Jazz Age: Chapter Fifty-Nine
Title Jazz Age
Rating M
Warnings Violence.
Spoilers For pretty much everything, eventually.
Pairings Hawke/Jethann, Hawke/Isabela, Hawke/Fenris
Summary Hawke and his family fled the war in Ferelden on a liner, dogged by Darkspawn U-Boats. Two years later the war is over and Hawke is a private detective in Kirkwall, a city awash with jazz, bootleg liquor and a lot of trouble.
Master List Here.
As the evening progressed the news on the wireless went from bad to worse. Without Orsino to make his case, Meredith’s version of events was becoming the official one. Dumar came out on her side, offering his full support until the rogue mages were apprehended. Varric went back to Lowtown briefly and came back with the news that my house had been searched. Gamlen had been taken in for questioning but they’d let him out again, apparently without the Templars being very much the wiser. I could have kissed the old bastard for managing to keep his mouth shut.
Aveline and Varric, being the least likely of our group to be stopped and arrested at any point, went out to get us dinner. They returned with food and no good news; the hunt for Orsino had almost overtaken the hunt for Anders, and there were Templars patrolling the streets. My name was being mentioned with more and more frequency, although why they actually needed to speak to me was left vague.
“I hope Carver’s all right,” was all I said about it. I needed to think of something. By now Meredith would be watching both the docks and the railway station, and possibly the major roads out as well. Kirkwall was a secure city, bounded by cliffs and ocean. We’d missed the window of opportunity for an easy escape.
I didn’t want to run. I couldn’t just abandon all of Kirkwall and the mages - apostates and otherwise - who resided there to Meredith’s tender mercies. They still hadn’t found the rest of the yellowcake, and I shuddered to think what she might decide to do with it. Export it to other Circles maybe.
I went to take Anders and Orsino their dinner; Orsino seemed content to stay in the basement with the other mage, apparently as some sort of penance. At least, that’s what I thought.
I walked carefully down the stairs into the gloom, going slowly with both hands balancing plates of food; if I tripped they'd go flying. I could hear conversation coming from Anders’ room, which we still kept locked.
“So she set you up!” That was Anders. “It wasn’t your fault that-”
“It was,” Orsino said gently. “It was my mistake.”
“What, you’re saying she’s right? Why don’t you go and turn yourself in then?”
“I’m saying we all make mistakes. Mages and non-mages alike. No one got hurt. It’s all right to ask for forgiveness sometimes.”
There was silence for a while.
I heard Anders' shaky sigh, and I could just imagine him running his fingers through his hair as he did so.
“I can see why all the mages I helped escape seemed to have so much loyalty and affection for you. You’re kinder to me than I deserve.”
“No, I’m not. I just know what you’re going through. I’ve seen many other mages go through exactly the same. Not every near-miss is observed by a Templar, you know. Mages need other mages, more than anything else. Do you think Hawke would have become who he is without his father and his sister?”
“What am I supposed to do then?”
“Come here, come on. I don’t bite. You can tell me all about it.”
Silence, then a bit of shuffling.
“I...I want to tell you about someone. His name was Karl. You sort of remind me of him a little.”
I crept back upstairs and left them to it. Eventually Aveline took their food down, and when she returned she said Orsino had asked if he could stay down there to sleep, and if Fenris had any extra blankets.
“Does he think this place is a hotel?” Fenris asked.
“You mean it’s not?” Merrill grinned.
“Oh, let him,” I said. “We’re going to be short on beds anyway, and right now Anders needs a friend. Someone who’s understood what he’s gone through.”
Aveline and Varric went back to their respective homes, but Merrill decided she didn’t want to walk back to the Alienage alone, and Isabala wanted to stay just because it irritated Fenris. We opened up cupboards and dragged out somewhat moth-eaten blankets and pillows and we spent most of the evening waiting for our turn in the bathroom. When Anders came up for his turn he made a point of rather stiffly thanking Fenris for his hospitality.
Fenris scowled, “Yes, yes, just do something useful to make all this worthwhile, would you?”
“Like what? Heal the sick and comfort the poor?” Anders asked.
I grinned. That was more like it.
“It’s good to have you back,” I said.
“This bed is huge,” Isabela’s voice floated down the hall. “We could all fit on this, easy.”
“Ooh, I want to see.” Merrill went to have a look and Fenris followed, full of indignant refusals.
“Thanks,” I said to Orsino, who was watching the proceedings with a faint, bemused smile.
“He’s a good man. He’s suffered a lot.”
“Did he tell you about Justice?” I asked. “What did you think?”
“Trip, we’re mages. Justice was as real as Anders needed him to be. I’m only sorry that he hid him so well; perhaps if someone could have drawn him out of his shell earlier it wouldn’t have come to this.” Orsino smiled sadly, “I hope I’ve done my bit.”
I rubbed the back of my neck, “He wanted, well, me, but I just couldn’t be there the way he wanted me to. I feel bad about that.”
“Don’t. Things may yet work out for the best.” We looked up as Fenris came stalking back, his face like a thundercloud.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I hope you don’t mind sleeping on the floor,” he muttered.
I laughed. “Outnumbered, were you?”
“They’re having a pillow fight.”
“Really? Why didn’t you say so earlier?” I grinned and rubbed my hands together. “I have to observe this phenomenon.”
Orsino laughed, “Thank you, Fenris, for letting me experience a bit of normality.”
“You think this is normal?”
~~~
Fenris and I slept in the kitchen, wrapped up in a pile of blankets next to the cooling stove. Fenris’s mansion seemed alive that night, creaking and shuddering in a cold wind that had sprung up somewhere out at sea and was pushing its way up the Kirkwall cliffs. We shuffled and muttered and murmured in response to the rattling windows and the groaning timbers. I heard Merrill giggle loudly at one point.
I played with Fenris’s fingers, and licked his ear and he scraped his teeth on my shoulder and we managed to get undressed and dressed again without unraveling the blankets and losing our warmth. When we slept I kept my nose pressed to the back of his neck.
At one point I heard Isabela shout, 'Out!' and Horse clumped downstairs and flopped on our feet.
Maybe there were Templars on the streets, but the cold wind would drive them into coffee shops and alcoves, keeping them away from our house, with its door that wouldn’t lock and barely kept closed. Our house warmed by half a dozen dozing, laughing, shivering, breathing, living, bodies.
When the sun rose, it rose hot. The cold wind had swept away the usual morning fog, and then died, and the kitchen grew warm and sun-drenched. I stuck my head out of the blankets and sleepily wondered who’d declared it spring. I unwound the blankets enough for me to slip out of them, Fenris curling up over the space I’d left behind.
It was early. The shadows cast by the buildings on the other side of the road still looked dew-sodden and cold. I turned on the stove and started making coffee and heating up what was left of yesterday’s bread rolls.
I brought some of both down to the basement. It was a lot colder down here, and I regretted not wearing any shoes.
Orsino and Anders had evidently decided to consolidate their blankets. I nudged the elf with my foot and he looked utterly bewildered by his circumstances for a few moments, but the coffee soon brought him around.
“Why does Meredith want to talk to me?” The strange hush that had fallen when the wind had died still lay over the house, and we sat in the kitchen talking quietly, doing our best not to disturb it.
Orsino shrugged, “She does not necessarily take me into her confidence, but my understanding is that you scare her. She can’t work out who you are and what you want. And she’s been digging. I imagine Carver’s been questioned too.”
“Does she think I’m a mage?”
“She thinks everyone is a mage. Well, no, everyone could be a mage until proven otherwise and, well, you’re a Hawke. She wasn’t Commander when your father was at the circle, but he was one of our most well-known escapees. So yes, I think she is convinced you are a mage. She doesn’t understand what you want, or who you are, and it infuriates her more than I do. Me, she understands all too well.”
“But she can’t prove it. I’m just a citizen.”
“I don’t think she has proof, no.” Silence fell for a few moments, “I can’t stay here, Hawke. I have to go back at some point.”
“I know. But she’s going to have your head for this.”
“Find another Circle,” Fenris said sleepily. “Resume your campaign from there. There’s no shame in a tactical retreat.”
“That’s not the worst idea I’ve ever heard,” I admitted. “I’m out of bright ideas. Maybe we should just leave.”
The household started to wake up, and Aveline arrived early with the morning papers and her belongings in two large bags.
“I can’t stay at the barracks anymore,” she explained. “I’m just a civilian, aren’t I?”
“There’s plenty of room in the bed upstairs,” Isabela said, applying lipstick and peering at her reflection in a hand mirror.
“Trip, you might want to look at this,” Aveline handed me the paper. On the front was a picture of Carver.
The others peered over my shoulder as I read.
Meredith wanted to talk. It wasn’t so much a news report as a message, for me. Unless I came forward and proved myself not a mage, Carver was going to be tried for aiding and abetting apostates.
I threw the paper down on the table and we looked at each other.
“I have to go,” I said.
“No. It’s a trap, obviously,” Isabela said.
“I can’t leave Carver there. He hasn’t done anything wrong.”
“Technically he’s been aiding and abetting you for years,” Aveline pointed out.
I looked at Fenris.
“Just because it’s a trap,” he said carefully, “doesn’t mean we have to walk into it unprepared.”
“We should contact her first,” Isabela said, “and see what her terms are. I wouldn’t go anywhere private.”
“That will suit her,” Orsino said. “If she’s got a plan, she’ll want everyone to see it.”
“You can’t go alone,” Merrill declared. “If it all goes wrong we have to rescue you!”
“Definitely!” Isabela said. “Everyone needs an escape route.”
“Well,” I got to my feet, “let’s find a public phone and let her know we’re willing to negotiate.”
~~~
Noon seemed somewhat appropriate. Varric had no trouble getting the papers interested, and Meredith seemed more than happy to have our meeting happen in the town square.
“Be very, very, very careful,” Anders said, wringing his hands. We’d let him out, and given him a hug - well, Fenris declined the latter - and filled him in on what was going on. If we had to run for it, we couldn’t leave him behind and Aveline had seemed to accept Orsino's assurances that he wasn't about to do anything else he'd regret.
“I know, I know,” I said.
“I have stolen us the best car,” Isabela said. “And Merrill will park hers nearby too.”
Everyone who had them patted their guns.
“I’ll come with you,” Orsino said, “When you talk to Meredith. I can only hope they’ll still listen to me.”
“And if we have to leave?” Anders asked.
Orsino smiled faintly, “I’ll create a distraction. Have faith, Anders.”
“I’ll be as close as I can,” Fenris muttered, straightening up my shabby coat. “I won’t let them do anything to you. Over my dead body.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
He glanced around. Almost everyone was politely holding unrelated conversations, letting us have our moment. Fenris frowned, and looked up at me with an oddly determined expression.
“You are coming back, you understand me?” he said.
Before I could frame a suitable response he flung his arms around my neck and pressed his mouth to mine. I staggered back half a step under his sudden weight and kissed him back, automatically embracing him.
When he pulled back he was glaring at me. “For luck,” he said, even though his cheeks were burning.
I thought I was going to need it.
Rating M
Warnings Violence.
Spoilers For pretty much everything, eventually.
Pairings Hawke/Jethann, Hawke/Isabela, Hawke/Fenris
Summary Hawke and his family fled the war in Ferelden on a liner, dogged by Darkspawn U-Boats. Two years later the war is over and Hawke is a private detective in Kirkwall, a city awash with jazz, bootleg liquor and a lot of trouble.
Master List Here.
As the evening progressed the news on the wireless went from bad to worse. Without Orsino to make his case, Meredith’s version of events was becoming the official one. Dumar came out on her side, offering his full support until the rogue mages were apprehended. Varric went back to Lowtown briefly and came back with the news that my house had been searched. Gamlen had been taken in for questioning but they’d let him out again, apparently without the Templars being very much the wiser. I could have kissed the old bastard for managing to keep his mouth shut.
Aveline and Varric, being the least likely of our group to be stopped and arrested at any point, went out to get us dinner. They returned with food and no good news; the hunt for Orsino had almost overtaken the hunt for Anders, and there were Templars patrolling the streets. My name was being mentioned with more and more frequency, although why they actually needed to speak to me was left vague.
“I hope Carver’s all right,” was all I said about it. I needed to think of something. By now Meredith would be watching both the docks and the railway station, and possibly the major roads out as well. Kirkwall was a secure city, bounded by cliffs and ocean. We’d missed the window of opportunity for an easy escape.
I didn’t want to run. I couldn’t just abandon all of Kirkwall and the mages - apostates and otherwise - who resided there to Meredith’s tender mercies. They still hadn’t found the rest of the yellowcake, and I shuddered to think what she might decide to do with it. Export it to other Circles maybe.
I went to take Anders and Orsino their dinner; Orsino seemed content to stay in the basement with the other mage, apparently as some sort of penance. At least, that’s what I thought.
I walked carefully down the stairs into the gloom, going slowly with both hands balancing plates of food; if I tripped they'd go flying. I could hear conversation coming from Anders’ room, which we still kept locked.
“So she set you up!” That was Anders. “It wasn’t your fault that-”
“It was,” Orsino said gently. “It was my mistake.”
“What, you’re saying she’s right? Why don’t you go and turn yourself in then?”
“I’m saying we all make mistakes. Mages and non-mages alike. No one got hurt. It’s all right to ask for forgiveness sometimes.”
There was silence for a while.
I heard Anders' shaky sigh, and I could just imagine him running his fingers through his hair as he did so.
“I can see why all the mages I helped escape seemed to have so much loyalty and affection for you. You’re kinder to me than I deserve.”
“No, I’m not. I just know what you’re going through. I’ve seen many other mages go through exactly the same. Not every near-miss is observed by a Templar, you know. Mages need other mages, more than anything else. Do you think Hawke would have become who he is without his father and his sister?”
“What am I supposed to do then?”
“Come here, come on. I don’t bite. You can tell me all about it.”
Silence, then a bit of shuffling.
“I...I want to tell you about someone. His name was Karl. You sort of remind me of him a little.”
I crept back upstairs and left them to it. Eventually Aveline took their food down, and when she returned she said Orsino had asked if he could stay down there to sleep, and if Fenris had any extra blankets.
“Does he think this place is a hotel?” Fenris asked.
“You mean it’s not?” Merrill grinned.
“Oh, let him,” I said. “We’re going to be short on beds anyway, and right now Anders needs a friend. Someone who’s understood what he’s gone through.”
Aveline and Varric went back to their respective homes, but Merrill decided she didn’t want to walk back to the Alienage alone, and Isabala wanted to stay just because it irritated Fenris. We opened up cupboards and dragged out somewhat moth-eaten blankets and pillows and we spent most of the evening waiting for our turn in the bathroom. When Anders came up for his turn he made a point of rather stiffly thanking Fenris for his hospitality.
Fenris scowled, “Yes, yes, just do something useful to make all this worthwhile, would you?”
“Like what? Heal the sick and comfort the poor?” Anders asked.
I grinned. That was more like it.
“It’s good to have you back,” I said.
“This bed is huge,” Isabela’s voice floated down the hall. “We could all fit on this, easy.”
“Ooh, I want to see.” Merrill went to have a look and Fenris followed, full of indignant refusals.
“Thanks,” I said to Orsino, who was watching the proceedings with a faint, bemused smile.
“He’s a good man. He’s suffered a lot.”
“Did he tell you about Justice?” I asked. “What did you think?”
“Trip, we’re mages. Justice was as real as Anders needed him to be. I’m only sorry that he hid him so well; perhaps if someone could have drawn him out of his shell earlier it wouldn’t have come to this.” Orsino smiled sadly, “I hope I’ve done my bit.”
I rubbed the back of my neck, “He wanted, well, me, but I just couldn’t be there the way he wanted me to. I feel bad about that.”
“Don’t. Things may yet work out for the best.” We looked up as Fenris came stalking back, his face like a thundercloud.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I hope you don’t mind sleeping on the floor,” he muttered.
I laughed. “Outnumbered, were you?”
“They’re having a pillow fight.”
“Really? Why didn’t you say so earlier?” I grinned and rubbed my hands together. “I have to observe this phenomenon.”
Orsino laughed, “Thank you, Fenris, for letting me experience a bit of normality.”
“You think this is normal?”
~~~
Fenris and I slept in the kitchen, wrapped up in a pile of blankets next to the cooling stove. Fenris’s mansion seemed alive that night, creaking and shuddering in a cold wind that had sprung up somewhere out at sea and was pushing its way up the Kirkwall cliffs. We shuffled and muttered and murmured in response to the rattling windows and the groaning timbers. I heard Merrill giggle loudly at one point.
I played with Fenris’s fingers, and licked his ear and he scraped his teeth on my shoulder and we managed to get undressed and dressed again without unraveling the blankets and losing our warmth. When we slept I kept my nose pressed to the back of his neck.
At one point I heard Isabela shout, 'Out!' and Horse clumped downstairs and flopped on our feet.
Maybe there were Templars on the streets, but the cold wind would drive them into coffee shops and alcoves, keeping them away from our house, with its door that wouldn’t lock and barely kept closed. Our house warmed by half a dozen dozing, laughing, shivering, breathing, living, bodies.
When the sun rose, it rose hot. The cold wind had swept away the usual morning fog, and then died, and the kitchen grew warm and sun-drenched. I stuck my head out of the blankets and sleepily wondered who’d declared it spring. I unwound the blankets enough for me to slip out of them, Fenris curling up over the space I’d left behind.
It was early. The shadows cast by the buildings on the other side of the road still looked dew-sodden and cold. I turned on the stove and started making coffee and heating up what was left of yesterday’s bread rolls.
I brought some of both down to the basement. It was a lot colder down here, and I regretted not wearing any shoes.
Orsino and Anders had evidently decided to consolidate their blankets. I nudged the elf with my foot and he looked utterly bewildered by his circumstances for a few moments, but the coffee soon brought him around.
“Why does Meredith want to talk to me?” The strange hush that had fallen when the wind had died still lay over the house, and we sat in the kitchen talking quietly, doing our best not to disturb it.
Orsino shrugged, “She does not necessarily take me into her confidence, but my understanding is that you scare her. She can’t work out who you are and what you want. And she’s been digging. I imagine Carver’s been questioned too.”
“Does she think I’m a mage?”
“She thinks everyone is a mage. Well, no, everyone could be a mage until proven otherwise and, well, you’re a Hawke. She wasn’t Commander when your father was at the circle, but he was one of our most well-known escapees. So yes, I think she is convinced you are a mage. She doesn’t understand what you want, or who you are, and it infuriates her more than I do. Me, she understands all too well.”
“But she can’t prove it. I’m just a citizen.”
“I don’t think she has proof, no.” Silence fell for a few moments, “I can’t stay here, Hawke. I have to go back at some point.”
“I know. But she’s going to have your head for this.”
“Find another Circle,” Fenris said sleepily. “Resume your campaign from there. There’s no shame in a tactical retreat.”
“That’s not the worst idea I’ve ever heard,” I admitted. “I’m out of bright ideas. Maybe we should just leave.”
The household started to wake up, and Aveline arrived early with the morning papers and her belongings in two large bags.
“I can’t stay at the barracks anymore,” she explained. “I’m just a civilian, aren’t I?”
“There’s plenty of room in the bed upstairs,” Isabela said, applying lipstick and peering at her reflection in a hand mirror.
“Trip, you might want to look at this,” Aveline handed me the paper. On the front was a picture of Carver.
The others peered over my shoulder as I read.
Meredith wanted to talk. It wasn’t so much a news report as a message, for me. Unless I came forward and proved myself not a mage, Carver was going to be tried for aiding and abetting apostates.
I threw the paper down on the table and we looked at each other.
“I have to go,” I said.
“No. It’s a trap, obviously,” Isabela said.
“I can’t leave Carver there. He hasn’t done anything wrong.”
“Technically he’s been aiding and abetting you for years,” Aveline pointed out.
I looked at Fenris.
“Just because it’s a trap,” he said carefully, “doesn’t mean we have to walk into it unprepared.”
“We should contact her first,” Isabela said, “and see what her terms are. I wouldn’t go anywhere private.”
“That will suit her,” Orsino said. “If she’s got a plan, she’ll want everyone to see it.”
“You can’t go alone,” Merrill declared. “If it all goes wrong we have to rescue you!”
“Definitely!” Isabela said. “Everyone needs an escape route.”
“Well,” I got to my feet, “let’s find a public phone and let her know we’re willing to negotiate.”
~~~
Noon seemed somewhat appropriate. Varric had no trouble getting the papers interested, and Meredith seemed more than happy to have our meeting happen in the town square.
“Be very, very, very careful,” Anders said, wringing his hands. We’d let him out, and given him a hug - well, Fenris declined the latter - and filled him in on what was going on. If we had to run for it, we couldn’t leave him behind and Aveline had seemed to accept Orsino's assurances that he wasn't about to do anything else he'd regret.
“I know, I know,” I said.
“I have stolen us the best car,” Isabela said. “And Merrill will park hers nearby too.”
Everyone who had them patted their guns.
“I’ll come with you,” Orsino said, “When you talk to Meredith. I can only hope they’ll still listen to me.”
“And if we have to leave?” Anders asked.
Orsino smiled faintly, “I’ll create a distraction. Have faith, Anders.”
“I’ll be as close as I can,” Fenris muttered, straightening up my shabby coat. “I won’t let them do anything to you. Over my dead body.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
He glanced around. Almost everyone was politely holding unrelated conversations, letting us have our moment. Fenris frowned, and looked up at me with an oddly determined expression.
“You are coming back, you understand me?” he said.
Before I could frame a suitable response he flung his arms around my neck and pressed his mouth to mine. I staggered back half a step under his sudden weight and kissed him back, automatically embracing him.
When he pulled back he was glaring at me. “For luck,” he said, even though his cheeks were burning.
I thought I was going to need it.