Hazelnuts and plaid

[Varric]

Varric frowns. "They... Damn," he sighs, absently offering his other hand to the slowly approaching Silence. "I'm sorry. You deserved the chance to be apart of that. It's no secret you never want to carry a child yourself, or that you're not, ah, overly fond of babies in a general sense. But, well, three years ago, it was no secret you never wanted to be married or that you're not overly fond of romance. So."

[Isabela]

"Romance I actually adore," she admits, with a sigh. "It's chitzy, cheap shit I hate. Same thing for marriage. I hate the way it's a set of chains, the way it makes you disappear inside your husband. But I'm learning it's not like that for all women. It's hard not to vanish inside Hawke's story. My mind-healer thinks that's why I keep running away. Kept running away, really. I don't want to be a bit player in her story; I want to be the star of my own. But there's stories about star-crossed lovers, too, where both lovers are just as important."

[Varric]

Varric blinks, then grins broadly, warmly, at her. "Damn, Saucey, making me proud," he jokes. Sounds like the year and change has been good (personally) for--Slag and Dross! With a yelp of pain, Varric darts away and up from Silence, who simply glares at him reproachfully from her seated position. She makes no move to go after him, evidently content with the lightly bleeding bite as punishment for whatever she considers him guilty of doing.

[Isabela]

"You're not still mad?" asks Isabela, and it takes Varric a moment to realize she's speaking to the dog. "She buried the painting of you in the backyard," she confides. "Took Hawke ages to find it again. She assumed it had been stolen. Only time I've seen the two of them fight, actually, Silence and Hawke."

[Varric]

"Damn furball," Varric mutters, getting a growl not from Silence but Beka. "Let me guess, right after I left? Maybe a week or so?" That being easily the longest he'd ever not visited since Silence Bonded and would be able to take note of such things.

[Isabela]

"Must have been." 

[Varric]

SCowling, the dwarf gives Silence a dirty look. "You done?"

The mabari glances away, somehow radiating a sense of very deliberate noncommitalness. 

"Seriously? Silence, this really isn't-- we don't have time for you to be a snit."

She lays down with a pained groan. Looking at Isabela, she thumps her tail twice against the floor.

"Rock cracks, what do you even--"

Silence whines dramatically, covering her nose with a paw briefly. She then looks at him for a bare second before her attention returns to Isabela, who gets another series of tail thumps.

[Isabela]

"I've seen that routine before," smirks Isabela. "She wants an apology for making Hawke cry."

[Varric]

Silence, looking directly at her, nods before resting her head on the floor. Beka takes a spot next to her to seat, eyes trained on the still floating Varric. "...what even is my life?" he mutters, though Isabela fancies that she can hear some fond amusement for the chaos and weirdness. "Fine, yes; I'm sorry that Marian has been sad. She needed something but-- but this didn't work. I regret what's happened."

[Isabela]

"So, since they likely don't need us at the ritual space, should we try to see Hawke? Or do you think that's too risky?"

[Varric]

Silence surges to her feet, every single shred of attention now on Isabela. Seems like she caught at least the gist of that question and suggestion; and rather strongly agrees. "Risky, yes. Very risky, also yes. Too risky?" Varric hums softly. "Scouting out the situation, if we know where she's even at right now, should be safe enough."

[Isabela]

"Oh, that's easy enough. There's only three locations in the city that can hold her and one of them is the Hand's Tower. So unless the Lord Hand is convinced she's innocent and invited her over for tea, she's probably at Fengate Station, in the High Security Jail Cells there, awaiting a trial before they ship her out to the prison proper."

[Varric]

"...and the third?"

[Isabela]

"Hiraeth. But she won't be there. She's not really dangerous enough."

Hiraeth Keep had been the first prison in Nyra, before the current facility was constructed outside the city proper, and it showed: the place was small, cramped, and sported only twenty cells, but it was a fortress so well defended it was said that the Hand was afraid to dismantle the place for all the men he'd lose to traps even he didn't know about. Getting in wouldn't be hard, really; everyone on the wrong side of the law knew about the smuggler's tunnels that ran under the place, knew half a dozen ways in. But getting out past the magical defenses, either with a tracker charm on your ankle or after the alarm had been sounded? Impossible.

These days they give tours of the place, at least the upper floors. The lowest floor is reserved for when there's a highly dangerous mage they need to keep in custody.

[Varric]

Varric blinks a few times, having not even considered Hiraeth, given that it's reserved solely for high traitors, captured war criminals of significant power and the most heinous of evil adventurers guilty of sins that would make even Bastion's most devoted paladins feel hatred. "Missing two-- well, discounting illegal places like Deep Thought-- but neither of them would work well either. The Lantern has a pair of cells the match of Hiraeth but they're reserved for foreign diplomats accused of espionage or the like. And zi'Rainbowall has a privately owned prison he leases to the Guard but they'd never put another Light in there. Too political." He nods slowly. "But that's sound reasoning; I'll confess, I'd just, well, I'd just kind of assumed she'd be at a guard station at worst, under house arrest in Aurora at best."