Part 2

9

It was the very next night that everything went pear-shaped. I was sitting at home with Varric, Anders, Merrill and Fenris, for once having a nice quiet evening with only minimal arguing breaking out. As it turned out, however, perhaps I should have been keeping track of what Aveline and Isabella were up to instead. Not that it would have changed anything, but it would have given me at least some warning.

We were sitting around on the floor, playing a nice calm game of Wicked Grace. So far Dog was winning. And they say mabaris aren't sentient. Anyway, we were sitting around, playing cards, when Aveline and Isabella came charging in the front door, shouting at one another.

"This is important! Don't interrupt with your selfish prattle!"

"I have problems, too!

"Ha! 'What drink should I order?' and 'Who's the father?'"

"Why you-" Isabella moved to slap Aveline.

"Hey, quit it, you two!" I cut in quickly.

"Hawke!" Aveline instantly dropped the conversation with Isabella. "The Arishok is sheltering two fugitives who have 'converted' to the Qun. You have to convince him to give them back!"

"Yeah, well I'm going to die!" snapped Isabella. "There, real problem."

"Okay, one at a time."

"Remember that relic? The one Castillon was going to kill me over? I finally found out who has it. If you help me get it now before he gets rid of it, Castillon won't kill me," said Isabella.

"And I'm trying to stop a war from breaking out!"

"Well, the two things might kind of be connected."

"What?"

"The relic maybe might belong to the Qunari," said Isabella. "One of their sacred books. There's a chance they want it back."

"They can't leave without it!" Yelled Aveline.

I rubbed my forehead. It's always something. "Okay, we help Isabella first."

"You really trust her this much?" asked Aveline.

Isabella didn't help by adding, "Probably not. I wouldn't."

"Her problem has slightly more of a time constraint, anyway," I said, grabbing my staff from the corner. "Let's go."

As we left, the others shrugged, dropping their cards, and followed us. Apparently, this sounded like it would be more interesting.

We caught up with the man who had the relic at the same time as he was about to sell it to a group of Tevinter magisters. They were almost instantly ambushed by a group of Qunari, who seemed to have finally figured out where the relic was.

"Huh," I said, watching the two groups kill each other, not even noticing us.

The man with the relic took one look at the two fighting groups and bolted out the door behind us, still carrying the relic. "He's getting away!" yelled Isabella, running after him. Of course, now the Qunari and magisters, hearing that, attacked us instead of each other. Great.

By the time we got back outside, both Isabella and the relic were gone. Aveline was not amused.

When we got to the compound, several of Aveline's Guardsmen were waiting. The Qunari standing guard at the gates to the compound looked from the four Guardsmen to the six of us. "You are not all going in."

"How about I just take the Guardsmen and Hawke," said Aveline.

"That will do," said the Qunari, opening the gates and letting us in. Varric, Merrill, Anders, and Fenris moved across the street to sit on some barrels. Varric pulled out another pack of cards.

The Arishok greeted us standing down below where his big chair-throne was, carrying a gigantic battleaxe. "Shanedon."

"Greetings, Arishok," said Aveline politely. "I'm here about the elven fugitives…"

"Not important. I'd rather speak to Hawke about the stolen relic."

"Isabella took it," It felt a bit like tattling, but lying to the Arishok would be a bad idea.

"I knew that. Your admission is…welcome."

"Never mind that," said Aveline. "We're here for the fugitives."

The Arishok looked at her. "The elves are now viddathari. They have chosen to submit to the Qun. They will be protected."

"Okay." I said.

Aveline glared at me.

"They are now foreign citizens in their country's embassy. Nothing you can actually do."

"Where did you get that from?"

"Mother spent, like, the entire first year after we got back from the expedition teaching me about laws and politics and stuff. She said I needed to know now our family was important again. Also Bethany talks about that kind of stuff in her letters."

"They have chosen," said the Arishok. "And so have I. You have not hidden the abuses of your zealots or the corruption of this city. You will understand why I must do this. Let us look at your 'dangerous' criminals." Two elves came up behind us along with a couple of Qunari. "Speak, viddathari. Who did you murder and why?"

One of the elves stepped forward slightly. "A city guard forced himself on our sister. When we tried to report him, but no one did anything, so we killed him."

"That still doesn't excuse murder!" said Aveline.

"Actually, I'd have done the same thing," I said. "We did do the same thing, in fact. Remember Ser Alrik? And Ella was a complete stranger."

"That's not helping, Hawke," said Aveline.

The Arishok started talking again. "Their actions are mere symptoms. Your society is the disease. They have chosen. The viddathari will submit to the Qun and find a path your way has denied them."

"That's not your decision. You have to hand them over," said Aveline.

"Actually, it is and he doesn't, remember?"

"And what would you do in my position, Hawke?" the Arishok asked.

"The exact same thing you did," I said cheerfully. Aveline looked as though she was seriously wondering why she had brought me in the first place.

"Exactly," said the Arishok. "I cannot leave without the relic, and I cannot stay and remain blind to this dysfunction." That didn't sound good. "There is only one solution."

That really didn't sound good. Apparently Aveline noticed, too, because she began to look nervous. "Arishok, there is no need for…"

The Arishok turned away from her, saying something in the Qunari language that seemed to translate into 'attack'. The Qunari standing on the walls of the compound began throwing spears at us, skewering Aveline's guardsmen. I reached for my staff, intending to start fighting back, but Aveline grabbed my arm. "Not now, Hawke!" she yelled, dragging me backwards out of the compound.

By the time we had met back up with the others, who had migrated down the docks a bit during the meeting, the Qunari were already attacking the rest of the city. Shouting filled the air along with smoke. I wasn't quite sure how they'd had time to set so much on fire already.

"Why are they doing this?" asked Aveline.

"You heard the Arishok. He's fed up with tolerating all the corruption, racism, oppression, and general insanity in Kirkwall, so he's taking over."

When we got to Lowtown, we ran straight into a small group of people fighting Qunari right outside Gamlen's house. "Are those Grey Wardens?" asked Varric. "Where did they come from?"

"Oh, look, it's Stroud," said Anders.

"I'm more interested in the fact that Carver is with them," I said. "Suggesting that he came to Kirkwall and didn't even bother to stop by to see me at all. How difficult would it have been to walk in the door for five minutes and say 'hello'?"

"Somehow I knew it would be you." Carver did not seem happy to see me. "Hello sister, fancy meeting you here."

"I live here," I pointed out. "Why are you here?"

"Reasons," he said evasively.

"And we have to go now," announced Stroud. "We have urgent business elsewhere."

The wardens turned to leave. "Carver, wait-" I called after him. "Mother…"

"I heard," he said shortly. "Take care of yourself, alright? Try not to let that hero complex get you killed."

"Maker watch over you, my friend," added Stroud.

It took a couple minutes after the Wardens had left for me to process it, but… "Hey! I see Carver for five minutes, and he still manages to mention my alleged hero complex."

Once we got to Hightown, we met up with an irritable-looking blonde woman in Templar armor who stabbed a saarebas that attacked us in the back. "I am Knight-Commander Meredith. You really need to be more careful." Anders glared at her.

"Oh, it's good to see you, Knight-Commander," said Aveline. "The Qunari are…"

"Attacking the city? I kind of noticed. They're taking everyone to the Keep and may already be in control. We need to deal with them."

"You think?" I asked sarcastically. "Arg. Well, I'm always ready to help in a life-threatening crisis."

"Good," she said. "I'll overlook your own use of magic for the moment." I refrained from replying with something along the lines of 'and I'll overlook your attitude for the moment'. "Meet me at the Keep," she continued. "These creatures will pay for this outrage."

"Man," I said, once the Knight-Commander had left. "She really needs to lighten up."

We found the First Enchanter in the square outside my house, being thoroughly defeated by a group of Qunari.

"Thank you," he said in response to being rescued.

"First Enchanter Orsino. You're alive." Oh, now Meredith shows up- after all the attacking Qunari are dead.

"Your relief overwhelms me," said Orsino. He had a point. She sounded almost disappointed to find him still alive.

"Whatever," said Meredith. "We need to stop the Qunari."

"Oh yeah? And who will lead us? You?"

"I will fight to defend this city, as I have always done!"

"To control it, you mean! I won't have our lives tossed to the flames to feed your vanity!"

Really? They picked now to have a power struggle? "Oh, for the Maker's sake!" I yelled, interrupting the useless bickering. "I'll lead us!"

"You?" said Meredith. "You aren't even from Kirkwall!"

"Neither am I, but you don't seem to be complaining about either of us fighting to protect our home." I got the feeling that Orsino was only siding with me because Meredith was against it. "What's the plan?"

"Well, we can start with not dying," I said. "And we need to find out what they're up to."

"An excellent choice." It was pretty apparent that Meredith was only agreeing with me because it was obvious that I was going to end up in charge. We peered around a corner at the entrance to the Keep. "That is a lot of Qunari," said Meredith. "They must have already taken the Keep over. Clearly they were planning this for some time. We need to attack now."

"Are you crazy?" asked Orsino. "They have hostages! We need a distraction of some kind."

"Yes, we do," I said.

"I'll do it," said Meredith quickly.

Orsino rolled his eyes. "Please. Allow me." He stepped out into the open. "Hey! Qunari! You aren't taking over this city without a fight." He then began lobbing fireballs at the group of Qunari on the steps, who immediately rushed him, with a yell of 'Saarebas!'.

"Wow," I said as Orsino lured the Qunari around the corner, where they were ambushed by Meredith and the Templars. "He's good."

My group snuck around the edges of the buildings to reach the Keep door.

The Arishok was in the throne room, along with a large group of Qunari and a bunch of terrified nobles. "Here is your Viscount," he said, throwing Viscount Dumar's decapitated head down the steps. One of the noblemen there, who was either particularly unintelligent or had no sense of self-preservation whatsoever, made the mistake of protesting at this point. Predictably, one of the Qunari came up behind him and snapped his neck. "Look at you," said the Arishok. "Like fat dathrasi, you feed and feed and complain only when your meal is interrupted. You do not look up. You do not see that the grass is bare. All you leave in your wake is misery. You are blind. I will make you see." It really sounded like he had finally run out of patience. The Arishok noticed my entrance. "But we have guests. Shanedan, Hawke. I expected you. But, for all your might, you are no different from these bas. You do not see."

"No?" I asked. "Because right now I see someone who is willing to start a war on principle. Which is the reason that a lot of wars get started, now that I think about it. There are worse reasons."

"And what would the Qunari be without principle? You, I suspect. Prove yourself, basra or kneel with your brethren."

The Arishok nodded to the Qunari standing nearest us, and they moved forward to attack. I blasted two of them away before they could get close enough to skewer me and began shooting at them with fire, while my companions fought the others.

"Harshera!" Said the Arishok. "You are basalit-an after all. Few in this city command such respect. But you know that we cannot leave until we have the tome of Koslun. How would you suggest resolving this without it?"

A familiar voice came from the doorway. "Personally, I would suggest resolving this with it." Isabella came forward and handed the Arishok the gigantic book. "Here. It's mostly undamaged."

The Arishok looked reverent. "The tome of Koslun! We can leave now. With the thief."

"Oh, no, no, no," said Aveline. "If anyone kicks her ass, it's me!"

I gave the Arishok a flat look. "Yeah, no. You aren't taking Isabella anywhere."

"Then I challenge you Hawke. You and I will battle to the death, with her as the prize."

"What? No!" said Isabella. "If you're going to duel anyone, duel me!"

"You are unworthy," the Arishok told her.

There didn't seem to be much choice. "I accept your challenge, Arishok," I said.

"So shall it be," he said. And the fight began.

My very first action was to freeze the Arishok in ice and get the hell out of the way as he began to charge at me. The rest of the duel went much the same way. At one point, he did manage to charge into me and knock me into a wall, but the Grey Warden armor I had gotten off Janika had a habit of occasionally making the wearer difficult to notice when injured. There was a reason I liked it, and it wasn't just because it looked good, though that was certainly part of it. The Ariskok's confusion at my apparent disappearance would have been funny if I wasn't fighting for my life. Spending the entire battle dodging and freezing my opponent felt a bit like cheating, but he was at least twice my size and carrying a giant battleaxe.

As the Arishok was dying, he managed to gasp out. "One day, we shall return."

Only then did Meredith show up. "Is it over?"

I nodded. "It's over."

Someone in the background yelled "The city has been saved!"

"It looks like Kirkwall has a new champion," said Meredith sarcastically. The nobles there seemed to like the idea.