The Amell Legacy: Transgressions

[Marian Hawke]

Maybe she's always been a climber of trees, or maybe it's a darker impulse that drives her, but Marian heads unerringly towards the Oak, asking for and finding a place among the upper branches. Up here there is some privacy, some space to think; she nestles into a crook of one of the broad branches, her legs dangling but her butt firmly planted on the sidewalk-sized limb. She rests her head back against the trunk, feeling the peculier sense of life thrumming through it like blood in veins.

[NPCs]

Roland gives her some space, more than an hour of it. Passes fast really, that hour, as the breath of the Oak hums around them. Not Good or Evil, just living nature, Wild and Green. Eventually, he figures she's had enough time to cool- and he enough time to.enjoy the vista and birdsong. Getting to his feet, he walks down the branch and takes a seat a few yards from her. 

"Hellava view."

[Marian Hawke]

You know, I expected Varric? She muses, not turning to look at Roland. "How's Beth?" she asks, her voice dull, flat.

[NPCs]

"No clue. With her brother, so I figure she's fine. How 'bout you?"

[Marian Hawke]

"Fine," she says, sounding anything but. Someday I will jump. When I'm braver.

[NPCs]

Roland snorts loudly. "Bullshit. You sound as lively as a corpse. At the bitter regrets and sour self-loathing stage of arguing with family then?"

[Marian Hawke]

"We're not family. I'm just the bastard."

[NPCs]

"Got something against bastards?"

[Marian Hawke]

She shrugs a shoulder. "Was raised with the help. We're not a family. Not like the twins are."

[NPCs]

"Least you know them. And Beth calls you her sister without any falsehood. Sounds like the only one here saying you're not family is you." He pauses. "Well, not convinced myself- you don't seem to want it and family isn't family if you don't want it."

[Marian Hawke]

"Bullshit," she says bitterly. "I'm just the only one not lying about it. I'm sick of people acting like wishing makes it so."

[NPCs]

"True, true. Wishing ain't enough by a longshot!" the elf says with a short laugh. "No, you have to work to be family and you don't seem to want to do the work. Or maybe you just don't know how. Have to admit that just occurred to me."

[Marian Hawke]

"Why are you really here," she asks, bitterly. "To get me to apologize to Beth? I was already going to."

[NPCs]

"Because I love your father. He was... my little brother, my son, my student, my best friend. Don't know you really. But I owe him a hell of a lot more than a few talks with his eldest."

[Marian Hawke]

She closes her eyes, then, briefly. "His eldest. Nobody's ever wanted me to be their kid, you know that? Would he have wanted me? If he'd lived?"