The two of them had spent the next 8 months in an uneventful pattern of work, resupplying and moving on. Finally they found a port town that had a ship willing to take them to Kirkwall, and made the necessary bribes to get into the city.
Then they caught wind of the arrival of a certain magister.
"He's been there for a week or so now, n' there've been people goin in an' out at all hours. Well they come out usually. Some of 'm don't." The man slurred, looking expectant.
Dane sighed, holding the coin out just barely, prompting, "Anything else?"
"Hrm… Oh yeah, I overheard him sending something to a house in the Alienage!"
Dane dropped the coin on the table and stood, exiting the tavern, exhaling in relief once out of the crowd that reeked of bad ale and…other fluids he assumed, before looking to his companion.
"Mostly the same as what every other informant said, but there was a new bit. One of them mentioned overhearing him send something to a house in the Alienage. But with what we hear about him hiring those mercs, I don't think we should go…" He explained, catching the scowl on Fenris's lips.
"We could look for someone to check it out for us. There's the dwarf that helped us get for example, Anso wasn't it? There's bound to be someone who can investigate and not get killed if it is an ambush." He added, attempting to placate the elf.
He apparently succeeded the tension in the other's frame lessening as he nodded. The two of them began to head to their hiding spot for the week, when Fenris inquired about something Dane should have known would be inevitable.
"Why have you not tried to contact your family in the time we have been here? The original reason for this being our destination was so you could reunite with your family, yes?"
Hawke looked away, muttering, "This is more important. I'm not going to leave you just to meet back up with them. Once this is dealt with I'll talk to them."
Fenris arched an eyebrow at that, but nodded.
"Besides, that's going to be a very awkward conversation, and I'm not looking forward to it."
His companion sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head slowly, as if in disbelief.
XXXXX
Marian Hawke muttered unhappily as they went to the destination given to them by the elf that had, apparently hired them. She didn't like being tricked, but then again he had said he was fleeing from slavers, and raised as she was, she had a strong dislike for anyone who held others against their will. Briefly she recalled his reaction to Varric addressing her as 'Hawke', the strange piercing look, followed by some strange look.
Seemed like he was familiar with the name at the least, so how is the question. He obviously hasn't been here long, and definitely not long enough to have heard of our work with the Red Irons. Her thoughts were cut off when they made the turn to the given location, and she saw a second figure speaking with the elf. Wary she motioned for her siblings and Varric to slow down, moved so that they could overhear the conversation.
"You look amused about something. What happened? Is there something amusing about Anso choice in mercenaries?" a strangely familiar voice asked.
"You could say that. You also may not get to put off seeing your family." Fenris stated, then turned to look at their location.
"What?" the tone was confused, and she really wished she could place-
Abruptly she straightened and stormed over to the second person, and demanded of her twin brother, "Dane, where in the name of Andraste have you been?"
"…Hello Marian, are Carver and Bethany with you too?" Dane ignored her question, and asked his own.
"Hullo, brother." Carver sounded smug.
"That's a yes then." He nodded back to Carver, then turned back to Marian, stating, "I'll answer your questions when mothers around, so if you can help Fenris…" he trailed off at her glare.
"…Fine," Marian muttered finally, then turned to the elf, "What exactly should we expect?"
"No one has left the mansion, but we've heard nothing from within; I would not put it past Danarious to know we're here. He is a Magister of the Tentiver Imperium-"
"Oh, is that all? Nothing to worry about then." Varric cut in.
"Were we in the Imperium, he would be a powerful many with much influence; Here, however, he is like every other man that sweats when death comes for him." The warrior stated it as if it were supposed to be comforting.
"There may be magical traps then." She pointed out.
"They will not keep me from him." The tone was calm, matter of a fact.
"You lot go on ahead, I'll stay out here with Dane." Carver stated, and at the looks added, "What? You were going to tell me to stay out here with him anyways."
"Better than being left out here by myself, I suppose." Dane interjected, cutting off Marian's retort, before trading a look with Fenris, as the larger group entered the Mansion.
XXXXX
"So how have things been while I was gone?" Dane asked his brother.
"About as well as you could expect with our family. Marian's picked fights with people, tried to be a leader with minimal success, Bethany's been all weepy, mom's been… I'll skip that one, and we've been trying to kill one another. As you can see, we've had no success, and in the meantime, we're trying to become partners in a Deep Roads expedition with Varric, the Dwarf, and his brother." Carver's reply was casual, and he waited a few moments before asking his own question, "Okay, I knew you weren't dead, and that you said that you'd answer question when mom was around, but how did you survive?"
With a straight face, Dane answered, "I got really, really lucky, and was picked up by Tal-Valshoth pirates."
"… Only in this family is that a valid answer."
They spent the next several moments on small talk until the door to the mansion opened, Fenris exiting, not followed by the rest of the group, prompting Dane to end the conversation as he moved to the side of his companion for the last year.
"What happened?" was the first thing out of his mouth.
Fenris spat, "Gone. Danarius escaped, and from the looks of things, quite some time ago. The last week has been a waste."
Hawke looked away, not quite sure what to say to that, not sure if there was anything to say to that.
"Was anyone hurt?" He went for the safest option, and was genuinely relieved when Fenris shook his head leaning against the wall.
The door to the mansion opened and Marian was followed by the dwarf and Bethany.
"So are you going to follow us so we can get answers or make us wait?" Marian scowled.
"Considering you probably won't leave unless I come with you, I guess I'll be following you." Dane stopped in his answer to look at Fenris, silently asking, 'Are you coming?' He received his answer when the Warrior moved to be behind him as Marian smirked and took the lead.
XXXXX
Leandra stared wordlessly as she took in the sight of her oldest son, alive and well, in front of her. He was tense, as was the elf that stood next to him, and she wondered, briefly how much he had gone through during the last year, even as she doubted the sight in front of her.
"Dane?" she whispered it, hesitant, fearful that acknowledging it would somehow make him vanish, and she'd wake up from a nightmare once more.
"Hello Mother." That was his voice, nervous as she was it seemed, the smile on his face weak at best.
Slowly she stepped over to him and, hugged him, clinging to the son she'd thought gone, holding back tears, for several long moments, before releasing him.
"What… How…" She searched for a place to begin, settling on, "Who is your friend?"
"This is Fenris, mother; Fenris, this is my Mother." Dane introduced.
She saw the Dwarf that had been working with her daughter, shift trying not to be too eager.
"Um. Dane?" Bethany spoke up, perhaps trying to help with the situation.
He looked over at her, arching an eyebrow.
"How did you meet?"
Marian chose to cut in, patience gone from the tone of her voice, demanding, "How did you even survive? Mage or not, there's no logical way that you should have been able to get to land!"
Leandra mentally sighed in exasperation with her daughter, and saw Fenris scowl, shifting at the tone of her voice.
Dane snorted, and in a dry tone stated, "If being saved by Tal-Valshoth pirates because they need a healer, and are willing to repay said healer by dropping him off in a port town is logical, logic and I are going to have a long chat."
There was silence, and Leandra stared at Dane as did the rest of her family.
"Why don't you start from the beginning, Hawke? You don't start a story in the middle. Well, not usually." Varric prompted.
"…So we found out that the man was here, and contacted Anso to hire some mercenaries, and well, they turned out to be Marian, Bethany, Carver, and…Varric was it?" Leandra listened to her son finish his tale, thinking it over, intuition nagging in the back of her mind that she had either missed something, or that her son had withheld something; Perhaps both.
"So, what are you going to do?" Marian asked, frowning.
"I'm staying in Kirkwall, that much I know. I can help you with the preparations for this Deep Roads expedition I've heard you're involved in. Beyond that, I need to figure out how to keep our end of the deal with Flemeth." He replied.
"What about living arrangements? We don't really have room here…" Leandra sighed unhappily.
"I'll just stay with Fenris. Considering the fact that no one will be going around investigating an abandoned mansion, it should be fine."
"An abandoned mansion? Dane, I'm not quite sure that I'm comfortable with you…" She sighed, stopping herself, "You'll check in every so often, even when you aren't working with your siblings?"
"Of course."