Ghost Story

[Marian Hawke]

"My whole life I been pushed around, I don't need one more," she mutters, mostly into the blanket wrapped around her.

[Varric]

Were you? Interesting (similarity to current stimulus invoking memory perhaps). "I'm sorry to bring up bad memories. You're allowed to push back. I won't mind."

[Marian Hawke]

"I'm sure you won't. You'll just ignore me until I do as you say."

[Varric]

He frowns, pricked at the accusation. Thankfully, some of the smoothing down he'd gained in the past comes back thanks to a mostly forgotten dream. "I do come off that way. I'm not ignoring you really, it's that I have a habit of brushing off objections I feel are based on unreasonable foundations and just moving the conversation along. Which is pretty arrogant." He shrugs a little. "That's a character trait too deep to change much. But. But I can work on at least acknowledging your objections, and addressing them.

[Marian Hawke]

She sighs. "Do whatever you want. You will anyway. It's not like I can change that. And it's not like I could leave if I wanted to."

[Varric]

Damn, she's deep in a funk. "How about this? You tell me what it is that you'd want to do. Pick a goal, any goal."

[Marian Hawke]

"Last time I picked a goal it was reading every book in the library, but you've kept me too busy to make much headway lately."

[Varric]

"Take a few days off," he says instantly. "Like if you still showed and stayed for meals; I enjoy our conversations on whatever one of us is reading, doing or thinking about."

[Marian Hawke]

"Just like that?" she asks

[Varric]

"Just like that."

[Marian Hawke]

"What about my memory?"

[Varric]

"Not going anywhere." Varric shrugs. "I'd like to work on it more, later, sure. The idea of it, of you being incomplete like that, is offensive to me. You deserve to be whole. But what's a few days? Or a couple of weeks."

[Marian Hawke]

"What if it's getting worse? What if I forget something else? What if in a few days I don't remember who you are?"

[Varric]

"I'll remind you." He studies Emma carefully. "Do you think it is getting worse? Do you want to push forward on it now?"

[Marian Hawke]

"I-- what does it matter what I think?" she asks, honestly taken aback.