"I think we're going to get home without getting jumped."
Varric groaned. "Why did you have to say that, Chantry Boy? Do you know what happens when people say that?"
Merrill pitched her voice down for her imitation of Varric, "No shit, there I was, and two dozen slavers just fell from the sky."
Hawke snorted a laugh through her nose, trying to stay quiet, because she really would prefer they made it to the Hanged Man without yet another kill or be killed situation.
"I was just saying," Sebastian insisted, "that it's a quiet night and no one seems—"
He was interrupted by the quiet thumps of dozens of feet in soft footpad's boots hitting the ground.
"What did I tell you?" Varric said, pulling Bianca off his shoulder. "Never say that."
In the distance, they heard the melancholy – and utterly incorrect – call of a guardsman: "One o'clock, and all's well!"