Ghost Story

[Varric]

"This one was worse than most," Varric says grimly. "Set up a fake grief support group, acting as a spirit medium. He was going to harvest the souls of over fifty people to great a negative energy nexus that would-- long and short, it would have killed almost a quarter of Nyra's populace outright, turning them into undead. Nyra is Alydra's city, even if not officially so. So ne got a vision and a quest. Normally ne doesn't take part directly; not really a combatant. Oh, ne could fight, no-one with nir level of connection could avoid having power enough to be a danger if pressed, but that wasn't nem. Not really. Ne didn't have the ruthlessness, the edge, you need to be an adventurer. But that didn't stop ne from-- from--"

[Marian Hawke]

"For your home. The place you both lived together. And for you. I can.. I can understand doing that," she says, with a small laugh. "Heralds above, I was thinking about it myself. If there was a way to save you that sacrificed myself..."

[Varric]

"No," Varric snarls, the sound panicked and ragged. "Not again. Do not-- No."

[Marian Hawke]

"It's alright," she says, in a soft, soothing tone. "I'm alive. I'm here. I didn't do anything bad."

[Varric]

"Good. Good. Right. Good." He takes a slow, drawn out breath. "Please don't... do that. For me, not ever. Please."

[Marian Hawke]

"...How about a deal?" she says quietly. "You can't let anyone die for you again, and I can't... well, to put it plain, I can't lose family again. So as long as you stay out of danger, I will too. Deal?"

[Varric]

"Sounds familiar, isn't it?" He glances at her with a faint smile. "When I went to go help Rhea's boy."

[Marian Hawke]

"Was that only this morning?" she quips. Then she shakes her head. "You didn't come back, not until late. You got arrested. You can't scare me like that."

[Varric]

"I know." He sighs a little. "I'll admit, I came pretty close to deciding to, ah, resist arrest rather than be late getting back."

[Marian Hawke]

She winces. "I'm glad you didn't do that," she says, quietly. "What did you do to get arrested?"

[Varric]

"Well." He coughs a little. "There's the magic wards, they weren't thrilled to find out about those. Just glad they didn't push past the first two layers." He'd explained them in brief to her before; the first is a minor fear effect, to discourage intruders. A warning, he'd called it. The second layer is flame bursts on the various entry points. The last are guardian constructs that he favors strongly as he can take them with him easily to the next house. 

[Marian Hawke]

"But why'd they come here in the first place? Why'd you send Marc here?"

[Varric]

Drat. "Ah, yes. Well. You see, when I got into town, the jail was on fire. They'd taken little Marc there and that asshat paladin was-- Anyway. I got there just as he was able to smite the kid, so I disabled him. Got Marc out, sent him here," dumb little shite should have stayed hidden, "and went back in to get asshat. Should have let the fucker burn," he finishes in a dark mutter.

[Marian Hawke]

"Oh," says Emma softly, processing. Finally, she says, "I can't say I'm upset you saved Marc. He's a good kid. But I wish you could have done it without being arrested."

[Varric]

Varric winces a little."That would have, uh, likely have been more prudent," he replies with an awkward note in his voice. "Didn't have a lot of thinking time when I saw them but still."