Bianca had ordered the servants to prepare the guests, and Varric, the banquet that was promised in her letter.
Hawke, Varric, Carver and Merrill were all in Varric's room. Isabella had dragged Sebastian and Anders to see the market in the Commons and Fenris was nowhere to be seen, and Hawke was worrying for his safety, as well as Varric's well-being. But Fenris had always run off before, he never stayed away for too long. Was it because of what Bianca said earlier about Hawke's love life?
Everything Bianca said earlier had all stricken everyone right in the heart. Telling their deepest darkest secrets, apart from Merrill's, for the entire group to hear. Hawke thanked the Maker that Bianca did not tell everyone all the experiences she went through, since it would cause an uproar of arguments from certain companions in the group; in particular Anders, Carver and Fenris, and Aveline if she was there.
But Hawke was mainly concerned about her dear dwarven friend. Hawke was leaning against the doorframe whilst Varric was pacing back and forth frantically in front of his bed. She could not imagine the thoughts or feelings he was experiencing right now. No one had any idea who Bianca was to Varric, but Hawke knew exactly who she was. By the look on Varric's face when he saw her, it was obvious to her that Bianca is an old flame of Varric's. She was always good at reading people, maybe not as well as Bianca can though.
Carver, meanwhile, was attempting to stop Merrill from dusting and cleaning the bookshelves and trinkets in Varric's room.
"But Carver this room is filthy!" Merrill pleaded, glaring at him with her huge, pale green eyes.
"But Merrill, your house is not exactly the example of 'most-clean-house-in-Thedas' itself," Carver teased, causing the elf to blush.
"Don't tease me, emma lath!"
Carver laughed heartily, Hawke shook her head and smiled for the first time that evening; her little brother and her favourite Dalish elf were like a breath of fresh air, somehow loosening the tense atmosphere with their sickly sweet relationship. It was too sweet for Hawke's taste, but her brother was finally happy, and that was a huge weight off her shoulders.
Suddenly, a male dwarf servant arrived beside Hawke at the door, telling the group that the banquet had been served. Varric stormed out, a look of both determination, anger and sorrow flamed his eyes.
Bianca was already seated at the table with Isabella, Sebastian and Anders. Fenris was still nowhere to be seen.
She was wearing the same clothes as she wore earlier: a long black buster like Varric's, a red band of silk just across her breasts and black leggings and boots. Hung on her neck, was thick gold chain, also like Varric's, but the centre of hers had a heart-shaped onyx stone, which seemed to emit a strange energy.
"…And then he managed to shoot himself in the foot! By the Stone, you had never seen a funnier sight than Varric hopping about on one foot, cursing in pain, then falling straight into a pen of breeding nugs, and they were certainly frisky that time of year!" Bianca, Isabella, Anders and Sebastian all laughed at the story she had just finished on Varric, just before the rest of the group joined them.
Hawke seated herself opposite Anders, Varric slumped in the chair on the right of Bianca, and Merrill and Carver filled the gap between Varric and Hawke in two chairs. An empty chair on Hawke's right was still waiting for a certain broody elf to fill it.
Anders saw the distress on Hawke's face and the look he gave Hawke reassured her, his kind smile warming her thoughts as she quickly relaxed, taking a swig of the strong dwarven ale in the mug before her.
As food was being laid on the table, Varric decided he needed some answers now as he grabbed a bread roll and some of the several meats that were put in front of him.
"Bianca, I need answers," Varric demanded. Hawke had never seen him so serious and angry since Bartrand abandoned them in that thaig in the Deep Roads.
"Fire away, Varric," Bianca seemed to be extremely calm, her staff beside her as she started eating a couple of grapes, looking at Varric as if she already knew what he was going to say, but allowed him to say it anyway.
"How are you even here? I thought you had…"
"Perished? Ran away with some casteless? Eaten by a swarm of deepstalkers? Fallen into a lava pool?" she jested.
"Not funny, B."
"Fine; I joined Branka on her expedition to the Anvil of the Void. Things got out of hand, and here I am."
"Will someone please speak human here?" Hawke butted in, frustrated that she knew nothing of this.
"Branka is a Paragon, or was. But she was a master smith, made this coal that didn't smoke or some shit. Saved a bunch of lives," Varric began to explain.
"But she then went insane on power and the Anvil became her obsession. She took me and her entire house, apart from her husband, in search of the Anvil of the Void," Bianca finished.
"I remember Elissa and Oghren mentioning this," Carver thought aloud; "Branka was Oghren's wife, and though Elissa wanted aid from Lord Harrowmont, she helped Oghren and went chasing after Branka. They found her and let her have the Anvil, even after Caridan begged her not to, since he was in some metal body."
"What is so special about this anvil?" Hawke asked Bianca.
"It created golems. By using blood magic; anyone with the skill and a 'willing' volunteer could turn that volunteer into a golem."
Fenris had walked in as soon as they mentioned blood magic, scowled slightly and joined the table at Hawke's side, putting a small parcel in the pouch of his belt and just started drinking the ale and immediately went for the sweeter things on the table. Hawke looked at the elf, confused and curious about what was in the small parcel. He shrugged and spread honey on a slice of bread before happily munching away. Hawke bit her bottom lip, and they both knew exactly why as Fenris' eyes started to widen with desire, slowly chewing on the honey covered bread. Anders' voice broke the moment and brought the pair back into reality, Fenris smiling smugly to himself as Hawke's cheek blushed almost as deep red as her hair. Isabella noticed this and her eyebrow rose, knowing she just witnessed some deep dark secret between the two.
"Surely that is dangerous," Anders pointed out.
"Yes, for the volunteer it was."
"Why didn't you tell me Bianca?" Varric looked at his old love with tears in his eyes. Everyone had never seen Varric this emotional before. He must still be in love with her, clearly.
"Branka would have hurt you and your family, as well as my brother," Bianca lowered her head before taking a swig of mead, "If I didn't go, she would have…"
Before she could say a single word, Varric reached for her hand and held it gently.
"Well I'm here now, and I'm not going anywhere. Unless you try to kill me of course," Varric smiled the biggest smile Hawke had ever seen.
"Hold on a moment," Merrill muffled, a mouth full of salad and cheese, swallowing her mouthful quickly before continuing, "Who is Mirabelle then?"
Varric's eyes saddened for a moment before he turned to look at the elf, "Mirabelle is my twin sister. We did everything together, and she mastered the crossbow as well as I did, but she was nowhere as good as I was. Anyway, my parents wanted to marry her off to one of the Aeducan boys, but she was in love with a casteless criminal and they eloped, which meant that she was stripped of her caste. A couple of years later, we found out she had been arrested for burglary and was sent off to fight darkspawn with the Legion of the Dead."
"Oh Varric…I'm so sorry," Merrill gently placed her hand on Varric's shoulder, giving the dwarf a look of sympathy.
"It's fine Daisy. It is what she actually wanted to do with her life, but with being in a merchant caste, it was impossible."
"Oh I see…"
The table ate in silence for a small while, before Bianca broke the silence:
"May we talk somewhere more…private, Varric?" Bianca purred, biting her bottom lip before giving the dwarf a mischievous smile. Varric's frown soon turned into a huge grin, a single eyebrow rose.
"But this is my banquet," he teased.
"Shut up."
"Kinky minx," he chuckled as the group went silent as Bianca pulled Varric from his seat and dragged him out of the room. The sound of giggles, little footsteps running and a slam of the door was all that could be heard.
It was Isabella who was the first to break the silence with a roar of laughter.
"I never thought Varric was the sensitive type!" Isabella squealed through tears of laughter.
Soon everyone else was laughing, even Fenris was. Hawke, on the other hand, was far from amused.
"The dwarf has feelings too," she said rather sternly.
"But this is Varric," Isabella pointed out breathlessly, after laughing so hard.
Hawke rose from the table slowly as the others poked fun at Varric, who was not even there and would probably be defending himself by a lewd comment about the Bianca unable to resist his chest hair, or something along those lines.
"I have suddenly lost my appetite."
She slinked out of the room quietly, unaware that a pair of brown eyes had watched her the entire time. The owner to those eyes excused themselves from the table to follow Hawke. Something was troubling her and they needed to find out what it was, and comfort her.