Blood from Stone [AU]

[Varric]

Bleed the poison out (failure, not good enough, even with all your plans). Just talk to me (how?). "Can't talk. Still..."He gestures vaguely at his head- or maybe mouth- with his left hand. "Just..." He trails off, not sure how he would have ended that sentence even if he could find the words he wanted. Ended? Hells. Just one word.  Practically a grunt (Seal your gilded tongue and rust your words so that everyone around you can see you as the fake you are). Varric shudders a bit, head lowering, and he rocks briefly.

[Carver Amell]

Carver reaches out and puts a hand on his shoulder. "It must have been so hard," he says quietly, "being trapped. Being unable to help. Being unable to protect us, having to rely on us to protect ourselves. But we did protect ourselves. We're alright. Everyone's alright, or they will be."

[Varric]

"Will they?" Varric flinches the instant the words rip out, guilt in his eyes. "Sorry. Yes. Course." Even to Carver, it's clear that Varric is just trying to not discourage Carver.

[Carver Amell]

"Who are you worried about?" he asks, quietly. 

[Varric]

Who- Right. Didn't entirely (mostly) explain how dangerous (should have been smarter) the ritual is (dammit Helene, why couldn't you trust me to help?). How should I handle this? Could just blame it on the last few days (lie to him), lingering anxiety (lie) or just general worry about rituals in regards to Helene after the past (misleading truth, still a lie). I... (after all this, after hiding things, knowing his stance on this...) I... "Helene. Liz." He shrugs. "Maybe Vig. Ritual..."

[Carver Amell]

Carver sighs, swallowing. "Yeah, me too," he says, rubbing the back of his neck again. "I know I'm not smart like you, so I don't get how dangerous the ritual is, but... All we can do now is have faith. Last time, Helene lied about the ritual they were doing, but this time you saw what it was, right? And, and even then, even with how bad it went last time, Tuiste came back to us. Let us help them, and trusted us to work things out. And it went alright. We got them back. So, we have to have faith this time will work out too. Trust in Alydra to guide them home, right?"

[Varric]

Varric studies his hand for a long moment. I could let it go there. Could just... bring something up. Ask him to help clean up. Something. "Unfinished." He slowly lifts his head, eyes filled with pain, hurt and terror. "Mixing is... uneven. Power variance. Vig. Devil." He holds his fingers close on the first name, then nearly double the distance for the second. "Still destroy but leftover... stuff. Backlash."

[Carver Amell]

"and you're worried they'll get hurt by the backlash?" he asks, slowly. 

[Varric]

Varric licks his lips. "Attempted make... block. Divert. Diffuse." His gaze lowers again. "Thought... thought solution found. Helene lied. Ritual lethal."

[Carver Amell]

Carver's gut twists. "Always?" he asks, his voice soft. He closes his eyes. "Oh, Helene," he whispers. 

[Varric]

"Unless solution found... yes. Three in five, caster... dust. One in five, caster transmute into..." He hesitates, then just simplifies, heavily, "base elements. One in ten, room slagged. One in twenty, singularity. One in twenty, unknown." His voice is slow, deadened and almost monotone. Aside from the hesitation on terminology that Carver could understand, it was all spoken with the rhythm of memorized information. 

[Carver Amell]

"You've been thinking about this all afternoon, haven't you?" he asks, gently. "All alone, hiding it from us so we won't worry." He sighs, looking down at his hands. "Can't say that doesn't hurt," he adds, "But it really can't be doing good things to your mind, especially cooped up alone in here."

Gods, Helene... I can barely wrap my head around it. Wasn't Gamlen enough? And maybe Liz too...I can't feel anything right now. I'm sure it'll hit me later. But right now... I'm not even afraid. I'm just tired, and sad, and worried. I'll do what I can for Dad now, and face the reality of it later.

He takes a deep breath, then adds, looking away at the wall, "What's done is done. I... We can't do anything to stop them now. But it'll hurt twice as bad if we lose you, too. If you pull away into your head and never trust anyone again. So, please. Keep what hope you can, and lean on me for what you can't."

[Varric]

Hurt twice as bad if we lose you too (if they lost Marian again, along with...). "Not... much hope. Left. I... so damned... empty," he whispers, eyes closing. "Can't... not. Need... something. To change things. Anyway."

[Carver Amell]

"There's always hope," he says quietly. "Marian might come back to us. Beth is fine -- the kits are fine. Don's doing a lot better -- that's what I came back to tell you, that his father's here. Cadmus being the Keeper, he managed to knock some sense into him. Don was thinking he'd been punished by Bharnorol -- that's the catfolk god -- because his torture matched what they do to their worst criminals. Cadmus got it through his head that he's not, that it was random chance. Some sick freak hates him, that's all that happened. And Gamlen.. Gamlen died a hero, which is sometimes all we can get out of life. The chance to protect our loved ones and go out swinging. That's what's in store for Helene. They managed to protect you, protect all of us, with this little stunt."

[Varric]

Not quite what I meant but... not bad to hear I suppose. "Not... enough. But.." He shrugs a little, then glances over at Carver, hoping to be distracted for a little while at least. "Kits? That guess? Magic?"