They were sent to go chat with their leader, the Arishok, who then seemed to hire her for his own separate work, repeated his excuse to her. "We are waiting for our ship, but before that we need you to go and find the thief that stole our poison recipe." Lisa blinked as he said this and then waved them away, but she chose to stay there and cross her arms over her chest.
"You could make your own ship home in the time that you've spent here. There is no ship, is there?" There was a pause before the Arishok stood.
"This city of yours, there is poverty, and violence, and chaos, and yet everyone seems to turn a blind eye to it all."
"It's not something that can be entirely helped. The world is filled with chaos no matter how much order is brought into it," she remarked only for the Arishok to stop pacing as he turned and looked at her.
"Hawke, you have shown your abilities and yet you continue to believe that this is appropriate?"
"I consider it entertaining," she smirked only for the man to cross his arms over his chest.
"Find our recipe," he repeated before signaling that their discussion was officially over as he sat back down in his throne. Lisa didn't really like where that conversation went, it sounded very much like the Arishok wanted to fix the chaos that plagued Kirkwall. Only problem was that she knew very well that Kirkwall wouldn't simply roll over to the Qunari taking power. And in short that meant war. Her mind jumped first to Kane. She didn't want him to see war, at least not at this age. War was something that he needed to see when he got older, he needed to understand the sacrifice and the loss…right now he was too young for that.
The quest to find the recipe ended up being more trouble than she would've expected. While everyone had believed the thief was an old "friend" of theirs that had tried to do business with him and the Arishok a few years before. Lisa didn't particularly like him but when they finally cornered them they found that he'd actually been set up by a crazed elf.
She was looking to show the Qunari's worse side by killing people that they hadn't even touched. And while Lisa didn't approve of the deaths that the Qunari had committed, they normally had more reason that this elf. Once she was dealt, though, and the poison was returned, Lisa found that the Arishok didn't really seem to care. He almost seemed pleased for this and Lisa figured it was because it only supported his theory on the need to squash the chaos of the city.
And Lisa had to admit she tried to ignore it. The Qunari threat was more than she wanted to be involved with. Right now she just wanted to live her life. Every other massive change had resulted in some horrible end to another one of her family members. Sure, Bethany was still alive and well, but Lisa was far from able to see her. Her mother was, which was nice, but the Viscount limited Lisa's access to the Circle do to the work she did with freeing mages over the past few years. And she didn't particularly think it was fair. Yet again, life wasn't fair, and it was a truth she was still having a hard time coming to terms with.
Instead she chose to focus on helping her many friends. Aveline, for instance, had seemed to have a sudden interest in one of her guards in the barracks. Donnic, a young man who worked hard and always seemed pleased to see Hawke. His hair was a dark brown that matched his kind eyes. Aveline and Donnic had been working together for a while and due to the fact that Aveline's late husband had been dead for several years now apparently she decided it was time to move on. And Lisa was truly happy for her, if not for her lack of ability to do any sort of courting.
"Okay…I can fix this…" she muttered to herself, pacing in her office as Lisa sighed and rolled her eyes. Kane was sitting in Aveline's large chair, his tongue poking out from the corner of his mouth as he concentrated on the picture he was scribbling.
"Aveline," Lisa said sternly, stepping across the room to look at what the boy was drawing before smirking at the picture. For being a three-year-old he truly did understand more than she expected. On his parchment was a stick figure of a woman with bright red hair and then a man with a crudely drawn heart between them. She ruffled his hair before looking up at the woman with a small sigh. "You're thinking too much into this. Why don't you just ask him?"
"Because men aren't like women, Lisa!' She snapped, the response making Lisa blink before frowning as she reached down to slide her hands under Kane's arms and lift him up and onto her hip. He protested at first but a quick look from Lisa made him silent as he rested his head on her shoulder. "I'm sorry," Aveline tried to say as Lisa made her way towards the door, "but they don't wear their hearts on their sleeves like women do…" Lisa stopped and looked over her shoulder at the ginger.
"You would be surprised how few of women I meet actually show who they are to me. At least Donnic is genuine with you. Maybe you should pay attention to that rather than pointing out the flaws of other people," at that she walked off with Kane waving at the woman over her shoulder. Aveline stood there in silence before realizing her entire guard was staring at her through the open door, Donnic being one of them.
The soldier quickly closed the door and slumped into her seat before plucking the picture from her desk and look at it. She sighed and bowed her head before glancing up, "Wesley…give me strength," she muttered before moving towards the door and opening it. "Donnic, could I see you please?" She asked as the man smiled, nodded, and quickly rushed into the office.