardswoman's armor in their free hands. Marianna was also talking nonstop.
"Cullen. Ya know 'er like our adopt... adop-ted brother. Ya even have yer own room! Ya comin' o'er for dinner alls da time. 'N ya fight wid us. Bloodshed 'n sweat 'n all dat. Yas didn' have er own ma or pa, right? Th-that's some nug shit."
When they arrived at the Amell estate they deposited Marianna's armor and ax in a pile for Bodan, and essentially dropped the young woman on her bed. Cullen accepted the invitation to stay the night, and soon found himself asleep in "his" room.
…...
Note: Another long one. :D Thank you for all the reviews everyone! They bring smiles :)