Thank you so much karebear, Apollo Wings and anesor for your awesome reviews! I really appreciate your feedback! Thanks so much to my two lovely betas as well: CouslandSpitFire and Eynla. You two are positively awesome!

NSFW Warning: The first section of this chapter in italics describes a rape scene. If you think you can't handle it, or you feel it will be offensive to you, just skip and continue below the break. You have been warned! I decided to let you all take a look into Rhianna's thoughts and feelings in this chapter, so that you get a better picture of what she is made of, so to speak.

This chapter isn't a very happy or funny chapter. Sorry about that! I'll strive to write funnier stuff in the next one!

My disclaimer as usual: Bioware owns everything – I just play with the characters! :D

Chapter 13

The two girls thought they were alone in the barn as they worked, carrying the hay and setting it on the floor into piles. A noise startled them and when they turned, they saw a templar standing behind them.

The templar sneered, looking directly at the more voluptuous girl of the two who was standing in front of him. The other girl he ignored completely – she was far too thin and scrawny.

"I'm so going to enjoy this," he said, his speech slurred. "I want you to undress. Take your clothes off and come to me…"

The lyrium binge he had been on had taken the euphoria he now felt to limits he thought weren't possible. The taste of the thing in his mouth made his speech slurred, but still comprehensible. Lyrium was the reason he had known there were two girls in the building – he had picked up the 'singing magic', as he liked to call it, coming from the thinner girl of the two and had stumbled forward into the area where they had been working.

The older girl's eyes widened and the templar smiled when he saw the fear in them. He felt even more powerful than he had ever felt before. The younger girl started to cry.

"Shut up! SHUT UP!" the templar shouted, and the older girl turned to her, begging her to be quiet. The younger girl pursed her lips and held her hand over her mouth to stifle the cries as she continued to sob, her chest heaving with every breath she took.

"If I do this, will you leave my sister alone?" the older girl asked, her eyes staring directly into the templar's.

"I will leave her alone, and I won't inform anyone that she is a mage, I promise you," the templar licked his lips in anticipation, already untying the buckles that held his codpiece in place.

"Look away, Bethany," the older girl said as she took off her clothes. "Please shut your eyes and promise me you won't look…"

"Oh, sister!" the eleven-year-old girl sobbed.

"Promise me!"

"I promise," her sister replied in a soft voice as her sister turned away.

Rhianna Hawke shut her eyes as the Templar forced her on her knees first, putting his cock into her mouth. She nearly gagged and the Templar growled, forcing her to open up wide. He thrust inside her deeply, and then suddenly withdrew, forcing Rhianna on her back on top of a pile of sweet-smelling hay. His lips descended on her roughly as he flung his gauntlets to the side. One of his hands roughly massaged a breast, the other one forced her legs apart as he positioned himself above her.

When he entered her, he did so in one movement, breaking through her maidenhood roughly and eliciting a scream of pain from Rhianna. He thrust in and out, uncaring…faster and faster until he withdrew at the last minute and spilled his seed all over her stomach.

Rhianna kept her eyes tightly shut, the pain keeping her from uttering a single word. When it was over, the templar stood up and put on his gauntlets, then adjusted the rest of his armor, a look of smug satisfaction on his face. He looked down at the girl uninterestedly, but when he saw she was bleeding, he threw a piece of cloth at her.

"Clean yourself up," he muttered. "And I expect you here tomorrow night if you want your sister to live!"

"Live?" the girl whimpered.

"I'll tell the rest of the templars that your sister is a blood mage and have her executed. I know what your father is! I'll have him arrested and executed, too!" the templar snarled back. "So you be good, and be here or your sister and father will pay!"

Fifteen-year-old Rhianna Hawke could only nod as she gently cleaned the blood away. The templar left and she sat up carefully. Bethany ran up to her and knelt at her side, crying even more when she saw her bruises.

"Sister! We have to tell father!"

"No! You heard what he said!" Rhianna protested. "You must promise me, Bethany! Promise you won't ever tell!"

"I promise, sister," Bethany sobbed. "I promise!"

She helped Rhianna put her clothes back on and then hugged her. Rhianna hugged her sister back, vowing to protect her from the templars for as long as she lived.

…

Rhianna Hawke woke up breathing heavily, covered in a light sheen of sweat. It had been some time since she'd had that nightmare. She dreaded sleeping because of it, which is why she pushed herself way past her limits so that she could return to the house and fall asleep instantly. But now, the past had suddenly come back to haunt her and she shook her head, forcing herself to think of her friends instead.

The image of Anders's face instantly came to her and she sighed. If only she could love him freely as he deserved! She would love him as nobody had ever loved him. She would comfort him and strive to make him happy – as he deserved to be. The sadness in her heart nearly choked her. She could not let him love her! She would fight to get him to hate her if it was the last thing she did!

Dear, sweet Anders…

The memory of the fateful night when she had been raped once again invaded her brain, vividly, because of her nightmare. Try as she might, she could not push it away. She frowned in the darkness as she sat on the huge bed where she slept, ransacking her brain for something to take her mind off that painful moment.

The painful moment that had taught her that she was just a thing to be had – an object that men would abuse and then throw away as they saw fit when they got tired. She remembered the nights that followed the incident – remembered how she had been forced to have sex not only with that templar but with his friends as well. She remembered all that she had been through to protect her sister and her father. Shuddering and shaking with disgust, she pulled the blankets up to her chin as she sat there, unable to make the images go away.

She hadn't gotten pregnant – the templars had always avoided spilling their seed inside her for some reason. She had, however, collected some herbs that would prevent any unwanted pregnancy. She boiled the herbs and drank the infusion every morning.

After a month of shame, pain and silent pleas to the Maker, the templar that had raped her was sent somewhere else and his friends were relocated as well, but the damage was already done.

Rhianna Hawke had been scarred for life.

…

Tempers were frayed when they set off for Sundermount that morning. Fenris stood at Rhianna's side and glared at Anders repeatedly. Isabela informed Anders in a whisper that Fenris and Rhianna were in some kind of 'relationship', so Anders glared back at Fenris jealously. Varric rolled his eyes and grinned, itching to get back to his suite to sit down and write about it all.

"It's hot today," Rhianna suddenly complained, her voice an octave higher than normal. "I wish it would rain again."

Fenris kept his eyes on her, silently gazing at her every move and gesture. Anders found himself clenching his fists and turned to look at the scenery. Beside him, Isabela snickered.

They reached the Dalish camp and Rhianna turned to them.

"We're here because I want to check in on Feynriel, and I also want to go up the mountain to see if there is anything lurking around that needs to be killed," she informed them. She then gave them all a brilliant smile and walked into the camp.

The Keeper was standing next to one of the aravels, but Feynriel was nowhere to be seen. Rhianna made a beeline for the Keeper, presumably to ask about Feynriel.

Anders spotted a familiar-looking woman dressed in frayed mustard-colored robes who was standing next to the Keeper. He frowned slightly as they approached and stopped dead in his tracks when he recognized the woman.

His hand shot out, grabbing Rhianna by the wrist and pulling her back, and she gave a surprised cry as she turned to face him.

"What the blazes are you doing?" she whispered angrily, her violet eyes flashing at him.

"Velanna is here! She's standing next to the Keeper!" Anders exclaimed.

"So?" Rhianna replied, her nostrils flaring slightly. Anders was about to let go of her, but noticed Fenris seething jealously as he came to stand right next to Rhianna. Anders pulled Rhianna closer with a smile.

"I'm sorry. Don't you remember her from the Deep Roads?" he asked.

"I do. And if she's standing next to the Keeper, she can't be that bad, can she?" Rhianna shot back at him.

"Just be careful," he replied. "Justice was a spirit, but we don't know what the merge could have done to him. I was never comfortable when I spoke to him. He was too righteous, too close-minded. Velanna is crazy. I have a feeling that she won't be any saner now."

"Well," Rhianna said with a smile. "I guess we'll have to find out, won't we?"

She squeezed his hand and he smiled down at her. "You're right, of course. But I don't trust either of them, so I'll have a spell at the ready."

Rhianna burst out laughing, her eyes twinkling. "It's so good to know I have a nice, handsome mage who'll protect me!" she exclaimed, and Fenris bristled visibly as she spoke. Then she turned to continue walking.

Anders winked at Fenris, who glared at him angrily. Varric chuckled behind Anders and Isabela rolled her eyes.

"I wish I had at least brought some parchment and a quill," Varric said to Anders as they followed Hawke. "I'll never make that mistake again!"

…

To Anders's surprise, Velanna was mellow. He had never seen her mellow before and cast a suspicious glance at the Keeper. It seemed to him that it had a lot to do with a potion to calm her than anything else. She certainly was not herself, and was looking down at the grass the whole time that Hawke talked to Marethari.

He kept a cautious gaze on Velanna the whole time, ignoring most of the conversation. But when he heard the Keeper mention her, he quickly turned and paid attention.

"She was half dead; crawling out of the entrance to what we thought was a cave. It turned out to be an entrance to the Deep Roads. She had encountered and fought the darkspawn. From what I could understand, her sister had turned into something terrible – she repeated the word 'broodmother' several times," Marethari said sadly.

Even though Anders was terrified of Velanna and thought she was crazy, he felt sorry for her. He certainly felt that she didn't deserve to see her sister become a broodmother at any rate. Nobody deserved that.

"A broodmother sounds terrible," Anders said softly. "I'm sorry, Velanna."

She gave no indication that she had heard him and Marethari cut in.

"I've given her a potion to calm her nerves – her grief was making it impossible for me to heal her. Several demons attacked her when she struggled to get out of the cave… before she collapsed at the entrance and we found her. I don't know how she could have survived all this. It's a miracle she is alive."

"I'm sorry," Anders said again, glancing at Hawke who was watching Velanna closely with the saddest expression he had ever seen on her face.

"Is she still hurt or did you manage to heal her completely?" Rhianna asked with a concerned look on her face.

"I have done my best," Marethari replied, glancing at Anders meaningfully.

"I'll gladly take a look," Anders smiled, then glanced back at Hawke who was smiling softly at him – the look in her eyes surprising him. Her smile vanished when she noticed that he was looking at her, but it didn't matter because that look she had given him had said it all.

It was a look of affection – true affection. He didn't dare hope it was love, but it was close enough for him and hope fluttered in his heart.

So healing Velanna was something he did quite happily.

When he was done, she stole another glace at him only to look away quickly, but the whole thing made his heart flutter and put a lopsided grin on his face. He was a grown man, but he felt like a giddy teenager who had fallen in love for the first time. Then, he realized that it was the first time and chuckled under his breath.

"Thank you so much," Marethari grinned. "I'll take her into the aravel so that she can rest."

"We'll look around to see if there is anything up the mountain that we can kill for you," Rhianna said cheerfully and Marethari smiled, amused by her words.

Anders was still floating in the clouds and followed Hawke up the mountain with a smile until Varric jabbed him with his elbow.

"Wake up, Blondie!" Varric exclaimed. "Shades right in front of us!"

…

The trip back was uneventful, considering that all of them were exhausted from fighting a dragon at the top of the mountain. Anders's robes were slightly singed and he sighed as he considered getting himself new robes to replace these. He hated spending the money he had just earned, especially since he needed to restock the clinic, but there was no way he would continue to wear these things as they were close to disintegrating completely soon from all the wear and tear he had put them through.

"I just remembered I have something for all of you," Rhianna cut through his thoughts and he smiled as he glanced at her. "I found some chests full of stuff in the unused wing of the estate. Apparently, the Amells liked to store swords and armors in chests for future use. Some of them were in bad shape, so I threw them out, but there's one chest in particular that has things that look brand new. Why don't you all come to the mansion with me and poke around? You can take whatever you want!"

She grinned at them, but her eyes lingered on Anders the longest.

"I'm quite content with the sword you gave me yesterday," Fenris said with a smile. Rhianna smiled back rather seductively at him and Anders looked jealously at the elf. Isabela snickered, and shook her head.

"I have a date at the Blooming Rose," she purred. "Otherwise I'd be delighted, Hawke." Isabela waved goodbye and disappeared.

"Point the way, Hawke," Varric grinned. Anders knew exactly what he was thinking, though. It wasn't that Varric wanted anything in the chest. It was only for the chance to see what happened between Hawke, Fenris and himself.

"Anything for your story, huh?" Anders muttered at Varric.

Varric burst out laughing. "I'm hurt, Blondie! I enjoy the company of my friends!"

"Yeah, riiiight," Anders said, shaking his head. Then he followed Rhianna and Fenris into the Amell Estate.

…

It turned out that Rhianna had a small treasure cove of armor and weapons, handed down from her relatives and there even was a chest that had some of her father's things that they had managed to bring with themselves from Lothering.

Anders found a staff that he promptly fell in love with, which had belonged to her mother's uncle twice removed - or something like that. A note that accompanied the staff explained that the man – obviously a mage – had constructed the staff from scratch and called it 'Illumination'. When Anders took it in his hands, it 'sang' to him – the magic pulsating and filling him entirely. He also noticed that it had three rune slots, which was an extra plus. Grinning he turned to Rhianna, who was watching him closely with a smile on her face.

"Can I?" he asked her, his eyes shining hopefully.

"Of course! Take anything you want!" Rhianna replied with a laugh. She turned to Fenris who had found a huge greatsword and was brandishing it – then bringing it down again in a sweeping arc. The pleased look on Fenris's face made Rhianna laugh again and she quickly told him to keep it.

Anders then found three sets of robes and actually burst out laughing.

"I needed new robes! What luck!"

"Well, there you go!" Rhianna beamed. "Take them! And look, feathered pauldrons on two of them!"

"But if these belonged to your father, wouldn't you like to keep them?" Anders asked gently, with a soft expression on his face.

Rhianna shook her head. "You deserve them. Besides, there is nobody I can think of that is so like my father than you…You'll do them justice," she added softly.

Varric, who was standing in the shadows watching their every reaction and gesture with a smile, groaned inwardly when he saw what was happening between Rhianna and Anders.

"I'll have to bring a spare quill and some parchment with me whenever we travel," he muttered to himself as he shook his head. "Otherwise I'll end up shooting myself for being so stupid!"

…