Hawke and Fenris were in the library, seated side by side at the desk. Fenris' reading lessons had progressed from letters to syllables, and then to simple words. She hoped to start the story of Shartan soon, but first they needed something with simpler language. So she'd ransacked the library for an easier book that the elf might find remotely interesting.
The old Amell library had remained largely intact, particularly upstairs. She'd eventually come across a book of fairytales with her mother's name in childish scrawl across the inside cover. Thumbing through it, she recognized the stories; her mother had repeated them from memory to her own children. It seemed appropriate, and she took it down to the desk. Even if Fenris finds them boring, at least I'll enjoy listening to them, she thought.
So now they were seated at the desk, the book in front of them.
"Try that sentence again from the beginning," Hawke suggested. The old tales were drawing her mind back; she could almost see her brother stumbling over a book at the kitchen table, gnawing his lip with frustration while her mother smoothed his hair and gently pushed him to keep trying. "Go on." She found the same tones creeping into her own voice, and unthinking, she gave Fenris a gentle bump with her shoulder to urge him forward.
He hissed in surprise, and Hawke jumped.
"Sorry, I forgot," she quickly said. "It didn't hurt, did it?"
"No, it... didn't hurt." He looked more startled than upset.
"I'll sit farther back," she suggested, sliding her chair a little more to the left. "You looked so much like Carver for a moment; I couldn't resist the urge to thump you."
"Carver was your brother?" he asked.
She nodded. "Reading was harder for him than for Bethany and me. He always much preferred hitting things. Mostly his sisters." She made a wry face. "He'd have been a lot of help here in Kirkwall. He was a whiny brat sometimes - a lot of the time - but I miss him." She brushed the page in front of them. "I actually chose this one because it was one of his favorites. 'The Boy Who Went Forth to Learn About the Shivers.'" She looked at the book without seeing it. "Wishful thinking. All of us were afraid, in those days." Bethany had come into her magic around then; that meant two mages to hide, one untrained and uncontrolled. They'd had to move when she'd accidentally singed one of the neighbor's bullying sons.
Hawke was interrupted from her reverie as Bodhan bustled importantly into the room, holding forth a card, closely followed by Leandra.
"Oh Jade," she burst in excitedly, before Bohdan had a chance to speak. "It's a summons from the viscount! He wants to talk to you personally!"
Bohdan repressed a frown at having been made redundant, and handed Hawke the card. "As your mother says, Messere, it's a summons from the viscount. He wishes you to attend him as soon as possible." He bowed.
"I wonder what he could wish to see you about?" her mother wondered. "Maybe it's to do with the estate?"
Hawke sighed, and reached for the crimson ribbon she was using to mark their place in the book. Why her mother had bought the ribbons, she didn't know; certainly Hawke hadn't worn any in her hair since she'd been ten years old. But her mother was feeling nostalgic lately, and even doubled over it made a nice long book marker.
"I guess I should see what this is about," she sighed as she stood up. "Sorry, Fenris."
"Not dressed like that, young lady," her mother cut in. "You have a moment to change, if you hurry! I don't see why you wear those clothes in the house, anyway."
"I've seen the viscount in my leathers before, Mother," Hawke explained.
"Not since you've been living in Hightown. Important people will see you there. And maybe you'll run into Seamus," Leandra beamed.
"Maker, Mother. Seamus is just a child. He only speaks to me because we rescued him from that horrible Winters woman." Hawke frowned. "And because I don't froth at the mouth when he supports the Qunari," she added as an afterthought.
"Seamus is of legal age," her mother pointed out, "and at the very least you should court his influence, Jade. Now go and change, don't keep the viscount waiting." Leandra bustled off and Bohdan followed her, leaving a rather embarrassed Hawke behind.
"Mother..." She rubbed her face, then peeped at Fenris from between her fingers. He didn't look amused or angry, he looked... thoughtful. She supposed the mother-daughter dynamic might seem strange to him, since he had no memories of his own family.
"I apologize for my mother," she said, still from behind her fingers.
"There is no need," he said, rising. "I can see myself out."
"Jade!" Leandra called from the upstairs gallery. "Don't keep the viscount waiting!"
She groaned. "I guess you'd better. Apparently I'm going to change, because Maker forbid someone see me in my regular clothes." She moved to the door. "Meet me at the Hanged Man tonight? And stir up Varric and the others, if you can. I don't know what the viscount wants, but I doubt he's summoned me to declare his approval of what we've done with the estate. There might be some action in it."
Fenris nodded, and Hawke grumbled her way up the stairs to change.
Her chat with the viscount was surprising, to say the least. Apparently the Arishok had asked to see her - by name. She wasn't aware he even knew her name. He hadn't seemed that interested when last they met, although... what was it he'd said to Fenris? "I have a growing lack of disgust for you"? Something like that. She'd ask for Fenris' and Varric's thoughts tonight, and get them to go along with her tomorrow to pay the Arishok a visit.