Chapter Text
The first thing she noticed was that she was on the ground, her bag and belongings were scattered in the snow around her. The second thing that she noticed was that things were… wrong. Familiar, but she wasn’t sure why. She was certain that she’d never been here before. The third thing… and at the moment, the most important, was that there were several men rushing toward her all clad in armor and with swords drawn. She scrambled to grab the closest item to her, when one of the men reached down and grabbed her by the hair, pulling her up. The item was her cute purple stun gun, which she pressed to the man’s hand and discharged. First time she’d used it. Ever… Cause really? Guys wandering around in armor? With swords? Not right.
The man collapsed into a twitching heap on the ground, dropping her in the process—her gaze was on the man convulsing in awe and horror. Maybe it was worse because he was in armor? It served its purpose though, as the others were watching her and moving much more cautiously now. She heard the word, “Mage.”
“We need to take her to the Knight Captain.” “She looks like someone, doesn’t she?” “What in the Maker’s name is she wearing?” “More like not wearing.”
Two of the men came in closer, each grabbing her by an arm, and hauling her up to her feet after they jerked the taser from her. Another of the men was collecting her things as the pulled her across the courtyard into a hallway where they knocked on the door, waiting for the accompanying “Come in.”
Her temper snapped after she was forced inside and shoved down into a chair, and she delivered a swift kick to the man who had shoved her. She was fairly certain that he wouldn’t have felt it anyway because of the armor, but it was satisfying. The man raised a gauntleted hand to strike her, but was stopped by sharp words from across the office. “Karras. That is enough.” The red headed brute froze, his gaze narrowing on her, as she fought down the urge to give him a cocky smirk. Probably no reason to goad him further. The voice from across the room was slightly exasperated, “Now. What happened?”
“This woman is a MAGE.” The man before her bellowed. She just blinked at him.
There was the sound of metal scraping against metal as the other man stood, and footsteps as he walked over, “A mage, mm?” He asked, his gaze landed on her and his eyes widened as he took in the long red hair, the stubborn set of her jaw, the womanly curves that he wasn’t supposed to notice as a templar, but was impossible to ignore due to the odd clothes she wore. “Hawke?? What are you wearing?”
She scowled, she’d been wearing shorts and a tank top, which was appropriate when she’d been at home, and it had been excruciatingly hot… She hadn’t really expected to wake up some place weird, in the middle of the freaking winter. ‘Lay off the clothes.’ She thought, then realized that she recognized the voice… Her eyes darted up, and realization came crashing down on her when she saw the man—and he had called her Hawke. She stood, quicker even than she knew she could, sending the chair tumbling, her eyes wide (panicked) and skin paler than normal (hard to do). She recognized these men now. These were templars. That one was Cullen and she had just seen all of them on her television screen the night before, while she’d been playing the Dragon Age games. “I’m not…”
Cullen had stiffened, and his eyebrows lowered, “No.. You’re not quite… Who are you?”
“Knight Captain, this woman is a MAGE, who ATTACKED one of our own MEN. She MUST be punished!!” Karras really needed a lesson on inside voices.
“Not a mage.” She said darkly.
“You lying whore. You attacked my man with lightning. Magic. Do you DENY that?”
She squared her shoulders, “Yes. You pretentious dick, I do. I attacked your man with electricity. Not magic.” Her gaze had travelled to where one of the other templars held her tazer awkwardly studying it.
That was why she didn’t see the hand come up to grab her by the throat, and entirely why she released a startled squeak as he shoved her and pinned her to the wall. “You DARE to disrespect me, whore?”
The control she had on her temper was slipping, and she nearly sneered a reply, when the curious templar, grabbed her pepper spray. He was eyeing the little black container, turning it just, so… Straight at Cullen, who was looking not happy at Karras. “You really shouldn’t be pointing that at—“ She cut herself off as his finger hit, “Don’t touch that button!!!!” And Cullen turned at just the wrong time to catch a steady stream of pepper spray fully in the face. He cursed (which she always assumed templars weren’t supposed to do) as both of his hands lifted to rub at his eyes. All of the other templars had started coughing, and vacated the room as soon as the burning started, and the pepper fog spread throughout the room. Her eyes were burning too and her first instinct was to get as far away as she could from (what she assumed would be) the Gallows while she had a distraction. The others would all be trying to recoop, and rubbing at their eyes too.. But she saw Cullen reaching blindly, trying to find something to orientate himself and really, he hadn’t done anything to deserve this. ‘Stupid conscience. Kinda hate you.’
So, of course, while her instincts were screaming at her to ‘For God’s sakes, RUN, you idiot!’ she instead reached out to take his arm and lead him from the room.
Author note: Please note that I do not have a beta reader, so any errors are my own, and I apologize for them. If you feel so inclined, please let me know what you think... I'm motivated to write this one right now. : )