Apostate in Plain Sight

The Other Shoe Drops

When Hawke returned to Kirkwall, her correspondence table was blessedly clear. She sighed in relief and made her way upstairs and collapsed onto the bed, her arms sprawled out across the sheets. She closed her eyes and pretended not to hear when Anders followed her into the room and the door clicked closed behind him. She pressed her lips together, trying to hide the smirk as he moved toward the bed and then dropped himself over her, rocking the bed and putting their faces barely an inch apart. She opened her eyes and set her bright blue eyes on his honey ones and smiled sweetly. He was grinning down at her. "Someone needs to school you on the proper definition of the word vacation," he teased. She stretched her arms up over her head and arched her back, 'accidentally' brushing her knee along his crotch.

She let out a low humming chuckle. "I do seem to have returned wound more tightly than when I left. Are you planning on schooling me, professor?"

"I could, but I would much rather just..." he leaned in closer, his lips brushing her neck. "Help you relax."

"That does sound like a much better use of my time," she agreed as his hand slipped up under her tunic.

They went to bed that night, Hawke draped around Anders, her arm over his chest and her hand clutched in his as he held it over his heart. The quiet reprieve was short lived as the city began to realize that the Champion had returned. She barely had time to unwind before she received a request on her desk.

Champion Hawke,

It took great courage the other day for you to speak openly against our Knight-Commander. You have my support in any actions you take. I hope I have yours as well, for there is a situation in the Circle I was hoping you could assist me with. Please meet me at the Gallows. Meredith has confined my mages to their cells and forbade me from traveling further than the courtyard. I appreciate your service and discretion.

Sincerely,

First Enchanter Orsino

Hawke dressed in her armor and gathered her people to see what sort of appeasement she needed to participate in to keep the two most powerful people in the city from ripping each other apart. Orsino was agitated when Hawke found him in his office, directly across from Meredith's. Luckily she didn't seem to be around.

"Thank you for coming, Champion," he said without even a hint of a smile. He moved into a formal stance that she responded to by settling into her hips, her arms crossed. "Few will associate with me now that I am the focus of Meredith's ire." Hawke nodded and glanced around his office, recognizing some of his tomes and other books as he spoke, her attention still on him, even as she feigned aloofness. "Which leaves me in a difficult position. She is not entirely wrong."

Hawke's attention suddenly snapped back to Orsino, her eyes narrowing and her back straightening. "Inform the criers!" Anders snarked. "A miracle has occurred."

Orsino sighed. "I know some of my people are using dangerous means to oppose her, but I cannot seek the templars' aid without making every mage a target." Hawke did not in any way envy Orsino's position.

"What are they doing?" she asked.

He turned to her from the short pace across his desk and said softly. "All I know is that numerous mages have left the Circle at night, sometimes for days at a time." Hawke's eyes widened. How in the void were they getting away with things like that without being missed? "I'd rather not follow our Knight-Commander by leaping to the worst possible conclusions, but the idea of blood magic has crossed my mind."

Hawke nodded in agreement. "She does like to add one and one and get eleven, doesn't she?"

Orsino snorted softly. "Sometimes a hundred and eleven. I've heard rumors, whispers, of a meeting tonight in Hightown. I would go myself, but should I leave the tower without permission, Meredith would call it proof of my involvement."