Varric refilled their glasses and topped off the table bottle from the cask of Antivan brandy tucked away in the corner. "This one's done, Hawke," he announced, tipping the keg forward to get out the last bit. He raised an eyebrow. "Do you have a replacement, or is it up to me?"

"I don't know." Hawke made a face. "Can I trust your judgment… your taste? That last lot was a headache-in-a-bottle."

The dwarf wore a hurt look. "I'll overlook your assault on my reputation. I am not the cheap bastard you portray me to be." He set the bottle on the table and sat down. "What I have, my friend, is liquid gold. I held back two quarter-casks of this fine Antivan spirit from a… shipment. They've been aging in my digs at the Hanged Man for too long. I'll send them over tomorrow. Gratis!"

"Thanks… I think." He took a moment to look around his upstairs study. They were sitting at a long dining table with ten chairs that dominated the room. In a far corner, overlooking the entry hall, sat an upholstered easy chair and an unlit reading lamp. It had been his mother's favorite spot. She'd claimed it not long after moving in. He didn't have the heart to move them. Like her bedroom, they held too many memories. "That reminds me–how's the book coming?" He set his glass down and reached for the bottle.

"Ahh, glad you asked." Varric rubbed his hands together and dug around in his carry-bag. "I need you to help fill in some of the gaps. The Qunari… fiasco. What happened after Petrice's execution? What finally pushed the Arishok over the edge?" He pulled up an ink bottle and sharpened a quill with a bone-handled pocket-knife. "They couldn't leave until they found something?" He couldn't quite remember. "Didn't the Pirate Queen have something to do with it?" The dwarf couldn't help but leer at the mention of Isabela. "That one–long on the looks, but short on the political savvy."

Hawke picked up his glass and sat back. "Yeah, right. What hate and discontent the Revered Mother stirred up got carried on by Isabela's light-fingered fumbling. Didn't she know what stealing their relic would do to the Qunari–what it would do to Kirkwall?" He rolled his eyes.

"Still, you can't complain, Hawke." Varric set his glass down and grinned. "The duel with the Arishok made you a hero. From an immigrant to a household name in a few short years. Not too shabby."

"Hmm, champion," he mused, refilling their glasses. "You said there were gaps?"

"The storm that wrecked The Siren's Call–Isabela's ship–didn't that seem too convenient? Wasn't there more to it than just a little wind?" He uncapped the ink bottle and opened his notebook.

Hawke took a stiff belt and grimaced. "With Captain Isabela, nothing is that simple…

In our meetings with the Qunari leader, he mentioned not being able to leave Kirkwall until he found something that was taken from him. Isabela's part in it was revealed a bit at a time. In the week following Petrice's death, I came home one evening to find Aveline and Isabela standing nose-to-nose in what was once Mother's Sitting Room.

Before I even got into the room, the Guard-Captain's voice stopped me. 'This is important,' she'd said, 'Don't interrupt with your selfish prattle.' I wasn't too sure who she was talking to, so I stayed put.

There was no mistaking 'Bela's beautiful voice. 'Get off your high horse. I have problems too.'

Those two were worlds apart except in temperament, so I wisely chose to listen to their gripes from hiding. Maybe they could thrash it out before my presence was needed.

'Hmmf!' Only Avvy could put that much contempt into one sound. 'Right! What drink shall I order?' Her voice was shrill with mockery. 'Who… is… the father?' Her throaty tone almost made me laugh out loud.

'Oh, you… Bitch!' It was almost a shriek.

I decided to make my entrance before there was a mess to clean up. 'What is it now, you two?' Though I didn't see any weapons, stepping between them was out of the question.

At my interruption, two pair of the most beautiful eyes in Kirkwall unlocked from each other and turned on me. 'Hawke–the Arishok is sheltering two fugitives who have converted to the Qun. He must be convinced to release them.' Green-Eyes spoke first. 'He's already feared because of Petrice's shenanigans. If people start thinking he can ignore the law… I need your help so this doesn't get out of hand,' she pleaded.

Two stunning hazel eyes regarded me calmly. I couldn't look away. 'I am going to die!' She smiled. 'There. Got your attention. Real problem.' Her smile widened.

I looked back and forth at their steady gazes. No one blinked–no one looked away. 'Hold on here. What's this about?' was all I could think of.

Hazel-Eyes broke the silence; 'Remember the relic? The one that Castillon is going to kill me over?' Like a big cat's, they slowly closed and opened again. 'A man called Wall-Eyed Sam has it.' She looked past me at Aveline. 'If you help me get it back, Castillon won't kill me.' Her eyes, once again, found mine. 'Please.'

I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it did with a thud; 'I'm trying to keep the entire city from rioting against the Qunari!' This was Green-Eyes.

Hazel had an ace up her sleeve; 'Well, maybe it's all connected.'

'What?' It was news to the Guard-Captain. Her eyes widened, then narrowed with suspicion. Both green and hazel eyes were, once again, locked.

Hazel broke away first. 'I'm just saying… maybe it will help.' She shrugged. 'It's important to someone, right?'

Aveline averted a murderous look and threw up her hands, almost hitting me in the process. 'Now, you start being responsible? Shit!' Her hand on my shoulder steadied me.

Now, they had their backs to one another. 'Isabela, this is the relic you've been looking for?' I asked, playing for time. I had to think.

'Yeah, I've had my ear to the ground for some time now. My sources gave me a description of the book. It is the right one,' Isabela assured me, though her hazel eyes wouldn't meet mine.

'Book?' My tone made her look sharply around at me. 'I thought you didn't know what the relic was.' I had her there. My wink at the guard-Captain got a distant smile in return.

'Well I… ' Her mind must've been racing. 'I know it's a book,' she admitted, nervously twisting a thumb-ring on her left hand. 'But… that's all I know. It's written in a foreign tongue.' She turned to face me and raised her hands. 'Honestly, what does it matter? It'll save me from Castillon, so I need to find it.'

Aveline didn't appear to be listening. Her back was to us. 'Isn't it odd that someone would run to the Qunari?' Did she hear me? I decided to wait her out.

Finally, she unfolded her arms and turned to face me. 'Well, they're city elves accused of murder. Maybe they feel they have nothing to lose by fleeing the Alienage.'

After what had happened to the viscount's son, I wasn't really sure. 'And if their conversion to the Qun is the truth?'

Aveline shrugged. 'I… don't know. But how many more miscreants will try it if I allow these elves to hide? Justice must be respected.'

It didn't take me long. My mind was made up.'The relic issue has to be resolved before we take on the Qunari.'

The Guard-Captain turned on me. 'So, Hawke, it's now tits over brains?' She glared at Isabela, who couldn't help giving her a salacious wink. 'I can't believe you've come down on her side.'

'Think about it,' I replied, barely controlling my temper. 'It's not even a matter of sides.' My eyes found Isabela's, willing her to just be still. 'If solving her problem makes dealing with the Arishok any easier, I say let's do it.'

'Then go do it, dammit!' Aveline left in a hurry, slamming the door behind her.

Isabela covered her face with both hands, barely able to stifle her glee. 'Are you going to tell her? That's the–'

'You, in the corner. Now.' I interrupted her. 'Sit. Stay. Good girl.' I could hear 'Bela's hitching and snickering as I crossed the room and opened the closet door.

Aveline was standing at the window at the far end of the narrow room that served as a storage closet. When I closed the door behind me, she raised her chin, but didn't look my way. 'Come to gloat? To show the loser the door?' There was more anger than self-pity in her words.

'No.' I placed my hands on her shoulders, turning her around. 'I've come to ask you not to do this to me. I need you.' Her look of surprise made me smile in spite of myself. 'I've got a gut feeling about this and I know I can trust you. What do you say?'

She didn't have to think very long. 'I'm in. What do you want me to do?'

'Can you round up Varric and Merrill while I try to get the truth out of the Captain?'

'Good luck,' she said. 'I've got the easiest task, it seems.' On her way out, Aveline did an admirable job ignoring Isabela's cat-calls and mocking laughter.

Varric was scribbling furiously. At the end of a line, he looked up. "Another piece of Kirkwall's history I missed–damned you, Bartrand."

"He's blood, Varric. Could you look at yourself in the mirror if you didn't take care of him?" Cale held up the bottle and refilled their glasses.

"Yeah, yeah Hawke. I hear it enough, it'll become the truth." He changed the subject. "So, the relic stolen from the Qunari was a book. When did you find out Isabela's part in it?"

"That was what led us to a friend of hers–a gentleman known to all as Wall-Eyed Sam.

On our way to the Foundry District we passed the Hanged Man. It was late afternoon then, so traffic was light. After sunset, the real crowds would make their way to one of Kirkwall's favorite watering holes. 'Maybe we can nip in and see if Varric can come with us,' Merrill said, while eying Isabela's back with some suspicion.

'I've already checked,' the guard-Captain assured her. 'He's out of town–something about his brother. They don't know when he'll be back.'

'Pity.' Merrill watched Isabela slip around a far corner and make her way back to the group. 'Something about her I just don't trust,' she'd whispered.

Isabela led us aside under an awning that was a shop stall during the day. 'Damn, it's never easy. There's a patrol on the far side of that stairwell–Qunari. No more than six that I could see. Let me work my way around them while you keep them looking this way.' Without waiting for an answer, she ran down a side alley and was gone.

I stayed Aveline's sword-hand. 'Let's see what they're up to. No sense provoking them, right?'

'So right,' she agreed. 'Let's get on with it. Come what may.' She spared me one of her stern looks as she brushed by.

Isabela'd miscounted. There was only five Qunari warriors in the patrol that blocked our path into the Foundry District. In spite of slung weapons, their red war-paint told all that they had a purpose. 'Hold. I recognize the one called Hawke. We seek the woman-pirate. She was with you.' Their Sten was the biggest and carried a greatsword slung behind his left shoulder. The others carried their lances slung as well. To my relief, there were no bows here.

It sounded like an accusation. 'She left us,' I replied, using my best card-player's face. 'What has she done?'

The Sten drew himself up, uncrossing his arms. 'It is a matter of honor. She has something that belongs to all the Qun. We are here to take it back.'

'She doesn't have it. We're looking for it now–'

He drew his weapon, causing his followers to do the same. 'Then you are stained with her dishonor as well.' He raised his voice. 'These bas have no honor. Kill them!'

Varric looked up from his notes. "So, where was the Pirate-Captain? She didn't leave you there to hold the bag, did she?"

"No, but she did put a huge hole in our group. Aveline and I had to fight at the front. The Qunari were too strong for one of us to stay back and cover Merrill so she was on her own." He shook his head. "But Isabela did come up with something… "

'I am all right. Really, I am,' she protested, shying away from Aveline's attention. 'It is just… my staff. Where did it get to?'

'No, you're not.' Her fingers gently probed a large knot on the elf's head. 'You've taken a hard knock. Here, be still!'

'Well, that wasn't so bad, was it?' Isabela had reappeared from the alley she'd taken before the fight.'Those ox-men were push-overs, weren't they?'

Aveline looked up from tending Merrill. 'Hawke, before we go any further, we need to clear the air.'

I had to agree. It was about time. 'Isabela, level with us–the whole truth about this relic or this is as far as we go.'

She knew we'd cornered her. 'Er… yes. About that.' Her eyes looked everywhere but at me. 'The relic belongs to the Qunari and there's a chance, just a small chance, they still want it back.' She pulled her hands away from her weapons at Merrill and Aveline's approach.

The Guard-Captain's voice held not a little menace; 'C'mon captain, come clean. It's good for the soul.'

Aveline's gambit didn't work. Isabela stepped back and crossed her arms over an ample bosom. A mulish look that we all knew too well set her face.

She allowed me to take her arm and steer her away from the group. 'Come on, now–you need to tell me what's going on.' My voice was too low for the others to hear. 'You can trust us. We need to know.'

Her eyes returned to mine from their scrutiny of Aveline and Merrill. 'Well, you all know my ship foundered not far from Kirkwall Harbor. That's where I wanted to land. What you don't know was why I was running through a bastard of a gale to get here. The Qunari were closing too fast and I got careless… I found the rocks just off the cape.' She stopped to watch a wagon make its way to the waterfront. 'We took to the boat with the relic and the few who were still alive, but not before we saw the end for the Qunari as well. Their barque was holed and went down well offshore. Served the bastards right.' There were now tears in her eyes. 'I lost… the only one I really cared about in that wreck.' She turned her back on me.

This was a first for me. I'd never seen Isabela like this. I put a steady hand on her shoulder and when she looked up, I said, 'I am sorry. It seems everybody is losing someone they care about lately.'

It didn't take long for her to compose herself. 'I've always known what the relic was,' she admitted. 'I just didn't want to… worry you.' She shook her head and made a pushing-away gesture at my skeptical look. 'The relic is a Qunari text handwritten by that philosopher of theirs–Keslan, Cousland… whatever his damned name is.' She shrugged and looked me dead in the eye. I knew the truth was coming. 'I stole it from them, they followed me here to reclaim it, and Wall-Eyed Sam stole it from me. That is why the Qunari are still here in Kirkwall.'

'And they very well can't leave without it, can they?' Aveline was close enough that she'd heard most of the admission. 'The Arishok told us as much. All of this could have been avoided!'

I couldn't believe it. 'All this over the theft of a book?' I saw Merrill about to say something, but she kept her peace.

'Don't know.' Isabela adjusted her weapon harness with a shrug. 'Maybe they take their reading seriously. Look. The book's right in this building, and I'm not letting it slip away again. Are you coming with me?' This time, she waited for us to follow. 'Oh, by the way, the Qunari have an Achille's Heel, of sorts. For a quick kill, stab your blade at the base of their neck from the back–gets them every time.' She winked at Aveline. 'That's how I got three of 'em before you guys even got your blades out.'

"Well, that makes sense." Varric had finished with his notes. "I can see why the good captain found somewhere else to be every time we visited the Qun compound. What about Wall-Eyed Sam? In the grand scheme of things, he's a nothing. How did he get involved?"

Hawke shook his head. "I'm not really sure. Isabela wasn't very forthcoming about any of it. He was probably there and took advantage of the situation. It's not very often anyone gets one-up on her."

He turned a page in his notebook and picked up his pen. "She did get it back. Bringing it to you when you faced the Arishok had a touch of her grand timing. That took guts, if you ask me."

"Hmmf!' Hawke disagreed. "If she had guts… never mind. She got the book. We paid the price…."

She led us right to Wall-Eyed Sam. On a terrace overlooking the furnace room in the Lost End Foundry we were able to watch what was going on without being seen. 'There he is,' Isabela whipered, pointing to a scruffy-looking character standing on the main floor, surrounded by a group of mages. 'He's probably going to unload the tome here. It would be of interest to them.'

A powerful voice from the terrace on the far side of the room caught our attention; 'The Tome of Koslun will not fall into Tevinter hands!' The Qunari were not to be denied.

Everything seemed to happen a once. With a cry of He's getting away! Isabela took off after Sam, while the mages spread out and attacked the Qunari. There were no doors on our terrace that would allow us to get out, so we decided to wait for the mages or the Qunari to win the battle below.

Our patience was rewarded. When the last of the Qunari fell, there was only a pair of mages left for us–Aveline, Merrill, and me–to deal with. Isabela's desertion had again left a hole in our group's effectiveness. Still, Merrill's fireball stunned them long enough for Aveline and me to finish them with little effort.

There wasn't much time. It hadn't been long since the captain had left, so we declined searching bodies on the battleground and followed her path from the foundry. Outside, we found Wall-Eyed Sam's corpse. Its condition spoke of Isabela's ire–loud and clear. She hadn't just killed him, she'd literally cut him to pieces.

Aveline had her back to us, but we could still hear her. 'She's gone. She took it. That bitch-born whore!' She turned on us. 'Hawke, she's left us holding the damned bag. But that's good.' Her smile was feral. 'Now we get to deal with the Arishok and the fugitives ourselves.' The Guard-Captain held up a bloody scrap of paper.

Dear Hawke,
I have the relic and I am gone.
I'm sorry it has to be this way.
You've been a loyal ally, but this
is best for us both.

You promised me the relic, and
I know you'd fight Castillon for me,
but I don't want this.
I've dragged you too far into this
mess already.

You don't have to forgive me, but I
hope you understand.
My thanks, Isabela.

A/N Thanks ~Vice. It's much better now. C.