Perhaps she should have been afraid. Any sane person would be, but, ask anyone-Hawke wasn't overburdened with an abundance of sanity. After all, the threat in question didn't seem to be a threat at all: sure, he had just yanked someone's heart out of their chest with the ease of a cranky Lothering farmer lifting an onion from the ground, but he had made no moves to harm Hawke, or her companions, for that matter. Close behind her, Anders audibly shifted, discomfort written across his features. Varric, however, had a grin of awe across his face, holstering Bianca and gazing at the still-beating heart on the Lowtown pavement. Aveline remained impassive, as usual.
"Nice trick."
"You're...not what I expected," he admitted. In fact, the only way he could be more surprised at the haphazard group before him was if they had somehow recruited a Qunari. The most threatening of them was an obviously Fereldan woman in full guard regalia. Although she was certainly the most formidable, she stood behind the rest, and didn't appear to be in charge. His eyes glanced over a smug dwarf with a crossbow (was that a pencil behind his ear?) and a tall blonde man with the expression of someone suffering from horrible indigestion. All three of them were looking from him to the woman who had just spoken.
She was small, with an unassuming stance. Had he only seen her on the street, he wouldn't have expected her to be any kind of hazard. She wore cream colored leathers and a longbow slung crookedly across her back. Her hair was in a thick braid, and was dark (brown? black?), but not nearly as dark as her eyes. Her head was tilted to one side, with a thoughtfully amused expression across her face.
"The feeling is mutual, I assure you."
"I believe an explanation is in order," he said, clearing his throat.
"I am Fenris. These men were here to regain a Tevinter magister's lost property...namely, myself. I apologize, when I asked Anso to find me a mercenary group, I did not realize the opposition would be so numerous."
"We managed," she said, with a wink to the dwarf. "I am Hawke. This is Varric, our resident loveable dwarf; Aveline, the long arm of the Kirkwall law," (at this, Aveline rolled her eyes) "and this miserable fellow is Anders," she finished, placing a hand lightly on his shoulder. Anders snorted at that, face relaxing at last.
"I'm afraid I'm inclined to ask more of you," Fenris cautiously said. "The magister that sent these men is here, holed up in a mansion in Hightown." He paused. "This," he proffered the bag of gold, "you have already earned. If you join me in killing my former master, everything in his mansion is yours."
Hawke wasted no time on hesitation.
"Lead the way."
He almost smiled, for the first time in years.
