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Inside the room where the rest of the mages huddled, frightened, Orsino met them. There was a determined gleam in his eyes. "Are you prepared, Champion? I believe the battle is almost upon us."
Hawke looked him over. He had the tense but excited posture of a man who was going into his last fight. "You don't think there's a chance of winning this, do you?"
"With you on our side? Perhaps."
But it was a sop to her feelings, not a genuine belief. Hawke thought suddenly that she wasn't sure if Orsino really even wanted to win. He had stood up to Meredith, he had fought for his people, he had drawn a line in the sand … but what would be left afterward, even if he did win? He and his mages hunted down by Templars across Thedas, branded as exactly the blood mages and monsters he was fighting to prove they weren't. Orsino didn't intend to emerge from this alive, because he couldn't face the world that was coming.
Even as she thought it, he sighed wearily and confirmed her suspicions. "But … even if we won, what then? More Templars would come, with even larger armies." He looked at his people, the knot of them in the corner, their frightened faces. "We are apostates now. Our only hope lies in the Circles elsewhere in Thedas."
As an apostate's daughter, and sister, Hawke didn't find the word, or the concept, particularly scary. But she knew most Circle mages did. It was part of what the Circles were designed for—to keep mages apart from the world, to make sure they were frightened of what lay outside, unable to navigate the real world or live in it without revealing themselves. In her view, mages were just people, and locking them up did everyone a disservice. But Thedas wasn't that way, and it never had been, and most likely it never would be.
"Other Circles? Because you would want to go back to one?" Fenris asked, a certain amount of hope lilting in his voice.
Hawke was reminded that he had plenty of reason to fear mages left loose, mages mingling with the world, and yet here he was still fighting at her side.
Orsino, however, not knowing about Fenris's past, bristled, and there was a martial light in his eyes. "They could rise up with us against the Templars. Against this injustice."
"Rise up? Total revolt? Hawke."
She looked from Orsino's green eyes to Fenris's, and shook her head. "We cannot think about what happens after. We have to deal with what happens now."
"Think about it? What is there to think about? Either the other Circles join with us or we might as well die today. I assure you, we will find sympathy nowhere else."
"You fool!" Hawke began, but Isabela was there first.
"What am I, then? What are Varric, or Fenris? We're with you, as is Hawke, and Aveline and her guards, and we're not part of any Circle."
"Orsino." Bethany's soft voice cut in and they all turned to look at her. "You are alienating those who are risking everything to ally with us. There are good people in Thedas, people who understand. Don't sell them short. Don't … don't sabotage our chances because you don't know what it's like to live outside a Circle."
There was anger in Orsino's eyes as he turned on Hawke's sister. He didn't like that reminder. Not even a little bit.
But before he could speak, Fenris did, his voice hard and determined. "We cannot afford this delay. The Templars will not give us the luxury of time much longer. Are your people prepared?"
"We are all children of the Maker," Varric said softly. When they all looked at him in surprise, he shrugged. "That's what Choirboy would have said."
"But what does it mean?"
"It means that whatever happens today, tomorrow we have to rebuild this city together. All of us." He looked around, and then away, but not before Hawke could see what the destruction of the Chantry, the rubble raining down over his home, had done to him. She put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed.
"Then … to victory." Orsino looked around at all of them. "By any means necessary."
Fenris ignored him and approached the mages, Isabela at his side, and they started giving orders and preparing them in a way Orsino hadn't been able to. Hawke watched as the mages began to stand straighter, as the weeping of despair gave way to determination.
"Sister," Bethany said softly.
"What is it?"
"It's just … when we lost Carver, I never got the chance to … say good-bye."
"We're not saying it today, so put that thought right out of your mind," Hawke told her. "We're coming out of this together." Bethany was the last person she had, the only thing she could save out of the nightmare that had been Kirkwall. She wasn't losing her.
"You don't know that." Bethany shook her head. "Don't stop me. I need to—I need to say this. I need you to know that I love you."
"I do know that."
"And that I'm proud of you. And that I'm sorry I wasn't there. You've been out there fighting for our family all these years, all this time—fighting for me. I knew that. I've always known it. I … Thank you."
"You're worth it. No matter what anyone says, I know you, Bethany. I know your heart. You deserve a life—more of a life than this."
Nodding, Bethany said, "All these years, I've tried to understand what Andraste saw. Why she had to lock us up. But my powers come from the Maker … and I just cannot believe this is His will." She glanced over at the others. "I always thought it was hard growing up outside the Circle, constantly on the run. I never realized how free I was. Maybe it took being locked in the Gallows to understand my place in the world. To see the need to free my fellow mages. This is my fight, too. Mina. Let me be part of it."
Hawke reached for her sister's hand. "I couldn't have asked for a better sister. I've missed you these past few years more than I could possibly tell you. All I want is you back again, fighting at my side."
"The Hawke sisters take on Kirkwall once more." Bethany smiled. "I wish Mother had lived to see this. I … I hope she's found peace."
"As do I."
They embraced once, quickly, before turning to face the rest of the mages, who were now standing in something approaching a formation, thanks to Fenris and Isabela.