Chapter 51
Huge thanks to you all! You've been so supportive of me throughout this year!
Here is another chapter! Hope you enjoy!
Shout out to my awesome beta for helping me so much with this. LostSpace, I'd be lost without you!
"Do you know what the most powerful force in the universe is, Aria? It's love. I pieced her together from memory. I found her eyes, her skin, and her delicate fingers and at last her face; her beautiful face! I had lost hope when Eric found me, but then he told me of Leandra, Malcolm Hawke's wife and how her face was so similar to my love's," Quentin ranted.
Hawke's breath halted at the mention of his name. Eric. Eric had returned for her like he always said he would. Her vision dizzied as she felt her entire body constrict in pure fear. Hawke's knees crumbled under the weight of the wolf that was always too close to her back. He had sent this mad man to do his dirty work and took her mother as a bonus. He had destroyed everything in her life and he would not stop. There was no hope for her; the wolf would constantly bite at her ankles until he got his kill.
So let him have it.
"Hawke, get up. Get up and kill that bastard before I do," Varric demanded, but his voice turned into background noise as Hawke felt her entire world crumble.
She became emerged in the murky depths of her fear. She had laughed in the faces of demons, danced with dragons and destroyed an ancient terror but at just the mention of his name she crumbled to a pile of dust. And now her friends would truly see her for what she was. A coward hiding behind her sarcasm, a daughter who neglected her own mother and father, a sister who deserted her own brother and sister; she was worthless.
"Your father called me sick, said I had a sickness in my mind that would make even a demon cower. And he was right, can you feel them? They cower for I have touched the face of the Maker and he fears what I have done! And so he should! For I am God!" Quentin cackled, revelling in his victory. His words felt numb as Hawke knelt on the floor in defeat.
"Hawke!" Anders called, kneeling down towards her in an attempt to soothe her. She could hear Varric shuffling his feet readying himself for a fight.
"Hawke," Fenris' voice stood out from the panicked mess that was her mind. She could hear the whispering, the demons and everything else that she had ignored for so long. Her brother's paling face, her sister being thrown by the ogre, her mother's dead eyes, and the screams of the soldiers at Ostagar and the never ending grunts of each and every templar that had defiled her. And his eyes, Eric's cold eyes and sickly grin as he approached her in that cold cell all those years ago...
"HAWKE!" Fenris growled, pulling her towards where he knelt. She stared into his green eyes that burnt brighter than before, his eyebrows knitted in rage as he looked at her in deep concern.
"I had everything once. I had my beautiful wife and my unborn child. Then lost, they were both lost. I have brought my love back, she is here now. They didn't even allow me to see my girl; they did not grant me that. I cannot rebuild something I have never seen, something I have never experienced. Eric wants you dead; he will surely kill us all. I can save you, you can be my Olivia. My little girl, and I will love you better than any man ever could, all you have to say is yes," Quentin carried on, disregarding Hawke's companions and staring at Hawke with bulging eyes.
Hawke turned to stare back at Fenris who looked at her in a flash of worry as if he thought she was considering the offer.
"I will not let you fight this alone," he whispered almost inaudibly so no one else could hear his words.
No. No more, she would not allow it. Retribution must be paid in full, she could not stay with this wolf at her back and she would not allow this sickening bastard to get away with what he had done to her mother. She had failed her mother so many times; she would not do it again. The tsunami of the bitter anger she had held back for so long rushed over her like waves. She did not care if she made it out alive any longer.
She rose, her eyes burning as she glared at Quentin with eyes bright with hatred and anger.
"Run," she said quietly to her companions, she was without mercy and all those who got too close would burn.
Thoughts about her father's involvement, her mother's death and anger coursed through her mind but she ignored them. Her daggers flashed alight and she gritted her teeth, ready for whatever came.
"I don't think you want to do that, it would upset Leandra if I killed you," Quentin said, observing Hawke with a sick grin.
"Fuck you," she spat, shifting into a battle stance.
Quentin's face fell for a moment, but quickly recovered by smearing a sickly smile on his face.
With a flick of a dagger and a small splash of blood several demons barricaded Quentin from her; they slashed their claws threateningly as they took a protective stance over their master.
Good. Let them come, let them all come and I will send them to the void.
She charged into the fray without thinking, her thoughts lost to her savage need for blood. She stabbed at everything ignoring her party members as she became transfixed in the blood lust. As one demon fell Quentin raised another but she would not tire. He would suffer, he would bleed like any other man and she would rip out their hearts.
She could hear the sounds of the other members of the party battling alongside her but did not acknowledge them. Her usual style of fighting had gone and her rage became overwhelming as she summoned a fireball in her hand, launching it into the horde of shades that Fenris was battling with. She ignored the burning ache that was trying to overtake her veins, her stamina depleted in one go. What was the use of this curse if she could not do anything with it?
The last demon fell to the ground and became dust at her feet. She looked straight at Quentin with vicious intent and although her companions were closer they did not attempt to battle him. They knew this was Hawke's battle.
Quentin threw her a sickening grin as he raised his barrier.
She ran with her daggers ready to slash but as soon as she approached him she was instantly rebounded into the air and landed on the ground with a thud.
"HAWKE!" she heard Fenris shout but he was soon silenced by Varric's curses.
"Fenris, this is hers!" Anders cried, attempting to hold the former slave back and failing terribly as Fenris knocked him to the ground with a vicious roar. However, Fenris did not move as he watched her with bated breath, as he viewed the scene before him.
"Run!" she ordered, but they ignored her command. She got up quickly and realised the only way she could think to defeat him was to burn him out. If she antagonised the sick bastard to the point where he went on the offensive she could find a way in to attack him. Quentin was powerful; it was evident in the force field that had just launched her in the air.
She wiped the blood from her mouth and walked towards him.
"Do you want to know something before I kill you?" she asked as she approached him, stopping at where the barrier which had thrown her back before.
"Whether you even have the power to kill me is up for debate Aria Hawke, your father would be ashamed. You're one of the most pathetic excuses of a mage I have ever met," Quentin said, his polite tone sending shivers up her spine.
"I'll take that as a compliment coming from you, you sick bastard. But I thought I'd let you mull it over whilst I rip you to pieces. You said your precious daughter died when she was a baby. But she didn't because I met her; she was there when they took me. She was the one who called me weak yet she was the one they disposed of. Your daughter worked for them and their precious cause for all those years, they trained her to be a killer and they destroyed her. You failed her as a father and you should be ashamed, my father had nothing to be ashamed of because at least he gave his life for his children! You deserted yours, you sick deluded bastard! And I hope you rot with all the other scum I have burnt!" Hawke screamed, her hands twitching towards her daggers. She was ready.
Quentin stood shocked for a moment, not processing her words.
"LIAR!" he screamed, launching a ball of fire at her which Hawke quickly dodged.
"Olivia had your eyes but not your hair, her hair was black. Coal black like her mother's, I assume!" Hawke shouted, diving from the assault of fire that Quentin threw at her with ease.
"I have had enough of your foul mouthed lies!" Quentin screamed, launching an assault of magic that she had never witnessed before.
"You want me! Come and get me! I have nothing left to live for! You want me! COME AND GET ME! Take it all! And if you do kill me ask your dear friend Eric what truly happened to your daughter! Did you honestly think he thought you would survive this? I will burn you and he doesn't care, his mission is accomplished! He wanted to tear everything I love away from me and destroy me from the inside out! But I swear, oh I swear on everything I ever stood for, your precious daughter made her way out of there because she has the same sickening eyes that you do!" Hawke screamed manically as she dodged the never ending fireballs that Quentin threw at her. He had started to sweat profusely, his hands shaking as he gripped his staff.
Hawke took her chance as she watched the barrier waver and gave it her all. With a stamp of her foot she sent a fireball hurtling towards him. He laughed at her attempt but she had gotten him right where she wanted him. He was distracted and fatigued.
She threw one of her throwing knives straight at his ankle and he cried out in pain. The blood started to trickle and she could feel Quentin trying to channel into his blood magic but that didn't stop her. She launched another as she charged towards him and this time it pierced straight through his hand and stuck to the wall perfectly. If she had been a better mage, if she had not closed everyone off when she should have held them tight her mother would have still been alive. If she had died that night, everyone would still be okay.
She threw the last one as she drew near, hitting him in his upper calf. He cried out as he gripped onto his staff for support and yet he still called for his demons. They had abandoned him, they had run away as soon as she had become angry and yet he still begged for their return even though he knew it too. The sick bastard was nothing without his demons.
She was inches away from his face when she began to snarl, she ignored the wolf that snarled in rage inside her heart.
"I don't give a fuck if you don't believe me anymore, you sick bastard. I was never one for religion, but I truly hope the Maker fucks you up when you return to his side and there's a special place in hell for you and your darling daughter," she snarled before turning to view the corpse that was her mother.
"You won't kill me Aria Hawke, I knew your father! I was made for a higher purpose; I was made to never die! Malcolm would not do it and neither would you!" Quentin started.
Hawke turned and looked at the bleeding mess that was her mother's killer. She took out one of the vials Tomwise had given her the other week and poured it on Quentin's wounded body.
"You obviously didn't know my father well," she said, conjuring a small ball of fire in her hands and casting it towards Quentin. He set alight within a matter of milliseconds, his screams echoed in the foundry for what seemed like a lifetime before his body stopped moving erratically and became rigid.
She was silent for a moment, looking at the now charred corpse that belonged to Quentin. It was the long drawn out footsteps that came behind her that snapped Hawke out of her thoughts.
"MOTHER!" she screamed as the corpse began to collapse.
She grabbed her mother quickly before she fell and cradled her on the floor like a new born babe. For the first time in what seemed years, what was left of her mother's mangled face smiled at her.
"I am so sorry, I've failed you too. I am so sorry, this is my entire fault," Hawke wept loudly, though her mother snorted at her.
"Don't be, I'll be with Bethany and your father now. I shouldn't have forced you to be something you're not. Now I've seen what you can do and I have never been so proud of you. All those years your father told me you had so much potential and I shrugged you off. You are perfect the way you are," her mother whispered, a chalky grin stretching her greying skin.
"Mother don't go, please, don't leave me," Hawke begged.
"Shhh Aria, I will never go, not truly. I love you so much and I am always proud of you," Mother whispered.
"I love you, Mother," Hawke whimpered.
"Aria, promise me one thing. Promise you'll get over it; you do what you need to do to get over it, find happiness, maybe a husband? A family? I can't bear to think of you here alone," Mother said, her voice becoming quieter as the last of her life energy began to drain.
"I promise."
"Good night my little song bird," Mother whispered and then her eyes began to glass over as death summoned her forwards yet Mother's mouth was still turned into a smile as she stared at something no one else was able to see.
"Malcolm?" Leandra whispered and after that the corpse slumped in defeat.
Hawke held her mother tightly and screamed. She screamed until she ran out of air and even after that she screamed some more. Her companions stood with her silent but there nonetheless. It took the full regiment of guards and Fenris to force Hawke to let go of her mother's dead body. The rain began to pour as it had done so all those months ago.
None of them noticed the hooded figure that departed the scene in a sudden haste.
The wolf was coming.
