The Amell Legacy: Transgressions

[Haliel Lightsong]

"Thank you," Haliel says quietly. "For... eating." For living.

[Marian Hawke]

She gives a shy smile. "Of course. I can't let you pout at me. Your pouts are artifact-strength."

[Haliel Lightsong]

As if summoned, Haliel's lips curve into a wonderful example of that very thing. "Mean to me," she says, though her eyes are bright. 

[Marian Hawke]

"Only 'cause--"

She hesitates, her smile wavering, but then she swallows, and finishes the sentence. "Only 'cause I love ya," she says, trying too hard to sound breezy. 

[Varric]

When Varric walks in a moment later, he comes to a sudden stop. "...the hells did I miss?" he asks the room, though it's not clear who he expects to answer him. After all, Helene is currently non-verbal and Haliel is busy practicing the art of kissing with Marian. From the look of things, she seems to be figuring it out.

[Helene Dakesh]

Helene jabs a finger at them, grinning broadly. Oh good. He sees it too. 

[Marian Hawke]

Marian, for her part, has her fingers twined in Lightsong's hair, moaning softly into her lips. Oh. Very worth it.

[Haliel Lightsong]

Finally pulling back, Haliel gulps in air and grins at Marian. "I- I asked Feather Jassinth- for some tips. Did- did they help?"

[Marian Hawke]

"Yes," she replies, and then she leans forward, covering Lightsong's mouth with her own once more.

[Marian Hawke]

Before long, Marian's pain returns, and the pair have to separate. When she wakes up the next morning, thankfully, it's receded, and she pushes to begin the exam after breakfast, eager to discover what she can do. 

As Helene sketches, the students assemble, ready to begin. The first section is history; Varric and Marian both finish quickly, leaving Lightsong, Beth, and Shiori already falling behind. Then is maths, and for once, Marian beats Varric to handing in her section -- mostly because he knows better than to rush through complex maths, but c'est la vie. Marian sits down with the third section, arcane knowledge, and sets to work, mindful that the day is growing long and they're going to run out of time before she can hand in this section. Better, she figures, to read through all the questions now, get to work on the easier ones, and come back to the harder ones when she's fresher. 

Except that the second-to-last question won't get out of her head. It nags at her, and she begins sketching the matrix faintly in the margins, picturing it in her head, rotating it as the question asks, trying to recall all the specific runes that--

that--

her sketch is--

those lines aren't real, they move when she moves her head, but...

and her head and tongue are tingling and her arm is pins and needles and--

and it's hard to see--

She whimpers, dropping her pencil and screwing her eyes shut tight. Am I... hallucinating?

[Haliel Lightsong]

I- I have never even heard of the Dunross War, much less any reasons why it ended much less five of them! Whimpering softly, Lighstong tentatives rights down 'change of leadership, public unrest at home, bankruptcy of warring nations, third-party interference and war is bad' with a vain hope for maybe a little partial credit.  Of your previous reasons, which also applies to the Second Dunross War's causes? Wait, what? How could- but that doesn't- Why were there two of them?!

[Bethany]

Bethany does... tolerably with history- the Dunross War... that was about... piracy, I think? And it ended when... oh! There was a hurricane and... Smiling to herself, Beth creatively expands on that single fact and fills in the space. Getting to the math section however, things... get worse. N+1 over... a strange 'E' which is over i=1 plus... I know what algebra is but this doesn't- I don't even-  Wait, what do they mean by 'provide a proof?' Bethany sinks into her chair, feeling entirely bewildered. Proof of what? That the problem is hard? Maybe it's a trick question?

"According to Naulim's Theory of Observation, that I observe the writing means it exists regardless of its actual state of existence as..." Realizing she's mumbling to herself, she goes quiet again but continues to write.

[Varric]

I don't think anyone but Marian (energy expenditure exceeds) has even finished the math section, Varric observes as he continues to work on his critique of the Third Infraction warding principal. Bit of a shame, the (recursive structure ensures stability) magic section is way more interesting- who the fuck cares (I can never remember how to spell abjuration the first time in common) about the Dunross war? Bunch of idiots fighting over a coral reef  (well, mostly coral) when you get down to it. And the ending... gods, that should be a play. Hmmm...

[Haliel Lightsong]

"Why is math like this?" Lightsong mutters, rolling her head to try and reduce some of the tension. This makes no- 

"Marian? What's wrong?"

[Shisou]

When Carver had bailed, Shisou stepped up, offering to take the exam too. She knew it wasn't the same, but in some ways, she likened this to a chance to take the Aptitude Exams she'd bailed on when she'd run away from home. What was her aptitude? How far could she have gone? Did she have the intelligence take up a position as an administrator, serving her Daimyo in that capacity? Would she have had enough magic potential to become a Mage advisor? Or would she have had to take up the sword, become a soldier in his army, bring glory to her household that way? Either way, her life would be arranged for her -- her stepfather would select to whom she would apprentice, where her position would be, whom she would marry to try and breed the coveted Outsider genes into the family. Likely that duty would fall on Seiya now; Tsuki so clearly wanted to fight, she was probably going to become a samurai, while Seiya didn't have the ruthlessness it took to kill, so she would take a safer position as an administrator. They were on the cusp of nobility, hungry and desperate, trying to cut ties once and for all with Shisou's mother's clan; their Daimyo hated them, but if they could just birth a Nutrois, just obtain the gods' favor, they could cut ties, and Indou could become his own Daimyo. 

Good luck doing all that without me, thinks Shisou, not for the first time. Math is complicated, she admits, guessing at yet another answer she can't quite figure out how to solve. This feels harder than the Aptitude Exams, but then again, what would I know? I never took them, and there's no practice. Still, if the Aptitude were half this hard, everyone would fail and be proven worthless. There's no way I was the dumbest kid in my class -- no way at all.