Chapter 22:Vanishing Act

She hadn't come by the mansion like she said she would, and when he stopped by her house Bodhan said she hadn't even come home. He chalked it up to her carelessness, Hawke was probably sleeping off a hangover in Varric's room, she had probably laughed at how paranoid he had been over some pints with the dwarf. He sighed at his little story of what she had done the night before and walked off to the Hanged Man. He saw Varric and Merrill standing outside with a slew of city guards, Aveline in the midst of it next to Varric. He frowned, this wasn't something he had expected to come across. Hawke was probably sprawled out on the floor of the Hanged Man in a pool of her blood, and it was all his fault.

All of their faces seemed to drop when they saw him walk up to them. "I guess this means Hawke isn't at her home… I guess the bartender's last words were right." Varric sounded heart-broken, it couldn't have been that bad, but if they thought Hawke might be at home then she wasn't dead inside.

"What? What's going on here?"

Aveline seemed to take over, the leader of the guard surrounded by a slew of her men to keep people out of the Hanged Man. "We just got here not too long ago… One of the bar maids had come in at dawn to find the bartender dying, and the inn empty and destroyed." She sighed, shaking her head. "The bartender's last words were that they had the champion.."

His heart sunk, he could feel it crushed in his chest as he took in what Aveline was saying. "Who has her?"

"We don't know. Nobody was here when we got here, Varric had been out all night at the Blooming Rose… We thought Merrill might be about to tell something because of her magic but there is no blood from Hawke in the place." Aveline seemed disgusted with herself that she had to turn to blood magic, but their leads were empty.

"It's all my fault… if I hadn't of gone out…"

"Then you'd be dead like the bartender, Varric.. they obviously picked their timing right, but I don't get why someone would kidnap her. I can get why they would kill her, she doesn't have a short supply of enemies." He saw Aveline try to work through it and he just felt the guilt pile on top of him.

"I think I know who it is." Fenris spoke up, though he felt like he couldn't talk. It just sounded like raspy words escaping from his throat, nothing substantial as he tried to crawl out from under the crushing guilt.

"Good! Then we can go get her." Merrill was smiling widely, oblivious to the fact he had no idea how to find her.

"…It's not like that, Merrill… I had her go to the inn to see if it was a trap… I had paid my sister to come see me, but now I think it was just some elaborate scheme set up by Danarius. I don't know why he would take Hawke though… I guess he figured out that I knew her, but it's not like he is trying to contact me to go to him." He shook his head, his hair falling into his eyes as he tried to fight back whatever emotions that were surging inside of him. He hated Danarius, he felt such a rage that he would hurt Hawke… He was angry with himself over letting Hawke walk into that alone, but he never figured she would be in danger, she was an unknown entity to Danarius but most of all he was worried, he was worried what was happening to Hawke. "I don't know where she could be, they could already be on a boat to Tevinter." He felt they were all blaming him for this, he was the cause of it after all but they didn't blink so much as an eyelash at his guilt. Maybe Hawke had been getting into too much trouble lately.

"That is unlikely, broody… This all seemed to happen before dawn… and the docks are hardly having anyone get in and out without Meredith's approval. To get out between that time frame is impossible. He would have to arrange something, even the smugglers are having it rough… and the coast is too rocky to have a vessel leave from there now as storms are rolling in." Varric had obviously been doing more work with the Guild than he had thought. Sometimes Fenris forgot all that the others did when they weren't with Hawke. It felt like to him that following Hawke was a full time job.

"Then what are we supposed to do? She could be anywhere." He guessed that his voice sounded a little shaky as the others were looking at him with some sort of pity in their eyes. They all knew about him and Hawke. Even though they never said anything out loud about their relationship, they could tell he was attached. Even Hawke could still tell he was attached by the way her eyes lingered on the red fabric around his arm that she gave him so long ago. He had been a fool. If she was alive he would spill his heart to her and apologize for every mistake he ever made against her.

Aveline sighed, crossing her arms over her chest in a defeated manner. "We have to wait… I will put a lock down on all vessels leaving the docks… We will make patrols every night to see if this Danarius makes a move. I'll have patrols across the Coast as well.." She shook her head. "I don't have men to spare… couldn't Hawke have gone missing at a better time?"

Varric shook his head. "You know her, she has to do everything at the worst possible moment… We could go to the templars for help."

"Out of the question, Varric… Meredith will not spare any due to her obsession with cracking down on the mages…"

"Then we better make up our plans in more detail… Aveline you can go back to the barracks and give commands to your men.. Varric and I will work on our best course of action for these patrols.." Fenris ran his fingers through his hair to brush it out of his face. "We should probably tell Anders and Bodhan as well… Could you do that Merrill?"

Merrill frowned at him. "I know you don't like me Fenris or what I do but I can be more helpful in this than you think…"

"Merrill, I would let you summon a demon right here if it meant getting Hawke back right now.. but we need to inform Anders and Bodhan..." He didn't know what had come over him, but he was starting to understand how mages became an abomination. He would become one now if it meant he would be able to reclaim Hawke into his life. Maybe Hawke had been right about everything up to this point.

"The elf is right, Daisy. You are faster than the both of us, Anders will be more compliant with you than with broody here, and we have to map out the city which you still get lost in."

"I do not anymore! Not since you gave me the thread." Varric smiled at her, some sweet smile Fenris had never seen before. He was enamored with Merrill, that would have at one point made him chuckle at the unlikely pair but he seemed beyond humor now. "Fine.. I will go, but you better not leave without me!"