The sun was newly rising when Sebastian left for Kirkwall.

Varric and Merrill, after seeing him off, stayed out to watch it coming up. It was unfairly beautiful for such a dismal morning. There was not a cloud in the sky, the sun a spectacular blaze across the horizon. And so peacefully quiet that each could hear the other breathing.

"I wish I knew what to do," Merrill said, out of nowhere. "Normally when I don't know what to do, I would ask Hawke."

"I know what you mean," Varric said. He shook his head. "I still can't believe it. If this was one of my stories, I'd have to revise the ending. The hero doesn't just… disappear. What kind of crummy ending is that?"

"Oh dear, I almost forgot!" Merrill exclaimed suddenly.

The dalish elf rushed back into the cave, wringing her hands. "Wait, where is it? For goodness sake... aha!"

Merrill snatched an indistinct object off the ground at the chamber's entrance and ran lightly over to where Fenris was sitting. Proudly, she produced a rucksack that she had brought with her from Kirkwall (and dropped to the floor and immediately forgotten about).

Fenris looked at it skeptically. He was not actually interested in anything the blood witch might give him. But he took it anyway, to stop her waving it in his face.

There were a number of things inside, including more water and a sandwich of some kind, but most importantly, he found –

"Rope," he said, astonished. Now he clamored through the bag with some excitement.

"Oh Daisy," Varric moaned when he saw the rope.

"I heard you wanted to climb down to look for her, so I thought this would help," she said cheerfully.

He pulled out several lengths of rope, along with some wooden pegs and heavy gloves. Immediately, Fenris set about knotting the lengths of rope together. He had momentarily forgotten that he hated Merrill and preemptively disagreed with everything she said or did.

"It does indeed help. I am in your debt, Merrill."

She could not help grinning at that - she could not recall the last time he had addressed her by name.

He stood up slowly. It had been hours since he had moved very much and he was visibly wobbly. But he was thoroughly engrossed in his task, looking around for a good place to secure the length of rope and begin his descent.

"No. No, no, no, no, no." Varric waved his arms around warningly. "This is an incredibly, legendarily terrible idea. No offense, Daisy."

"None taken," she replied. "But why is it such a bad idea, Varric? We're always wandering about in caves."

Fenris was tying the end of his length of rope firmly around a sturdy stalagmite, knotting it repeatedly.

Varric actually snapped at her, uncharacteristically frustrated. "Because Broody is injured and exhausted and not actually any good at climbing things as far as I can tell, and I would really not like to donate any more friends to this lousy fucking hole in the ground, okay?"

Merrill thought for a minute, and then offered, "Maybe I could do it?"

Fenris looked up from his knots. "What?"

"I'm a good climber. And I'm not as heavy as you are with all that armor on. I could go down a little ways and see if I can see anything."

He looked thoughtful. Varric looked apoplectic.

"Not you too! Why is everyone I know out of their damned minds!"

"You would do this?" Fenris asked her seriously.

"Of course. Hawke was my friend too, you know. I don't really think she's alive down there, but perhaps we could find her... her remains. I hate the thought of leaving her in this cold, dark place."

Fenris chose to ignore the last bit. "Then go now. Varric and I will help you."

Varric was unable to convince either of them to change their mind, and before he knew it Merrill was positioning herself at the edge with Fenris hovering over her.

"Daisy, be careful," the dwarf said forlornly.

Merrill dangled her legs over the side and peered down. The crevasse was not very wide, perhaps 20 feet across, which did not allow much light. She raised her hands and called up her spirit energy for lumination. She could see that the opening gradually widened as you went down, making for a fairly large area to explore. And who knows how far down it went.

She called upon her spell wisps to help. As many as she could manage. They floated around her like giant fireflies, their white light gentle but steady. A few traveled down ahead of her to light her way.

"Only go to the end of the rope," Fenris instructed. "And tell me what you see."

Merrill used the heavy gloves to slide down the rope slowly, bracing against the cliffside with her feet. Eventually the rock wall dipped inwards, so that she couldn't reach it anymore. Then she had to grip the rope with hands and feet to control her slide downwards.

The elf's spell wisps circled her, darting this way and that. With their aid Merrill could actually see pretty well, at least in her immediate area. But everything below her feet was pitch black, save a tiny halo of light where two wisps had traveled, where their light only barely managed to pierce the darkness.

"Stay close to me," she whispered unnecessarily. They should remain near her life force for sustenance. Strangely though, those two wanderers continued to travel down until she couldn't see them anymore.

Merrill's feet touched the end of the rope, and she looked around. The cliffside had not curved back inwards to where she could climb it, as Fenris had hoped it would. She could see it perhaps five feet away. She could swing the rope over, maybe.

"I'm at the end!" she shouted upwards. She could just see Fenris looking down at her; from here he was about the size of her thumb. Probably Varric was there as well, but Fenris's white hair was distinct against the dull grey rock.

"Come back up!" Varric shouted.

"Just wait! I'm going to look around!"

Continuing to grip the rope, Merrill twisted all around to look over the sides of the crevasse, looking for any sign of movement. With a few words she called a small amount of chain lightning to alight the place in flashes. She saw dragonlings, here and there, peering out of tiny holes in the cliff. She saw a lot of jagged grey rock jutting out along the edges, broken where they had torn apart to create the maw of the pit. But she saw no body, and no bottom.

"HAWKE!" Merrill called out, down into the pit. "HAWKE CAN YOU HEAR ME? ARE YOU THERE?"

The silence that followed was heavy and unmistakable. There was no answer.

A tear ran down Merrill's face, at that. Perhaps she had been hoping for a miracle. But it wasn't going to happen. With a deep breath, she began to climb the rope.

At the top, she took his extended hand and allowed Fenris to pull her up, out of the pit, and up to her feet. By now there were many tears. She couldn't seem to stop them.

"I didn't see anything," she said. "I'm so sorry."

"Thank you for trying," he told her. He actually squeezed her hand. "I appreciate your efforts."

He let her go and went back to his place at the wall, sinking back to the floor.

Merrill accepted a strong hug from Varric. "I hate this place," she sniffled into his shoulder.

"We're leaving," the dwarf told her. "Broody, we tried. There isn't anything down there. She's gone."

"Well..." Merrill started to say, but was interrupted.

"No, Daisy. We've done everything we can."

But there was one odd thing, Merrill finished privately. My spell wisps were drawn downward for some reason. Could it be...? But no, there was no answer. I mustn't get anyone's hopes up.

But Varric was unable to move Fenris. He ignored the dwarf entirely, contemplating the ground and his spiky gauntlets.

"We can always knock you out, you know. Merrill could put you to sleep. Wouldn't you rather come peacefully?"

"I don't want to do that, Varric," Merrill fretted. Fenris hated magic. He would be very angry with her for it.

"Or knockout gas, I don't know! This is lunacy, Fenris. We'll drag you out of here if we have to."

"You would have to," he said dully. The elf no longer raised his head to address them. "I am not leaving."

The sound of footsteps encroached, and another figure entered the chamber.

Of course the Rivaini had always had marvelous timing.

"Isabela!" Merrill squealed. "Where have you been?"

The dalish elf ran to embrace the pirate, who hugged her back vigorously.

"Where have you been, Rivanni?" Varric approached her looking glum. "We looked all over the city for you."

"At sea," she told them. "I got my ship back, remember? We were taking an inaugural journey to Antiva, and I got a bit distracted by an old friend... anyway, I got back last night, and Aveline told me the news."

Even Isabela looked drawn and tired, as though she had not slept the night. But she pasted on a smile for Merrill. "I have some presents for you, Kitten. They have the most marvelous hats there -"

"Another time, Rivanni. We've got a problem here."

"I heard." Quieter, she asked, "How is he doing?"

"It's just terrible," Merrill told her, arms still wrapped around Isabela's waist, her eyes huge. "He's not even being horrible to me. He was actually nice. It isn't normal."

"Aw, sweetling." Isabela ran her fingers through her dark hair.

"Can you stay a couple hours?" Varric asked her. "Maybe you can talk some sense into him."

"I can stay," she said doubtfully, "but only Hawke ever had much luck with The Grumpy One."

"Well, just watch him. I need to check a few things in the city."

"You go too," Isabela told Merrill, kissing the top of her head. "Go see Aveline for me. Tell her I did too show up here."

Soon Isabela and Fenris were left alone in the Bone Pit.