A month later and the city sat in ruins, with no Viscount and not a mage left in it's tower. Cullen had taken over post as Knight Commander and as such he was the highest authority in the city, but it was straining him. They were planning a for vote in a few months, so that they could elect a new Viscount.

Nero heard plenty of rumors about people suggesting Aveline for the job, but after visiting her he found out that she would kill not to have it. Ever since the Viscount had been murdered three, almost four, years earlier she had had a lot on her plate as several of the more civil matters were brought to her instead of the Knight-Commander. She worked herself to the point of exhaustion and beyond, and even though she loved her job she looked forward to the election so that it wouldn't be so...stressful anymore.

So far only a few people had opted to join the running for the seat. A few nobleman of hardly any merit and Seneschal Bran. Nero had decided to vote for Seneschal Bran, for Aveline's sake...and because the man was probably more familiar with the inner workings of the city than the nobleman. The whole transvestite-whore-partner thing might create a problem with public relations for him though.

Nero sighed as he left the ruins of the Market where Solivitus had set up shop. He wasn't completely sure why or how the man was still working here...but he figured it had something to with Cullen. Knight Commander Cullen wasn't a bad man, he was reasonable, and after Meredith had died he had retracted the right of Annulment. Not that mages were safe in the city anymore anyway. Nero had heard that Cullen had to beg Solivitus to stay, he had great skill when it came to poultices and potions and many people had been hurt and would need his healing. Luckily most people were not aware that Solivitus was a mage, so he worked without much hassle.

Nero felt dejected because when the Chantry was destroyed debris had landed in his home, and his garden. Hardly any of his plants were still alive and he had just given Solivitus the last remaining ones and had to explain that he wouldn't be able to grow anymore. The chunk of rock that had smashed into his mansion had in turn brought most of the wall down on his plants in addition to the chunk of rock that had landed directly in the garden and then rolled into the kitchen. So his garden was a mess and he wasn't sure it would be salvageable.

He also wasn't sure if it was worth his effort to try to salvage it. After Hawke had sided with the mages he was despised by most of the city and was driven out. His home had even been ransacked the week before, further proof that he was not welcome. His companions had not been blamed nearly as badly, but only Aveline, Nero and Fenris had stayed in the city. The rest had hopped on Isabela's chip and fled. Merril because she was a blood mage and therefore in danger, Isabela because Hawke needed to leave and she would help him, and Varric because...well, he never actually explained.

Aveline couldn't abandon her guards and Nero and Fenris were waiting for word from Sebastian to tell them that he had gathered his army, that he hoped he wouldn't have to use, to overtake Starkhaven. They were to join him when he was ready, Nero was not very impressed by this. He had no desire to abandon one war only to join another.

Fenris lately had a habit of suddenly declaring, over and over again, that he couldn't believe that he helped mages. Every time it did it only added on to the weight of the guilt that Nero carried with himself constantly. After handing Anders off to Bethany he had slowly made his way back to where the others were. He had stopped when he realized that he had to make the knife bloody and he needed blood on his hands, or they would never believe he did it. He was ready to stab himself for the blood when he found a man dieing, a piece of rubble crushing his pelvis and legs.

So he had asked the man if he wanted relief from his pain, he had said yes, and Nero had slit his throat, making sure to get blood all over himself. When he returned to the others he told them that he slit Anders' throat and dumped him in the waking sea, tied to a rock. He felt a burning guilt in lying to them all, especially Fenris, which they must have assumed was grief because nobody questioned him.

And then Hawke had to argue with Sebastian about helping the mages. The prince only agreed to join when Hawke reminded him that Elthina had considered everyone a part of her flock, even the mages, and that she would have advocated helping them in this fight because they were at such a disadvantage.

The absolute rage the holy man had when Orsino turned himself into an abomination was palpable, and Fenris was no better. Nero knew that Orsino's actions only served to strengthen their hatred against mages and had cursed the First Enchanter for it. He might have been able to tell Fenris the truth of what happened someday, a long way away, but still...someday. Now he knew that to tell Fenris the truth of what he did about Anders would serve to do nothing but destroy their relationship.

The only problem was the guilt that was tearing him apart inside. Fenris figured it was mourning from killing his friend, and tried his best to comfort Nero despite his hatred of Anders. This only made everything worse for Nero. He hated lying to the elf, he hated nodding when the elf tried using comforting words. He hated letting the elf hold him because he thought that he was mourning Anders when he was really mourning their relationship. Nero couldn't help but feel that it was falling apart. He avoided Fenris as much as he could, he delved into books that he had already read so that he wouldn't have to talk to the elf. He just didn't want Fenris to ask whether his grief over Anders death was getting less painful, he didn't want to lie in return. Each lie he told or went along with ate at him inside and a very small part of him couldn't wait to go to Starkhaven. They would be busy then.

Luckily for Nero they had begun discussing leaving the city to find Sebastian in Markham where he was gathering the troops. Many people in the city knew that Fenris and Nero had helped Hawke fight the templars to protect the mages, and several merchants wouldn't even look at them. Their neighbors were hostile towards them. The only person that hadn't been poorly affected by the templar/mage fight was Aveline, and that was only because Varric had put a lot of gold into getting people to spread the rumor that Aveline had fought with the templars, not against them.

Fenris scowled as they passed a woman with her child, and they hurried to get as far away from Nero and Fenris as she could.

"I don't understand why they keep running away from us, it's not as if we've ever been talkative." Fenris muttered.

"Maybe they think that we're going to get struck down by the Maker." Nero suggested.

Fenris rolled his eyes as they turned the corner to their mansion and didn't see the mercenaries trying to pick the lock on the door. Nero grabbed him by the back of his spiky armor and pulled him back. Fenris frowned at him.

"People are breaking into our place." Nero hissed.

Fenris grew furious and pushed past Nero with the intention of stopping them when Nero grabbed him again and pushed him into the wall.

"We can't kill them!" Nero told the elf.

"Why not? They are trespassing on our property, its a crime. I'm sure Aveline will understand." Fenris snarled, angry at the men that were probably digging through his belongings right now.

"The deed to the house is in Hawke's name, Fenris. Since he's been driven from the city we're technically squatters, that's illegal too and what their doing could be sanctioned by the templars. Aveline can't fight the templars."

Fenris scowled, "all of our money, our stuff...its in there."

Nero looked away and thought quickly. Carefully he looked around the corner and noticed the men just open the front door. He called for the roots of some of the remaining plant life around the place and the second door, which was closed, was barricaded by the branches. It would take a while for the bastards to get in.

"Stay here." He hissed at the elf.

"What are you-"

He was cut off when Nero backed up and ran at the wall they were hiding behind and grabbed hold of a brick that was slightly jutting out halfway up. Since he had escaped Tevinter he had gotten into the habit of climbing... just about everything. The trees when he was in the forest, places he was staying at so that he could plan out escape routes so that men in full armor would have a hard time following him, and then eventually he just began doing it for the shits and giggles.

It wasn't until he was on top of the roof and he looked down to see the elf's stunned face that he realized that he had never actually done this in front of Fenris before. He waved and motioned for Fenris to stay before carefully running along their neighbor's rooftop towards his own place. He ran across the roof of his, well...Hawke's, mansion towards Fenris' room. Where they had both been staying. They kept everything in there, their money, their clothes, basically everything except their food and their books.

Glancing down at the ground he made sure that there were no Mercenaries scouting out the back of the mansion, and located the window of the room next to Fenris'. The bedroom windows were to narrow for him to enter, but the room on the right had a glass window, which he had a tendency to leave open just a crack. Fenris kept trying to insist that they lock it, but Nero told him if they had to make a quick escape then unlocking the window could mean that second between getting away and getting caught.

He had never intended on breaking into his own mansion, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Carefully he climbed down the side of the wall, next to the window, till he was able to hang onto the edge of the window-frame. Pulling a newly acquired knife (after leaving the one he had with Tallis he had grown to miss it and had been forced to buy another one) from his belt he used the blade to carefully pry the window open. It was the kind that was attached to the frame in the middle and you pushed the bottom half out while the top half came inside. It was a terrible window if you wanted to catch a breeze.

He pulled the bottom of the window towards himself as far as it would go and pulled himself inside, rolling to his feet when he hit the floor. He paused for a moment and listened carefully. His trip across the rooftops and opening the window hadn't taken more than sixty seconds and the mercenaries were still trying to open the door that opened into the main hall.

Breathing a sigh of relief he opened the door and headed into the bedroom where he quickly grabbed two bags and pulled the board out of the ceiling in the closet and grabbed their stash of money. He put about half in both of the bags and grabbed as much clothing as he could, including Fenris' fancier armor/suit - which he quite liked seeing the elf in. He looked around the room quickly and grabbed the book that he and the book that Fenris had been reading and stuffed them in the bags before making his way to the other room.

Unfortunately once he entered the main hall the door was thrown open and the first mercenary caught sight of him. When the man hollered Nero ran into the other room and strapped one pack on his back while he was forced to carry the other by the strap in his teeth.

He quickly climbed out of the window and closed it, jamming his knife into the crack in hopes of hindering the mercenaries. He was already on the roof by the time they reached the window and he quietly, but quickly, made his way across the rooftops to where Fenris was. He whistled down to the elf and dropped the bag into his arms before climbing down about halfway and jumping to the ground.

Fenris raised an eyebrow, "I didn't know you could do that."

"Priorities, we have to leave."

I've already started act 4 and I kind of want to wait till its done before I post it, but i probably wont, so...stay tuned!