Imprints in Stone [AU]

[Carver Amell]

"You gonna tell me demons have virtue now?" He growls

[Varric]

"Fuck no. You see a demon, run and get help. Me or preferably Bright's Vallen. Demons are pure destructive evil. But tieflings aren't demons, even if they're born of one."

[Carver Amell]

"How can they help it?! People always take after their parents."

[Varric]

"...what? No, they don't. My mother was a warm and damn near bawdy blacksmith and my father a weak-willed and sentimental copper miner.  And I'm curious- is Beth a careless and callow minstrel or a selfish bitch?"

[Carver Amell]

Carver balls his hands into fists, his face livid -- but he can't see to find words to argue.

[Varric]

"How about Marian? How about you? Gods, Carver, if I had to pick a single word to describe you it'd be 'loyal' and that's certainly not a label applicable to either of your parents." Varric shakes his head. "All three of you surpassed your parents long ago."

[Carver Amell]

"I refuse -- refuse! -- to leave Beth alone," he whispers, passionately. "She may not appreciate it, she might-- it doesn't matter. I won't."

[Varric]

"And yet both of your parents did just that. Your father because..." Varric hesitates a little, the gossip his friends in the caravans have passed to him not... exactly heart-warming, "he decided that his life was on a different path and your mother because she decided she couldn't even tolerate much less accept Beth's path. But you're not them. You're Carver, and, while you have your flaws sure, you're a good man."

[Carver Amell]

"I'm not," he spits. "But I can do this one thing, Vangal permit. If I work hard and pray maybe he will help me."

[Varric]

"Yes are," Varric disagrees. "Got a temper, need to learn to pause before talking and you're young. That last fixes itself for the most part, and the others aren't unmanageable- even without divine assistance. ."

[Carver Amell]

"But I'm not protecting her! I had to take her to the Bandannas when you were gone, I couldn't-- I can't take care of her by myself. And now she barely listens to me at all!"

[Varric]

"It was the best choice you had available, with the limited intel you had available," Varric says simply. "You did what you thought you had to. As for not listening to you... she's growing up. That's just going to happen. Particularly with her, because she spent so long swallowing down her own wants in order to keep the peace and not make waves."

[Carver Amell]

"She doesn't want to be safe," he snarls. "She doesn't care how hard that makes my job."

[Varric]

"Doesn't want to be safe? Or that she thinks what's she doing is worth the risk? The danger?"

[Carver Amell]

"Doesn't care about safety," he snaps, then relents, "except I guess she cares that it bothers me."