Thessia

"An…an information broker?" Sen asked. "That's the direction you went?"

Liara answered with a knowing smile and simply nodded.

"Is that how…" Sen began to put the pieces together and her question ceased in favor of a statement. "That's how you found out about Mira, isn't it?"

"Yes it is." Liara stated, calm. "Information brokering is something I have excelled in for over three hundred years. It has allowed me to help those in need, and bring those who would misuse power to ruin. I wish…I wish that such were my motivations when I began my pursuits."

Sen opened her mouth to speak, then paused, remembering that the Liara of three centuries ago had been very, very different from the asari standing before her now. The dark, dangerous, broken, embittered creature Liara described from the past was worlds away from the kind, gentle, and caring asari in front of her.

Sen decided, in that moment, that the sins of the past did not matter. They had been committed, they had been paid for, perhaps even dearly, and now would not be the time to judge another for who they had been and what they had done before Sen herself was even born. Instead of placing distance between them, Sen parted her lips and done what she had from the beginning. Asked for more.

"What were your motivations?"

Liara, once again, looked back into her past. "I wanted to believe what Zhira told me. At that point in my life, I desperately needed something to live for. And so I decided that Feron's life would become my reason. I remembered what he had told me…that if he were to die, and his body be sought, that he would desire me to be the one searching for him. Those words became my mantra, my guideline, my driving force."

Liara trailed off, and to Sen it seemed that, for the first time, Liara did not wish to continue her story. Sen could not imagine what might drive Liara to silence now. Surely the asari had already told her of the worst moments in her life, how far she had fallen down into the abyss of addiction and struggled to climb up from there.

How, Sen wondered, how could it possibly be worse?

"Liara?" Sen asked. "Is something wrong?"

"Just…remembering." Liara whispered. "Wishing I had realized the gravity of what I told Zhira on that day. Wishing I had known how those thoughts, so fecklessly put in the form of spoken word, would affect my future and what transpired after."

"What exactly happened?" Sen questioned.

"Your mother was right in that I needed a distraction." Liara said, her words slow, controlled, carefully thought out. "But I, all too soon, let that distraction become another addiction. The Shadow Broker's OSD opened a door to a new world, a world of intrigue, secrets, the hidden power behind so many figurative thrones. Bit by bit, I began to dismantle his organization, using what information we had found on Alignon to locate other, similar bases. I raided them and razed them. I became hard, coarse, brutal, almost, in my search for his bastions of power and knowledge. I used people. I killed people. I stole what I needed when I could not buy it. I became ruthless. Still, I could not find what I needed. I could not find the Broker himself. The frustration of that led to anger, and in my anger I became yet more dogged in my search. Those I had hired, those Zhira trusted, soon could not manage the workload I had given them and I began bringing others into my brokerage…those who had not been vetted by one I trusted implicitly. It…it was a mistake."

Liara sighed and Sen saw the regret in her eyes. She wondered if this was what had pulled Liara and her mother apart, if this had been the circumstance that drove a wedge between them and ended their friendship.

"How…how long did my mother stay with you?" Sen asked, needing answers of her own now, wondering if the thoughts nagging at her brain for the last hour had any sort of truth or merit in them. Wondering if she could gather the courage to ask.

"Through all of it." Liara murmured. "I could see grief in Zhira's eyes sometimes…and to this day I wonder what might have been had I not disregarded that grief. What might have happened if, when she gave me her advice, I had not rebelled against it. She cautioned me against expanding my brokerage. She cautioned me against hiring Nyxeris and I did not listen. But your mother is kind in the same manner that my father was kind."

Sen laughed, understanding exactly what Liara was saying. "The kindness of letting you make your own mistakes and fall flat on your ass in order to learn from them?" she asked.

Liara smiled and nodded. "The very same."

The matron sighed and silence fell between the two of them. Sen's heart hammered against her ribs. Her question needed to be asked. She needed to know, before this story went any further. She knew how the story ended. History had spelled that out in black and white. What Sen needed to know is how it began…how she began.

"Dr. T'Soni," she spoke, cringing as her nervousness forced her to fall back on unnecessary formality.

"Yes, Sen." Liara did not seem to notice the change in the way Sen addressed her…or if she did, she did not mention it.

"I am sorry but..." Sen stuttered, reaching for composure and finding her grasp unsure, "…there are so many parts of your story that have me asking a question. It is a question that cannot be ignored, and even so, I am terrified of asking it."

"Please ask." Liara entreated, resting a kind hand on Sen's knee. "I would not lie to you, Sen."

"I know that." Sen smiled, attempting to feel reassured, but still so very afraid to ask. "Did…did you and my mother…are you…Liara…are you my father?"

Sen looked at Liara, attempting to see the truth in her body language before Liara spoke. The older asari gave nothing away. Her eyes did not flare, her lips did not move. Her body remained still, and Sen waited, trembling with apprehension, wondering if she had offended her friend.

After a long moment, Liara sighed. "No." she answered. "I am not your father. Though, at one time, I believed that I loved Zhira beyond the sister-like bond we had forged. One night, while celebrating a victory over the Shadow Broker, I kissed her. She returned the kiss, pulled away, and told me that it was a mistake. She said that while it pleased her that my heart felt strong enough to do such a thing…that she was not the one that I loved. Not truly. After that night, we had no more physical contact between us, and I realized the gravity of the feckless words I had spoken that night we melded. I could not love another as I had loved Shepard...I thought, then, that I could not love at all."

"Oh." Sen deflated, though she could not deny feeling slightly relieved.

Her mother had never revealed her father's identity, and Zhira always had good reasons for her concealment of a matter. She said that if Sen were meant to know, that someday she would find out.

"Sen," Liara's voice drew the cardiologist's eyes upward, "if I were your father, nothing would keep me from revealing that fact. I would be proud to claim you as part of me, and I would never have been absent from you when you were young. I promise you that."

"Did you…did you ever meet my father?" Sen had to know.

If Liara and Zhira had been close, close as sisters, surely Liara would have met the stranger who supplied the other half of Sen's genetics.

"I did." Liara replied. "But that is a story for another time."

Sen sighed and nodded. Liara would tell her. Those stories for other times had always been told to her, and she was certain that this tale would be no different.

"Then where does this story begin again?" Sen asked, smiling for her own sake, and Liara's.

"Almost a year and a half later." Liara replied. "When I was firmly ensconced as an information broker on Illium. My brokerage had gained power and reputation, and the Shadow Broker had taken notice of me. I did not have his mastery of secrecy and concealment at that time, and he began to search me out to eliminate me. It was at that time…my door opened. And my world turned on its end."

Author's Note: Hello all! So, I didn't expect to do this, but I am. I'm kind of broke, and so could not afford Dragon Age: Inquisitions. That is until my bondmate presented me with a copy of it after work. So I am going to place this story on hiatus for a little while, which I hope you all understand. I will definitely return to it though. Next chapter will be the beginning of the "Lair of the Shadow Broker" storyline from Mass Effect 2, which I hope you all will enjoy. Until then, to those who are playing with me, I wish you luck and enjoyment!

Bright Blessings,

~Raven Sinead