Under Darkness [AU]

[Marian Hawke]

She shakes her head again, more insistent. "Merrill," she whimpers. "Help Merrill. Love Merrill."

[Tethras Clan]

"Helping you helps her," Aveline says simply. "You two are connected. You're Clan."

[Marian Hawke]

"Then-- then helping her helps me," she mutters. 

[Tethras Clan]

Aveline chuckles softly. "Clever Hawke," she says fondly. "Yes, helping her helps you," she agrees. "Which is why we're helping both of you."

[Marian Hawke]

"Her first," says Hawke, and for a moment she sounds as mulish as Merrill. 

[Tethras Clan]

"A mouth can only chew so much at once, a glass only hold so much at once, a patient can only take so much healing at once," Aveline says gently. "We'd just get in each other's way, smother her and make her feel hemmed in if we all tried to pile our help on her at the same time. She's well taken care of by Anders and your Papa. And Silence of course," she adds, glancing at Beka snoozing nearby.

[Marian Hawke]

Hawke sighs, curling up close to Aveline for a long moment, breathing deeply, turning this over. After a while, she says quietly, "Let's go on a trip somewhere."

[Tethras Clan]

Aveline stills for a moment, then shifts so she can see Hawke face clearly, needing to hear not just her words but her intentions as well as she possibly can. "Go on."

[Marian Hawke]

She doesn't -- quite -- meet her eyes. "You and me. Isabela and Zevran can do it, let's go together. Let's not be stuck in one place. I can write to Merrill from anywhere, not just here. Let's help people and -- and do some good. Please, Maorai. I'm tired of being here, being sick." 

[Tethras Clan]

Aveline takes a deep breath. "That... doesn't sound bad at first thought," she says slowly. "I'd want to do some drills with you, knock the rust off first. Which works out well, given they're heading out to Nyra soon as we'd have to wait for them to come back." Need to talk with Varric and Anders as well. "It would have to be short trips of course, a week or so but... it could be okay."

[Marian Hawke]

"Okay." She takes a deep breath. "Okay."

Beloved Merrill,

I am planning to go on an adventure. Do you want me to win you anything while I am gone? I plan to see if I can do some good, rescue someone or slay another spider nest or some such. If anything can help me feel like myself, I hope that will.

How are you doing? Do you feel much like yourself these days?

Write soon,
Your Hawke. 

[Isabela]

The trio's first stop in Nyra was Varric's place. All Hawke's things were going to be boxed and put into their wagon; Varric's as well, since he planned to shut the place up and potentially sell it. But upon seeing the pile of envelopes forced into the home, seeing the return address on all of them, they decided to make a detour first.

Carver and Hunter headed back to Carver's place to get the last of his own things, while Zevran and Isabela went straight to the home of the Zu'Frane household. Once there, Isabela knocked smartly on the front door, hoping nobody thrusts a baby at her or anything uncouth like that.

[Tethras Clan]

After the fourth bout of knocking- there's a lit candle easily seen from the walkway, so someone must be home, right?- a tiefling opens the door. In better times, the man would have been very attractive, almost beautiful. But this is clearly not a better time, given his sunken features, stained and unkempt attire and broken demeanor. "What?" he rasps, the voice of someone that's not had anything to drink without alcohol in it for far too long.

"....Andy?" Zevran asks carefully.

The tiefling stares blearily at them both, then shrugs. "Sure."

"Is... are you alright?"

"This one o' the fucking hells?"

"No, this is Nyra."

Andy laughs roughly, the sound mirthless and scornful. "Same thing."

[Isabela]

Isabela takes a step back, studying the man. "We'll-- we'll come back another time," she begins, licking her lips. "We just thought..."

Here she fiddles with the envelope in her hand, the one she'd taken from Varric's place to check the address. She doesn't mean to lift it or anything, but the fact that it's in her hand means she twirls it around a finger like one of her daggers -- meaning it catches the eye of both men. 

[Tethras Clan]

"...we're here to- we wanted to speak with Joyous Seli but- are you alright? You look..." Zevran falters a little.

"Like demon-shite waiting to die?" Andy asks, expression bitter and broken. "Like failure?"

"Well, the shite part is accurate." Zevran admits, then winces. Probably not the right way to handle this... "What happened?"

Andy is frowning now, staring at Zevran, then Isabela's hands. "I know you..." he say slowly, eyes on the merikos drow. "And that's Seli's writing..."