OOM: Kirkwall is a bad place.

Mother's surprised when Uncle Gamlen tells her that the estate, and all of the Amell family money, is gone. Hawke isn't: It occurs to him, as he numbly goes through the motions of finding work for himself and Carver, that he hadn't really expected anything. Everything beyond arriving at Kirkwall had always just been a flat, blank space for him, and you can't be surprised or disappointed if you had no expectations to begin with.

The work they find is smuggling - dirty work, but nothing he hadn't done before, even if he could feel Carver rankling at it next to it. Subtlety wasn't the lad's strongest suite, after all, but Hawke knew he'd find out soon enough that smugglers always needed people with big swords.

The only other option was being a hired sword for one of the shadier mercenary companies Hawke had ever seen, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that out of the two, that'd be even dirtier work. No, smuggling was the better choice: The leader of the smugglers, an elf named Athenril, seems like a good sort - or, at least, as good as you can get while smuggling contraband.

(She also clocks him immediately for a mage. Hawke can see the moment where she realises, the brief few seconds of consideration, and then her quietly deciding that that could be useful.)

The deal is for a year of service. That'll get them into Kirkwall, at least.