Varric Tethras can't stand holding back the truth about Marian Hawke after the Inquisitor leaves her in the Fade to die. What he can't stand more is no one is trying to get her back. With the assistance of friends in surprising places, he fights in...
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It's been four years since she broke up with Anders, although she didn't tell him it was off, merely forced him to confront the consequences of blowing up the chantry by killing him
It's been four years since she broke up with Anders, although she didn't tell him it was off, merely forced him to confront the consequences of blowing up the chantry by killing him. Ever since, she's never looked at anyone with romantic interest. And since no one can hear his thoughts but himself, he can safely think that he hasn't either. But thoughts can often be twisted lies we tell ourselves to get by. The lie goes when he feels her hand and she's not there, or when he reties his hair, and the strands fall over his ears.
All of this feels like his fault. If he just this. If only that. Inquisition this. That. The cycle goes as do the lies. Now this is the point he stops all that. This is the point where he drops the excuses, and confronts the truth. But can he say it out loud?
A sober Varric walks into the secret library of the Inquisitor, where Solas, Dorian, Cassandra, and Cole quietly argue diplomatically.
Would he be able to say it in front of this crowd?
Maybe it wasn't Hawke that was afraid of romance. Maybe he lived through her experience. She said I love you to Anders and just as quick as she said it, he's gone. Though from what Varric gathered, they never knew the real Anders. He changed before showing up in Kirkwall. But do did Hawke.
"Varric," Solas acknowledges.
"I see you've slept most of it off," Cassandra says.
"Sorry I'm late," Varric responds. "I thought we were going to meet in the war room."
Cassandra clears her throat. "
I changed my mind after we had some time to consider. For what we are about to do, I didn't want to raise suspicion."
"Are we sure she's alive?" Dorian says.
Varric's lungs weigh lead over a stomach of bubbling tar. Before the heat rises to his face, Cassandra responds.
"We believe with absolute faith," she says. "Hawke is alive."
Tar turns to water; lead turns to air. Somewhere hidden in the Vault Library comes a breeze to cool his face.
Solas adds, "We're helping you either way, Varric.
If she is alive then we save her. And if she has moved on, then we find her still, and lay a memorial. Closure is one of life's treasures often underrated."
Cole dangles his legs over the dusty table. "I'm sorry, Varric."
"Don't worry about it, kid."
"I want to help."
Dorian chimes in. "And we've found the best way to do it! Although I'm not fond of the possibility of how much this'll go wrong."
"Let's hear it," Varric says. He leans against the bookshelf with the least amount of spiderwebs. Inquisitor could have at least cleaned down here. The smell of old pages caked with generations of dust builds his nausea.
