This is a story that started with a conversation about Carver Hawke and "what if he becomes the Inquisitor?" and now we're here. I hope you enjoy our grumpy baby bird just as much as me!

Sometimes, big events start with small little words.

"Seeker Pentaghast has asked me to join her, to serve under her to form a new Inquisition." Cullen drops that on him just as he and Carver are sitting on the remains of the chantry ruin in the middle of Kirkwall. They often take their supper here, on a boulder that used to be part of the chantry's gate.

"So you're just gonna leave?" Carver shouts, his quick temper flaring up. The stale bread with the rockhard cheese hovers halfway between his mouth and quite frankly the ground because it looks inedible.

"Why stay?" Cullen stretches out his arm to encompass the remains of destruction around them. "We have no chantry, the Circle of Kirkwall is deserted, the few mages who are left would be better off living in the Hanged Man than on the Gallows. And I'm..." He slumps forward, resting his head in his hands. "I'm tired of pretending that we still do good here."

Carver can't argue with that. As if the destruction of the chantry had been a signal to every vile urge and bad temper in the templars, his comrades had taken to the streets in a rampage that Cullen and him had barely been able to put a stop to. Ever since then, they've lost handful of templars every day. They just packed up and left.

"There's what? Twenty templars left?" Cullen asks.

"At the most." Carver lets out a snort. "I haven't counted since yesterday." He finally gives up on the bread and throws it to a couple of mice who immediately start fighting over the cheese. It's like the city brings out the worst in every creature.

"Just, let them take a year's supply of lyrium and be on their way. Maybe another circle needs them. I'm... I'm just so tired." Cullen, former Knight Captain, now Knight Commander of the Kirkwall Templar Order, sighs. "Seeker Pentaghast wants to end this war, that at least is a noble cause to fight for."

"And what about me?" Carver blurts out. It's not that he particularly liked the chantry and the Gallows but at least he felt like he did something important. He protected his sisters and their friends. In a way he also protected the apostate mage Anders but he doesn't dwell on that thought, he rather lingers a bit on another apostate mage, Merrill.

"You're coming with me of course," Cullen says.

Carver quickly shoves all thoughts of Merrill's soft lips aside and stares at Cullen. "I'm coming with you? Says who? I'd rather stay here, I can still help Aveline. I might even join the city guard." And he would stay close to Merrill.

"City Guard doesn't have Lyrium."

"I'll think of something, Varric will know where to get it."

"Last I heard, Varric is also going to accompany the Seeker."

"Really? Never would have thought he'd leave Kirkwall."

Cullen grins. "I don't think it's all that voluntarily."

"That Seeker must be very impressive," Carver says "Some other dwarf then, Varric isn't the only one."

Cullen sighs once more and straightens. "As a matter of fact, the Seeker has asked for you specifically."

"Why me? Oh, wait, it's not about me, is it?" Carver scowls at him, resentment at forever being the second Hawke biting in his chest. "They're looking for Marian because of the chantry explosion. Does she think I'm going to just hand my sister over to her prosecution?"

Cullen's hand rubs his neck in that familiar gesture when he has to say something that he doesn't really want to say. "It seems that... the Inquisition needs a leader, the Inquisitor. They wanted the Warden-Commander at first but can't find them. So now, Seeker Pentaghast is looking for..." He stops, rubbing his temples as if the next sentence physically pains him. "She's looking for the Champion of Kirkwall to lead the Inquisition."

"Oh no," Carver whispers to himself. "Marian?" he says louder. "Are you serious? Did you tell her what kind of person my sister is?"

"The constant headache during my time as the Knight Captain? Yes I told her."

"And she still...?"

Cullen shrugs, his whole body a sign of defeat. "She thinks the Champion of Kirkwall is a marvelous hero who will inspire people to follow her."

"That's a terrible idea," Carver says quietly. "Very, very not good, terrible idea."