Under Darkness [AU]

[Tethras Clan]

"Oh yeah," Varric mutters. Definitely Hawke's buried memories. And it looks like she's trying to... quarantine them as well. Badly. Frowning, he reaches out to touch the flower again.

[GamesMaster]

"What if I'm not a nice girl? I could be bad. Rawr!" Merrill's clearly just being playful, as she rolls over and tickles [Varric's] stomach.

"Stop," laughs [Varric], kicking her feet a little as she's tickled.

It should have stayed this way. I should have stayed with her.

"I'm a big scary monster!" Merrill laughs, tickling [Varric]'s stomach, her chest.

"I'm warning you!"

When Merrill fails to heed the warning, [Varric] flips her over, straddling her waist as she tickles Merrill's stomach. The elf's laughter is like peals of silver bells, one of the most beautiful sounds she's ever heard. She leans forward, pressing a kiss to Merrill's lips. 'My love, my love, my first love,' she would say if her mouth wasn't busy.

Merrill, my love, my love, I failed you. I destroyed this with my own hands.

The memory ends more gently this time, leaving him standing beside the bed... and the flower just a bit more blemished than before. Worse, behind him, in the center of the garden, a sinkhole opens, with a ladder in the center of it. Wonder where that goes...

[Tethras Clan]

Varric considers a moment. "Alright, the... blight, I guess, is her regret and guilt. I'm going to try one last thing, then we'll go deeper," he says to the group. Okay. This time, I'll try to... guide the memory. Or at least the narration. Try to counter the Blight Thoughts as they come.

"What if I'm not a nice girl? I could be bad. Rawr!" Merrill's clearly just being playful, as she rolls over and tickles [Varric's] stomach.

"Stop," laughs [Varric], kicking her feet a little as she's tickled.

It should have stayed this way. I should have stayed with her.

It wasn't your fault. You were just trying to help yourself when we left you alone.

[GamesMaster]

She counted on me, the memory argues. She trusted me. I didn't protect her.

[Tethras Clan]

She's still trusting you. You tried to protect her. Failed, but tried. She forgives you. We all do.

[GamesMaster]

Again he's thrown out of the memory; the blemish doesn't seem to have increased this time but the sinkhole has grown, to where Zevran had to move out of the way rapidly for fear of being dropped into it. 

[Tethras Clan]

"Tried arguing back against the... Blight Thoughts but it cheated and just kicked me out," Varric explains.

"Shall we continue exploring? The ladder seems sound," Wynne reports.

Aveline nods. "I'll go first, if you would- thank you Wynne," the paladin says as her armour begins to glow softly. That done, the party heads into the sinkhole, Aveline heading down first with a good six second lead.

[GamesMaster]

They descend into the dark; the hole becomes pitch-black even to Zevran's eyes as they climb. Continuing down, however, pale blue moss begins to light their way, until at the bottom, while very dim, they can see a few feet in front of them, and Zevran much further. Weirdly, while Varric can see in the dark, Zevran can see about twice as far as him.

At the bottom is... well, it's a garden, of sorts. There are even flowers, of a kind. They are jet black; they shouldn't be visible in the darkness, but they are. There's no telling if they're blemished or if they're always black, as they're not any kind of flower any of them have seen before. They look... ominous, twisted, and full of thorns.

The garden is no larger than the one above, but there are doorways cut into the stone, indicating a network of chambers.

[Tethras Clan]

Before Varric can reach for a flower, Aveline puts a hand on his shoulder. "Perhaps let the paladin trigger the obvious danger?" she asks pointedly. The dwarf scowls, but finally nods curtly. Reaching carefully, Aveline touches a flower petal with a single finger.

[GamesMaster]

The smell is what hits her first: seared flesh, blood, feces. Slave pens were always like this. Distantly, she was aware they shouldn't be; even if these men were criminals, they should be treated better, should be kept clean and well fed, should be only punished to the extent necessary. But this wasn't Nyra, this wasn't her place to fix. She kept her head down, wandered into the holding cavern, toward the pen. She wasn't sure what had brought her here, wasn't sure why her feet had wandered this way, but she may as well witness justice. That was why there was nobody stopping people from entering, after all. Partially so she could purchase, if she wanted, but partially so she could witness. 

There were five in the cage; there had been four last time. Two older, scarred slaves, likely sentenced for life. A third that was a troublemaker, bearing marks from a recent beating; probably he'd tried to escape. A fourth that was too ill to have sold, resting on a pallet. And, now, a second pallet. Another troublemaker? Bleeding flesh, pale, not Drow but elven. They probably wouldn't live, not with wounds like that, their whole back a raw, bloody mess. 

Dark hair. The figure shifts, and it's Merrill's dark eyes that meet hers, and she feels her heart shatter. Then Merrill's eyes widen in fear, and her soul breaks in half. 

No no no no no no no no no no no no no--

Abruptly, Aveline is thrown backward, just as Varric had been before. 

[Tethras Clan]

Aveline staggers but manages to recover thanks to having seen what happened to Varric. She shakes herself a bit, then explains, "these... that was Hawke's memory of finding Merrill in the slave pens. It... She honestly, deeply believed that the slaves were prisoners, serving their sentences. She... she thought that it was too much, too cruel but that it wasn't her place to say anything. Like... like her respect for differences, her willingness to embrace other people's values and ways was twisted to.."

"Yeah. Yeah, I think most of what Jadan did to her was much the same. Not new things, but twisted," Varric says softly. "These must be what we need. Eventually, i mean. After we've helped build her up a little. Unless...We should ask Anders what would happen if we... burnt these flowers. Would that remove the memories? Disperse them? Remove the details but not the... impact they had?"

Wynne frowns. "I suspect the last. She would still feel the same way but never be able to figure out why. Which... might allow her to override the feelings in time, but... I suspect it's a very poor choice."

"How... how far do you think these... Toxic Flowers go?" Zevran asks hoarsely. "Surely there cannot be as many as above..."

Probably not, if only by simple duration of time spent in Jadan's... presence. On the other hand, I figure most memories are dumped periodically as valueless. These would be negative, but valued. And there might be more than just her Jadan down here. Wouldn't be surprised if we ran across the Gem. Or her sister. Maybe the rest of her relatives, for different reasons. Varric shakes his head. "Hard to tell, but probably not. Suspect it's pretty big though. We should take a look around and see if there's anything out of place for now, I think."

[GamesMaster]

It's in the second room that they start to see a problem. While there are just as many beds here as the first room, there are only half as many flowers in them. That might just be a case of not having enough bad memories, but there's four exits from that room as well, and each of them also has beds and flowers. One is full; one is nearly empty, only one flower in the center of the central bed. This flower, oddly enough, has a shaft of light illuminating it from.... well, above them is just infinite darkness save for this one beam, but definitely the above direction.

The ermine jumps up next to it, turning to face the group and growling, clearly ready to fight them if they try to touch it. 

[Tethras Clan]

"Why not?" Zevran asks simply, kneeling next to the ermine without fear. "We need to understand if we are to help Hawke."

[GamesMaster]

Again, the rodent's eyes for a moment are Hawke's -- Hawke's when she's trying to protect a loved one, when she's determined to do something stupid in the name of justice. 

[Tethras Clan]

"Hawke... do you trust us?" Aveline asks softly. "No qualifications, no hedging- do you trust us or not?"