Chapter 35: War in the Streets

The attack on the Viscount's Keep had indeed set off a gang war. Dozens of mercenary, smuggler and various other outlaw groups began fighting for control of Lowtown, the Docks, and Darktown. With Athenril…indisposed, and the Coterie declaring neutrality, they would watch let their rivals kill each other and attack the winner. The Coterie bosses did not seem to believe that the Marauders could hold Kirkwall even if they managed to seize it. Though few could doubt the speed and savagery of their victories

It seemed that Evets Marauders would win and create a new power to shift on the streets of the City of Chains.

The Nobles demanded that the Viscount step in, that he do something. Sadly, with so many of the guard dead or wounded there was little that he could do. He had few men to mount any sort of response. Knight-Commander Meredith refused to bring in the Templars. She stated publicly that this was a civil matter; it did not involve the mages, who had likely helped set off this chaos. No…the Templars would remain in the Gallows to prevent the Mages from taking advantage of this situation.

At least that is what the Knight-Commander said publicly.

In private she welcomed the violence, anything to destabilize the Dumar regime, to make him weaker in the eyes of the people. One day soon they would turn to her for leadership, and she would be there, waiting to save them.

On the docks, the Qunari chose not to get involved with this conflict. The affairs of Bas were not their concern, though the Arishok did note the weakness that the criminals exploited. If and when the Qun demanded that they do take up arms, this information would prove very useful.

The fighting got so bad that it even drew Hawke's Flock into it; this had been what the Coterie had been hoping for more than anything else. Marian Hawke had been building quite a power base for herself between her dealings with Athenril and the Bone Pit mines. They seemed to think that she deserved to lose a bit fighting to protect her holding.

Unfortunately for them, Marian did not simply fight to defend what was hers. She did something rather unorthodox, but what could they have expected, Hawke was not the most predictable of people.

She threw all her power behind the City Guard.

She rallied the survivors of Athenril's organization, men, women and elves, who had lost friends in the Marauder's first attacks. They gladly agreed to fight under her banner, and more importantly to fight for the safety and security of Kirkwall itself.

Aveline did not entirely like the idea, but she needed soldiers, at least until she was able to recruit and train new guardsmen.

Viscount Dumar was shocked by this show of solidarity. For years House Dumar and House Amell had been rivals, he had feared that this Marian Hawke would assume the title of Lady Amell and make a play to seize the Viscount's seat, denying his son his birthright. Her cooperation was unexpected, but then again she had saved Saemus's life years ago, perhaps the old feuds were ending.

For nearly five months the fighting raged. Marian led her pro Kirkwall forces against the other gangs. She offered coin to Mercenary groups like the Red Iron and the Winters to walk away. Some accepted, other refused, insisting to continue the war.

Hawke dealt harshly with them.

The Marauders were surprisingly scarce during these battles, after their attack on the Keep they had withdrawn much of their forces from the city. Aveline and Hawke agreed that the Marauders would wait, much as the coterie was, to see if the victor in this mess was too weak to defend themselves.

Both women agreed to not let that happen, they fought hard, but not stupid, they picked the battles that needed to be fought. Athenril's people continued to harry the other gangs, drawing them out and forcing them to come at Hawke stupid.

Those were the ones that Hawke and her friends won easily.

Hawke fought with renewed strength during this war, she saw this as the ultimate opportunity, not only to protect her home, but also to gain the Viscount's favor. She intended to ask the Viscount to end the threat to apostate's families, it was time to lift the edict Meredith had bullied through while she was gone in the Deep Roads. She had the guards' support on this, and the nobles would likely listen to.

But first, they had to make Kirkwall safe.

It would not be an easy challenge.

IOI

During the last month of the war Hawke found herself in the middle of a very strange battle.

A fight had broken out in a Lowtown warehouse. She and the others had been dealing with the newly reorganized Guardsmen Pretenders, a gang that used stolen guard uniforms to steal from and harass the nobles. Hawke had thought them all dead years ago, but they had apparently made resurgence during these troubles.

There were always more thugs in Kirkwall.

No sooner had they engaged the pretenders then a group of Carta dwarves stormed in, Hawke had thought they had come to aid the pretenders but that was not it.

They were after her…and only her.

"The Hawke," one of the dwarves screamed, "We must have the Hawke, the master must have her blood. He must walk in the sun again. He must…"

Anders burned the man alive, he cried out as Justice's magic exploding to life.

The spirit glared at the dwarves through Anders' eyes.

"WE WILL NOT LET YOU HARM HER!" Justice roared, "YOU SHALL PERISH FOR THIS, ALL OF YOU WILL FEEL JUSTICE'S BURN!"

Hawke glared at the spirit possessing her lover, she did not need his protection, and she was far from some damsel in distress.

She caught two of the Carta dwarves with her great sword. She charged three more, bowling them over with the force of her charge.

These thieves would not harm her home anymore, she would see to that.

Fenris watched her, he was always there at her side, and making sure the abomination did not lose control during this chaos and harm her.

Fenris would die before he let that happen. Though he would much rather kill.

Why am I still here? The woman has made her choice.

The Tevinter elf sighed, he had considered leaving Kirkwall. With Hawke now involved with the Abomination he had little reason to stay. Perhaps it would be better to move on, to seek his final confrontation with Danarius elsewhere.

You can't leave, his conscience chided, you made a promise to Viper, and you will damn well keep it!

Fenris would not let her down, the mage had asked that he watch over Hawke, make sure the Abomination did not cause her pain.

Fenris had honor, he would stand by the vow he had made.

Not that honor was the only thing holding him here, despite what had happened; he still craved Hawke's attention. His feelings, even though they were not returned still held sway over his heart.

He would stand by Hawke and die if needs be.

He would not fail in this task.

IOI

Isabela dodged, cutting down another Pretender, before flipping over his falling body to back stab a dwarf.

The pirate queen had to laugh at her current situation, she had never seen herself on the side of law and order, and yet here she was fighting for the safety of the city.

If someone had told her that she would be doing this three years ago, she would have laughed in their faces, but…times were different now….

She had friends.

"You okay over there Kitten?" she called out.

"Oh I'm more than fine Isabela," Merrill replied as she drove her staff into one of the dwarfs' guts. The Magister's fork absorbed his life energy, leaving the body a withered husk. The Dalish's green eyes blazed with a sickly emerald colored light…the light of demons.

"This is so exciting," the Dalish grinned madly, "Isn't this exciting Isabela? We should really do this sort of thing more often"

Merrill giggled then, she sounded drunk from all the magic she was absorbing.

This troubled the Pirate Queen.

Isabela frowned, she loved their little Kitten, but sometimes Merrill frightened her. She did not like the powers the Dalish wielded, and wonder if one day they would come back and bite them all on the ass.

They would just have to watch over Merrill, even though she claimed that she could handle what was going on, better safe than sorry.

Isabela did not have many friends, and she took care of the one that she did.

She would keep the Kitten safe, even if it was from herself.

IOI

Varric brought up Bianca, she spat death at anything that moved, and he had long grown tired of these thugs always sticking their noses in his and Hawke's business interests.

He hoped that this would finally get the stupid bastard to finally withdraw from Kirkwall so that they could all get some work done.

They needed to get the coin flowing again, and that meant dealing with all these idiots.

Sebastian stood at his side, he hated to admit it, but choir boy was almost as good an archer as himself.

"I should really thank Hawke for this," Sebastian exclaimed.

"Why?" the dwarf asked, "Don't tell me you actually like all this shit?"

"I've never been able to help so many people before," Sebastian confessed, "Hawke helps so many, and we should all be inspired by her example."

Varric rolled his eyes; Hawke was not entirely being selfless in this. The Marauders had hurt Athenril, and the gangs were regularly threatening Aveline's life. Hawke took care of her friends. This was not entirely vengeance, but it was pretty close.

Not that he was about to inform choir boy about that, let Sebastian live in his fantasies.

It was a shame though, Sebastian was a man of interesting origins, most storytellers would be grateful for his presence.

Sadly, his motivations were about as interesting as dirt. He still thought like a chantry brother and not a vengeful prince with right on his side looking to reclaim his homeland.

Varric considered himself a good story teller, but he was not that good.

The dwarf sighed; choir boy would just have to remain being uninteresting.

IOI

Only one of the carta dwarves remained alive, though he would clearly not be that way much longer, Hawke had severed his leg at the knee. The dwarf was bleeding out, and he did not even seem to care.

He watched Hawke like a hungry predator, still craving her blood.

"You have failed," Hawke growled.

The dwarf laughed.

"My death means nothing, more will come," he cackled, "The blood of the Hawke is here in Kirkwall, the master knows you are here, and we will not rest until we have you both. You can't escape the carta! We will…"

The dwarf lunged forward, trying to bite Hawke's ankle.

Anders gestured.

The dwarf burst into blue flame, he howled in pleasure as he died.

Hawke shuddered.

What was wrong with him? He looked wrong, milky eyes, black sores on his face…

He looked like Aveline's poor late husband.

He looked…

"Tainted," Anders said shaking his head, "they are all tainted, I can sense the blight in them."

"All of them?" Hawke asked.

"The Pretenders weren't," Anders shrugged, "The carta however…they all were."

Tainted dwarves, Hawke shook her head, like Kirkwall did not have enough problems.

"Hawke?"

She sighed, now what?

"Yes Varric," she asked.

"Did you hear what he said?"

"He said he wanted my blood," she responded.

"No, after that."

Hawke almost yelled at the dwarf to spit out what he meant, but then she thought back to what he had said:

"The blood of the Hawke is here in Kirkwall, the master knows you are here, and we will not rest until we have you both."

Hawke's eyes widened.

Have you both!

"Maker no!" she whispered, she ran for the exit of the old warehouse. She had to get out of here; she had to contact the Gallows.

Have you both!

Terror clutched at her heart.

The bastards were going after her sister.

They were going after Bethany!

Next chapter: After a brief stopover in the Gallows next chapter, I will be beginning the Legacy part of the story. See you all next time.

DG