"Are you sure you couldn't just hire someone to do this?" Isabela's eyed the disaster that greeted them upon opening the door with disgust as soon as they entered the old Amell mansion. Apparently, though Marion had led Carver here to oust the slavers Gamlen had lost the estate to years ago, no one had been in since. The place reeked.
"Sure, if I take back paying for your tab." Marion answered smoothly. Isabela groaned. Merrill looked around and shrugged. "It's not so bad. Reminds me of the Alienage." Marion grimaced…it was that bad, wasn't it?
"Mother is so excited that I was able to buy this place. It was all I could do to keep her away and I only managed to do that by convincing her to appeal to the Viscount to reinstate the Amell name on the place. I can't let her see it like this." Marion stated out loud, for herself more than her friends, and the motivation it was meant to be worked for her. She held her breath as she started to tentatively pick up and throw away anything she could bring herself to touch. Bodhadn and Sandal were in the adjoining room with Varric, who was trying to pry into their story as he sat and watched them work, doubtless.
Isabela's reluctance faded as she yanked something that shined for a moment out of Marion's hands before it disappeared into…somewhere on Isabela's person. Merrill caught onto the excitement of hunting for treasure soon enough and Marion was just happy they were finally helping, if only she could get Varric to do the same, but that was a lot like convincing Bodhadn he didn't owe her anything for stumbling across Sandal. Dwarves, she was beginning to think, could be as set as the stone their ancestors surrounded themselves in.
The next day, she had also roped Anders into helping her and was rewarded with some wet behind the ears recruits from her plea to Aveline. By the time night fell, it was just her and Varric, if you could count Varric. Isabela had rescued both herself and Merrill from the chore after Marion and Merrill started another argument over blood magic, which Isabela probably started to get out of the chore to begin with, Marion thought now. Marion had convinced Anders that his duties to Darktown were more important and pressing than what that lingering smell was from the cellar…and had shown him the hidden passage in the cellar to Darktown. The Templars were crushing a grip on the mages and making raids on Darktown; Marion was certain the passage would come in handy at some point for her friend. Varric was picking her brain on the Deep Roads Expedition when the door opened. They looked at each other for a moment, Varric's hand reaching for Bianca when that familiar voice rang out.
"Hawke?" Fenris stepped into the doorway, the light from the fire playing across his face, he glanced at Varric who was kicking his feet back up onto the only unsoiled piece of furniture in the house and then nodded when he saw her. She smiled at him, attempting to quiet the uneasiness he seemed to stir in her without trying.
"Welcome to my humble abode." She gave him a slight bow and the smile on her face lifted as his eyebrow rose.
"Looks like D…my mansion." Fenris stated as he looked at the pile of trash on the side of room.
"Exactly the problem, but now that you're here, there's no escape. I was going to wait to drag you into this tomorrow." She half apologized at the same time she pointed to the pile. "But that needs to go somewhere. Isabela suggested Darktown, but I think they have enough trash of their own. But I have to think of something. I convinced the Viscount not to grant permission to my mother, but he said one more day was all he could give me. And I had to agree to meet with some concerned citizens with Seamus to get that."
"Is it wise for you to put yourself around people of power?" Fenris moved to the pile as he asked the question. She remembered the last time he had asked if it was wise of her to be there when they had gone to the Gallows. She didn't relish a repeat of that conversation.
"Fenris, have I ever done anything you would consider wise?" She asked with just the hint of exhaustion she felt, both at the thought of where the conversation could go and from two days of tedious, filthy work.
"You have me there." Fenris acknowledged her admission easily, through for a moment, she thought she saw that small smile on his lips.
"Besides, the whole point of the Expedition was to put me in a position so I wouldn't have to fear the Templars." She added.
"So that's what your brother meant.", Varric interjected and then remained silent when she looked at him. As she continued to stare, he gave a confused look and pointed to Fenris. She glared and he laughed. "I heard your argument, or some of it, when you said it wasn't him they were after anyway and he likened himself to Gamlen. Precious moment there, true family bonding."
She tried to glare at him, both for eavesdropping and reminding her of the argument, but she couldn't. She smiled instead and got back to work. Another good thing about Varric; she didn't have to worry about silence. He alternatingly prodded them both for information, pressing Fenris until it was clear the elf had enough and then back to her. As she looked at the room, finally something resembling clean, she had to admit she had learned more about her friends in the past two days from Varric doing nothing than she had in the year she had traveled with them. She could even fill Aveline in on her two recruits' social lives, come to think of it.