Imprints in Stone [AU]

[Bethany]

What are they saying? I don't- why is- no. Nonononono. "Mar, you can't- you can't," Bethany sobs. "You promised. You promised you'd never leave me, that we'd always be together. You promised." Reaching out, she grabs her sister's arm as tightly as she can in her condition.

[Marian Hawke]

Tears cloud Marian's eyes, but she wills them away. That's the worst part of all -- that I'll have to break my promise, that I'll have to leave Bethany after all. Everything else, everything else I can stomach, but Bethany... no. There's no time. I have to get moving or I never will.

Marian leans forward, kissing Bethany fiercely, desperately. When she pulls back, her eyes are dry again. "I will always be with you," she whispers, pressing a hand to Bethany's heart. "Right here. Okay? Whenever you feel sad or alone, just close your eyes and I'll be with you. I promise." 

Then she pulls back, leaving Bethany alone with her twin, Varric's pouch, and their mother. She doesn't turn around, nor does she look back. Instead, she ducks her head and runs right down the middle of the road, neatly evading the two demons as she continues on. "Can't catch me!" she calls, and the demons give chase, the group of them heading into the woods. 

A few minutes later, as they creep out the gate and head into the woods as fast as they can, they hear a bloodcurdling scream. Marian's scream. 

[Leandra Hawke ne Amell]

Marian's dead. My daughter's dead. My daughters kissed. That didn't- she's dead but they kissed. What is going on? This can't be happening, this is- this is a horrible nightmare. This isn't real. Marian is gone. Bethany- gods, what's going on, this can't be real. It just can't be. The village is gone. What have they been doing? They were casting magic, real magic. Marian is dead. What else are they hiding from me? Carver's sniffing the air like some kind of beast, Marian is dead, Bethany is some kind of freakish harlot...her own sister! Nightmare, this is just a nightmare...

[Bethany]

"We left her," Bethany whispers numbly, eyes empty and lost. "Marian- her scream, I can't- Carver, we left her to dead. She's dead, I can't- I can't- Marian is dead. We left her. My Marian is dead." Her leg doesn't even hurt anymore, not really. A bit of an ache, an almost gentle warmth. Her head is swimming, woolly. My Marian is gone. We left her behind. That scream. So much fear and pain. Oh gods, Marian. Marian please. Give her back, please give her back. Please.

She doesn't even seem to notice when Carver puts her down. Doesn't notice that they're in the woods or that she's leaning against the small opening to the tiny nook between the fallen tree and its friend on the river bank. She hasn't been there in over a year, but it hasn't changed much. She just can't see anything but the look in her Marian's eyes when she pulled away. Strong, despite the fear. Loving, despite the pain. Hopeful, despite the knowledge of death. 

[Carver Amell]

"Bethany," begins Carver, helplessly. Not Beth, not like Marian calls her, but Bethany, the woman she's always been to him. He doesn't know what to say to comfort her, how to soothe her hurt, but he...

"Did Marian... was she... did she... touch you?" he whispers, the desperate need to protect Bethany overriding his sense of timing. Was my big sister abusing you this whole time? Was there some dark secret, some way I failed to protect you?

[Bethany]

Bethany blinks, the sound of Carver's voice reaching her as only two other voices could right now. "C-Carver... Marian... Marian is gone," she whispers, tears trying to fall but freezing before they can make it half way down her cheeks. "What do I do now? She promised..."

[Carver Amell]

"Did she touch you," he urges. "Bethany, did she-- did she molest you?" 

There's one thing that can cut through the pain and sadness he's feeling at the loss of his sister: a threat to his twin. 

[Bethany]

"Touch me?" she asks blankly, mind flicking back to the Taste of Wine. A bittersweet smile forms and she bows her head. "Not often enough," she whispers. The other half of his questions sinks in and Bethany's head snaps up. Eyes burning, she glares at him. "Think as little of me as you like, Carver, but never say that again. I'm a cunt-licker and desperate enough to love my own sister but you don't say anything bad about Marian, not ever. Not after she d-died f-for usss." Her voice, her steel, crumbles into pain and her tears resume falling and frosting.

[Leandra Hawke ne Amell]

I'm a cunt-licker.  I'll distract them, lead them off. Desperate enough to love my own sister. I'll distract them, lead them off. All this time.... I'm a cunt-licker. All this time, I judged them wrong. Desperate enough to love my own sister. Marian... so full of fight and fire, always throwing herself into whatever came at her, trying to keep us safe. I'll distract them, lead them off. Fighting the wrong battles half the time, but always for her family. Always trying. And Bethany... using magic. Seducing her sister. I'm a cunt-licker. How could I be so wrong? Expression blank, Leandra stands up and starts walking away from the pair. No real destination, just... away.

[Carver Amell]

She's what? She did what? Carver stares at Bethany helplessly, the reality of the situation sinking in. 

Marian's gone. She died to save us. And Bethany.. I never really knew her at all, did I? She was always hiding, even from me. 

The grief rises up to overwhelm him. He falls silent, then, staring at Leandra's back, letting Bethany cry. Did I do it right? Did I-- am I good enough? No. There has to have been... there has to have been a way we could have all made it through this. How far back did I fuck up? How long ago did this family really end? 

[Bethany]

Bethany cries for a minute or two, then slowly feels something in her... not relaxing, but growing exhausted. She just doesn't have enough in her to feel sad right now. Taking a few deep breathes, she looks up at Carver. "What's next?" she asks softly. Something broken and hurting in her twists and she adds, "should we come up with a plan or are you going to abandon me too? Sorry, again." Almost instantly, a welling of shame and guilt hits her, muted by exhaustion of both body and soul, but still sharp. "Carver, that wasn't- I didn't mean-"

[Carver Amell]

Again. The word rings dully in his ears, blocking everything else out. He hangs his head, wrapping his arms around his knees. "Nyra," he says, his voice sounding distant even to himself. We go to Nyra. We get you into university. And I... I don't know what I'll do. Leave, probably. Live off the land. Be alone where I can't fuck this up worse.

[Bethany]

Gods, Carver, what did I- why did I say that to him? Why did I hurt him like that? He- he never loved Marian as much as I did, but he did love her. He didn't deserve that. Her eyes flick over to where Leandra is barely visible, slowly stumbling along the riverbank. Her on the other hand... she can go right to the hells. "Ah!" she cries out, eyes screwing shut. She'd shifted, just a little, to look for their mother and it had caused something in her leg to tighten against the shattered bone there. She manages to not scream, to not cry out past that first startled gasp but it's a hard won fight. As she does so, her hand clenches down on the pouch Marian had given her, causing a faint crinkle of glass to be heard. Thankfully, potion vials are made from special glass that breaks smooth- at least good ones do anyway- so she's not cut.

[Carver Amell]

Carver jumps, jarred out of his melancholy by Bethany's pain. No. Whatever else, wherever else you want to go right now, you live for her, Carver Hawke. He crawls toward his sister, looking her over. "That-- what's in that?" he asks, looking at the pouch in her hand.

[Bethany]

Her hand tightens on it even more- he'd have to knock her out to get it and even then it'd take some work. "Marian's last- she gave it, said... said to open it when we're safe," she mumbles, trying to recall what her beloved had said exactly. Swallowing hard as the sharp pain returns to a resentful simmering, she forces herself to open it. 

Carefully pulling out objects, she says with faint bafflement, "a... scroll case? A dagger... a waxy box... and silk... tubes?" And glass shards covered in... blue fluid? Potions? They're all broken... Why did Marian give this to me? A dagger? What's it for? Wait, maybe the scroll is a letter. Dumping the other things into Carver's hands to look over, she quickly pries it open, then sags. Just a map. Oh.