At Your Side (A Dragon Age fanfiction)

Basalit'an

Fenris leaned back in the chair. He pretended to be studying the cards, but over them, he was watching Varric.

The dwarf stealthily shook his sleeve, the edge of a card peeking out.

"A-HA!" Fenris lunged across the table, grabbing Varric's sleeve before the card could disappear again.

"Sodding elf," Varric said. "Why do I keep playing with you?"

Fenris shrugged. He selected a card from his hand, placing it on the table.

"The last Dagger?! Elf, you have the Archdemon's own luck." He dug into his pocket for a sovereign, tossing it across the table. "That should buy your next bottle of that wine you swill."

"Half a bottle," Fenris said. He didn't drink any single-sovereign vintages. "Shall we play again?"

"Why not? It isn't as though I were going to do anything useful with my money," Varric grumbled.

Deftly, Fenris shuffled the cards. He was about to deal when the door of the Hanged Man was flung open. Isabela rushed through the room, a giant book under her arm. His hands stilled; he was afraid he knew what that book was. Standing up, he handed the cards to Varric. "Wait here. There may be trouble."

"Right."

Fenris pushed open the door of Isabela's room, which she hadn't bothered to close properly. She was rushing around stuffing items into a large canvas duffle bag.

"Going somewhere?" he asked.

She didn't even look up, snatching some kind of filmy undergarment from the top of a chest.

"Isabela."

"Your girlfriend wouldn't help me."

"Hawke?"

She looked at him, then, her eyes moving from his face to the red band around his wrist. "You wear your heart on your sleeve for anyone else?"

His face flushed.

"After all these years telling me she'd watch my back if I ever found my relic, she wouldn't help." Isabela got down on her knees, looking under her bed. She peered over the top of it at Fenris. "Turns out, I didn't need her, anyway. Wall-Eyed Sam is a dirty coward—he ran out on the meet he had set up when the Qunari attacked his buyers. All I had to do was shiv him in the back, and the relic is mine again. Who needs Hawke?"

"And you're leaving?"

"You don't miss a trick, do you?" She got to her feet, sauntering across the room toward him. "Want to come with me? I'll get another boat, we can sail away. Far from Tevinter, far from Kirkwall and everything you can't have. I can show you things you never dreamed of."

He stepped away from her. "No."

"What is there left for you here?"

"I made a promise. I will not break it."

Isabela made a gagging noise. "Fine. Have it your way. But I'm leaving. You and Hawke have fun with the Qunari attack."

"The Qunari are attacking?"

"They will be."

"Because you have the Tome of Koslun."

Isabela's eyes widened. "How do you know that?"