I've been toying with the idea of a character alphabet for a while now and decided to use Ria, my custom Hawke, to try one out. She's a dual-wielding rogue and sarcastic/purple Hawke, whose best friend and part-time lover was Isabela and One True Love was a friendmanced Anders. The tone of this will probably be more somber than she was in-game, since this takes place after fleeting Kirkwall with Anders. Only the things that are non-canon are mine, everything else is Bioware's, etc, etc. The updates on this will probably be sporadic, as I'm writing them out of order but only uploading them here in order. If you can't wait for the next in-order-entry, find me on AO3.

B is for Bethany

Varric always calls her "Sunshine" and it always makes both of us smile. Bethany and I never told him, but somehow, I think he knows it was our father's pet name for her. She was the light of our lives, the one thing we all agreed on—we had to protect her from the darkness of the world. Not just our family, but everyone who ever met her loved her, wanted to coddle her.

She always hated that.

Some protectors we were, though. We wanted to keep her from the darkness of the Circle, and I led her into the Deep Roads instead. Thank the Maker for Anders and his Grey Wardens, though I know it was a very long time before she came to understand the desperation that forced me to send her away.

I sent a letter to Amaranthine to let her know about Mother, but I never heard back. I didn't see her again until the Qunari attack on the city, over three years after I forced her to leave us. She still hated me then, though she fought well. I'd never been so proud of her, in spite of the sting of the rejection in her eyes. She was gone again, to say the least, when I woke from my injuries after facing the Arishok.

She wrote more often after that, though, and gradually her tone warmed. She wasn't quite our same old Sunshine, but I could still hear the small smiles in her voice when she wrote of her own companions—of Howe in particular. It was… less than surprising, to say the least, to find her with him in the Deep Roads a few years later, when his sister sent me after him.

It was in the Deep Roads that I lost our Sunshine, and it was in the Deep Roads years later when I found her again. She was his Sunshine now, though.

My little sister, all grown up.