"Do you even realize what mess you've created?" Aveline was marching through the docks so fast that Miriam had to occasionally skip to keep up with the Guard-Captain.

"I know, alright? No need to rub it in my face!" she honestly tried not to snap. The last thing Hawke needed right now was someone reminding her that everything was once again her fault. She used to have mother for that. The 'used to' part was, conveniently enough, her fault. "How was I to know that Qunari take their reading so seriously?"

"Like there's anything they don't take seriously. How do you even manage to find so much trouble?" Aveline continued, much to the amusement of the guards accompanying them. Possibly they were just glad that it was someone else who was reprimanded this time, and not them.

"I'm a people person," Miriam shrugged. Ahead were the barred gates to the Qunari compound. Chances were the Arishok was already aware of their rather unfortunately recognizable group's involvement and ordered his men to shoot them on sight. Unless it went against his peculiar sense of honor, in which case he'd let them in, listen to what they had to say and only then order his men to shoot them. Hawke didn't like honorable men, they were unpredictable. You never knew what they decided to declare a personal exalted march on next. Unlike complete scoundrels whom you could always count on doing whatever benefited them personally. Take Isabela, for instance. In hindsight, Hawke should've seen that the pirate's agreement to hand the Tome over to the Qunari was no more than a convenient lie. The fact that she didn't see that irritated her much more than the fact that Isabela stole the book and now the Arishok will surely kill them all.

"We are here to see your Arishok," Aveline stepped forward, small and fragile against the giant horned guard, yet somehow equally intimidating. The Qunari's gaze slowly traveled from one face to another, evaluating them all and probably comparing to the list in his mind.

"Serah Hawke may pass, as well as the elf. The rest will remain outside."

"That's unacceptable!" the Guard-Captain fumed.

"Serah Hawke may pass..." the Qunari started again in the same monotone voice.

"It's alright, Aveline," Miriam put a hand on Aveline's shoulder guard and smiled. "It's my mess. Let's see if I still can solve this peacefully."

"I will not let you go there alone, Hawke! What if they try to kill you?"

"I'm not alone, am I?" Miriam nodded at the silently brooding form of Fenris behind her shoulder.

"Right, because the two of you against an army are a considerable force," Aveline drew out sarcastically. Apparently Hawke was a bad influence. "At least scream if you need help."

"But of course. I always scream when I'm pierced with an arm-thick spear or ten," Miriam patted the Guard-Captain's shoulder guard and smiled brightly.

"Must you make everything into a joke?" Aveline sighed with exasperation.

"Only when I'm scared shitless," Miriam made a deadly serious face and turned to the Qunari guard. "Let us in."

The gates were opened wordlessly before them. Qunari inside seemed ready for battle. Then again, they always seemed ready for battle. Logic hinted that there were other kinds of Qunari somewhere – laborers, artists, philosophers... And still Miriam had a hard time imagining one of the giants that faced her now as, say, a baker.

"Serah Hawke," The Arishok rumbled. "Interesting, how you always seem to be involved when there are crimes committed against my people."

"Ah, yes, but it's always on your side," Miriam, momentarily distracted by an admittedly disturbing mental picture of the topless Arishok wearing an apron and proffering a freshly baked loaf. "That is, on the side of peaceful coexistence. Friendly help, as it were."

Fenris threw her a warning glance and Hawke answered with a glance of her own that spelled 'well then you do it!' The elf shrugged impassively.

"So you say," the Arishok rose to his feet, looming over two small figures at the base of the stairs. "Yet you attack my men and steal the most precious relic of my people!"

"No no no, you got it all wrong!" Hawke started to step forward, but was stopped by hostile glances around her and a general feel of an army that just took a breath before plunging forward. The Arishok was fuming. It was just possible to imagine steam coming out of his ears. "We came there to get the relic back to you, we didn't know that your men would also come and attack everyone on sight!"

"Why then the Tome is lost once again?" the Qunari leader was pacing furiously, punctuating each word. Miriam looked sideways at Fenris, and the slight shake of his head did not look encouraging at all. "You say you came to help, but the Tome was lost because of your interference!"

Hawke was about to blurt something out while trying simultaneously to come up with an answer that would miraculously dissuade the Arishok of her guilt, but then she felt a hand squeeze her shoulder, drawing her slightly back. The familiar feel of metal claws digging into her shoulder left no doubts as to the hand's owner, even if he was well known for his dislike of all sorts of touching. Except, maybe, once, for a little while... Another tag of the hand brought Miriam out of untimely reverie. The elf, alarmed by the signs only he could see, shielded Miriam with his shoulder. She knew that stance: one foot ahead of the other, back hunched, one arm bent slightly, ready to reach for his sword at any moment. A lean white wolf ready to leap. At such moments she could almost see the fur stand up on his back.

"Be ready to run for the gates," Fenris growled quietly, his eyes on the Arishok. The Qunari made a slight gesture and suddenly spears were flying all around them. At the gate Aveline and her guards were waiting for them, fending off the Qunari that attacked them.

"How did you manage to make it even worse?" the Guard-Captain shouted as they retreated by the narrow side streets.

"It's a talent I have!" Miriam shot back. They managed to lose the Qunari, but it was small relief. Judging by the sounds, the horned giants finally came out of dormancy and were now storming the streets.

"Captain, we need to get back to the keep and organize the defense!" one of the guards, a man vaguely familiar to Hawke even if she wasn't in the mood for trying to remember things she wasn't going to kill, said urgently. Aveline nodded and looked at Fenris.

"The Arishok will be there," the elf confirmed, not too pleased with all the attention he was getting whenever Qunari were concerned. "They will quickly swipe the city, effectively taking all the major points, but their main target will be the Viscount and other nobles."

"What about the templars?" another guard cut in. "They have the largest army in the city, perhaps we'd better get to the Gallows, warn them..."

An explosion thundered in the air as one of the warehouses near them went up, showering the streets with burning debris.

"I'm sure they'll get some clue from all the fighting and fires!" Hawke shouted. They will be more concerned with keeping mages from running away in all the chaos anyway, she added to herself.

"Move out!" Aveline ordered.

Possibly there was some thought to giving the Qunari a compound in the Docks. Possibly that thought was "let's keep those horned freaks with huge axes as far away from us nobles as possible". That would've proven to be a problem to Miriam and others, if not for the foresight of two parties: some unknown Amell of old setting up a hidden entrance to his house from Darktown, and smugglers needing a shortcut to Darktown from the Docks. The only obstacle that way was Bodahn's dismay at the guards treading dirt all over his nice clean floors. The Hightown was, however, another story altogether.

While the city tried to organize some sort of defense against the enemy that was already inside the gates, the Qunari swept through to their destination with little to no resistance. Just as Hawke and the others crept out the door of her estate a blast of magic scattered them about, knocking them into the walls. Through the ringing in her ears dazed Miriam heard sharp orders and men in the uniform of the city guard invaded her vision.

"Captain!" one of them exclaimed with relief once the Qunari were down. Miriam blinked rapidly, trying to drive away the last stars, but it didn't help her identify the guard. They all seemed the same in their armor. These particular guards looked somewhat more deadbeat and lost than usual. Hawke honestly hoped that with the shortcut they took they'd manage to beat the Qunari to Hightown. Damned hornheads were efficient.

"Situation, Lieutenant," Aveline ordered in clear calm voice that instantly made her men straighten up.

"The Qunari have taken the keep, Captain!" the Lieutenant reported in a hurry to lay the problem on his superior's broad shoulders. Hawke wished she could just do the same: being the eldest child was a pain. "They drag nobles out of their houses and bring them to the keep!"

"We need to get to the Arishok before they kill them all," Aveline looked up at the towering shape of the Viscount's keep ahead of them, making up her mind. "There can't be too many of them there yet, maybe some of our men at the keep are still holding."

"And if we kill the Arishok, maybe the Qunari will be disorganized," Hawke nodded thoughtfully. Fenris stayed silent.

"At least long enough for the templars to join us," Aveline finished. "Come on. We'll get in through the servants entrance."

They made their way to the keep and then inside through the empty corridors. Most of the Qunari forces were still behind them and the way was relatively clear, until they arrived to the barracks, catching a dozen Qunari between them and the guards trapped in the keep. It was a short walk from there to the throne room with their numbers doubled.

As far as dramatic entrances went, this one wouldn't be rated very high for the false start it had when one of the Qunari that guarded the doors threw a city guard into them, causing the doors to open. The history did not, however, record that Guardsman Donnic was the first to enter the hall where the Arishok held his hostages. As Varric would tell that tale later in the Hanged Man, it was Hawke who threw the Qunari guard into the doors, knocking them out along with the frame, and then marched in before the dust had settled, her loyal companions at her side and city guards behind them.

Inside, the Arishok stood looking directly at her, the kneeling Viscount before him. The city ruler's eyes were on her as well, and there was none of that indifference they bore in the days since he lost his son. The very real perspective of his own death seemed to have awoken the man, and now his gray eyes were full of paralyzing horror. Between Hawke and her enemy was a score of the city's nobles, horded like cattle by more Qunari. Everyone seemed to be waiting.

"Shanedan, Hawke," the Arishok rumbled almost calmly, as if their recent exchange did not happen. "I have been expecting you."

"Why are you doing this? What have these people done to you?" Miriam gestured at the nobles who were covering in fear. It probably wasn't the best question to be asked in the circumstances, but the longer she kept the Arishok talking, the better chance she had of the templars stopping the Qunari. In the ideal world Isabela would have walked in right now, handing the Tome over to the Arishok and complaining to Hawke about the bad influence she had on the pirate. But no one came. That's scoundrels for you.

"It is what they have not done," the Qunari's eyes followed her gesture and a grimace of utter disgust distorted his face. "Look at them. They are dashrasi, mindless and useless. They have no purpose. I will give them purpose."

"We did not ask you for salvation," Hawke frowned, counting Qunari in the room. They probably had a chance of defeating them, but not before most of the nobles including the Viscount would be killed.

"Yet salvation you shall receive!" the Arishok roared and swung his axe. The nobles let out a collective gasp and the Viscount's body dropped to the floor, twitching a few times and spraying blood on the stairs before finally going still. The Arishok threw the severed head in Hawke's direction where it rolled and stopped at her feet. Miriam stared at it, frozen and sick in the stomach. At least she wasn't too late this time, but it made little difference. "You are basalit-an, Hawke, but even you are a part of this madness. I will make you see!"

She struggled for an answer, but the Viscount's head with its slack jaw and dead eyes made all thoughts disappear. Miriam felt helpless, once again proven unable to save a life. At this moment Fenris stepped forward, as if he was waiting for the Arishok to say these words.

"As basalit-an Hawke has the right to challenge you to single combat," the elf said, ignoring the warning glances Aveline threw at him.

"That is truth," the Arishok said after a pause, obviously annoyed.

"Are you mad?" Aveline hissed, turning Fenris back to her. "She can't fight that monster!"

"You wanted to be recognized in this city," Fenris said to Hawke quietly, still ignoring the Guard-Captain. "This is your best chance. You can save them all while they're watching."

"You... knew this would happen?" Miriam blinked, trying to wrap her head around the idea of dueling the Arishok. However she tried, the result always seemed to be vaguely Hawke-shaped smear on the wall. "Do you want to get me killed?"

"You can do it," the elf said forcefully and gripped her shoulder.

"Hawke, you don't have to do it, we'll attack them together," Aveline tried again.

"If I win, will you leave this city?" it was getting dangerous to ignore the Guard-Captain for so long, but Hawke had to ask the Arishok.

"Yes," the Qunari replied solemnly. Hawke turned to Aveline and smiled guiltily.

"No," the Guard-Captain said.

"I challenge you," Hawke called out decisively, causing Aveline to cover her face with her palm and mutter some delightfully eloquent curse.

"I accept. Prepare yourself," the Arishok nodded to his men and the Qunari cleared out the center of the hall as an improvised arena.

"You're fast, wear him out," Fenris instructed hastily when Hawke turned to him. "His weapons are heavy, watch for the moment after the swing when he'll have to regain-"

"I know," Miriam interrupted him with a smile. She felt strangely light-headed, not quite believing she was to fight the mountain-like Qunari with weapons each capable of slicing her in two.

"I won't let you die. If I see you losing, I'll join the fight," the elf offered, as if already regretting his carefully executed plan.

"I'll be fine," she smiled again and after a moment's thought grabbed the elf's collar impulsively and kissed him. Breaking away she caught his wide shocked eyes that made dying completely worth it. Hawke turned to the Arishok, grinning madly. "I'm ready."