The Daughter of Tethras

Disclaimer: Don't own Dragon Age

A/N: 25 tends to be a milestone number on many cases, so without further ado, here she is…Also yes I'm putting this up way early for you because one, it's been this long, and two: The last chapter was more of a "filler" I guess. Here she is, the mother, and you can forgive the pun...though by the time this chapter's over you may wonder whether or not she is as bad as The Mother.

Chapter 25 (Bianca Davri: The Mother)

Bianca awoke with the sun once more shining through the windows of her bedroom. The balcony doors were shut and locked as she preferred them now, and the bed was warm from baking in the sun.

She hopped out of the bed and dressed herself, eager to have breakfast with her father. Varric was preparing the breakfast today, saying he wanted to treat her to an old favorite of his.

Today was to be a slow day where they wouldn't have to go anywhere-the trip to Adament Fortress where the wardens had run off to wasn't for another few days. This was good, since she wasn't ready to fight wardens. Hell, her personal heroes were wardens, so even if they were under control of Corypheus, she couldn't bring herself to fight them just yet.

Bianca pushed open the doors of the balcony and stepped outside for a breath of air. The wind was cool and crisp, and it felt refreshing against her cheeks. "God it's a gorgeous day." A smile spread over her face as she peered at the distant mountains and the clouds in the sky. "Absolutely nothing can go wrong if we don't leave Skyhold."

Having followed up on Cassandra's question posed during their travels to the Western Approach, scouts went out to take a count of all the rifts in the surrounding areas, and the news was a bit better than anticipated. They'd covered the majority of rifts on their travels, so she wasn't entirely worried about leaving any untouched.

Once she left her room and entered the main hall, she turned her gaze down towards Varric's table. When she saw a cloaked person next to him, she squinted and leaned forward. "Who's that?" As she studied the figure, a strange and almost revolting sensation began to form in her gut.

From what she could tell in the distance, it was a woman. This woman was an inch shorter than Varric and he was leaning away from her.

In order to sate her curiosity she approached them, but the closer she got, the more nervous she became. Varric's forehead was tense and his eyebrows were pushing up a wrinkle between them. His hands were clenched and his head was bowed.

The woman, however, looked to be much more confident. Her shoulders were broad, her head was held high and she was very still-like a statue. When she was close enough to see the woman's face, she recognized her as having been in Haven talking to Josephine at one point of time.

The woman's eyebrows were thin and a similar color as Varric's. Her ruby lips were plump and flattened into a line across her strong jaw. While the woman's body looked so small that Varric could almost crush her bones if he hugged her too tight, she gave the appearance of being stronger than he was as if she could crush him with so much as a look.

"Oh no," Bianca whispered under her breath, "Don't be…" Her heart started to race when the woman's eyes met hers and slanted. Varric raised his head and opened his mouth, greeting her with a gasp. Before he could get a word out edgewise, the woman introduced herself.

"So you're the Inquisitor." The woman smiled, but her eyes didn't budge. They were scalding, scorching her with greater intensity than what a Rage demon could hope to accomplish. "Bianca Davri." Davri grunted and raised an eyebrow. "At your service."

"So." Her eyes darted to Varric, who was rubbing his neck and looking away nervously. "Your name is Bianca too? Like Varric's crossbow?" Varric's eyes darted back and Davri shrugged.

"It's a common name, as I'm sure you know. Half the girls in the merchant's guild are named that, and the rest are Helga." Davri's eyes slid down Bianca's body and then up towards her face. "Nice to meet you, of course…."

"Um, you too. So, you're a friend of Varric's?" She didn't want to give up her father just yet, and she still didn't want to believe that this might be her mother. "What is she doing here? Why is she here and why does Dad look so fragile?"

"Who isn't his friend?" Davri flashed a pleasant smile and swept her hands out sideways. "You've met him. Obviously." Her stomach lurched and the tendrils of fear started to wrap its icy claws around her throat.

It was difficult to push down the fear she had, but even more to extinguish the anger that was slowly brewing in her heart. She knew this woman was the one that sent her away, she knew this woman had some sort of power over her father, and she did not like the feeling that she was being sized up.

"So what's going on? What were you two talking about?"

Varric raised his shoulders with a sigh and looked over. "She found a source of the red lyrium that we've been finding all over Thedas." Bianca cringed and opened her mouth, but Davri spoke up quickly.

"I'll brief her for you, Varric." She clamped her mouth shut and ground her teeth as Varric bowed his head again and shook it. Davri crossed her arms and spoke again with a voice like honey to disguise the venom behind her tone. "There's a thaig near Bartrand's Folly, a deep roads entrance with people taking out red lyrium by the handful."

This was bad; any place where red lyrium was being produced or sold needed to be dealt with regardless. So rather than exchange fire via glares, Bianca opted to focus on the information.

"Who leaked the location?"

Varric explained that a few friends from the merchant's guild knew something, but overall there was no true certainty who gave the location. "That isn't important," Davri interrupted, "What matters is we know where the location is now."

"How do you know about this place if it's so secret?"

"I told her," Varric answered. Bianca frowned and he crossed his arms. "After the expedition, I had some stuff that needed to be sold and she had contacts. Of course, I told her about the red lyrium that we found."

"Oh." She cleared the thickening sensation in her throat and met her mother's eyes with a calm gaze of her own. She didn't want to make this woman realize that she knew who she was, nor did she want her mother to think she could affect her in any way.

After what happened with Marcus and Amelia, she wasn't about to fool herself into thinking that Davri wouldn't realize just who she was. The only question on her mind was whether Davri was here to help with the red lyrium problem, or if she was there for a different reason.

"We should deal with that problem then, because as long as Corypheus has access to that stuff, he's powerful." Varric agreed and Davri's eyebrows started to rise.

"Alright, whenever you're ready to deal with shutting it down, let me know." Davri's eyes slid to Varric and he froze as though paralyzed by a mage's spell. "Try not to keep me waiting, Varric. I have my own work to deal with."

She walked off and Varric shook himself. "Right." He pulled his eyebrows together and looked at Bianca. "That's not going to be any trouble at all."

"What is she doing here, Dad?" Bianca crossed her arms. Varric's eyes closed and a trembling breath wafted from his lips.

"I'd like to say she's helping with our cause. I think she is, but I think she might have other things in mind as well…just be careful around her."

Bianca glanced at the castle doors to see Davri watching her from the outside. "You don't need to keep dealing with her if you don't want to, Dad. Stand up to her." Varric let out a nervous chuckle and shook his head. "How is she still even in your life? How does she have that power over you?"

"She would always promise that if we stayed together long enough, she'd bring you into our lives again." She closed her hands and felt a spark of anger in her heart. "Anytime I wanted to end things, or every damn time we'd fight-or I disagreed with her, she'd threaten to tell the Cadashes to send you away where I would be sure never to see you again."

"Every time you disagreed with her? Dad, I'm here now, how's she going to send me away?" Bianca raised her hands to her chest and started to chuckle. "There's no way. She has no more power over you-Marcus and Amelia can't do anything."

"Yeah." His shoulders fell and he scraped his hand across his forehead. "They still tried. With her here…there's no telling what she'd do." He was afraid of her, that's what the problem was. She knew he could assert himself when he wanted, but her mother had controlled him for so long that even though Bianca was out of that woman's grasp, he was still afraid.

Thinking to try and console him for her mother's recent appearance, she reached over and hugged him. "You don't have to worry anymore, Dad. She doesn't have power over you."

"It's not that simple, Bianca. She sees you as a threat, I think…"

"A threat?" Her head jerked back and she raised an eyebrow. "Why am I a threat? I'm her daughter, aren't I?" She wanted to talk to her mother and figure out what was going on, why she'd done the things she'd done, but now she wasn't feeling like going anywhere near her. "If anything, she should tell me why I was nothing more than an object to try and control you with…"

"I'm sorry." He breathed in and ran his hand through his hair. "Honestly, the minute you were born I was ready to petition whatever King to take sole custody of you." She gave a tiny smile and watched as he paced to the right. "I was a surface dwarf, but I didn't care. I was sending letters to King Maric, and even King Aeducan. Anything I could do, and I knew once I could raise my daughter…I was ending my affair with your mother."

"Oh."

"She could be with the man she was married to and I'd raise you on my own since she was so adamant against leaving that man." He turned his eyes towards the doorway and started to growl. "Of course she didn't want you, she said you'd ruin that marriage anyway."

Bianca closed her eyes and grunted as the bile in her stomach began to boil. "Why was that marriage so important to her that I wasn't good enough for her, Dad?"

"I have money enough to raise a child, sure. I have plenty of money, but he has more. The man she's married to is more convenient for her. She always said that I 'made her happier'" He crossed his arms and shook his head. "But she didn't want to hand you over to me because she knew the minute she did, I would end the relationship."

"You'd be right to."

"She didn't think so." Varric sat at the table and Bianca did the same, keeping her gaze with his. "She knew how much I wanted you in my life, so she used that to keep me…make me think that if I stayed with her, I'd get to see you again."

She pursed her lips and her forehead wrinkled as she watched him slide his hands over the top of his head. He groaned once and ran his hands down his face. "But Dad..." He opened his eyes and looked to her with a weakened smile. "I'm here now. Why are you still afraid of her?"

"Because…Your mother can't be underestimated. There's a reason she's here, and I don't care how nice she acts, there has to be some reason she's here." He turned his head and narrowed his eyes. "And I'm not being paranoid. At least I hope not."

The entrance to the deep roads was the murky cave known as Valammar, found near the Hinterlands. They dealt with it when they fought a number of bandits on the Hinterlands that led to a number of Carta working within.

The clan wasn't hers, so she didn't have to suffer running into them, but the leader made a remark that sounded as though he knew her. Fortunately they managed to bring down most of them, which was the first time she ever felt okay with having to kill someone. She didn't want them getting to Dasher's clan and having her former Carta gang members coming after her.

Although considering Lantos, she was surprised they hadn't gone after her yet. It was as though Lantos hadn't told them where she was, or was keeping them at bay-if that was even a possibility.

When they made contact with Davri in the deep roads, she greeted them pleasantly and then made a snide remark about them taking so long to get there. It threw Bianca for a loop, and she almost wanted to making a smart remark back, but part of her was afraid to say anything to the woman.

She was suspicious of how much Davri knew about the location, to the point she felt something was off. This woman could hardly be trusted, and judging by the look of mistrust in Varric's eyes, he sensed the same.

When they reached a strange door, Davri had it open without a single issue. It was surprising to see that she had enough time to make some changes, but when questioned, the woman replied simply that she already informed them that she'd been down in these areas before.

The only thing that made Bianca feel comfortable around this woman was the fact that Solas and Cassandra were with them. Every second of exploring the place, Davri was behind them and Bianca was terrified that she could feel the prick of Davri's bow and arrow at her neck.

It wasn't until they pushed through a number of smugglers, both human and Carta, that they found a key that clearly belonged to Davri at the very end. Bianca's lips separated and her brow furrowed when Varric looked to the woman with disappointment.

Now it was clear that whoever was responsible for leaking the red lyrium was none other than Davri herself. For whatever reason, Corypheus had access to red lyrium and its research because of this woman.

To make matters worse, Davri revealed that red lyrium was somehow alive in the sense that it was infected with the blight. Which was something else that Bianca could chalk up to blaming on magic.

According to Davri, there was a grey warden mage that was interested in helping with the research. A mage by the name of Larius, so Davri handed him the key. When she mentioned this, Varric grew visibly upset and explained that not only was Larius not originally a mage, but he was the grey warden he and Hawke met in the den where they fought Corypheus for the first time.

Bianca's heart sank upon hearing the news, and her stomach churned to the point of wishing a bucket were nearby. All the stress and agitation caused her a fit of nausea as well as rage.

"This isn't one of your machines," Varric said while approaching the sneering woman. "You can't just replace one of the parts and think you can fix it." Davri scoffed and glared back with intense rage.

"Oh I'm sorry, I thought I could try at least. Or am I supposed to wallow in my mistakes forever and tell stories about what I should have done? Hm?" Bianca hesitated and her eyes widened as she looked to her father.

"As if I would tell stories about my own mistakes."

She wanted to say something before this escalated. Even looking over her shoulders she could see Cassandra and Solas both appeared to be extremely nervous. "Look, the red lyrium is already out." She spoke slowly and calmly in an attempt to soothe the already heated situation. Her parents turned their gazes on her, and everything fell silent. "Really, closing the entrance isn't going to undo that…"

Varric let out a sigh before telling Davri to go ahead and get home to the man she was married to. He walked off a few feet and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms.

Before she left, Davri shot Bianca a look and the skin around her eyes and nose tensed. "You get him killed, and I'll feed you your eyeballs, Inquisitor." Her words were filled with such venom that they paralyzed her on the spot. Her heart stopped for a moment and she watched as her father shot Davri an angered look.

"Don't talk to my daughter like that." Davri's lips pulled apart and she bared her teeth at him before marching off on her own.

Nothing more was said until they reached Skyhold. The journey was long and Bianca was exhausted, but she wanted to take in the scenery outside the castle walls for a moment. Varric went inside to get some rest while Cassandra waited with Bianca for a few minutes before letting her be alone.

She stood at the end of the long bridge, leaning against the stone edge and peering down below. The day had been so long that she felt she could fall asleep right where she was. Her armor had become so heavy as well during the walk that she had to remove it so she could relax.

At that moment it was at her feet with her axe, and she was in her standard outfit that she wore beneath her armor. "Hey." A voice grabbed her attention and she turned her head to see Davri standing outside a small horse-drawn carriage.

Bianca's muscles tightened as the woman approached her. Davri's hands were clenched into tight fists and her snake-like eyes seemed to pierce her with the sharpness of her arrows. "What are you doing here? I thought you left us."

"I did." Davri stepped between her and her axe and folded her arms on the stone wall in front of them. The mother glanced sideways at the guards standing outside the gate. "I wanted to talk to you. To apologize."

"For what?" She turned her back to the wall and crossed her arms. Every fiber of her body was telling her to get away from this woman, but she ignored it while remaining tense.

Seeing how Davri handled herself in Valammar, she knew this woman was swift with her bow and arrows. If she tried to fight her, she might have an issue. "Well." Davri started to smile and raised her hand towards Bianca's face. "I did want to see you and I am sorry you had to see that argument with your father."

Bianca pulled away and Davri's hand hovered for a moment in midair. "So you know who I am, then?" During their journey into Valammar, Davri mentioned a letter Varric wrote to her, saying she hadn't heard from him since the chantry explosion. It was in this letter he mentioned red lyrium, and likely that same letter he would have mentioned Bianca.

"Of course. It's been so many years." Davri lowered her hand and a motherly expression came over her face. Bianca's forehead tensed and her heart flickered for a moment. If she didn't know better already, she might be lulled into a false sense of security. "I just want you to know, I never wanted to give you up. It's just…circumstances at the time."

Bianca rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Whatever." Davri frowned at her and reached around her back, holding her hands at her waist. "I know the truth. I was nothing but a tool to you. A threat."

"What would make you think that, sweetheart?"

"That's what my father said."

"But Varric likes to tell stories, honey." She felt a shiver of disgust down her spine and clenched her teeth behind closed lips. Davri raised a hand to Bianca's upper arm and looked down at her left hand. "I am…so sorry about the mark on your hand."

"I'm dealing with it." Bianca's eyes traveled to the anchor and she took a deep breath. "Once I'm done with stuff here, I can stop worrying about it."

"What will you do? Go back to the Carta? Go back to your family?"

"Family?" She laughed and glanced at the gate. "I finally found my dad, he's all the family I need." Davri's eyes narrowed and her lips seemed to thin. A jolt of fear struck her heart and she felt a tightening in her chest. "Look, I'm sorry you two fought back at Valammar."

"He needs to learn, I'm usually right." Davri rolled her head to the side and curled the corners of her mouth up towards her cheekbones. "Anyway, I'm sure you've heard plenty about me. I can tell you don't trust me, but if you just give me a chance."

"No. You're not going to control me." Bianca turned around and leaned over the stone wall, hunching her shoulders forward and peering down. "I've been controlled by enough people. Marcus and Amelia, the Carta, Lantos…I'm my own person, I'm stronger and there's nothing that's going to stop me from having a normal life."

"That's great honey. You should go and live a decent life…" She heard a scraping noise and raised her head slowly. Her eyes slid towards Davri and widened when she saw her mother raising the axe from the ground. Davri sneered and her eyebrows closed together. "Without your father in it."

Before she could react, Davri swung the blade, striking her in the side of the head with the flat end of the axe. The initial pain could hardly be felt as she crashed into the ground. She cried out as a paralyzing numbness swept across her.

Her mother's shadow fell over her and she raised her eyes up in time to see the woman move swiftly to draw her bow and arrows. The guards at the gate were struck down almost in an instant with arrows to their throat.

"No!" Tears welled up in her eyes and she tried to scream above the rasp in her throat.

"When you want something done right…" When Davri turned, she let out a gasp, and the last thing she saw was her mother swinging the blunt face of the axe upon her. "Do it yourself."

As per the title of the questline involved here "Well...shit". So, what are your thoughts right now? What do you think is going to happen from this point? Bianca Sr. couldn't trick Bianca with sweetness I suppose, but now it seems she was able to knock her out. I will say this much, I've always hated the Hissing Wastes, and like the Fallow Mire I thought about leaving it out...but nope, we're going to see that place very soon. Also, going to see Lantos again.