The words twist something in his chest, and he looks away. For the first time in ten years, he's gone weeks without seeing Hawke. For so long he had stared at his back, a pace or two behind as their party prowled all over Kirkwall and its outskirts, somehow always involved in everyone's problems.

It's been too strange, to unsettling, to look around and not have him there. The world seemed wrong, off. Even knowing he's gone, Fenris still finds himself looking for him at least once each day, only to have to remember all over again that he had no idea when...or if...they would ever be reunited.

He sighs, shaking his head and then stopping as it makes the pain worse. Fenris crosses his arms over his chest.

"I thought you said you were retired?"