Ghost Story

[GamesMaster]

On the day he finally realized how alone he was, Varric Tethras bought a house. This was hardly an unusual purchase; Varric had grown fond of buying houses, fixing them up, and selling them for considerably more. It was soothing, a way to keep in touch with the much more hands-on smithing his ancestors did without roughing up his merchant's hands too much. But those houses were in town. This house was in the boonies, in a mining town called Golden Shores. 

A week later, he finds himself in said town, ready to begin the work. The best think about Golden Shores is that his spouse never once set foot in the place, meaning there's no memories chasing him here. Just the work of restoring a manor house that had fallen into some disrepair, a home none of the neighbors could afford. This place was originally run as a colony, with a lord's estate near the mines but not so near as to be disturbed by the sounds and sights of the actual work that made the man rich. The mine was a losing proposition now, jobs slowly drying up and the town with it; the house was mortgaged to attempt to revitalize it, but the man clearly didn't know what he was doing, and upon his death without heirs, his house was being sold at a substantial loss just to get some of the bank's money back. 

Who will Varric sell to? Even he's not sure. Nobody would want to live out here, and without his spouse's knack for coaxing a good future from a million possibilities, the likelihood of failure is great. Varric doesn't care, not really. He pulls up his wagon, unloads it, puts away the donkey he'd used to haul his things. Then he sets about examining the house. 

On the third story, just below the attic, he finds a squatter: a young girl, her long hair mussed and tangled, crouched atop a bookshelf in the library. She's made a little nest up there for safety, half-hidden behind a chandelier, and she's reading something, seemingly oblivious to his presence in the doorway. Her fingernails are dirty, her skin tanned, her eyes big and dark. She can't be older than fifteen. 

[Varric]

Elf merikos (looks half starved). Not many of them in town (not much but humans really). Blow-by maybe? Very focused on that book (cute scowl, almost like--)

"Why atop the bookshelf?" He didn't mean to ask that question, much less with with that hint of edge to his voice. Varric tries to soften it by forcing a faint smile to go along with it  but he suspects it's a somewhat poor example of its kind.

[Marian Hawke]

The girl jumps, nearly dropping her book, but she recovers it, clinging to it tightly even as she almost topples off the shelf herself. The meaning is clear: the book is more precious than her life. "People don't look up often." Her voice is high and light, a hint of prettiness to it from her elven blood. 

[Varric]

"Mmmh." Varric studies her for a moment. "Dwarf, I'm used to having to look upwards I suppose. Any good? The book."

[Marian Hawke]

"No," she says, looking down at it. "It's awful."

[Varric]

"Awful in a bad way or a good way?" His smile grows a little more natural as the conversation warms to a pleasant topic.

[Marian Hawke]

"Atrocious. His ideas are unfounded, his writing style is labored, and his tone is pretentious and pompous."

[Varric]

Okay, that was more critical (and better vocab) than I was expecting. "Who is he?" Varric asks, growing more curious by the second. "Cover's messed up, can't make out the words.

[Marian Hawke]

"Man named Francis Von Karma. He was a professor of entropic studies some two hundred years ago. These books should be rounded up and burned."

[Varric]

"Von Karma... Von Karma," Varric repeats a few times, brow furrowing. "He a Transient?"

[Marian Hawke]

"No, you're thinking of his cousin-twice-removed Francesca. Francis was a sublimist."

[Varric]

Varric blinks a few times. "Transient, as in a priest of Tessaline," he clarifies. How long has she been lurking around her, reading whatever dross or gold Lord Blasaird left here to rot?

[Marian Hawke]

"No, he worshiped Alydra."

[Varric]

Varric's smile shatters instantly. "I see. Well, anyway. What are you doing here?"

[Marian Hawke]

She blinks. "Reading."