Imprints in Stone [AU]

[Marian Hawke]

Marian smiles at him, a shy, rare smile. "Alright, then."


The training, Marian soon finds out, is fairly harmless. After a few more months, she even starts to see results: times when she's angry and doesn't frost things over, times when she can channel it away into a directed ray of frost and banish the storm inside her quietly, on her own terms. Of course, by then she's passed her exams (with flying colors) and doubled her pay, not to mention firmly befriended her new mentor. 

She invites Bethany to start training ten months later, shortly after her fifteenth birthday. They try to keep things quiet from Carver for now; he won't understand, and anyway, it's nice for Bethany to have something separate from her twin. They practice in the basement while Carver does his homework, claiming to be cleaning and sorting files down there, or in the sitting room on days he doesn't stay after lunch; for a few months, it works, helping the twins to stay independent. 

[Carver Amell]

Ever since stupid Marian did her stupid thing and got stupid expelled, Joey was unstoppable. Today, it was kicking Carver's seat. The bully had taken a spot just behind Carver; every time the teacher went to help someone or write on the blackboard, he'd kick the chair hard enough to jostle Carver and make him mess up whatever he was writing. It was dumb, it was petty, and after four hours of this treatment, Carver was fit to kill someone. It was even his day to clean the blackboards, so he couldn't even look forward to leaving immediately after class and having a nice hot meal to calm his nerves. This was, of course, all Marian's fault, for showing Joey that bullies could win. 

Which is all to say that when Joey jumps him after school, the fight is almost welcome. 

Carver knows a little more about handling himself in a fight these days. Varric had been teaching him; he knew more about how to carry himself, how to throw a punch correctly, how to inflict maximum damage against a bully twice his size. But that just meant the bully had to get friends, or flunkies perhaps, to hold Carver while he hit him. Carver was good, but he was only twelve, after all. 

Today, as Fred held his hands back and Maurice smirked, Joey had a new torment in mind: he'd gotten a tindertwig from somewhere and lit it, bringing the smouldering head to press against Carver's arm. "You like that? That's what I'm gonna do to your sister when I catch her, the little witch."

"You shut up!" snarled Carver, and it was a snarl, savage and wild, ripped from the back of his throat. For a moment, he envisions lunging forward, ripping out the boy's throat with his fangs, feeling the hot blood spurt over his muzzle -- but then the impulse is gone, and the wild thing is a boy again, trying his best not to scream out as a second burn joins the first. 

"Make me," sneers Joey, eliciting snickers from his buddies. 

They let him go, eventually, but not before burning him a half dozen more times and blacking his eye. Carver staggers, not home, but to Bethany, and to Varric's healing wand. All the better to get his comfort somewhere he doesn't have to face Mother, after all.

As he pushes open the front door, he feels nothing but relief. He's home now -- or, no, not home, Varric's place, with his sisters, obviously. There's a relieved smile on his face as he stumbles into the sitting room.

The smile vanishes when he sees Bethany sitting cross-legged on the rug, a magical light flickering in her cupped hands, as Marian urges her on. Shock floods through him in an instant, then horror -- and then, his favorite standby emotion, anger.

"What the fuck?!" 

[Bethany]

Bethany lets out a yelp- and the dancing blue-green light explodes in a brilliant flash of light. Screwing her eyes shut, Bethany groans and preses her hands to her temples as the interrupted spell sends a small and thankfully quickly fading spike of pain behind her eyes. Eyes opening a second later, she blinks furiously at the blob in the doorway. Carver. It's Carver. It's- "Carver Firethorn Hawke! Language!" she snaps out automatically, scowling darkly at him.

An expression that only deepens as she realizes that her idiot brother had just caused her to lose her spell. The spell she'd been working on for over a month and a half. A spell that she'd just gotten stable for the first time. Ever. The spell that was the first proof that she can do something useful with what had always been a mark of freakishness. A curse. A spell that her big sister had taught, as a show of trust, a sign that she's becoming an adult. Mature enough to be given real responsibilities and do something for herself. Her temper spikes and she surges to her feet. "Look what you made me do!" 

[Carver Amell]

"Wh-what I made you do?" Carver's temper rises to match hers, his hands balling into fists.  "What were you even doing to begin with?! Were you-- you were casting spells! You're a-- a--"

He knows it's a bad idea. He knows it will hurt her, will throw away what they have. He knows he'll regret it tomorrow. But, as if in slow motion, his mouth forms the words anyway, before his brain can catch up:

"You're a witch!"

[Marian Hawke]

Marian is on her feet in an instant, thrusting her way between them. The slap rings out into the air just after he's done speaking, and Carver stumbles back a few steps -- he's not the only one learning to handle himself in a fight. "Don't you ever!"

[Bethany]

Bethany goes completely, utterly, still. Her breathing stops, eyes staring unblinkingly. Witch. He... Carver.. my twin. he- witch. Carver called- But he's- Witch. No, he would never- Witch. I can't- Witch. Witch. Witch. Please. Witch. Witch. 

The temperature plummets, then spikes in the span of a seconds. Bethany finally blinks, just as the room suddenly fills with thick, chilling mist.

[Marian Hawke]

Marian sucks in a deep breath, looking back to Bethany. No, shit, she's, no, she's out of control, she thinks, and then she's running for the workroom, screaming "VARRIC!" at the top of her lungs. 

[Carver Amell]

Carver takes another step back, swallowing. "Bethany, I, I didn't-" he stammers, but he did mean it, she's casting on him, his twin is casting magic at him, of course he means it.

[Varric]

Varric bursts out of the workshop a second before Marian reaches the door, thankfully before she'd be hit with it. "What? What's g-" he cuts off as he sees the swiftly fading wall of mist in his house. "The hells?"

[Marian Hawke]

"Carver, it's Carver, he -- come quick, Bethany's upset," she stammers. 

[Varric]

Rushing back the room, Varric looks around. He spots Carver easily (black eye, clothes dirty and torn a bit, blood on his arms, burns? Already scabbing over, not recent. Another fight) and...

"Where's Bethany?"

[Carver Amell]

Carver looks around. "Fuck, fuck fuck!" he swears, the torrent of curses seeming strange in his preteen mouth. "Bethany!" He runs for the door, hoping he can catch her if he runs as hard and fast as he can, nevermind not knowing what direction she went. 

[Varric]

"Marian, check your place," Varric calls out, moving for the backdoor to see if she went that way.

[Bethany]

There's a small bend in the river that passes near town. Well, in a stream that branches off the river anyway. But the bend has a massive oak tree who used to have a companion oak who was felled by flood and storm years and years ago. The fallen tree had landed just so, creating a kind of wall against the living tree that bushes and vines had turned into a little nook. Summer after summer, two children had used this tiny hiding spot as their own space, hidden and secret from everyone, even beloved older sisters.

When Carver reaches the spot, feet taking him there out of blind instinct as if he was following her lingering sadness and hurt in the very air, he can ear the sounds of muffled sobbing.

[Carver Amell]

Carver scrambles into their hideout, gasping for breath. "Bethany, are you, are you okay, did I, I'm sorry!"