"Marian, what are you doing!?" Garret shouted as he stormed up to where his sister was leaning over the wounded templar.

"Healing. It's something I do after a battle, brother." Marian replied calmly, looking curiously at the templar who was clutching his side and bent on a knee in front of her.

She knelt in front of him. The templar's amber eyes were hard as they looked at her, but he hadn't tried to smite her. At least, not yet. There was pain in his eyes as well. Most likely from the gaping wound in his side where a demon had clawed through his armor. The plate made templars slow. And demons were fast. Most of them anyway, except hunger demons; they always seemed to slug around after their prey. Pity, really, no wonder they were the easiest to kill.

She reached out and the templar moved back, just an inch, and grunted in pain. "Don't be such a baby." She hissed, grabbing his armor so he couldn't move farther away. She felt him stiffen.

"I am Knight-Captain Cullen of the templars in Kirkwall," he said quietly, his jaw clenched. He watched her intently as she moved her hand over his wound.

"Well, Knight-Captain. It seems you aren't very good at your job, are you? If you can be so disabledby a small group of demons." She replied with a snort. Her hands went to work opening the armor so she could look at the wound.

His eyes flickered to her companions. Her brother stood angrily behind her with crossed arms. He glowered at the templar, daring him to move. "Why are you helping me?" He barely whispered as the healing magic flowed over his wound. The faint burn of skin stitching together made him grit his teeth, but he knew better than to move.

Marian sighed and glanced up at the templar to give him a small grin, "Nobody deserves to be left on the Wounded Coast to die, not even a templar." She whispered. Her hands moved away and she stood up. "There. See Garrett. He's all healed and I still retain all my appendages." She grinned broadly at the two surly men and walked away.

"Templar." The large dark-haired man growled down at Cullen.

Cullen eased himself to his feet testing the wound. It was healed, but he would have to favor it for a few days. He glanced around the clearing. The mage, Marian, had moved to the other side and was talking to a tanned woman who wore few clothes and an elf with white tattoos. Another dark-haired man came over to stand next to the glowering man. Garrett, the mage had called him. They looked related. Cullen sighed. The day was only beginning and now he was confronted with a real problem.

An apostate. And four armed people standing between him and said apostate. And he was in no condition to fight them all. He would have to wait and bid his time before taking the girl to the Gallows.

"This is the Knight-Captain we went running after?" The younger looking dark-haired man asked.

"I am Knight-Captain Cullen." Cullen replied glancing over to see the mage laughing at something the other woman had said. He ground his teeth in agitation. Mages should not be so at ease outside the Circle. This mage was not even batting an eyelash at the fact that he, a templar and a knight-captain no less, was standing only a few yards away.

He looked back at the corpse of the abomination that was his templar Wilmod and sighed. Maker, he needed to get back to the Gallows. Things were already a mess without adding in an apostate healing him. He looked back at the two agitated men. "Thank you. For your help with this." He tried to sound thankful, but all he could do was sound a little less angry.

"Yea, you sound real thankful," the younger man said, crossing his arms and glaring at the templar. "Bet you're real grateful for my sister's help too."

Cullen gritted his teeth and turned to the older man. "Listen, I must get back to the Gallows and get to the bottom of this mess."

"Your man was possessed by a demon." Marian said walking up to them and joining the conversation. "It takes a powerful mage to get demons to possess bodies that are not mages."

Cullen barely glanced at her and willed his anger to die down. Now was not the time. "If it is a powerful mage, then it is likely blood magic." His voice dripped with anger at the word. He breathed before he continued. "I have been conducting an investigation into our missing recruits. Wilmod was the first to return."

"So you drew your sword on him? Seems a good welcome back present." Marian retorted, her eyes glinting mischievously.

"I would not expect you to understand templar business, mage. But I would watch your tone." He growled out.

"Going to make me, templar?" She asked sweetly, her smile showing too many teeth.

"Marian. Stop." Garrett said, eyeing her darkly. She knew better than to press her brother when he took that tone. She shrugged and moved away. Let them have their conversation about demons. A few missing templars didn't make her sweat any.

"What is it you want, Knight-Captain?" Garrett asked heatedly. Everyone wanted something, andwhatever the Knight-Captain wanted would keep Marian out of the Gallows.

The templar looked at him for a few seconds as if wondering whether he had said too much already. Finally, he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "The last place Wilmod was seen was the Blooming Rose. I tried to speak to the...women there and received no answers. If you investigate there," his eyes lingered on Marian's back for a second, "perhaps you will have more luck."

"What's in it for me?" Garrett asked, his eyebrow drawing up slightly. If the templar was smart he would catch on.

Cullen's brow furrowed and he gritted his teeth. The man couldn't be asking what he thought he was asking. By the Maker he was, wasn't he? He glanced from the dark-haired warrior to his sister and back. He needed to get to the bottom of the missing recruits. At this point, he would have to use whatever resource was at his disposal. "Find out who is responsible for this and find me at the Gallows. I will see to it that..." He glanced at the apostate. "...you are rewarded."

The corners of Garrett's mouth barely moved. "A deal?"

"Deal," Cullen growled and moved past the man and his companions to head to the Gallows.

He couldn't believe he made a deal with that blasted man. From everything Cullen had uncovered about this Hawke fellow since that day on the Wounded Coast, he was not a man to make a bargain with lightly. There was a long trail of blood and bodies that followed Hawke. It had started the very day he arrived in Kirkwall, and if one looked closely enough at the trail it was easy to see what the family was hiding.

Not for the first time Cullen wondered what had possessed him to make a deal with the brother of an apostate. He should have found the Hawke residence that same day and tore the place apart until he found the girl, but he hadn't. Whether because he was hoping Hawke would find those responsible for his men's disappearance or because he felt a twinge of guilt when he thought of the mage that had healed him, he was uncertain. He tried to squash the guilt, but it would reappear the next time he thought about finding Marian Hawke.

The man was clearly hiding his sister from the templars and had been doing so for some time, likely the girl's entire life. And if the fact that anyone who questioned him ended up dead was any indication, the man was willing to go to great lengths to keep her from them. It made Cullen wonder what had driven that family to Kirkwall. The Blight most likely. They had sounded Fereldan.

He sighed and caught sight of movement on the edge of his vision. As he looked up he saw Keran walking into the Gallows, the Hawkes trailing behind him. Cullen stared. Would they be so bold? To show up in the middle of the day in the Gallows?

Sure enough, Marian Hawke walked behind her two brothers looking around the courtyard curiously. Cullen barely suppressed a groan.

"Knight-Captain." Keran said saluting Cullen as he walked up. He saw the two Hawke brothers stand slightly behind the man. Garrett glowered at Cullen.

Marian walked up and watched the scene unfold. She had to say it gave her great satisfaction to see the Knight-Captain so on edge. She knew it was her presence, standing in the Gallows so boldly, that made the man practically twitch in irritation. Garrett hadn't wanted her to come, but she had insisted. After all, they wouldn't know if the Knight-Captain would keep his word unless they pushed him into a corner. She could be as conniving as her brother if she wanted to, or at least, she liked to think so. The Knight-Captain's eyes flickered over to her and she smiled brightly at him. She saw his jaw tense and it only made her smile wider.

Garrett was speaking to the Knight-Captain, "There were blood mages. They had a plan to implant demons into your recruits and destroy the templars."

Cullen closed his eyes for a brief moment and opened them on his templar recruit Keran. "Andraste's blood." He whispered.

Keran looked from the ground to his Knight-Captain. "The mages, Ser, they only wanted to crush us, to make us all bow to them. To destroy the Chantry and the templars."

"There were only a few mages that wanted that." Marian piped in looking cross at the younger templar. Hadn't she spent long agonizing minutes healing the templar after they found him? Hadn't she convinced Garrett to let her check to make sure he didn't carry a demon with him? And he didn't. And she was the one that had proven it, both to the stubborn templar and her brother. It seemed his gratitude only extended to keeping her out of the Gallows. A deal he most likely had made with her brother when she saw them whispering.

Carver came up behind her and whispered, "Sister, now's not the time." She shook him off, turning from the younger templar to glare at the Knight-Captain.

She saw Cullen glance at her, his body rigid, "Perhaps not all mages fall to temptation, but none are ever free of it." He stared into her eyes, his eyes as hard as they had been on the coast. "Any mage can become a monster. That is why they must always be watched. They cannot be treated like people. They cannot have the same freedoms as normal people."

She took a step forward threateningly and Carver's hand grabbed her and pulled her back. She growled low in her throat. Was this it then? The templar was going to hand her over to the Gallows. She would die before she was taken.

"Knight-Captain?" Garrett asked, his eyebrow raised slightly. But Marian saw the hardness in his body, knew that her brother would have his greatsword out at the drop of a hat to defend her. She saw the templar's eyes travel over both of them.

Cullen glared at Garrett for a few minutes, the air between them thick with tension. Finally, the Knight-Captain sighed. "Thank you. You have done the Order a service today. It will not be forgotten." He said tightly before moving away with Keran trailing behind.

Cullen moved through the darkened streets of Lowtown, heading toward the docks. Hopefully, the ferryman would still be there. If not he would have to knock on his door and wake the man. Knight-Commander Meredith had sent him to deliver reports to the Grand Cleric earlier that day and he had stayed to pray in the Chantry. He often found himself asking Andraste for guidance these days.

He had lost track of time and a sister's small cough alerted him to the fact that night had fallen and the sisters would be heading to their rooms. He sighed and breathed in the cool night air. Perhaps tonight he would sleep well. The past few weeks his dreams had been plagued with nightmares. Some of them were of his time in the Ferelden Circle. Those he was used to and had long since learned to put aside come dawn.

The new nightmares were the ones that had him going to the Chantry. The new nightmares involved the apostate Marian Hawke. Many of them involved him chasing her, hearing her laugh, always one step ahead of him. Sometimes on his quest to find her he would find his templars. Some would be dead, and some would turn into abominations to protect her.

These nightmares his rational mind understood. He was frightened of letting an apostate roam the city. It was the other dreams. The ones he fervently tried to forget come morning. The dreams of catching the apostate. Of her sly smile, of her laugh, her breath mingling with his own. Of the way her hands would trail up his body, of the feel of her softness beneath him as she opened to him.

Cullen shook his head and blushed. Those were the dreams he asked forgiveness for. Those were the dreams he couldn't understand. Were it just the fact that she was a woman he might understand. It had been some time since he lay with a woman. He supposed he should go to the Rose and get it out of his system. But that was not appropriate for a man of his station. He sighed into the night.

What worried him was that he feared it wasn't merely her body he wanted. It was the fierceness with which she had looked at him in the Gallows, the ease she had felt on the coast in his presence, the way her hands had so easily grabbed him to keep him from moving away from her when she healed him. He wanted to know her. He wanted to watch her smile and laugh. He wanted to hold her and whisper in her ear. He knew it impossible, but it didn't stop his dreams from recurring.

Ahead of him a black shadow stepped in front of his path. Cullen saw the gleam of teeth before he grabbed his sword out of its sheathe. Cutpurses were bold to try and take on a templar. Though as more shapes appeared behind him he realized perhaps they simply liked their odds.

Not waiting for them to make the first move Cullen leapt for the man in front of him, grabbing his shield off his back as he did. His sword met the man's dagger and Cullen threw his shield at the man's side, taking him off balance. He heard a step behind him and Cullen moved. Throwing himself away from the man with the daggers, he got the wall at his back as two more people bore down on him. The man with the daggers stepped back and Cullen barely saw the sneer on his face as he tried to fight off two people at once.

He fought one man off, punching his shield in the cutpurse's face. But the second was quicker and constantly moving out of his range. He knew better than to follow, he needed to keep the wall at his back or risk being stabbed in it. There were others waiting next to the man with the daggers. They would wait for him to tire and then take him down. He saw one nock an arrow in his bow and Cullen felt a shiver race through him as he fought the man in front of him.

Suddenly, he felt the distinct pull of magic being cast and he cursed. How did simple cutpurses have mages? He was gathering his focus to perform a smite when the man in front of him dropped after lightning hit him and Cullen was hit in the shoulder with an arrow. He bit off a curse and his hand instinctively went to his shoulder where the shaft now sat. He growled and looked up. He saw dark shapes moving around and a bolt go through the archer that had hit him. He turned to see Marian Hawke walk out from one of the alleys and cast a series of lightning bolts to take down the leader and several others who were fleeing.

Cullen cursed inwardly as Marian turned her attention from the cutpurses to him. He saw her eyes look at him startled and then she broke into a grin.

"Well, well, Knight-Captain. You just can't seem to keep yourself out of trouble, can you?" She asked, smiling at him as she approached.

He tried to straighten and winced slightly. His hand put pressure on his shoulder. He would need to get to the Gallows quickly and wake one of the healers to attend to him.

"The Knight-Captain?" A dwarf came up next to Marian and looked at him. "Ha, see this is why I follow you Hawkette. Always something interesting around the corner. Saving the Knight-Captain for instance." The dwarf eyed Cullen and smiled, "Makes for an interesting tale, no?"

"I'm sure there will be a lot more cutpurses in your story, Varric. And possibly a dragon or two."

The dwarf laughed and moved away to the dead men. Cullen saw him rifle through a few of their pockets and pull out some coins. Cullen turned sharply when he saw Marian coming closer.

"Woah there templar." She said, grinning at him and putting her hands up. "I'm not going to hurt you." She spoke as if she were speaking to a fidgeting horse, not a templar who could kill her or drag her off to the Gallows any second. He saw the dwarf glance their way and realized that once again she had those around who would stop him from doing just that.

"I don't need your help, mage. I will be returning to the Gallows." He took a step and her hand came up to touch his breastplate.

"Like that?" She asked pointing at the arrow with her other hand. "Was my healing really so terrible that you would rather walk all the way to the docks and take a ferry with an arrow sticking out your shoulder?"

He glanced down at her hand and prayed to the Maker that she didn't feel his heart pick up speed. He couldn't stop the images of his dreams as they raced through his mind and he closed his eyes so she wouldn't see his conflicted feelings. He felt her hand come up and take hold of the shaft of the arrow. He winced.

"May I?" She asked softly, his eyes still closed he nodded and she pulled the arrow out. He groaned and before he could stop himself he had grabbed her waist for something to hold onto. He heard her take in a sharp breath and then healing magic coursed through his wounded shoulder. He kept his eyes firmly shut, but his other senses had taken over.

He could feel the warmth of her standing close to him and the softness of her body under his hand. He could smell the faint smell of sweetness, he wondered if it was a kind of flower, mingled with sweat. He felt her hands on his shoulder and then as the magic faded they dropped to her side.

He opened his eyes to stare directly into hers. Her startling blue eyes looked up into his hard amber ones. Her eyes were wide and ever so slightly vulnerable as she looked into his. He felt the intensity of his gaze and knew she would be able to see his hunger written across his face. An eternity passed in that gaze before he dropped his hand from her waist and stepped back.

"Thank you." He said briskly and walked past her toward the docks.

"Anytime." He thought he heard her whisper after him.