At Your Side (A Dragon Age fanfiction)

Year One: Bargaining

"Knight-Captain, all I'm asking is to have Bethany released for a short time. She was taken to the Tower most abruptly—we didn't even have the chance to help her prepare. Or to say good-bye!" Hawke controlled her voice with an effort.

"With all due respect, Serah Hawke, do you think I'm a fool?" Cullen's sympathetic eyes belied his harsh words. "You and I both know what would happen were I to allow your sister out of the Tower for so much as an hour. The name 'Hawke' would become a distant memory in Kirkwall, the recently filled Amell estate lying empty while you and your family flee. We've been over this before."

Hawke took a deep breath, unable to argue with his statement. Her hand moved toward her coin pouch. "I know, but—we've just received payment for the last of the treasure we brought back from the Deep Roads and—"

"Say no more," Cullen said sharply. "All your coin won't help. While I understand the impulse, and the desperation, you run the risk of seriously offending me if you reach for that pouch again."

"I'm sorry," she said contritely. "It's just—"

"I am well aware of how long you spent hiding your sister," Cullen said. "You did it most successfully, I understand, both here and in Ferelden. But Kirkwall is a large town with the gossip of a small village. Sooner or later, we always find the hidden mages."

Hawke thought of Anders, ensconced in his clinic in Kirkwall, and Merrill, tucked away in the Alienage, but she didn't bother to argue with Cullen. "Will you at least consider the petition?"

"No," Cullen said bluntly, getting up from his chair. "I respect your abilities far too much to take that risk."

Staying firmly seated, Hawke said desperately, "You know, I saved the Viscount's son. He might be favorably disposed to a request from me."

"Well, then, you can take this issue up with the Viscount. And he can take it up with the Knight-Commander, and she can refuse," Cullen said. "In the meantime, Serah Hawke, let me say again that while I deeply regret that I have to say 'no' to you, 'no' is still my answer."

"Thank you for your time," Hawke said in defeat, getting up from the chair.

"I am not unsympathetic, Serah," Cullen said. "Perhaps, sometime, I could ... make it up to you?"

She met his eyes, bewildered, and realized with some surprise that he meant it as a romantic overture, however poorly timed. Right at the moment, she'd sooner date a Tal Vashoth. "Um ... that's very kind of you. I will ... have to think about it." She hurried from the room, frustrated and sad.

Hawke had spent the better part of the three months since she'd returned from the Deep Roads trying to come up with a way to get Bethany out of the Gallows. She'd left the task of selling off their dwarven treasure to Varric, who assured her he was getting the best possible prices for the items. And she couldn't complain—coin had poured in. There had been enough to buy back her mother's childhood home, the lovely estate in Hightown that Gamlen had lost to a group of slavers, and to fix it up. Evelyn and her mother rattled around in the big, grand house, with only two servants—the dwarven merchant Bodahn who had accompanied them to the Deep Roads and his son Sandal—to share it with, but her mother seemed happy. Or as happy as she could be, with only Evelyn left of all her family. She had entrusted Evelyn with the task of saving Bethany from the Gallows, but seemed disappointed that more progress hadn't been made.

Hawke was making her way through Lowtown toward the Hanged Man when a man stepped out of the growing shadows of an alley. "Anders!" she snapped. "Must you lurk in the dark like that?"