Chapter 21: but I nearly died

It seemed easy enough, though it made her uneasy to think that Fenris thought it was a trap. She chalked it up to the fact he was paranoid and suspicious of almost everything, but she still kept her guard as she walked to the Hanged Man. She assumed she would run into Varric at the pub, and that was all she really needed if it did turn out to be a trap. She usually had nerves before she went after anyone. She always made herself seem so composed but she was truly a wreck to the core. Fenris had seen that today when she had forgotten to wake up to meet him, he was seeing too much of her weak side.

She would prove tonight she wasn't weak.

It was eerily quiet on her walk to the Hanged Man. That was the first sign that put her on guard. She could never walk more than ten feet without someone trying to take her down. She was valuable, more so dead than alive to the thugs and smugglers. She may have been one of them once, but she was now their most hated enemy. It seemed doing things for good without a profit seemed inconceivable, and a larger crime than murder. The second sign was the fact that voices couldn't be heard from the Hanged Man from up the street. That was the worst part of it, as she knew she was walking into some trap. The idea that it was something she couldn't handle was insane to her, so she didn't turn back. She couldn't turn back; the champion afraid of a trap was ridiculous. She would lose what respect she had if she did that. The third sign was when she walked into the pub itself. The door seemed much too loud as it closed behind her. There were eyes on her as she entered, she was an unwelcome visitor. She looked over at the bartender who seemed to be telling her to leave with his eyes.

She didn't leave though, that would have been foolish. They would have just chased her down if she tried to run anyways. They recognized her, who couldn't? She counted six sitting at various locations. She counted one by the bar, and then she saw Variana. She walked over, like some mouse enticed into the cat's jaws by cheese. She wasn't wearing her Champion's armor, her usual black assassin's attire with the Amelle crest was enough to point her out. She felt naked as she walked across the pub to Variana. She seemed nervous as she saw her approach, fidgeting and trying to look away at any chance.

"You must be Variana." She stopped a little distance from the table, in the opening. She wasn't going to sit down, she knew what was about to happen. Her hands were already on the hilts of her blades.

"You aren't Leto." It took her a second to process what she said, she almost wanted to laugh at Fenris' name. "Where is he and who are you exactly?"

"I know who she is well enough." A chill ran down her spine at the voice. She was face to face with Danarius as he walked down the stairs towards her. She knew that she was outnumbered, and Varric wasn't here to help her. "The Champion of Kirkwall, or Marion Hawke." He was eyeing her up as she heard movement shifting behind her. She was being encircled.

"Not many call me by my first name, nor do they know of it." She shifted her weight, she didn't seem uneasy, she tried to steel herself. She looked as hard as stone as she stood there surrounded. It made her angry that he dared to call her by her first name.

"I think it is quite a pretty name. Marion Hawke. It has a nice ring to it. I think you are a much greater prize to ensnare than Fenris. Though I do miss him so. I will just send hunters to kill him after I turn you into my new pet. You will more than make up for his loss"

There was something sinister in the way he was looking at her, something akin to greed. She felt like a piece of meat before him, or some farm animal ready for slaughter. "So why did you sell out your brother, Variana? Was it worth it?" She stared at Danarius as she asked Variana the question. She could feel herself trying to buy time, hoping that someone else would walk through the door like the fool she had been.

"You wouldn't understand what I have had to go through. Danarius promised he would make me a magister."

"Fair enough." She looked behind her at the men surrounding her. She would at least take three down.

"If you surrender I will make it less painful for you." Danarius seemed to know her scheme, and he wasn't about to waste any time. She wondered what he had in store. Would he put lyrium in her veins and use her to scare his dinner guests? Would she pour him the wine she had shared with Fenris?

Her thoughts seemed to swim through her mind as she stared at Danarius before survival instincts kicked in. She moved as fast as an arrow as she unsheathed her blades and went to strike her first target. It was the man directly behind her, the one that had stepped too close. She dug her right-handed blade deep into his neck before pulling it out to swing her left blade up in an arc across the chest of the next man that tried to snatch her. She heard laughing in the background, a raspy sound probably from Danarius as she slaughtered his goons.

"I want her alive." It was a command that allowed her opportunity to escape as she hopped over one body and tried for a desperate dash to the door. She didn't know that someone was so close behind her or else she would have attempted to slay them as the other two saps she had wasted. She felt a yanking as someone grabbed her hair, and she heard a sickening snap as she was yanked back to have her face slammed to the floor. She never wanted to be this close to the floor, that was the only thing she could think of as she tasted blood in her mouth, maybe she had bitten her tongue. She couldn't get up though as someone had what felt like their knee on her back. Her vision was blurred as her head seemed to spin; she couldn't tell who was on top of her anyways with her face being smashed into the ground. "You should stop struggling, it is futile at this point. Plus it will just damage your beautiful skin." She knew Danarius was standing next to her even though she had closed her eyes. It hurt too much to keep them open. "Oh you aren't going to say anything else witty? I was most looking forward to that aspect of you, it was one of the things that people most talk about."

His taunting was driving her insane, and it was harder to keep herself awake as the headache started to set in. She opened her eyes to look at him again, the smirk was enough to sicken her. Fenris had spent his whole life running from this monster, and now she was trapped by him. How could she have been such a fool? She never would have expected Danarius to show up, and apparently neither did Fenris. He would have been here immediately if he knew that.

"We have a long journey ahead of us boys. Take care of the bartender, we don't need any witnesses… and knock her out." She guessed it was going to be a surprise what was going to happen to her. She felt the man holding her down lift her head up to smash it down onto the floor again. In a bright flash of white hot pain she was out.