Under Darkness [AU]

[Isabela]

"I owe him everything." She says the words simply, without much inflection, but despite herself, another flicker of pain registers in her eyes. I guess we're going here after all, Isabela. "He still doesn't know all I had to do to keep body and soul together afterward, but I'd never have had the chance if it wasn't for him. Nothing supersedes that, not even Clan."

[Tethras Clan]

"Even if he doesn't want that debt? Even if he thinks that you gave him a priceless gift in return?" Varric asks curiously.

[Isabela]

"We can quibble over whether I've repaid it, I suppose, if he wants, but there's no part of Isabela that doesn't come from him. I shaped her to be someone he would respect." She shifts a bit, uncomfortable with the frankness -- but remembering what happened last time she tried to keep her feelings hidden. 

[Tethras Clan]

Varric sighs a little. That's... entirely a thing, evidently. Hawke, Merrill, Isabela... Zevran. All of them (do I do this?) shaping themselves into a person that the person (people for most of them actually) that they love and respect the most will... love and respect them back. "And how happy would he be if you went off on your own, do you think?"

[Isabela]

"He doesn't need any part of this," she says, to avoid saying, Not as unhappy as he'll be when he finds out what I'm doing.

[Tethras Clan]

"'course he does- you're in it, so he is too," Varric counters. "That's part of love, Bela girl. Pain in the ass sometimes but somehow it works out in your favor in the long run."

[Isabela]

Love. That's right -- he does love me. She still feels a little pleasantly surprised every time she's reminded. For so many years her feelings were -- had to be -- unrequited. Zevran was gone. She'd never see him again. She'd never know what he thought of Isabela, what (if anything) he'd felt for her that fateful night. But then she'd found him again, and all thanks to Hawke. 

"They won't stop until I go talk to the backers behind this," she admits. "If I can sign something, give them what they want, this might be over." 

[Tethras Clan]

"Oooor... we could kill, ruin or break the putrid shits that think taking child-brides, rape, kidnapping and almost killing my daughters are all fine, upright activities," Varric suggests.

[Isabela]

"The first two are dead," Isabela points out, swirling her drink. "The rest of it's not worth looking over my shoulder the rest of my life. They can have what they're after. It's only money and land." She shrugs. "I never expected to keep a copper of it anyway." 

[Tethras Clan]

"Don't see why they should get a damn reward for it," Varric explains curtly. "That's the sort of thing that encourages them to keep trying this sort of shit. Or worse, to neaten up any loose ends."

[Isabela]

"Who cares, so long as they do it to someone else?" asks Isabela, blinking.

[Tethras Clan]

"Hawke and Aveline," Varric says promptly. "And Merrill and Zevran, actually, but less so. Also, they might get even more paranoid later on and decide your signature isn't worth enough assurance. Decide to come back and kill you, just to be sure."

[Isabela]

"None of them need to know we're having this conversation," says Isabela, looking a little concerned. "As for the latter, why bother? People like that, they just worry about getting more. They don't worry so much about securing what they already have. There must be legal problems, if they're still looking for me. I guarantee you, if Luis hadn't left some word of what he did to me, they wouldn't care if I lived or died."

[Tethras Clan]

Varric doesn't say a word, just sips his drink and studies her. Giving her time to rethink that first bit.

[Isabela]

"This was a mistake," she sighs. "You can't wait to go tell them, can you?"