Halo: Enter the Vale Ch 14
Alicia Hawke couldn't help but stare at Reaper with longing eyes as he beat the living shit out of the Qunari that had ambushed them. She had tried several times to get him to come to the estate and live with her, but he just refused every time, was it her or something? She turned and blocked an attack from another Qunari that charged her down, spinning around him and cutting him in half.
She looked around and she heard a loud BANG and jumped slightly startled and heard a whump, looking behind her she saw a Qunari with a hole in its head and Reaper holstering his weapon.
"Are you ever going to show me how that works?" she asked out of curiosity.
"Not much to show," he said taking it out, he took a piece of metal out of the bottom in it and pushed out a smaller bronze colored piece of metal. He held it up for her to see, "This is a bullet," he said, he put it back in the piece of metal. "Put the bullets in the clip," he slid it into the weapon, "put the clip in the pistol," he pulled the top back and it snapped back into placed, "cock the weapon, and pulled the trigger." He aimed it and at a sea gull flying above them and fired, the gull almost immediately fell right at Hawke's feet.
"Impressive," she said admiringly, as they walked back to the Hanged man. They had been on a special little quest trying to find an artifact that Reaper was looking for, they had had no luck unfortunately. "You know I have a question," he looked at her as they walked, "Why have, in all the time I've seen you, only taken your helmet off twice?" she asked him.
"Because those times I've been at Merrill's and I usually have no reasonable reason to take it off," he said, "Would you take your helm off in the middle of battle?" he asked, she nodded and shrugged, a reasonable point, wait.
They walked in silence for a long while until Hawke broke it, "So you aren't going to change your mind hm?" she asked him.
"Sorry Hawke," he said and it was all she needed to know that he probably never will.
"Well why not, is it because of Merrill, she can come too if that is truly your wish," she said and he looked at her again.
"Hawke, no offense or anything, why are you pressing me so much to live with you?" he asked her, she remained silent for a moment. "Thought that was it," he said, she looked at him baffled, she thought she had hid her feelings so well, she took pride in her ability to do so.
"Wha-how do you know? It was Isabelle wasn't it, that sneak," she said with distaste.
"That's partially it yes, but you should ask Merrill about what I've said about pages sometimes," he said as they arrived in front of the Hanged Man and he opened the door for her.
"What do you mean?" she asked confused.
"Ask her and you'll find out," he said plainly walking in after her.
She frowned and decided that doing what he said was indeed the only way to find out, they were greeted by Varric as they walked in.
"Ah there's the two adventurers, did you find what you were looking for?" he asked.
"No, the place was empty, it may have been there at one point but whatever it was it wasn't there," she said and then thought for a moment and turned to Reaper. "What exactly were you looking for?" she asked.
He sighed, he pulled the artifact from his hip, he snapped it on briefly in the quiet of Varric's private space in the back. "There was another one of these, it belonged to a fighter unlike any other, he followed me to a village and I killed him, now his sword is floating around I would like to make sure it stays in the age it belongs in," he said.
"What in heavens are you talking about," Hawke asked.
"Funny thing, you got another question for Merrill, she knows what it is, after all, she held it once" he said, she scowled.
"Can't you tell me anything?" she said becoming impatient.
"I could but that would take away some excellent bonding time, when have you spoken to her other than when you first met and when she gave you comforting words. Honestly, she would be so alone if I wasn't living with her, if you can't see the obvious then you personally aren't worth my time," he said walking away.
She was flustered he would treat her in such a way, "Stubborn fool," she said angrily.
"Well he does have something of a point Hawke," Varric said and she turned to him. "You said you'd visit her a year and a half ago and the only time you go to her house is to see the giant," he said and she thought about it.
"I'll talk to her," she finally decided, "But she's just too, I don't know, naive for my taste," she said and Varric frowned.
"You know Daisy is one of the most caring people I've met, I somewhat agree with him, if you honestly don't care about her then you're missing out on getting to know a great person."
He walked away and she was left to her thoughts, she sighed, might as well just go talk to her to make everyone happy. She stood and walked out, thankfully the Alienage wasn't too far away, she was there within two minutes at most.
She knocked on the door, after a moment she heard the handle turn and the hinges squeaked, "Hawke," Merrill said plainly, "He's in the other room," she said with a sigh and walked to the counter where she was cooking something.
"Actually Merrill I came to see you," she said as nicely as she could, Merrill looked at her, over her shoulder with a raised eyebrow.
"He asked you too didn't he?" she asked and Hawke frowned.
"Well if you really don't want to talk to me then fine," Hawke said a little annoyed that she came here to talk to this idiot.
"I never said that, I just know you wouldn't visit me otherwise," she said returning to what she was doing.
Hawke was a little put down by this, she had taken this girl from her clan as she had asked and now had left this impression on her, she felt a tad ashamed. "Alright he asked me to come but I also wanted to ask you a couple things," she said and Merrill cleaned off the knife she was using and turned, resting her hands on the counter.
"Well," she said, "I'll find a reasonably clean thing for you to sit on," she said pulling up a soft chair for Hawke while she sat in a creaky wooden one. She folded her hands together and set her elbows on the table, "So what did you want to talk about?" she asked.
"I was speaking to Reaper earlier and him and I went on a short expedition to find an artifact you might know about," she said. "He told me you had held it once before," she said and Merrill seemed to think for a moment, Hawke rolled her eyes, she knew she wasn't getting anything outta this fool.
"His sword?" she asked herself quietly, Hawke looked up at her, "Did he say anything about a sword?" she asked Hawke in a louder voice.
"Yes he pulled out his blade, he said another warrior from another time that didn't belong," Hawke said, leaning closer, if she did indeed get some info outta this girl she would be a little surprised.
"Then I know what you're talking about, it's another sword," she said, Hawke was indeed shocked, she had been told it was another sword but she didn't believe it at the time.
"What did he mean when he said you held it?" Hawke said, he had said it was another sword but now that she knew that Merrill knew she could pick at it some more.
She sighed, "Over a year ago he saved me from a group of slavers and helped me return to my clan," she said, Hawke didn't know what this had to do with the sword but she let the elf continue. "When we got to a small village where we met the clan we were attacked by…strange creatures, he called them the Covenant," she said, Hawke nodded, Reaper had spoken about them before at the Hanged man.
"You remember Kaelesh?" Merrill asked, Hawke nodded, "During the attack he took me to his leader as I assume he was, he was huge, taller than Reaper," she said. "He was large too, not fat, but very heavily built, and had these large burns going down half of his helmet. I was unconscious but I awoke to be pulled off the ground by my hair by it, Reaper knocked the sword aside and when the creature had him I used the things sword to kill it, well wound it, he finished it off. Reaper never grabbed the sword, they had left it with the body of it, we had heard rumors floating around but we never really believed them, till now I guess," she finished finally.
"So it belonged to this, creature?" Hawke asked out of curiosity.
"Yes," Merrill responded, she snapped her fingers suddenly, she reached into her pouch on her hip and took out three small crystals that looked like dragon scales. "Kaelesh has been slipping me these ever since that day, I don't think it has anything to do with it, but they seem important to Reaper and him," she said and Hawke pulled one closer to her.
As she did so however, she bumped another with it and they both glowed, "Amazing," she said under her breath.
"Yeah when they touch each other they glow a bit," Merrill said as Hawke inspected the crystal.
"Interesting," Hawke said and she slid it back across the table, Merrill scooped them into her pouch again. "One last thing, he said he told you something about pages that I should know," she added leaning forward.
Merrill chuckled slightly and shook her head, "When we first met and when we were talking he said he could read any person he saw like they were pages. He said it was how you read those pages was how you understand them," she said, Hawke thought, was she really that obvious, or was he really that good?
"Thank you for your time Merrill," she said standing, Merrill doing likewise and showing her to the door.
"It was a…pleasure to have you," she said with a moment's hesitation.
"I know that maybe I'm not the most caring for you Merrill, but I am, maybe we can do this again some time," she said with a smile and Merrill gave her a small smile in return.
"Alright," she said.
Hawke nodded, "Take care of yourself Merrill," she said and Merrill opened the door for her, maybe she would talk to her more, only time would tell really.
Merrill closed the door and stood still at the door for a minute, she walked over to a book she had and opened it to the last page. She felt the yellow parchment between her fingers as she closed her eyes and sighed, she turned the page. She opened them again and was looking into the face of the creature, she had drawn it for it was a face that had haunted her worst dreams.
She held up the page and looked over the helmeted face, she felt a shiver go down her spine as she put the page back in the book and slammed it shut. She felt another shiver for some reason and put the book away, she wouldn't look at it for a while.
There was a breeze and a rattle of the door, she turned and saw Will walk in the door, he closed the door and rolled his shoulders, reaching up and taking off his helmet. He walked up to her and planted a light kiss on her head, she smiled and closed her eyes as he put an arm around her shoulders, leaning into the kiss a bit.
She set a hand on his armor, "By the Creators, is it really that cold out?" she exclaimed as she felt the coldness of his armor begin to sink through her outfit.
"Winter is coming," he said walking into the other room and grabbing two plates from the shelf as Merrill finished what she had been making before Hawke showed up.
"Does Kirkwall even have a winter?" she said taking a plate of meat to the table and setting it down, sucking a bit of lemon juice from her finger.
"No clue, we haven't really been here long enough to know I guess," he said setting the table.
"Then why did you say winter is coming?" she asked a little confused as she brought the last of the food to the table.
He shrugged, "I've noticed some emotions coming out since I've been here, humor's one of them," he said, she gave an agreeing shrug, he never really was too humorous, heck he barely even used to smile.
When the table was ready they both sat down and they held each others hands from across the table, each closing their eyes and saying a prayer to their own gods. Merrill opened her eyes the same time Will did and she smiled, he returned the gesture and they each grabbed their utensils.
Will chewed on a piece of meat for moment and spoke, "I'll admit it, I never really ever saw you as the cooking type," he said. She had cooked dinner basically ever since they had been here, strange why he would say it now.
She shrugged though as she swallowed the tomato she was eating, "Well everyone in the clan has to contribute in some way or another, so I was multipurpose," she said.
They talked and laughed a bit as they ate, Merrill sat back and laughed, putting a hand to her mouth to prevent herself from laughing out loud as she had food in her mouth. Will smiled a bit, she looked so cute when she acted like this sometimes, he found himself looking into her eyes as she opened them again.
He smiled a light smiled and finished his plate, he stood and picked up his plate, walking past Merrill he kissed her and placed his plate in the sink.
"Got any plans tonight?" he asked, she shrugged.
"When do either of us ever have plans?" she said, he shrugged.
"Plenty of times really," he said crouching next to the bookshelf and fingered through the books till he found one, he took it out and a piece of yellow parchment fell out. He looked at Merrill as she stood and walked her plate tot eh sink, he had been finding her drawings all over the place lately, he wondered what this one was as he picked it up and turned it over. He frowned, it was the elite they had encountered all those months ago, she still hadn't forgotten it he knew, he heard her at night.
"Still havin' those nightmares?" he asked still looking at the picture.
She hesitated, "Well, sometimes, but I doubt it's anything serious," she said, he looked at her, she saw the parchment, "Oh, those nightmares, yes, occasionally."
He walked over and wrapped and arm around her shoulders, they walked toward the bed, "Well I'll always be here," he said and set her down on the bed, he crouched in front of her. "Always," he said and she smiled sadly, he kissed her one last time on the forehead and laid her down on the bed, he pulled the covers over her and walked over to his bedroll.
"Will?" Merrill asked as he blew out the candle.
"Yes."
"Why are you looking for the sword?" she asked him.
He thought a moment, "I don't know, I feel like it just shouldn't be in someone's hands that doesn't know how to use it, and personally, it's way to far ahead of your time for my personal liking," he said. "Also I think that somewhere in me I think it belongs to the Skirmisher," he added, it was his Shipmasters sword, it should belong to him.
"Alright, I was curious. Good night Will," she said.
"See ya in the morning Merrill," he said resting on the bedroll and closing his eyes, things we being set into motion, he hoped he could find that sword before someone lost an eye.