Theme set Gamma

#48 - Unknown
He doesn't know what to expect from this so-called Champion until a woman stomps up to him and casually introduces herself as "Hawke" as if that's enough to explain the entirety of her existence.

#43 - Search
He's not just in Kirkwall for the reasons so blithely stated to the Champion—Eamon and Teagan have been hounding him to choose a bride and so here he is, a veritable walking banquet of a bachelor.

#39 - Overwhelmed
Within the first week he's introduced to so many hapless young ladies (and some not so young any longer) that he can't keep them straight.

#03 - Memory
The songs about the Hero of Ferelden mention how brave and strong she was but they never sing about the color of her eyes or the way the firelight reflected in her hair—but then, he's starting to forget those details too.

#34 - Formal
At the party she looks up at his approach and he knows whatever impulse that carried him to her side was a false one—the mask will come up and they will talk of polite nothings until he wishes that he'd been the one to kill the archdemon.

#05 - Run
At first she is just a familiar face that he runs to at the tedious parties the nobility hold for him, but increasingly he becomes aware that he is running to her for more than a break from boredom.

#28 - Forgotten
He's forgotten what it's like, to be "just Alistair," to get a smile and a laugh because he said something funny and not because he's king.

#02 - Hero
She never asks him about the Hero of Ferelden but he finds himself telling her anyway; she doesn't hold it against him when he tells her how much the Hero meant to him—instead she smiles and holds his hand and that's enough for him.

#36 - Laugh
The first time he hears her laugh, he is startled because it is so open and obnoxiously loud, unlike the careful titters of high-bred ladies—and he loves it all the more.

#13 - View
He sees the way the blond mage and the brooding elf watch her—like she is the world upon which they stand—and wonders what the view is like from up there.

#10 – Drink
His first night in The Hanged Man, Alistair takes a swig from the tumbler and nearly chokes, sputtering, "How can you drink this swill?"

#29 - Dance
Tongues wag as the Champion of Kirkwall kicks off her shoes and boldly pulls the King of Ferelden into a spirited dance, but they are having too much fun to care overmuch.

#23 – Fire
Her voice is like fire in his veins, stirring up feelings he'd thought he'd lost with the death of the archdemon, and making him wish for a moment that he was not king and free to court her as she deserved.

#40 - Whisper
Her eyes say no, but when he kisses her she doesn't resist, merely threads her arms around his shoulders and murmurs his name against his mouth.

#18 - Dream
Becoming king was never so hard as now, when she is curled up at his side, having fallen asleep while they watched the stars and spoke of their dreams—a dream he knows deep inside that can never be.

#26 – Ice
"It's called 'ice cream,'" he tells her with a laugh, and watches with amusement as she devours the whole bowl, leaving a white mustache across her upper lip

#04 – Box
It's easy to see that that he's put a box around his heart to safeguard it from harm, yet one kiss and she feels it opening to her, revealing the wonderful, shy, yet passionate man inside.

#09 – Red
He is nearly undone by the red dress she wears to the latest party—it conceals as much as it reveals, a cunning design to ensnare his eyes from wandering to any other woman: it works.

#12 - Temptation
There's an invitation in her smile, a promise of a night spent without unbearable loneliness, and he nearly scoops her up into his arms right then—but he remembers in time that he is king and he has a duty that cannot be forsworn.

#46 - Gravity
He finds himself wandering at night and each time he ends up outside her door as if an unseen force is dragging him inexorably there.

#14 – Music
The gently plucked strings of the lute held by the former elven slave are mere background noise to their laughter over dinner, which rings through the old estate, chasing back shadows of loneliness.

#44 – Hope
She cannot think that he would abandon all for her, it would be too much and she would be so angry at him for doing it; nevertheless, her foolish heart cannot help but hope.

#31 – Sacred
She doesn't understand when he says no to her invitation and he tries to explain; fumbling to tell her that it isn't just a casual tumble to him, but all she hears is rejection.

#16 – Cover
Another late night with her, and Alistair dodges the question with a laugh; "I'm seeing the sights of Kirkwall, Teagan, isn't that what you wanted me to do?"

#25 – Mask
She's gotten better at wearing the bland mask of the nobility—at seeming one thing but feeling another—but his smile, the way his eyes crinkle up at the edges, is always her undoing.

#49 – Lock
For as long as she can remember, she's kept her heart locked—mindful of her father's warnings about revealing her magic in moments of weakness, of passion—but she is unprepared for the one man who, without apparent effort, found the key and turned it.

#24 – Strength
He breaks away from her with monumental effort, wondering if he would have the strength to do so again—but he catches sight of her kiss-swollen lips and knows he's a weak, weak man.

#19 – Candle
He wouldn't say he was drawn to her like a moth to a candle, rather they were two flames, each sparking larger and hotter the closer they got.

#06 – Hurricane
He witnesses her fighting style only once against the gangs of Hightown and marvels as she cuts through dozens of them as easily as a storm tears up trees.

#07 – Wings
Isabela once asks her, "Are you ever going to admit that there's something going on between you and the king?" but Hawke replies, "When mabari have wings."

#50 – Breathe
His fingers trace a teasing pattern down her arms, brushing across the swell of her hips, and she has to remind herself to breathe.

#30 – Body
"He has a nice ass—" "Isabela, don't—" "Hush, you were thinking it too—Oh, how cute, you're blushing!"

#15 - Silk
Her skin is puckered from old poisoned wounds, rippled with scars like a rag doll, yet he wouldn't trade the feel of her skin against his for the all the Seheron silk in Thedas.

#27 – Fall
Eamon seems too calm when he calmly rips Alistair's world apart with the casual words: "The Chantry will not stand for your choice, Alistair—the very idea of a mage in a position of such political power would make the Divine's ears shrivel."

#37 – Lies
When Eamon tells him that she is a mage, he prays it is a lie—a lesser noble of Kirkwall would be hard enough to marry and bring to court, but a mage would be utterly impossible.

#20 – Talent
"So what if I'm a mage—I mean, all it really proves is that I can do funny things with my fingers—Alistair, where are you going?"

#42 - Talk
He allows her to enter the sitting room because he misses her, not because he's forgiven her yet—but the way she walks in, head high, staff strapped openly to her back, lets him know that she's come here for more than talk.

#32 – Farewells
"You know what, I won't apologize, because I'm proud to be a mage—just like my father—I have a gift and I will not be ashamed of being who I am and if you can't take that... well, then I will take my leave, Your Majesty."

#41 – Wait
She turns to leave, struggling to hide the pain on her face, but she's barely taken a single step when she feels his hand on her arm, strong but gentle, and his voice murmuring at her ear, "Please don't go."

#01 - Ring
"You can't give me that—" "I can and I will..." "No, Alistair, please... you mustn't... you know it as well as I—" "But if I was just Alistair..." "...Yes, I would."

#17 – Promise
"Tonight," he says, breathing in the scent of her hair until his head is spinning with the want of her, "wait for me tonight and you will have me; all of me."

#11 – Midnight
She waits for him in the courtyard until her toes grow numb from the cold and her eyes ache from straining to see in the dark, but he does not come and she wonders which feeling is strongest in her heart right now: pain or resignation.

#08 - Cold
Her silence and cool gaze are meant to balm the gaping wound between them, but it doesn't help—nothing will, except, as Alistair knows personally, time.

#21 – Silence
Hawke curls up in the window seat, absently watching the Arenburgs fighting yet again, and wishes that the quiet of the house would be broken by her mother's chiding, her brother's grousing, or Alistair's laughter—but there is nothing except silence.

#22 – Journey
Alistair watches the servants carry the trunks out of the estate and knows that he should feel relieved to go home, to get out of this city of power-crazed knight-commanders and templars, yet when he thinks of leaving her, all he can think of is the empty road ahead of him.

#35 – Fever
He's not sure what seized him to write the missive with Teagan and Eamon calling for him to leave, but he knows he cannot leave Kirkwall without something other than their last cold greeting hanging between them, so he writes furiously as with a fever, and hopes that his clumsy words will somehow convey his heart.

#38 – Forever
"My dear," the letter reads in his sprawling script, "you may not ever forgive my absence, but know that I will carry you in my heart, always, and if there be a way for us someday, not even the Maker could mark how fast I would come for you."

#47 – Highway
He would have liked a honeymoon in Nevarra, he decides on the way to Denerim, a long, languorous journey on the Imperial Highway with no royal guard, no templars, no responsibilities, and nothing to do except be together.

#45 - Eclipse
He's not even in Kirkwall when it happens, but when he hears what she did (the maleficar spared, mages running rampant through the city, templars slaughtered) he wonders if he could have stopped her, him, them—if his mere presence would have somehow overshadowed the insanity about to break loose and set things right.

#33 – World
The first thing he does when he arrives at the palace before even taking off his cloak is call for a scribe to pen a royal decree: the Circle of Ferelden shall be dissolved and be henceforth a place of refuge—he knows it is not enough but he hopes that wherever she is, she understands that he too is hoping for a better world.