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In response to a summons from Hawke, Varric hurried as best he could up the long stairs to Hightown. He paused at the top so he wouldn't seem as winded as he felt when he finally arrived at Hawke's house, but once he got there, he saw he shouldn't have bothered. The street outside the house was littered with the bodies of dwarves, some dead, some groaning with wounds that were mostly being ignored by the guards who were dragging them away.

Aveline came up to him. "You'd better go in."

"What happened here?"

She shook her head. "With Hawke, who knows? Apparently they just attacked, in the small hours of the morning. Between Hawke and Bethany and that strange Sandal, they fought them all off, but Hawke is … well, you'd better go in," she repeated.

Varric didn't wait any further before wading through the bodies to the front door. A harried Bodahn let him in. "Oh, messere, such doings!"

"Welcome to Kirkwall," Varric muttered. In his view, Bodahn had been with Hawke plenty long enough to get over any squeamishness he might have felt when he first started.

Hawke was seated at her desk, staring at a piece of bloody parchment spread out in front of her. She looked up as he came in, her green eyes cool. "Took you long enough."

"You neglected to mention your charming visitors."

"If I had, you might have taken time to gussy up. I couldn't risk it."

"Seriously, Hawke, what is it about you?"

She sighed. "I wish I knew, so I could stop it. Why were there dwarves attacking me, Varric?"

"Nothing to do with me, I assure you. Your dues are fully paid to the Merchant's Guild." He frowned thinking about the bodies he'd stepped over. "Actually, those were Carta. They're criminals and smugglers, but they're not 'attack the Champion of Kirkwall in her home' stupid. Or desperate."

"You have sources to find out what they were doing here?"

"I should, yeah. What's this?"

"It's a map. Of the Vimmark Mountains. I found it on one of the bodies. Bethany's upstairs packing."

"To go back to the Gallows?"

"To go with us."

"With us?" Varric's eyes widened. "You want me to go to the Vimmarks? Oh, no, Hawke. Not this time. Take someone else."

She leaned over the desk, pinning him in place with her beautiful eyes. "My sister was here, Varric. If I hadn't been—if I'd been at the Hanged Man, or out on a job … Whatever happened here, I need it finished before I can send her back, or send her away. I need to know that she's going to be safe, and you're the only person I trust."

When she put it that way, he had no other choice.

Who was he kidding? He had never had any other choice.

"Of course. Did they do anything to make you think Sunshine was in some particular kind of danger?"

"Well, they kept calling out 'the blood of the Hawke', and they seemed very … interested in there being two of us."

"That is creepy," Varric admitted. He looked at the map. Admittedly it was upside down, but he didn't see anything to guide them. "Hawke, there's no there there. Just a big blind spot."

"Exactly. A big circular blind spot, as if someone didn't want anyone to think there was anything there."

"Who else will we take?"

Hawke frowned. "Aveline can't get away and Sebastian doesn't want to. Isabela's got her ship, Fenris has Isabela. You pick, Varric. Anders or Merrill."

"You'd take Blondie?"

She sighed. "Well, it would get him out of Kirkwall for a bit and hopefully out of trouble."

"Then let's bring him. Maybe we can talk his spirit companion into departing once and for all."

"I wish we could." She looked up and smiled as her sister came into the room. "All ready?"

"I didn't have much to pack. You know Cullen isn't going to like this, don't you?"

"By the time he knows we're gone, we'll be back. I'm not leaving you here to be attacked by crazed dwarves without my protection."

"Anyone would think I couldn't protect myself," Sunshine muttered. But they both knew how Hawke was, so she let it go. "Do we have a plan?"

"Yes," Hawke said coolly. "These attacks are going to stop. One way or the other."

"Well, that sounds final." Varric frowned. "Wait, 'these attacks'?"

"Oh, yes, didn't I mention it? I had some dwarves jump out at me the other night on the stairs."

"Let me guess, they were also yelling 'the blood of the Hawke'? And it just … slipped your mind?"

"If I whined about everyone who randomly attacked me on my way around Kirkwall, I wouldn't have time to fight them all off."

"Good point."

"So … we're just going to find their secret hideout, walk in, and start cutting off heads?" Sunshine sounded disapproving.

Varric smiled at her. "Don't worry, Sunshine. The bloodstains come out."

"It's by far the most efficient way," Hawke said.

As Hawke bent her head over the map, Sunshine watched her with troubled eyes.

Varric supposed if you hadn't seen much of Hawke in the past few years, the change in her seemed a bit drastic. Having been there through every step of that change, he rarely thought about it anymore … but considering it now, he missed the witty, funny Hawke he had first met. Maybe someday, when her sister was safe and the current unrest in Kirkwall had passed, she would come back, he thought wistfully. But then, there would always be some new unrest to solve, some new task the Champion of Kirkwall was asked to take on.

Maybe it was time for Hawke to consider leaving Kirkwall, he thought, and tried to pretend that the very idea didn't make him feel bereft and lost.