A Long Way to Go (a Dragon Age fanfiction)

Back to Work

Hawke looked around at the long dark hall of the dungeon, and then at Tallis. "So what now?"

"Wait, are you still going to help me?"

"Mostly, I want to get out of here. If that's the way you're going, then we'll go together."

Tallis looked sad. "I still don't know where Salit is going to meet the Duke."

"Any chance you had of finding that out is long gone," Varric told her. "The Duke left; took his Chasind bodyguard and went out 'hunting', or so he said."

Hawke frowned. "What time is it?"

"A little after sunrise."

She yawned, the weariness of a sleepless night suddenly catching up with her. "I thought it was earlier than that. So much for going back to bed."

Fenris chuckled. "I rather doubt we will do any more sleeping as guests of the Duke's, not after last night."

"And thank the Maker for that," Varric grumbled. "Those beds are not made for Bianca."

Fenris and Hawke glanced at each other and decided not to ask.

"Fascinating as all these private jokes are," Tallis said, as sharply as Hawke had ever heard her speak, "the question is still hanging in front of us. Are you going to help me?"

"I thought you were leading the way out."

Tallis looked at Hawke for a long time, but Hawke held her gaze firmly until the elf looked away. "Fine. Don't think about all the innocent people who may be hurt."

"Don't give me that!" Hawke said angrily. "I've thought about innocent people for years. I've worn out three blades in the service of the innocent people of Kirkwall. I gave safe harbor to an abomination because he could heal them; I lost my mother and my sister in the process. I've been injured more times, and in more places, than I can count. So just because this one time I don't feel like rewarding being lied to and tricked into walking into a situation blind, don't get the idea that it's somehow because you're noble and I'm not, and put the blame on your own shoulders where it belongs." She let the words hang ringing in the air between them, and Tallis looked away, her blue eyes filling with tears.

"You're probably right."

Hawke sighed. Try as she might, she couldn't just leave it like that. "I'm not saying no. Just ... not yes, either. Not for sure until I've had some time to think."

She had to give Tallis credit; she didn't leap at the maybe. "Fair enough. Let's go this way, then." Tallis led them to a crack in the wall, narrow enough that Varric eyed it suspiciously.

"Bianca's not sure she'll fit."

"Of course she will. There's always room for Bianca," Hawke assured him, although she was by no means as certain as she sounded. She glanced doubtfully at Tallis, who nodded.

"This was built in the Fourth Blight, according to my sources, as a retreat and a refuge from the darkspawn. I think we'll all fit."

"Surely the Duke is more than familiar with this exit ... and where it leads," Fenris said, his green eyes shadowed with suspicion as they rested on Tallis.

"Look, you have no reason to trust me. I understand that. But I have no reason to be leading you into an ambush by the Duke, either. If you won't help me find Salit before he can betray our people, then you're no use to me."