Dragon Age: Revengeance

ACT I

Chapter 2

"Halt! Who goes there?"

Merrill pulled back her hood and smiled innocently at the approaching Templar guard. "I'm terribly sorry," she said, "I think I'm quite lost. This isn't the Hanged Man by any chance, is it?"

The Templar stopped and stared in disbelief. "Are you simple? Of course not! This is the bloody Gallows, you stupid knife-ear! How did you get through the gate?"

"It was open."

"No it wasn't, I locked it myself. No one is permitted into the Gallows at night, this area is off limits." He drew his sword and advanced with menacing intent.

Merrill frowned. "Excuse me, I think you have something in your eye..."

A brief look of puzzlement flashed across his features an instant before Merrill's observation came true. An arrow pierced the back of his skull and protruded through his left eye. As his life fled from him, his body folded up onto the cold stones of the Gallows courtyard. Hawke lowered her bow and jogged over to join Merrill.

"That's the last of them," said Hawke. She produced a keyring and tossed it to Merrill. "All of the Templars on guard duty are dead, you should have no trouble letting everyone out of their cells."

Merrill regarded the keys, and then glanced down at the dead Templar at her feet. "Gosh, I'd forgotten just how good you were at sneaky-killing people."

"Concentrate, Merrill; we don't have much time. Get everyone into the dungeons and lead them through the smuggler tunnels to safety. Isabela is waiting at the harbor with her ship."

"What about you?"

Hawke slung her bow across her back and scowled. "I'm going to get my sister."

Despite the years that had passed, the Gallows had not changed all that much since Meredith's day. Hawke was able to find her way around whilst clinging to the shadows without much difficulty. She swiftly made her way to Templar Hall, in the western wing of the Gallows. There was every chance Bethany was asleep in her cell, but after what that being who called himself the Maker had said, Hawke didn't want to leave her sister's life to chance. Besides, she had an old score to settle with Knight Commander Cullen...

The office of the Knight Commander was locked, but she had never let a locked door stop her before and wasn't about to start now. The lamps were on, yet the office was unoccupied. Hawke was about to duck back into the hallway when something caught her eye. A letter lay open upon the desk. A letter with very familiar handwriting.

Hawke made a disgusted noise after she read it and dropped it back onto the desk. It was a friendly and jovial invitation from Varric Tethras, Viscount of Kirkwall, asking Cullen to join him for drinks and a round of Wicked Grace tomorrow.

"Interesting company you keep these days, Varric," she muttered under her breath. "I'll have to pay you a little visit after I'm done here."

She found the Knight Commander in his quarters, and to her utter dismay he was not alone. The Maker (or whatever he was) had not lied about that particular detail. Her sister, Bethany, was branded with the mark of Tranquillity, the light gone from behind her eyes. Hawke knocked her out with a sleeping dart before turning her attention to the monster praised as a great hero by oh-so many.

"Hello again, Cullen," she said, trying her best not to snarl. "Long time. Still failing upwards I see."

Cullen was too dumbfounded by the fact that Hawke was alive and well that he didn't even reach for a weapon. Not that it would have done him much good.

"Champion! You're … you're alive?"

Hawke ground her teeth. "Yes. And you're raping my sister. After you destroyed her mind of course. A little bird tells me you like to pretend that she's actually my cousin, Solona. Dear cousin Amell told me what a monstrous slime you were. She should have left you to those demons. Rescuing you was the biggest mistake she ever made."

He spluttered. "I can explain-"

Hawke cut him off with a fistful of knockout powder. Once he had stopped moving she forced his mouth open and uncorked a vial of glowing crimson liquid.

"Word has it you kicked the habit," she said, even though he couldn't possibly hear her. "But that was regular lyrium. The red stuff, though? There's no coming back from that."

She poured the liquid down his throat. It was pure, concentrated red lyrium, a dose powerful enough to drive even the strongest Templar insane, and the inevitable withdrawal would lead to an agonising death. He still deserved worse. Unfortunately it was the best she could manage, and would have to do.

"Sweet dreams, you sick bastard." She spat on him. "I'd like nothing more than to stick around and watch you suffer, but I have a Chantry to destroy."

Giving him a kick to the groin out of sheer spite, Hawke then hefted Bethany's sleeping form over her shoulder and departed in haste.

Isabela personally helped Hawke out of the boat and onto the deck of the Siren's Song, whereupon she gave her old friend a fierce embrace.

"I knew you couldn't be dead," said Isabela. Hawke laughed weakly.

"It's good to see you again, Isabela. I take it you got my message?"

"I wouldn't be here if I hadn't." She gave the still-slumbering Bethany a pitying look as she was carried below. "Poor thing. I can't believe they would do that to her. Tell me you made them pay?"

Hawke nodded, her expression grim. "That was just for starters. I meant what I said, Isabela; I'm going to tear down the Chantry. All of it."

Isabela sighed. "I seem to recall you tried that before. It didn't really work out."

"I spent too much time running and hiding then. This time around I'm going on the offensive. I'll assassinate the Divine, destroy the Grand Cathedral, whatever it takes. Are you still willing to help?"

Isabela gestured in the direction Bethany had been taken. "After what they did to her? Making people Tranquil is evil. It's worse than slavery. At least slaves can be freed, or escape." She grasped Hawke by the hand. "Count me in, Hawke. The Siren's Song and I are with you all the way."

Hawke smiled. "Thank you, Isabela. There's just one thing I have to do before we set sail."

"Oh? And what would that be?"

Hawke drew one of her blades and twirled it around for dramatic effect. "I can't leave without saying goodbye to Varric, now, can I?"