The Amell Legacy: Transgressions

[Marian Hawke]

"She's under some delusion that Beth wronged her; despite all Beth did to get Carol free, this morning Carol was saying that Beth betrayed her. Which lead to Beth breaking down in sobs in the middle of the cafeteria. I couldn't get her to stir even when I was reading from a storybook, meaning the depressive moods are back. And Beth's barely holding it together."

[Varric]

"Well... maybe not delusion, exactly. Beth did keep mum about you- and more importantly, Hunter- still being alive and around. Plus Beth did destroy her relationship with Jadan. Sure, that's for the best, but for a desperate, depressed and heartbroken young woman, 'for the best' sounds like 'suffer alone.' So... There is some basis in fact about the whole matter."

[Marian Hawke]

Marian shakes her head. "How can she take one look at Beth and still say cruel, hurtful things? No. There's more going on here, and we need to put a stop to it."

[Varric]

"Given how they were raised and by whom? I'm surprised either of them is capable of kindness or trust," Varric admits. "Speaks well of them both honestly, that they have any of that in them still. But... yeah, could be more to it. She seems to have honestly, deeply loved Jadan. That would give him a lot of power and influence over her and how she thinks."

[Marian Hawke]

"Can alchemy do anything about that? Make someone stop loving someone? Or make them not like a type of person? Say, no longer attracted to elves, or something?" Or women?

[Varric]

Varric considers that for a moment, then shakes a hand from side to side. "You can inflame or dampen sexual desire, sure. Actually not all that hard. But keying it to one person or class of people? Not so much. Magic can, I think, but it's fairly blunt about it. Not sure if it can do groups either, as opposed to just one person. Why?"

[Marian Hawke]

"Just wondering if it would help," she says. "If love is the problem, kill it."

[Varric]

The dwarf stares at her for a moment, eyebrow raised. "...right. And the rest of it?"

[Marian Hawke]

She blinks. "Jadan is an elf?"

[Varric]

"Yeah, got that part. Wondering about the other part of why you're interested in alchemical emotion modifiers." He smiles blandly.

[Marian Hawke]

She looks away. "Nothing. Or-- not now. I have to focus on Carol now, for Beth."

[Varric]

That gets a slow nod. "Thanks for the honesty. But no, I can dampen general desire but not for a particular person or... Uh... Activity, I guess."

[Marian Hawke]

"and we don't want Carol feeling less desire. She--"

Marian steels herself, doing sums in her head as her mouth casually drops, "this was intentional and not the first attempt." Five hundred twelve, ten twenty four, twenty forty eight...

[Varric]

"Knew the first, suspected the second ," he replies evenly, eyes on her to catch her reactions. "How you dealing with that?"

[Marian Hawke]

"Nothing to do with me," she says quickly