Hazelnuts and plaid

[Helene Dakesh]

"Avato has been a blessing while Beinn Varric has been away," adds Helene. "A truly magnificent research assistant."

[Varric]

"No better recommendation do I know for that role," Varric declares, smiling faintly. "The Scry to contact Seli and Andy is urgent, and needs to happen tonight if at all possible but after you get some rest, I'm also hoping you can put out some feelers above and below, so to speak, to see if there's anything known about uppity Bitches that applies to us."

"I can look into Glaley," Zevran offers, expression cold and empty.

[Isabela]

Isabela reaches for Zev's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze of support. 

[Zevran]

He doesn't really react, his hand far colder than it should be, his body tense.

[Isabela]

"Zev? Do you need a break?" she asks quietly, but Helene turns to look at Zevran with big, concerned eyes anyway. 

[Zevran]

Zevran takes a few seconds to respond, and when he does, he has to make two attempts. Voice low and full of broken edges, he murmurs, "I want to kill someone."

[Helene Dakesh]

"Perhaps a break while I scry for Joyous Seline and her husband?" asks Helene, with an odd quaver in nir voice. 

[Isabela]

"Good idea." Isabela never takes her eyes off Zevran's face, reaching up with one hand to stroke it. "Love? What can I do to help? Do you want to spar?"

[Zevran]

Zevran takes a slow breath, forces a smile for Helene. "I am--" His smile wavers and he gives up, instead answering Isabela. "No. I want a target. I want to-- I want to hurt those who have h-h-hurt those I love." His mouth shaped the word 'hurt' but everyone can vividly hear 'killed' spoken by his pain. "I want to-- to do something. Something that actually helps for once."

[Varric]

"Go ahead and get that Scry set up," Varric says quietly to Helene as he watches Isabela and Rosalie holding Zevran between them. Bit strange (though not in a bad way) to see someone so personal and caring (loving?) with Zevran that doesn't seem sexual. 

[Helene Dakesh]

Helene sets up the scrying; when ne finds Seli and Andy, the two are holding each other, Seli sobbing on Andy's shoulder as he rubs her back in a clearly private, intimate moment. In Andy's left hand, a message is clutched; there's a feather token on the ground, clearly spent. It seems they got Isabela's message -- and that they're both fine. As loath as even Varric is to interrupt them right then and there, they can't afford to waste the hour it would take to scry again later.

[Varric]

As such, the resulting conversation is awkward and as rapid as possible. Within moments, a wooden box filled with scrolls, tokens and potions vanishes from Helene's table and reappears at the couple's feet. Helene does think to ask about Gilly and Tomas, just to be sure they're fine as well. Thankfully, their daughter is her alive and well. In fact, Seli reports through her tears that she's currently just outside the tent, standing on a log as she a small gaggle of kids in the ways of pirating (including Tomas, though he seems more interested in nagging the other children into eating their 'anti-scurry pods'). So that's settled-- all four are perfectly fine. 

"Thank you," Varric says quietly to Helene. And not just for being able to contact them (seeing them seems to have helped Zevran for some reason) in and of itself. "You should get some rest now."

[Helene Dakesh]

Helene glances at Zevran, chewing nir lower lip in thought. 

[Zevran]

After a few seconds, he notices nir attention and tilts his head to the side in silent query.

[Helene Dakesh]

"Would... does Madam Zevvy need something to... distract?"