Hazelnuts and plaid

[Isabela]

"Yes, but it's up to her what measures she wants to take to protect herself. She's a grown adult. You can't treat her like a child, like you can control her playdates and prevent her from associating with people you don't like."

[Varric]

"Even if I have permission?" Varric asks with an arched eyebrow. "She's well aware of my habits, finds them amusing, albeit a bit annoying at times-- at least since the Anders Affair, where I learned where the biggest line is-- and has made use of them more than once." He shrugs. "Also, I'm Patriarch, the elder of the Clan. That does give me certain rights over the security of the younger generations. The duty of the old is to give their knowledge and blood to teach and protect the young. I'm aware none of you are dwarves, so I try to temper it, especially for you and Aveline, but that's what I am, what I'm from."

[Isabela]

"Does she, or is she just afraid to tell you no?" challenges Isabela. "You know I've had more than enough of men trying to control me in my life. I wouldn't be so sure she's okay with it if I were you."

[Varric]

Hence (why I specifically mentioned) you and Aveline being exempted. "Unless I read her mind-- which is a boundary she's set and that I respect-- I can only act on what she says and does. I can make guesses, sure, but they're only guesses and when there's room for doubt, I'm going to fall on the side of their health and wellbeing. I've tried, over and over, to coax her into feeling comfortable standing up for herself, even to me. So yes, unless you have something to share, I do feel pretty sure she'd tell me to back off, especially as she's set limits on my protectiveness already."

[Isabela]

"She told us explicitly and firmly not to pry. So we didn't. I'd hope if you were told what we were told, you'd have done the same." Her voice is a bit cool, to be honest, though it's been a very long day and she mostly sounds tired. 

[Varric]

"Depends on when and how," he replies, being more honest than he'd be if she wasn't Clan. "I have my own judgment and I can and will decide to go against someone if I think the stakes and reasons are enough; see the first, eh, six or eight months post Wager. This sort of thing doesn't work with rules, inflexible and broad. I have criteria that I measure each case against and decide. Makes it damn hard to discuss hypotheticals, granted."

[Isabela]

"To be perfectly honest I'm still not sure we handled that right. I couldn't think of a better alternative but she clearly never healed right from it. Maybe it's because we overrode her will and taught her to be dependant on you that she never quite got her feet under her."

[Varric]

Varric spreads his hands in a gesture of not quite surrender or dismissal but having hints of both. "Maybe, if, coulda, shoulda," he replies. "We did what we did. If you learned something from parts you think we did wrong, then do it better next time." A frown that swiftly becomes a scowl. "Next time being something smaller and less painful but thematically similar preferably. Anyway. My point is that what we did worked for what we needed it to; she lived, she let herself trust and love-- us, but more importantly herself-- and she started on the path to mastering her fears and other scars caused by what happened." He rubs at his temple, looking tired himself. "I tried to-- to spread things out. Have her lean on the whole Clan, not just me. Not sure if I could have supported her any less than I did and had that outcome or close to it."

[Isabela]

"Regardless. We have a couple hours before she's due to give testimony. How should we spend it?"

[Varric]

Varric tenses, then forces himself to relax. Breaking of an argument midway (unwon) always leaves a sour taste (raw in my mouth. But she's right that we have (to save Marian) a deadline. "Yeah. Fair. Hmmm." He taps his fingers in a line along his arm as he thinks. "First-first thing is to talk with Zevran. Need to catch him up and find out if he knows anything that could help. Then we need to get to the house-- Marian and Merrill's-- and look around; grab my barrister on the way though, as I couldn't help but notice that Marian's wasn't around. I know the guards went through it but they're just guards. At that point... too many variables to set firm plans. Probably head to the courthouse but might have leads to follow up on."

[Isabela]

"They should be done with the ritual by now, if we ask if he can be woken up they'll probably let us." Isabela rubs the back of her neck and adds, "It'll do me some good to see him up and talking."

[Varric]

"Yeah, today has been... rough," Varric says with a strained laugh. "And yours has been longer than mine so..."

[Isabela]

"Yeah," she agrees, and then she heads for the door, already thinking of Zevran again. 

When he wakes, Zevran is groggy, but he wakes fully within a few minutes with no lingering effects; Isabela embraces him tightly, chiding him for scaring her like that, before hesitantly going through the events of the morning. She holds nothing back, giving him as much information as she can muster about what's going on with Hawke and Varric. 

"So we have two outstanding threads: the ritual, which should be over soon, it's not that long of a feat, and Hawke's testimony, which is being taken at one bell past noon. We'll want to be there for it. Then of course we need to retrieve Merrill's body and get her to a temple."

[Zevran]

Zevran spends pretty much the entire story staring blankly at his hands. He'd looked up briefly but hadn't found what he'd instinctively sought. "How could this happen?" he whispers, a broken sigh falling from a broken heart. "Was it-- was any of it really real?"

Glancing at Isabela with a worried frown, Varric clears his throat. "Zevran?" A pause. "Zevran?" The merikos drow still doesn't look up, just stares at his hands and whispers to himself another similar question.

[Isabela]

Isabela slides her arms around his waist, pulling him close to her in an embrace. "We'll get her back," she promises, aware she might be making a liar out of herself. "This isn't how it ends, Zev. It can't be. We'll get her back. We'll prove someone set this up, someone tricked Marian into doing it. We'll put our family back together."