Hazelnuts and plaid

[Isabela]

"Zev might be. I'm not anymore. I'm the one who takes her on adventuring day trips now. Not a lot of talk but we work up a good sweat and sometimes fuck after."

[Varric]

"Why?" Before she can answer, he adds, "why is everyone pulling away? Why didn't anyone..."

[Isabela]

"We're not. She's pulling away from us. You can only cling to someone for so long before the fact you're not wanted really starts to sting. I think Aveline and Merrill are the ones still trying the hardest, and Merrill..." She sighs, rubbing her temples. "Dammit. Of all the Clan to go after. This is going to kill Zev."

[Varric]

"Of course they are," Varric mutters. Zevran's too... not innocent (naive definitely isn't right) but incomplete to know how and when to push (outside of sexual matters). Isabela still doesn't have the grit. Seli is (the) a mother first, second and third. The others (and you, don't pardon yourself) are too distant (geographically to start). So yeah. "He'll manage. Finding the murderer will help. Having her back will help even more."

[Isabela]

"Assuming she didn't do it. Which is a big assumption." She doesn't point out the relative odds of Merrill coming back; she knows she doesn't have to.

[Varric]

"No. It isn't," Varric says coldly.

[Isabela]

"What makes you so sure?"

[Varric]

He doesn't think about his father. Not even a little. "Because I know her! Because she loves Merrill, because she's not a murderer, because I refuse!"

[Isabela]

"I don't think she'd mean to do it. But an accident? Or a drunken rage? Yeah, I could see it. Mis-casting while angry, maybe. Do you know the cause of death?"

[Varric]

"Not in detail," Varric says, head shaking just a little. "Only line in the reports I got a hold of on that subject just said 'wide-spread internal bleeding' and mentioned a need for a full autopsy. If- if- it had said something about being frozen or whatnot, I'd at least consider it as a thought exercise. But no. Just-- no."

[Isabela]

Isabela grimaces. "She... beat her to death?"

[Varric]

"Repeated blunt force trauma of mild to moderate mortal muscle-power is one of a dozen ways that could happen," the dwarf says in a carefully even tone.

[Isabela]

"What are the others? She, what, made her swallow glass?"

[Varric]

"Necromantic magic, air magic, gravity magic, sonic magic, poison, massively above mortal average muscle power using a soft weapon, diseasesses, curses, parasites, unstable translocation magic, unstable transformation magic, water magic with a blood--"

[Isabela]

"You said poison. Could this be related? Two Clan members poisoned the same night? Or ensorceled or whatever's happened to Zevran that you couldn't fix with alchemy alone?"