Hawke and Anders had made swift progress on their trip that day. They had ventured staying at an inn the previous night, despite the risk of recognition. Yesterday had been cold. When they paid for a warm room, they hoped to sleep through the worst of it. But it had remained cold throughout the day today, and the temperature had begun dropping in the early afternoon. The air was bitter at this point, and the sun was still above the horizon.
While they traveled heavily during the summer, they usually tried to stay in one place for the winter. This winter began no differently than the past two. They had earned plenty of coin during the warmer months when not helping to free mages from their enslavement, and then they had settled in to coast through the colder weather. This year, more Circles of Magi had risen up and thrown off their captivity than any year previously. Usually this happened in the warmer months, but there could be many reasons that now was the time for this particular Circle. Hawke and Anders wouldn't let a small thing like the cold keep them from aiding their fellow mages.
"I guess we should probably stop as soon as we find a water source." Hawke mused. "It doesn't look like we're going to be so lucky as to find another inn tonight."
"It doesn't look like we're going to come across anything fresh to eat, either," Anders responded.
"Unfortunately." Hawke replied. "But I think we could make an adequate soup from the vegetables we are carrying. And we could use the spicy seasoning to warm us up a bit."
The road they were taking was a minor road. They tried to avoid main roads due to the incident that had led to wanted posters with Anders's face on them being placed all over Thedas. Usually the minor routes weren't too bad. If anything, it was a more peaceful, relaxed trip. But in this weather, the lack of inns, or even homes where they might be able to pay for a place near a hearth or in a barn, seemed even more extreme than was usual.
It was nearly dark before they came across what was probably the most hospitable thing they would find out here. It was sort of a den-looking area cut into the surface of a large rock on the side of a hill. The well-scuffed floor and log benches positioned around the remains of a campfire spoke to the fact that it was frequently used for exactly what they were wanting tonight. There was a frozen river nearby.
"Would you look at that?!" Anders exclaimed, gesturing to the area. It was entirely sheltered to the back and top, and the halfway sheltered to the side. The fire area was between the man-made mini-cave and the rest of the cold outdoors. "We won't even have to set up the tent!"
"Good!" Hawke said. "Do you want to gather wood or start working on the river?" she asked, as the two of them sat down their packs and sighed in relief.
"I'll take the river," Anders said. He gathered up the cooking pot and ladle, and went to the river to try to melt some ice. Hawke took inventory of the few pieces of wood that were lying at the campsite and then went off to locate more.
Before long, they were sitting on benches around a crackling campfire with a warm soup simmering in their cooking pot. The den behind them had actually warmed up fairly well. They were talking and laughing merrily, when Anders thought he heard a sound and hushed Hawke.
The two of them sat quietly for a minute, and then they both heard it. Voices coming from the road - the opposite direction from where they came, it sounded like. Certainly no one would pass up a warm campfire and sheltered place to sleep in this weather.
"I guess we're going to have company," Hawke mumbled. Company meant that they would have to use fake names, filter their conversations, tell half-truths or fabrications about their business, and cross their fingers in hopes that these people hadn't seen the posters.
When their would-be company came into sight, the situation was far worse than either of them could have anticipated. They were all heavily cloaked, but peeking out from the front of those cloaks on two of them could be seen the symbol of the flaming sword of Andraste. Templars. Templars were the branch of the Chantry, Thedas's predominant religious organization, used to squash the free use of magic. Templars both hunted down mages and guarded them in structures that would be called a prison if they housed anything other than mages. They tried to make it sound nicer than "prison", but that's what it was. Mages were hauled away as soon as their magic manifested (usually before 10 years old), and locked up, never to be seen or heard from again by any of their family or friends. The things that some Templars did to their vulnerable charges were far worse than the crimes previously metioned.
Anders had spent nearly twenty years locked away in a circle, and had spent the almost decade since then helping to free mages from the atrocities done to them in the name of "keeping the general population safe from magic". Hawke, while a mage herself, had been fortunate to have never had to go through the abuse of the Circle. Her father was a mage who escaped from his Circle and was able to teach her how to use her magic safely. They had to pick up and move several times throughout her childhood when people found out that one of their family was a magic user. The frequent and sudden moves and social isolation due to the need for secrecy were far preferable to the alternative of being taken away and locked up.
The third person who was with the Templars was bundled up, but did not appear to be wearing armor under their bundles. Was this a mage, captured and to be returned to their prison for Maker-knows-what manner of twisted punishment?
"Hello there, friends!" one of the templars greeted Hawke and Anders as they got closer.
"Good evening," Hawke replied.
"Do you mind if we join you by the fire?" she asked.
"Not at all!" Hawke lied. She would probably be doing most of the talking. Most of the mages she'd met who had lived in a Circle and had their every move watched by Templars from childhood had a difficult time carrying on a casual conversation with an armored Templar. Many acted nervous, as though the Templars could read their very thoughts. Others let a bit too much anger through in their tone, despite their best effort to keep it contained. One of the lessons that Hawke had learned early on, before her own magic was even discovered, was to converse very casually and comfortably with Templars, while making sure that they never learned your secret.
"We appreciate it," the Templar woman said. "I'm Ser Alice. This is Ser Henry," she said, gesturing too the other Templar, "and this is Sister Olivia," she concluded, referring to the bundled-up lady who wasn't in armor. So a Chantry sister, then, not a mage.
"Good to meet you," Hawke said. "I'm Sedania and this is Emmett," she said, gesturing towards Anders. "Have you had dinner yet?"
"We have not," Ser Alice said.
"We haven't eaten yet, either. I can add more substance to the soup so that there is enough for everyone." Feeding three more would leave them with only enough for a small lunch tomorrow.
"Your generosity is most appreciated," Sister Olivia said. "We also have provisions we can contribute towards the evening meal."
"Well, I won't say no to that," Hawke said.
The three newcomers opened up their packs and each pulled out some food that could be either added to the pot or eaten as a side. They ended up having quite the hearty, substantial dinner. As Hawke knelt by the river trying to chip off some ice for cleaning up the dinner dishes, she heard Anders hiss from behind her, "They can't stay here tonight."
"I don't know if they are going to voluntarily leave, and we can't just kick them out." It was so bitterly cold that contact with the frigid air was causing Hawke to be somewhat dizzy, and her nose was frozen and crackly-feeling inside.
"What if they try to kill us in our sleep?!" he whispered.
"I doubt that will happen," Hawke said. "If it makes you feel better, though, have Justice stay alert and listen for movements." Justice was the spirit of justice that Anders shared his body with. Justice, being a Fade spirit, did not sleep. Usually, after Anders dozed off, Justice would come out and visit with Hawke until she fell asleep, and then would read or do something else quiet that wouldn't wake his humans. Tonight, with strangers at the campsite, he wouldn't be able to come out fully, as that involved a bright blue glow, but he could still listen to what was going on. "We are more than a match for them awake. He would hear them if they tried to approach us, right?" Hawke knew that he would, but hoped that having to admit as much out loud would help Anders to feel better, and would maybe give Justice the chance to add a bit of reassurance of his own.
"Yes. He would hear them and wake us," Anders replied.
"Then we will be fine," Hawke said.
When the two mages got back to the campsite, the templars and Chantry sister were laying out bedrolls on the same side of the campfire that Hawke's and Anders's bedrolls were on.
"Here, let me make more room," Hawke said, and scooted their bedrolls further out of the way. Anders went and sat down on his just-moved bedroll and pulled out a book and pretended to read so that he didn't have to interact with the three individuals they were now sharing a campsite with.
"Would anyone like some tea?" Hawke asked, hoping that the beverage would warm everyone up and possibly open up some deeper conversation with their three guests. The warming up was mostly selfish. The conversation was something that she hoped would help put Anders more at ease. These were Templars, yes, but also people, with their own hopes, dreams, and backgrounds.
Hawke spent the next hour or so talking with their visitors over some tea. Anders refused tea, but did eventually lay down to sleep. After the four tea-drinkers had finished their last cups, they went to bed. Hawke, with her usual charm, had been able to extract from them their backgrounds, their reasons for taking up their respective jobs, and what each of them valued. By the end of it, they were individuals, not just an armor and the atrocities perpetrated by some individuals who wore that armor.
When Hawke went to lay down next to Anders, he was still awake, but noticeably less tense than he had been earlier. "Are you feeling any better?" she asked, but could tell by his softer demeanor that he was.
"Yes," he said, turning his head towards her and giving a small smile. "Thank you."
"I am glad," she said, and curled herself around him protectively. The two of them were soon asleep.