"It's better that you can only do so much for me. I wouldn't want you caught up in whatever trouble that follows me around." If anyone thought he was going above and beyond his duty for her, true or not, he'd suffer worse repercussions than she would. "Whatever you can, I'm grateful for. Even if it's a 'Hawke, that's a foolish idea, go home'."

She supposed he was right about Emeric. It was a sad way to go, even so, but her mind lingered on the last thing he said. "What would have happened to him otherwise, if he had lived?"

Her gaze was hard. "The white lilies, yes. He made himself out to be a suitor." It made her skin crawl. "She had fallen in love with a mage once. If he'd told her, she wouldn't have judged him. She would have assured him that she wouldn't turn him in." Her mother was too kind of a person to ever do that to someone else, not unless they were truly a danger and it was obvious.