Anders did not quite understand why Hawke asked him to tag along for a meeting with Fenris' sister. What was his role supposed to be, exactly - emotional support for the elf? Not to mention that Merrill was invited as well. He would rather stay at his clinic; he only agreed not to get on Hawke's bad side.
He stood by the door awkwardly as Fenris approached his sister. He glanced around the tavern, tuning out the conversation.
"Oh, wonderful," Hawke said suddenly.
Understanding came to him in a form of a Tevinter magister stepping down the stairs. So Hawke did expect a fight to occur - a heads up could have been nice, really.
"Ah, my little Fenris," the magister said. "Predictable as always."
So that was the man Fenris has been raging about for the past years - Danarius, was it? He sized him up. His robes betrayed his high status, and taking into consideration his heritage, Anders could guess that he was standing in front of a particularly skilled blood mage.
He scowled a bit. He would prefer not to fight him, really. The magister seemed to be a formidable opponent, making any conflict with him an exceptional danger - and for what? For a man that would rather see him imprisoned or made tranquil? He had plenty of better causes to risk his life for, thank you very much.
"If you want him, take him," Hawke crossed his arms as he spoke to the magister.
"What?" Fenris exclaimed.
"It's like you're reading my mind," Anders muttered under his breath, only to be met with a horrified stare from Merrill.
"Tell me you won't do this!" she pleaded to Hawke.
One enemy of the cause less, said a thought at the back of Anders' head.
He looked at the elf in question to see his reaction.
Suddenly, he felt very uneasy.
There was something disturbingly familiar about the way his shoulders were hunched, and about how detached from the situation he already seemed. Most of all, there was something familiar in the expression on his face - like he had already given up on fighting.
Anders had his fair share of escape attempts.
This is wrong, he replied to the thought without certainty.
The presence at the back of his head reacted instantly. This is just, the thought seemed to burn and sizzle. Would you rather allow him to cause the enslavement of you and your kind?
We're selling a man back into slavery, he pushed it back. This is not justice. This is simple cruelty.
He is an enemy, and he needs to be removed, the voice, now clearly recognizable from his own thoughts, hissed.
I will not pretend to fight against slavery by dealing with other slavers!
Stand back, the voice demanded.
"Come along, everyone! The boat leaves for Minrathous within the hour!" he heard Danarius say loudly.
Anders then felt the pressing presence in his head dissolve. "I can't believe I'm doing this," he mumbled quietly, and gripped his staff. He took a step to block the exit from the tavern. "We are not making this deal," he said louder, and, to his surprise, sounding certain. "Let the elf go."
"Oh?" Danarius stopped in his steps. "I'm afraid this is not your decision to make. Let us leave peacefully." The man smiled politely, but all that Anders saw was a glint of rage in his eyes. It seemed less like a smile to him, and more like a wolf showing its fangs. It was hard to believe how much this mage reminded him of a templar, and how he did not see it right away.
"Let the elf go," he repeated slowly.
He noticed a glint of white behind Danarius, and quickly averted his eyes. He would rather not remind himself who this was about.
"What's this fuss about?" Hawke sighed. "Given half a chance, he would have done the same to any of-"
Before he had a chance to finish, Hawke was flung into the nearest wall by an invisible force. As soon as he hit the floor, small stones sprouted from underneath the floorboards and created a shell over him, disabling any movement.
Merrill, looking pale, lowered her staff and turned back to Danarius.
The magister looked more inconvenienced than anything. "Don't let us be late," he made a gesture with his hand, and several people located across the tavern reached for their weapons.
Anders had no more time to reconsider - the room turned into a battlefield in a second. He barely managed to duck to avoid a bolt to his face - but did so just in time to notice someone sneaking off to the back of the tavern.
"Merrill?!" he called after her, to no effect - she was already gone.
Casting a barrier around himself, he assessed the situation. It would be a hard enough battle in normal circumstances, but without Hawke and Merrill? The only remaining ally present was-
"Fenris?! A little help here?!" he called, deflecting a sword swung at him. It was of little use - the elf seemed to barely be aware of what was going on around him. His hand hovered over the hilt of his sword as his eyes jumped between the fighters. Other than that, he was frozen in place.
Anders cursed under his breath. He should have thought this through. It was not what he was expecting to die for.
"Well, why not?" Danarius' voice could barely be heard over the noise. "Help out, Fenris! Kill him!"
On Danarius' command, his people paused their attacks, and Anders could stop avoiding and countering them for a moment.
Fenris' eyes locked with Anders'. His expression was strange - he seemed resigned, and afraid.
The elf's hand closed over the hilt.
Anders suddenly felt very uneasy.
Then one of Danarius' swordsmen fell to the floor with a bolt in his back.
The battle resumed as abruptly as it stopped, but its tide changed - Varric was putting enemies down one by one with his crossbow, Isabela appeared out of nowhere, swirling her daggers around, and Merrill put her blood magic to use as soon as she returned with the two others. Not waiting for anything else, Anders joined them, relieved.
It took a while, but Fenris unsheathed his sword as well - and, minding his previous hesitation, Anders had to stop himself from casting a paralyzing spell at the elf. Thankfully, it was not necessary; Fenris begun cutting down the slavers without a hint of whatever it was that he was going through earlier. If anything, he seemed furious - so, back to something next to normal.
Taken by surprise, the slavers were defeated in a matter of moments. Before the last one even hit the ground, shades took their place. Then the dead slavers started rising again, resuming the fight as undead. Anders groaned - damned magisters and their blood magic.
The battle dragged on; a new enemy appeared for each one that fell, literally rising from the floor. They could not get an upper hand over the infinite army, but neither could that army overpower them - for now. Anders resorted to healing everyone's most serious injuries as they continued to appear, only stopping to prevent any enemy from getting near him.
Finally, over another wave of undead, he spotted the magister responsible for all this - and, luckily, he seemed to be distracted by raising the dead. Using this moment, he casted crushing prison at him, and nearly cheered when he realized that it stopped Danarius for a moment. He did not have much time to celebrate, as nearby shades immediately attacked him for this.
As he struck down the last one of them, he turned back to Danarius - just in time to see Fenris driving his fist through the man's neck. He winced at the sight.
The tavern finally got quiet for a moment. Fenris whipped around to the tables.
"Where is she?" he growled, looking at the empty spot where his sister was earlier.
"I think she ran off during the fight…" Merrill replied cautiously.
Fenris stopped for a moment, then stormed outside, pushing Anders out of the way.
"You will come to regret this," drawled a voice from the edge of the room.
Everyone's eyes turned in that direction. They watched in silence as Hawke, freed from the rocks but with a bruise on his forehead, stood up and marched to the door. Silence fell after he slammed them behind him.
"So," said Isabela after a moment, "what just happened here, exactly? Who did we just kill? And why was Hawke… like that? Merrill?"
"Well," Merrill hesitated, still looking rather shaken, "I think it was Fenris' former… uh… owner?"
"Oh," Isabela winced. "Got what he deserved, then."
"We came here to meet Fenris' sister, but it turned out that she came with him…"
"Bitch."
"And then Hawke wanted to strike a deal-"
"A deal? What -"
"But Anders stopped it, and I… stopped… Hawke and went to call you!"
"What kind of deal, Merrill?"
"Hawke wanted to give him back," Anders explained. "Or sell him back, knowing Hawke."
"Sorry, Hawke wanted what?" Varric asked with disbelief.
"He was serious?!"
"And Blondie stopped him?"
Suddenly, Anders started to feel very uncomfortable with three pairs of eyes staring at him. "I have to go," he said quickly and walked out the door before anyone could respond.