p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"strongI./strong/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Darlyn Tabris keeps Nelaros' ring./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It doesn't mean anything to her, but she is pretty sure that it ought to, so she keeps it./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"strongII./strong/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Do you know what this is?" Alistair asks her./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It's a simple question but the answer eludes Darlyn, as the names of simple objects often do. The word for it sits just beyond her grasp, taunting her./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Alistair does not become impatient with her, and that makes it so much easier for Darlyn to keep from becoming frustrated by these moments of enforced inarticulateness./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He coaxes her gently until she finds the word for herself./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""It's a rose," she tells him, and Alistair nods and explains what the rose means./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"As it turns out, it means everything./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"strongIII./strong/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Hawke doesn't look Darlyn in the eyes when they tell her, "Alistair isn't coming back."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Red explosions go off behind Darlyn's eyes. The blow is staggering, as shocking as the kick from the horse that fractured her skull all those years ago. The world seems to shift beneath her feet and she thinks that she ought to scream - that she would very much like to be screaming - but the sound is caught in her throat, choking, and because Hawke still cannot look at her they don't see it coming when Darlyn leaps at them, pounding and clawing at their scarred face./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"There's blood. Hawke lifts their hands and from the blood springs a barrier that drives Darlyn backwards and almost off her feet. She throws herself at it, driving her fists against the barrier again and again, and soon it's her own blood that sizzling into vapor against the shimmering wall./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"All the strength goes out of Darlyn all at once and she falls down to her knees, curls in on herself./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The barrier comes down and Hawke comes closer, crouches down beside Darlyn. They pinch their bloody nose, which they are fairly certain has just been broken for the third time in their life, and watch Darlyn carefully. They don't speak and they don't try to touch her. Hawke waits./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Darlyn could not have said what Hawke wanted. She is sure that there is something - probably a lot of somethings - that she should be saying, but nothing comes to her. Words wouldn't be good enough, she thinks, even if everything didn't get tangled up on the way from her brain to her mouth./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Sorry," she says, testing the word out. She isn't certain that it's right./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"This time Darlyn is the one who isn't looking, so she doesn't see Hawke's lopsided shrug, which she probably wouldn't have been able to parse in any case. Hawke isn't entirely sure what they themself meant by the gesture, but they add, "Don't worry about it."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"strongIV./strong/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"After a while Darlyn gets up and walks away, and Hawke follows her./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Darlyn Tabris keeps Nelaros' ring./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It doesn't mean anything to her, but she is pretty sure that it ought to, so she keeps it./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"strongII./strong/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Do you know what this is?" Alistair asks her./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It's a simple question but the answer eludes Darlyn, as the names of simple objects often do. The word for it sits just beyond her grasp, taunting her./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Alistair does not become impatient with her, and that makes it so much easier for Darlyn to keep from becoming frustrated by these moments of enforced inarticulateness./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He coaxes her gently until she finds the word for herself./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""It's a rose," she tells him, and Alistair nods and explains what the rose means./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"As it turns out, it means everything./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"strongIII./strong/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Hawke doesn't look Darlyn in the eyes when they tell her, "Alistair isn't coming back."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Red explosions go off behind Darlyn's eyes. The blow is staggering, as shocking as the kick from the horse that fractured her skull all those years ago. The world seems to shift beneath her feet and she thinks that she ought to scream - that she would very much like to be screaming - but the sound is caught in her throat, choking, and because Hawke still cannot look at her they don't see it coming when Darlyn leaps at them, pounding and clawing at their scarred face./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"There's blood. Hawke lifts their hands and from the blood springs a barrier that drives Darlyn backwards and almost off her feet. She throws herself at it, driving her fists against the barrier again and again, and soon it's her own blood that sizzling into vapor against the shimmering wall./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"All the strength goes out of Darlyn all at once and she falls down to her knees, curls in on herself./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The barrier comes down and Hawke comes closer, crouches down beside Darlyn. They pinch their bloody nose, which they are fairly certain has just been broken for the third time in their life, and watch Darlyn carefully. They don't speak and they don't try to touch her. Hawke waits./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Darlyn could not have said what Hawke wanted. She is sure that there is something - probably a lot of somethings - that she should be saying, but nothing comes to her. Words wouldn't be good enough, she thinks, even if everything didn't get tangled up on the way from her brain to her mouth./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Sorry," she says, testing the word out. She isn't certain that it's right./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"This time Darlyn is the one who isn't looking, so she doesn't see Hawke's lopsided shrug, which she probably wouldn't have been able to parse in any case. Hawke isn't entirely sure what they themself meant by the gesture, but they add, "Don't worry about it."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"strongIV./strong/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"After a while Darlyn gets up and walks away, and Hawke follows her./p