Blood from Stone [AU]

[Coquette Blacquin]

Cindy hesitates. "I won't promise not to save myself and Shan if we get attacked," she promises. "But we should be safe enough and I won't go off on my own."

[Vigile]

Vigile chuckles softly. "That seems a perfectly reasonable compromise, thank you Lady Cindy." Clearly his throat, he turns to address Miki and Liz. "Very good then. Shall we be off to CrystalWing then?"

[Marian Hawke]

When Carver opens the door, he shocks Marian by dragging her in, wrapping his strong arms around her, and letting out a strangled sob on her shoulder. "I thought I'd lost you," he whispers, hugging her fiercely. "Don't ever do that to me again."

When the moment passes, he ushers her into the dining room, showing her the blanket fort that's been made out of the dining room table. "Can you help Dad?" he asks, looking down at her earnestly. "I want to sit with Don for a bit, but you've always understood him best." Which is weird -- Liz was sure she never understood Varric. But maybe knowing I don't understand him is better than thinking I do and being wrong, she wonders. 

So, bravely, she pokes her head into the tent, asking, "Hello?"

[Varric]

"Apprentice." 

Liz is probably right glad for that softly whispered word, because that's about all they can get. The inside of the tent is pitch black save for what light comes in from the slit she's sticking her head in through. She can just barely make out two figures at the back end of it, close but not touching she thinks. The heavy blankets used for the tenting block out the vast majority of both light and sound by themselves- and Varric had insisted on double layers.

"Relief."

[Marian Hawke]

She swallows, frowning. That doesn't sound like him. "What were we doing when you scared me, as a kid, when I told you the story of Bonfire Night?"

[Varric]

"Spider. Gutters." There's a bit of silence, then, "trauma. Mental... emotional... overload. Both us. Verbal... zation hard. Too many words."

[Marian Hawke]

Oh, Varric... Her eyes well up with tears as she crawls the rest of the way into the tent, letting it fall closed behind her. "I can't see," she whispers. "I'd normally give myself darkvision but I'm out of spells. I... I take it we're evacuating soon?"

[Varric]

A soft rustle of cloth. "No. Wards. Fixed. Carver only. Touch invite." A hiss of frustration. "War setting. Safe."

[Marian Hawke]

"Varric, we have to evacuate. Nyra is... Nyra is collapsing. There's Devils behind this. Vig, tell them!"

[Vigile]

"I must confess, my own instincts and inclination both compel me to seek out and savage devils, not flee them," the pavitra's quiet voice replies from just outside the tent. He must be leaning against the opening, as if on guard.

[Varric]

"Safer. Nyra fine." A pause. "Targeted. Will chase." Then, quickly, as Varric realizes what Liz might conclude, he adds, "me. Me target."

[Marian Hawke]

"Varric," she whispers. "You don't know what they're like. What they can do to you. We can't just hide here. We have to, to flee, or to stop this, as Vig said."

[Varric]

"Have. Idea." Varric says very, very softly. He tries very hard not to think of Helene's expression. Of his hand. Of Beth hovering over Don. "Idea to stop?"

[Vigile]

"Well, identifying the sceleratis behind all of this would be of great use. A devil, obviously, as despite the seeming chaos, this has all be so very carefully controlled. And that brave catman, he spoke of devil summoners?"

[Marian Hawke]

"So, can't we find the devil and, and kill it or whatever? Make this stop by taking him out?" Liz's tone is almost pleading.