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A stunned silence fell over all of them. Indeed, over the whole city. As the dust began to settle, even from across the harbor they could hear anguished cries. Hawke tried to imagine how many people must have been in the vicinity of the Chantry, but the number was … horrible.
"Hawke." Varric's voice was hoarser than usual. "You think the Choirboy was in there?"
"Oh, Maker." Her hand flew to her mouth. "He must have been. Sebastian …"
A small choked noise sounded, and she turned to see Fenris with his back to all of them, his shoulders quaking. Sebastian had tried hard to win the elf back to the Chantry; in the process, they had grown close. Isabela's hand closed on Fenris's shoulder, letting him know she was there, but other than that, no one else moved.
"Blessed be the souls of the faithful, that they ascend to your right hand …" Varric murmured. Hawke gave him a strange look, and he shrugged. Somewhere back there in his checkered past, he had known the Chant. And no one who had been there today deserved what had happened to them.
"Maker have mercy," Meredith breathed.
Anders swallowed hard. Even he was stunned by the enormity of what he had done. But he stood his ground, and his voice was surprisingly firm when he spoke. "There can be no peace."
Orsino turned on him. "Why? Why would you do such a thing?"
Blinking in surprise, clearly not having expected to be attacked from that angle, Anders said, "I removed the chance of compromise. Because there is no compromise. I stood up for the rights of mages everywhere."
"You fool! Don't you see what you've done? You've put a target on all our backs. They'll blame us all for this."
"Good. Let them. Let us take credit for fighting back against tyranny!"
Meredith, looking oddly as if she hadn't heard anything the two mages had said, looked at Hawke. "The Grand Cleric has been slain by magic; the Chantry destroyed." There was a pause, and then she banged one fist into the palm of the other hand, her gauntlets clacking together loudly. "As Knight-Commander of Kirkwall, I hereby invoke the Right of Annulment. Every mage in the Circle is to be executed. Immediately."
Hawke stepped in front of her sister. "You can't!"
"You see? This is how it begins," Orsino said to Anders. "And it ends with mages wiped out across Thedas. Because of you."
"No! No, don't you see? It doesn't have to be that way."
"But it is this way. You had freedom to make real change, to help people, and … this is what you've done with it." Orsino looked at Hawke. "Champion, you can't let her do this! The Circle wasn't involved in what happened today. Help us stop this madness!"
"I demand you stand with us! Even you must see that this outrage cannot be tolerated." Meredith was staring at Hawke, too, stuck between the two of them.
Varric could see the weariness in every line of Hawke's body.
"Why are we even debating the Right of Annulment when the monster who did this is right here? I swear to you, I will kill him." Fenris, of all people, defending the rights of mages. That Varric had lived to see this day. Broody's lyrium lines were bright white along his skin. It wouldn't take much for him to end Blondie's life right here.
But the Rivaini was there with a hand on his arm. "Don't make him a martyr. Don't let him be a rallying cry for everyone who wants to spread chaos." She looked at Hawke. "You know it can't be stopped now. You have to choose."
Varric looked up at Blondie, feeling betrayed. But the man who had been his friend was long gone, had lost himself to Justice some time ago. "Do you realize what you've started? How this will end?" If it ever did.
"I do. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you earlier." There were echoes of the man he had been in Blondie's voice. "But the Circle is an injustice, in many places beyond Kirkwall. The world needs to see."
Bethany pushed her way out from behind Hawke. "All they'll see is that a mage murdered innocent people. You may have doomed us all."
"We were already doomed. A quick death now instead of a slow one later … I'd rather die fighting."
"You're a murderer," Hawke said sharply. "The Grand Cleric, the mages, anyone else who falls in whatever chaos is to come—their blood is on your hands."
"I know."
Meredith shook her head. "None of this matters. Even if I wished to, I could not stay my hand. The people will demand blood."
"I don't want to get involved in this." But it was little more than a whisper. Varric thought he and Sunshine might have been the only ones to hear Hawke say it. Because she knew it as well as they did—this would end with her elbow-deep in someone's blood. Blondie had made sure of that.
Stepping closer to Hawke, Meredith said firmly, "You are the Champion of Kirkwall. Do your duty—or fall with these mages. It is your choice."
Hawke turned to look at her sister. "I cannot stand against my own, Meredith. And this is unjust. You would blame all mages in the Circle for the actions of one apostate. One apostate who has lived openly in Darktown for years, has treated your Templars in his clinic, and has never been brought in … under your watch. If someone is to bear blame for the fact that he was left free to do this thing today, it is you. And me, because I allowed it, too. If anyone's heads should roll for what happened, it ought to be ours."
Varric reached for her hand. She took too much on herself, in his opinion. "You sure about this? Even you might not win this fight."
"I can't let her, Varric. I … can't let her."
"Hawke." Fenris looked at her from under his white hair. "The mages here would become magisters, if they could. Do not let them. Still. This may be a mistake, but I won't abandon you."
"Think carefully, Champion," Meredith said coldly. "Stand with them, and you share their fate."
"I would prefer their fate to yours."
"You are a fool." Meredith looked around at the Templars surrounding them. "Kill them all. I will rouse the rest of the Order."
She hurried off, pushing between two of the Templars, and was gone, leaving them to fight her battle.