Sadly, Ferelden refugees weren't exactly looked highly upon. Sure, she had a little more leverage just because she had a decent reputation, but it wasn't anything for people to trust her to do a job; at least until they came upon a stubborn dwarf by the name of Bertrand. He was leading an expedition to the Deep Roads, the home of the Darkspawn. The only reason he could was that due to the end of the Blight, the Deep Roads would be practically empty, thus they would be able to travel deeper into the cave system. The deeper one goes, the more treasure that could be found. So this sounded perfect to the Hawke sisters as they attempted to plead their case to him.
"Come on, Bertrand, you know I get the job done," Hawke explained as she followed after him. "Why don't I buy you a drink and we'll talk about it?"
"No," he remarked flatly, "I've had dozens of you Fereldens come and tell me that you can get the job done. I'm not looking to get a job done, now go," he snapped as Lisa frowned, straightening up before turning around and grumbling curses under her breath.
"What are we going to do? That was our best chance…" Bethany remarked worriedly. Lisa sighed, reaching over and giving her a gentle squeeze on her shoulder.
"Don't worry, Bunny, it'll be fine," she smiled only to stumble as a man shoved past her. At first she didn't think much about it and then something occurred to her and she reached down to find her coin purse gone. Quickly she yanked the bow from around her torso and notched an arrow, only to see a blonde dwarf punching the thief with his body pinned to a stone wall by an arrow. Lisa blinked, lowering her bow as the dwarf walked back towards her, tossing over her stolen coin purse in the process.
"You need to keep a better eye on something like that in a place like this," he chuckled as Lisa gave a small and suspicious thank you. "No need. I actually wanted to speak to you, I over heard you talking with my brother and you see he's not looking for another pair of muscles, he needs someone to help fund part of expedition."
"Okay…and why are you telling me this?" Lisa asked, crossing her arms over her chest. The man chuckled, a laugh that strangely relaxed Lisa as he smoothed his hair back.
"Because I think you have just what we need. All you've gotta do is get the coin and some maps and you can bet that he'll take you down there with us."
"Is that so?" Lisa raised a suspicious brow, "And how much coin would this be exactly."
"Fifty sovereigns." Lisa practically choked on her own spit at the sound. Fifty sovereigns? She could hardly make that much in a year, much less the next few weeks. "Aw come on, I know you've got it in you. Besides I know where we can find some work that'll pay well." Lisa glanced at the man and then at Bethany who shrugged.
"It's not like we have anything better." Lisa sighed before hesitantly holding her hand out to him.
"Hawke."
"Varric. I can see some real good coming out of this," he remarked as he took her hand and gave it a firm shake. Lisa had to admit that she felt good about this new partnership; maybe he was right…there was some good that could come out of this. After all of the death and loss her family had suffered they deserved a little peace.
After he somewhat failed attempt to gain another job, but instead a new companion, she set her sights on seeing an old friend. And when Lisa had met up with Aveline she found that the woman had made quite the impact in Kirkwall. She was already the captain of the guard, taking the place of her corrupt captain and leading the guard with a just, iron fist. And in truth Lisa was happy for her. They'd become close after the year, even if they hadn't seen each other much. Both of them had the same sort of desire and craving and both of them had let down people that meant more to them than anything.
But things at home weren't going very well. Gamlen was becoming antsy about getting a little help with rent. And it seemed innocent except that every time he asked for money Lisa's mother would ask what he did exactly with their parent's fortune. Gamlen continued to claim that it was gone, that their grandparents didn't leave their favored child anything, but Lisa's mother refused to believe it. And soon enough she couldn't take it and sent her two remaining children to find exactly what had been said in the will.