The Blood of the Hawke (a Dragon Age fanfiction)

Back to Kirkwall

It took them a long time to make it back to Kirkwall. Fenris and Evelyn were slowed by their wounds, Bethany wearied by all the healing she'd had to perform. Isabela walked with Bethany the whole way, her arm around the mage's waist. Evelyn tried to pretend it didn't bother her to see the pirate with her sister. Not that she didn't love Isabela like family—she did—but she didn't trust her not to break Bethany's heart, and Bethany had had enough of that.

Fenris gave a muffled groan at a missed step, and Evelyn put her own arm around him. She couldn't help the thought that her distrust of Isabela where Bethany was concerned was probably a mirror of how Bethany felt about Fenris.

"Hawke, do you feel it was wise to leave the tower unguarded?" Fenris asked, breaking into her thoughts.

"What choice did we have? Would you have wanted to be left behind watching over the Grey Wardens' secrets?"

He shook his head, wincing with the movement.

"Didn't think so."

"When we get back to Kirkwall, I'll send a message to Nathaniel Howe in Amaranthine," Varric said. "He seemed decent enough, as Wardens go."

"I wrote him after ... to tell him about Anders and to apologize for allowing it to happen."

"Wasn't your fault, Hawke," Isabela said softly.

"Howe didn't agree. He charitably took some of the blame for the Wardens, but made it clear he thought my judgement where Anders was concerned was questionable. I don't disagree."

This was well-argued territory, and the rest of them left it alone.

"Will you tell him about Father?" Bethany asked.

Hawke sighed. "I might as well. Chances are there are some sort of records the Wardens have access to and he'd find out anyway."

"I can't believe Father let himself be manipulated that way. Blood magic ..." Bethany shuddered.

Evelyn said nothing. She hoped that if she didn't continue the conversation, Bethany would let it go. Their father had done what he had to do; charged with protecting his wife and unborn child, he had had to put his principles and his deeply held beliefs aside. The blood magic chilled Bethany to the bone because of her own magic—but she would never understand what it was like to have to sacrifice for your family's needs. That burden had passed to Evelyn when their father died; she understood why there had been no other choice. Old resentments bubbled up inside her, thinking of all the times she'd fought for her sister to be protected, all the things she might have done and the places she might have gone had her sister not been a mage. Or not been so helpless.

"It is in the past," Fenris said quietly into her ear. "Allow it to remain there."

"Fine words coming from you," she said, and they exchanged a smile.

The sun gleamed off the white walls of Hightown in the distance.

"Almost there," Varric said. They were on a main road, at last, along with other travelers heading into the city.

Bethany looked uncomfortable, her eyes on the ground in front of her. They all knew that as soon as they got back, she would be returned to the Tower and interrogated about her experiences, to make certain she hadn't become either an abomination or a blood mage during her absence from the Gallows. The freedom to travel unsupervised, to a limited extent, was hers as Senior Enchanter ... but trust was no more a part of the Templars' vocabulary than it had ever been.