Promises: Chapter Twenty-Three

Disclaimer: Dragon Age and all assorted characters/places/etc belong to Bioware, not me.

They set off for the market the next day after a light breakfast at the inn. Hawke cheerfully asked the serving girl for directions when their food had arrived. Fenris paid close attention to the directions. While Hawke's memory rivaled his own, he had noticed that his mageling's sense of direction was somewhat lacking when she was distracted. Seeing how they were in a new town again, he was willing to bet that the mageling would be distracted today.

Hawke bounced along side of him as he led the two of them to the market. Before they had left their room that morning, Fenris had split the coin they had received from Zevran into three parts. The greatest part of it went into a secure purse that he kept inside of his armor, safe from pickpockets. The remainder was divided evenly between another coin pouch that he kept and one he handed over to Hawke. Hawke was speechless when she first received the pouch but soon admitted that she had never so much as held that amount of coin before. Fenris had given her a wry smile along with instructions for her not to spend it all in one place.

Not that Hawke would do such a thing. His mageling knew they had a long journey ahead of them, and Fenris could count on her to be practical when it came to maintaining a tight rein on her spending.

"This market is smaller than the one in Antiva City," Hawke noted as they reached the first stalls. "Still bigger than Denerim's, but then I'm beginning to think that just about every city is bigger than Denerim."

"I think that's right," drawled a voice from behind them. Fenris and Hawke spun around to see Isabela, who looked slightly worse for wear. "Though not all cities have the charm of Denerim."

Hawke looked suspiciously at the raider. "Am I dreaming? I must be dreaming," she said. "I must be dreaming to hear anyone say anything remotely complimentary towards my homeland. You wouldn't believe how many times I've heard Ferelden insulted since I've left it."

"Let me guess. Barbarians and dog lords, yes?" Isabela asked. At Hawke's nod, she continued. "Don't let it bother you, love. That's mostly merchants talking, and they're a stuffy lot." Then Isabela shifted her gaze over to Fenris before holding out her hand.

He snorted. "You don't believe in wasting time, do you?"

"No, I don't. I want to finish getting my ship provisioned today so I can catch tomorrow's tide. If I miss that, it'll be harder to put out to sea," Isabela explained pleasantly. Fenris handed over the promised coin, deciding that it would be to their advantage to leave town sooner rather than later, especially if the templars started seeking out Hawke again.

"Thank you," said Isabela. She shifted the coins back and forth in her hand, counting them by weight, before putting them into her own coin purse. "Let's be off then. I want to order my supplies early so they'll be delivered before the end of the day. Although," she turned to look critically at Hawke, "I have to ask. Are robes the only thing you have to wear?"

"Yes," Hawke replied.

Isabela turned up her nose. "That's not very smart, not when you're trying to hide from templars. Nothing says 'Catch me, I'm a mage' like a set of robes."

"Well it's what I'm used to," Hawke said. "And we had thought about getting me something else, we just never got around to it."

"That comes from traveling with men. Your robes would have to be falling apart before they think of buying anything new for you." Isabela smirked then. "And with Zev, probably not even then. He is a vulgar bastard. So let's hit the armorer first. I'd offer to loan you something of mine, love, but I'm afraid nothing would fit," the lady pirate added, gesturing towards her chest. Isabela glanced around to get her bearings before marching off, leaving Hawke and Fenris to follow after her.

"Rub it in, why don't you?" fumed Hawke. His mageling seemed to be upset at Isabela's last comment, but Fenris didn't understand why. While Isabela's…assets were significant and she was attractive in her own right, the pirate simply couldn't hold a candle to Hawke.

However, Fenris felt it was important to make one thing crystal clear with his mageling before the raider had a chance to impress the mageling with bad ideas. Fenris felt he was an apt judge of character, and he was willing to bet all the coin they had received from Zevran that Isabela was the assassin's match when it came to being a bad influence. "You're not going to follow the pirate's example and go without pants," he told her firmly.

Hawke shot him a look of disbelief. "As if I could pull that off!" she grumbled. She scrunched her nose up and then stalked off after the pirate, leaving Fenris to trail after her. It was ridiculously easy to follow the pirate's path for Isabela left a line of slack-jawed men in her wake.

They found the pirate at an armorer near the center of the market square. Isabela had already selected a handful of cuirasses and vests, which she thrust over at Hawke. "Here," she said. "Hold these while I pick out some skirts and trousers for you."

Isabela sauntered over to another rack. Fenris stood silently beside Hawke as the two of them watched Isabela make short work of the rack, quickly looking at each piece before pushing it aside to look at the next one. Isabela went through two racks like that before she finally found something that met her standards.

"Now this, I wager, would look lovely on you," Isabela announced as she pulled out a skirt for their appraisal. The skirt was made of thick, leather bands all stitched together. The leather was hardened and looked to be of good quality, but there was one major problem that Fenris saw right away.

"That's short," Hawke told the pirate. "Too short. If I wore that, chances are I would be putting my smalls on display with each step I take."

"Yes, love, that's what I'd call a benefit to this one," Isabela replied, nearly leering at the mageling. Fenris could feel his cheeks turning red. The thought of his mageling walking in front of him, her smallclothes peeking out at him as they went, was not something he wanted to linger on, not in so public place as this. He shifted his weight from one leg to another, trying frantically to drive away such ideas before it became apparent to everyone just what he was thinking about.

"No," said Hawke. "Thank you, but no. It's not for me." Fenris was glad that his mageling was putting her foot down; it saved him the trouble of having to do so himself and go up against two stubborn females, especially when he was still trying to clear his head of the dirty images that had invaded it.

"Very well. Though for someone so young, you really should live a little." Isabela held the skirt up against her legs and considered it. "Hmm…maybe I'll get it for myself. What do you think, Fenris?"

Fenris could feel his blush deepened as the lady pirate's innocent question caused his mageling to focus on him while he was so discomforted. "Do as you wish," he said quickly, ducking his head to avoid Hawke's eyes.

"Why not?" the mageling snapped, her voice sounding uncharacteristically irritated. "It certainly would cover more than your current outfit does now."

"Oh, good point. Thanks for pointing that out, love," Isabela said airily as she returned the skirt to its place. "Now how about this one?" she asked, showing them another skirt that was almost as bad as the first.

After fifteen minutes of such nonsense, Fenris was wishing the ground would open up and swallow him whole. That would certainly be preferable to standing in the little shop and constantly having to find something to hide behind so he could conceal his reactions to the images swarming his mind of Hawke wearing the different skimpy pieces of armor that the lady pirate was showing them. Fenris had lost count the number of times he wished Isabela to the void, cursing the fact that he had ever agreed to let the blasted pirate suggest suitable pieces of light armor for Hawke. Clearly what Isabela thought was suitable wasn't the same as him.

Thankfully his mageling finally got fed up one of the more scanty pieces Isabela had held up for them to exam. "Oh, enough of this," Hawke mumbled angrily. "We're never going to get anywhere. I'll pick my own damn armor." She pushed forward crossly and selected several pieces in short order.

"I think there are a few items there that are a bit much for you to handle," Isabela noted, being helpful for once. She removed them from Hawke's grasp and then pushed a set of trousers at the mageling. "Here. I think these will be perfect for you. You should wear it with this one vest I picked…ah this one here! Try this pairing on first."

Hawke shot her a wary glance. She accepted the pirate's advice but not before picking up a white shirt to wear under the vest. The mageling retreated to a corner of the shop that had been curtained off to change into the set of light armor. When she stepped out, Fenris' heart just about stopped.

Calling Hawke beautiful didn't do her justice. She was breathtaking, pure and simple, and Fenris could feel his blood rushing south. Though the modest blouse she had chosen concealed her skin, the tight vest left nothing to the imagination. It acted as a corset, emphasizing the fullness of her breasts.

"So what do you think?" the mageling asked, doing a little twirl before them so they could get the full effect. The trousers were tight, and the way they hugged the curve of her ass bordered on obscene.

"I like it very much. No need to try anything else on, love. We're getting it," Isabela told her.

Hawke ignored the lady pirate in favor of Fenris. She quirked an eyebrow up at him. "Well?" she asked, tapping her foot impatiently.

Fenris found that he had no words to say. He gulped nervously, searching for something appropriate to say but came up short.

"No worries there, kitten. Fenris likes it too," Isabela answered for him. She glanced knowingly down at him and then tilted her head towards him, so close that her lips nearly brushed against his ear. "If you even to deny just how much you appreciate it," she whispered to him, "I'll make sure you'll regret it."

Fenris had no doubt that the lady pirate would live up to her threat. So it was that he motioned Hawke towards the shopkeeper. His mageling seemed less than pleased by this turn of events. She had no chance to protest though for the lady pirate darted past her to pick up her discarded mage robes and then usher over to the shopkeeper. Fenris took out his coin pouch and paid the man, torn between feeling that it was money well spent and wondering just how he was going to survive the rest of the day having to look at Hawke wearing that outfit.

The day had been long and torturous for Fenris after their visit to the armorer. He had decided to stay behind the two women, thinking that was the best way to conceal the effect that Hawke's new armor had on him, only to find that he was mesmerized by the swaying of her ass as she walked before him. It was just as well that Isabela and Hawke didn't need his help for dealing with the merchants as he had trouble focusing on anything aside from Hawke's curves.

After they had finished purchasing the provisions Isabela needed for their journey, the lady pirate insisted they spend the night on her ship. "We're leaving early because we don't want to miss the morning tide," she told them.

Isabela's ship was a sturdy thing and looked to have ridden out many a storm. Isabela gave them a brief tour so that they would know where the galley was as well as how to get up on deck. It took longer than Fenris would have liked though for he was conscious of the stares that Hawke was attracting from all of the sailors. He was glad when the lady pirate finally showed them to the private room Hawke had bargained for, near the center of the ship.

"My room is just next door," she said. "If you need a hand with anything later," she winked at Fenris, "anything at all, feel free to come over. That goes for you too, kitten. Now I better go make sure that my men are on task, given all the recent distractions."

Hawke huffed angrily as Isabela waved good bye to and then stepped inside their room. "Well at least it's clean," she sniffed haughtily as she gave the room a once over. "That's more than what I was expecting."

That remark was most unlike Hawke. His mageling was nothing if not perennially cheerful and often tried too hard to look at the bright side of things. "Are you all right?" he came out and asked her.

"Why wouldn't I be?" was Hawke's surly reply. Fenris merely gave her a look, telling her without words that she wasn't fooling him.

Hawke heaved a sigh and then wandered over to flop on to one of the beds. "It's nothing, really. Well nothing serious. I'm just not…not looking forward to this trip, that's all."

"I see," said Fenris, which he did. From the way Hawke refused to meet his eyes, he knew that she wasn't being entirely forthcoming with him. Hawke was also chewing on her lower lip, a sign that she was rather upset about something. His mageling had been perfectly cheerful at breakfast this morning, and her mood had only darkened during their time at the market with Isabela.

Fenris racked his memory, trying to recall the incident that might have set Hawke off. For the life of him, he couldn't figure it out. Isabela never had the chance to be alone with Hawke. In fact, the lady pirate had always been by Fenris' side, and so he would have heard if she had said anything upsetting to his mageling. Fenris bit back a growl of frustration and gave up trying to figure out why Hawke was moody. With any luck, Hawke would be back to her normal self by morning. He silently promised himself to monitor Hawke's interactions with Isabela more carefully in the future so he could prevent the lady pirate from distressing his mageling again.

Not knowing what else to say, Fenris walked over to the other bed in the room. After removing a few items from his pack, he placed it down on the floor beside the bed and frowned. There was no lock on the door, and so anyone could enter their room at any time. He scanned the room, looking for a place that they could hide their valuables.

"Looking for a hiding place?" Hawke asked. Fenris looked up to see that she too had removed a few items for the night and was now looking for somewhere to stow her bag. "I don't think you'll find one, but I have a solution." She motioned for Fenris to store his pack in a chest towards the back of the room. She placed her pack beside his in the chest. He watched as his mageling first cast a protective ward over the packs to seal them off followed by two different types of hexes. He recognized one hex as a misdirection hex, but the other he hadn't ever seen before.

"There!" she said when she was finished. "I didn't sense any mages on board so there's no one who can break the spell. And if anyone is misfortunate enough to get past the misdirection hex…well let's just say that person will have the word 'thief' written all over his face," she added with a wicked grin. "Just don't try to get to them without me lifting the spells first, okay?"

"I wouldn't be so foolish as to try," he told her.

"True that. That was a rather obvious thing to say, wasn't it? Sorry," she said. Hawke looked sideways, and her cheeks were tinged with pink. "Would you mind turning around? I'd like to change clothes for bed."

Both of Fenris' eyebrows shot up at that remark. Hawke had never turned in for bed early. She was more of the type to stay up late, talking the night away. "Already?" he asked. "We haven't even had dinner yet."

"I'm not that hungry," she claimed. "I find that I'm actually more tired than hungry so I think I had best go to sleep. Now if you don't mind?" Hawke made a gesture with her hand and shot him a pleading look. The mageling had made up her mind, and Fenris knew better than to try and change it. He did his best to keep his mind blank, trying not to think about the fact that Hawke was undressing in the same room that he was in. Finally after what seemed to be an eternity passed, Hawke announced that she was done.

The mageling hopped into bed, kicking the covers aside. "Just because I'm going to sleep early doesn't mean you have to do the same," she told him. "Go ahead and go to dinner if you're hungry. You should make more friends."

Fenris snorted at the idea of him going to dinner alone, instead choosing to follow Hawke's example and go to bed. He didn't feel at home with crowds, and he didn't feel all that confident when it came to interacting with strangers. He supposed that was part and parcel of being a slave for so long; as a slave, he never had to worry about such things. His only concern was keeping the cruel magister who owned him alive and happy.

As for the concept of him making friends—frankly Fenris had no interest in doing so. He wasn't entirely sure that he was deserving of having friends. That was all right with him. He didn't need a friend, someone who would at best be a liability and at worst would betray him. Experience had taught Fenris that it was best to rely upon only himself, and that was a tenet he had followed up until he met Hawke.

Hawke pretty much broke every rule he had. Fenris didn't trust mages, but he trusted Hawke. He didn't let anyone get close to him, but he needed to stay close to Hawke. He had no real explanation for why Hawke was such an exception, just that she was special.

Of course, if he thought about it, he could break it down further than that. Hawke was the first mage he had met who had a healthy fear of what she could become. Most mages brushed aside the fact that they could fall prey to a demon and become an abomination, harming all those around them. The select few who didn't forget that fact tended to let their fear rule them. Hawke, however, met that fear head on and somehow that fear strengthened her control and resolve. The mageling was truly remarkable.

As for Hawke getting close to him…well his mageling was adorable. She was also innocent in a way that made him want to protect her. Hawke had no concept of the depravities to which her kind could seek, and frankly Fenris had no wish to educate her on such. It was enough to know that Hawke would never stoop to using blood magic—actually it was more than that. If Hawke ever made such a mistake, then Fenris would keep his promise from so long ago and put an end to her. Thankfully he had no fear that would ever happen. Fenris trusted Hawke in a way he trusted no one else. He didn't have to worry; she would do the right thing.

One thing he did worry about was her bad mood earlier today when they arrived in their cabin. It had passed quickly enough, but he hated seeing Hawke be so pessimistic. His mageling was naturally a bright and cheerful girl, not a bitter one. It bothered him that he didn't know the root cause of her snippiness today.

Perhaps he was overthinking things. Hawke had been through a lot this past week. Not only had they finally put an end to Brax and his slaving ring, they also found out the truth about Zevran. It was a lot to digest. Fenris supposed that Hawke had lost a bit of her innocence in Antiva. Certainly he couldn't see her ever being so trusting of strangers ever again. While that thought kind of made him sad, he thought that in the end, it would be good for Hawke. It was one thing to think the best of people; it was another to rely upon such a notion.

Yes, there was both good and bad aspects to their stay in Antiva. Their sojourn in the country was almost at an end, but Fenris didn't really care where they would wind up next. All that really mattered was that he had his mageling with him, and that they were both safe from any and all pursuers.

Author's note: Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed. I sound like a broken record, but seriously it would be so much harder to wriite a long fic like this without encouragement. :D