Chapter Nineteen: Emma's Station

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age 2.

"So the Champion's brother became a templar while her sister became a Circle Mage," Cassandra mused. "I must confess that that is a strange time for him to be making that choice."

"Yeah, well, Carver was always a strange one," Varric replied. "Maybe he was trying to protect Bethany from the abuses of the Circle. Maybe he just wanted to stop being defined by his sisters. Who knows?"

"This is all starting to make sense now," Cassandra said slowly. "She never did like her brother, did she?"

"Well…no," Varric conceded. "But it's really not what you think."

"Oh no? It's a coincidence that all of these players just happened to join forces with her? We thought they all came from Ferelden together but now I see that it's motive and opportunity," Cassandra said hotly, pacing back and forth in the room.

Varric leaned back in his stone throne. "A lot of people came from Ferelden around then. There had just been a Blight, if you'll recall. And have you ever stopped to consider that maybe it wasn't just that all of these people destined to matter happened to join forces with Emma but that it was by joining forces with Emma that they came to matter?"

"No," Cassandra said bluntly.

"Isabela did what she did before she even met Emma so she would have been a catalyst regardless," Varric admitted. "But would Merrill have ever actually left her clan without someone to lead her to Kirkwall? Would Fenris have survived his master's trap without our help? Would Anders have stayed hidden from the templars? Would Aveline have ever been more than a lowly guard without us rooting out the corruption at the top? Would Sebastian have ever gotten off of his ass and done something about the men who killed his family? I know that I certainly wouldn't have concerned myself with this city's problems. I know it looks like Emma didn't really do anything but she did enable several key people to be in place."

"I disagree that it looks like Emma didn't really do anything!" Cassandra burst out.

"That's because you haven't heard the rest of the story," Varric pointed out.

Cassandra sighed. "Fine. Get on with it. Let's skip ahead, though, shall we? We're still six years before things went bad."

"Things were always bad," Varric told her. "And now we're three years until then. As I said, the treasure we found made us a fortune and we kept most of it for ourselves. Our companions really didn't use the money for much. Well…except Isabela. But I doubt you'll approve of what she spent it on so let's not discuss that. Emma's mother, Leandra, had successfully annoyed the viscount into giving her back her family estate in Hightown and Emma used some of the money to fix it back up. Emma had never exactly kept a low profile but now everyone knew who she was."

"I don't understand how she could become so famous and yet nobody realized that she was a mage," Cassandra said, shaking her head at the collective incompetence of everyone in Kirkwall.

"They might have. She did openly use magic and talk about being a mage," Varric told her.

"That doesn't make any sense. If they knew that she was a mage then why didn't they do anything?" Cassandra demanded.

Varric shrugged. "I'm sure I don't know. It worked out well for us. Leandra and Gamlen – as a condition of moving into the old Amell mansion with them – visited Bethany at least once a week but Emma never did."

"Why not?" Cassandra demanded. "The Champion appeared to love her sister and was distraught about her being taken. And later she-"

"We're really not there yet," Varric interrupted. "I don't know. Bethany was pretty peeved, too. I guess Emma just couldn't face her fear and hatred of a Circle even for her sister. Emma never visited Carver, either, but she really didn't need to. He could come and go as he pleased and according to him, templars had a lot of free time. Most of them amused themselves by tormenting mages but Carver would rather torment one mage in particular: Emma. She always used to complain that it was like he never left."

"And the qunari?" Cassandra demanded.

Varric made a face. "Ah, yes. Those poor 'shipwrecked' qunari. Three years later and they still weren't gone. To be fair, the viscount thought it would be horribly rude to ask them to leave and so they might have not realized they were no longer welcome. They wouldn't have left if they did know, though. It was actually a miracle that it took four years for things to erupt. Or perhaps that was just how long it took for the qunari to study us and devise a plan to destroy us. Fortunately, no amount of planning can account for someone like Emma…"

Emma decided not to bother knocking or alerting the viscount and his employee – whatever he did and whoever he was – to her presence as she barged into the viscount's office.

"I know, I know. We really can't afford the qunari to be here on top of the growing tensions between mages and templars," the viscount was saying, shaking his head.

"If you want, I'll get a couple of my friends to completely slaughter all of the qunari for you," Emma volunteered. "They treat mages terribly."

"That's…very kind," the viscount said uncertainly. "I couldn't possibly authorize such a thing."

"If you would like to get into it on your own time and then leave no witnesses and deny any responsibility then we really can't stop you," the employee said pointedly.

Emma shrugged. "It was just a thought."

"Leave us," the viscount ordered.

Emma's eyes narrowed in clear offense. "Hey, you're the one who invited me here."

"Four hours ago," the employee muttered.

"I was taking a nap," Emma said virtuously.

"I didn't mean you," the viscount told her.

"Oh. That's okay then," Emma said, abashed.

"Meredith at my throat, Orsino at my heels, and a city scared of heretical giants," the viscount said wearily.

"I will pay you if you let me kill Meredith," Emma offered.

A tired chuckle. "I'll consider it."

"Aside from that, I fail to see how your problems affect me in the slightest," Emma said bluntly.

"What, don't you care if the qunari raze Kirkwall to the ground?" the viscount asked, shocked.

"Not really," Emma admitted. "I can take care of myself and kill anyone who comes after me. But anyone touches my beautiful mansion and I will destroy them."

"I'll keep this brief then," the viscount said, looking like he'd never seen anything quite like her. It was a look that Emma got a lot and so it didn't faze her in the slightest. "The Arishok is asking for you by name. What did you do?"

Emma shrugged. "No idea. I'm likely the only non-qunari whose name he knows. What does he want? And why should I care?"

"It seems you are meant to have influence above your station," the viscount said idly.

Emma's eyes narrowed. "Excuse me? 'Above my station'? I live in freaking Hightown! I'm a damn noble! I may not be a member of the viscount's own family but how in the world am I getting 'above my station'?" She promptly held out her staff and lit the viscount's robes on fire.

"Ah! Put it out!" the viscount demanded.

"No," Emma said flatly, crossing her arms.

"Look, just…just talk to him, okay? And try not to make a mess of this," the viscount pleased before running from the room, likely to find something with which to put the fire out.

Emma beamed and turned to go herself. Her smile fell, however, when she saw who was waiting for her.

"Now Emma, you can't just light the viscount's robes on fire!" Carver exclaimed.

"I don't see why not, especially seeing as how I just did," Emma said stiffly. "Don't you ever have any work to do?"

"Surprisingly little," Carver informed her. "I already know how to handle a sword and it doesn't take three years to learn how to smite a mage. So are you going to do what the viscount asked?"

"Eventually. Maybe," Emma replied. "First I suppose I should go see what everyone has been up to. It's been three years for some of them, after all. And I might even think about visiting Bethany."

Carver groaned. "That 'above your station' comment really got to you, didn't it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Emma said innocently.

She exited the viscount's office in time to see a dwarf running up the stairs to see her.

"I've been looking everywhere for you!" he exclaimed.

"Who are you?" Emma asked, nonplussed.

"I'm Bodhan," Bodhan introduced. "I'm Sandal's father."

"Oh, Sandal, right!" Emma said, brightening. "The first dwarven mage."

"I…what?" Bodhan asked, lost.

"Just go with it," Carver advised. "You really shouldn't let the templars hear that, though."

"The templars notice nothing," Emma said confidently.

"I've been looking for you ever since I heard you was alive," Bodhan said, trying to catch his breath. "If only you humans didn't all look the same."

"You've spent the last three years looking?" Carver asked skeptically. "Why didn't you just ask somebody? We have a mansion in Highever and everything."

"I have a mansion," Emma said, glaring at Carver. "The fact you sleep in it every night is irrelevant."

Carver ignored her. "And how do we 'all look the same'? We're just a little taller than dwarves and typically don't have as ornate beards but aside from that we really don't look all that different."

"No, really, you look nothing like us," Bodhan insisted. "And I'm finding that statement a little racist, to be honest."

Carver rolled his eyes and decided to let it go. "Why were you looking for Emma, anyway?"

"Well, I'm kind of homeless so do you mind if Sandal and I move into your mansion as well? I'll, um, serve you or whatever," Bodhan offered.

"You can't just randomly come up to someone you barely know after three years and ask to live with them!" Carver cried, scandalized.

"If you can stay with us then someone who is not a templar can stay with us," Emma said frostily. "Tell you what…you find out where I live and you can move in."

"Thank you!" Bodhan cried, bowing to her, before running off.

"Well, at least there's a good chance that they'll never find it," Carver said optimistically.

"You're horrible," Emma accused.

The pair headed home to find their mother waiting for them.

"Welcome home, Emma!" Leandra said warmly.

"I'm here, too," Carver pointed out.

Leandra ignored him. "How did your meeting with the viscount go?"

"Horrible. He's awful. Reminds me of Carver," Emma sulked.

"I'm sorry, dear," Leandra said sympathetically.

"Hey!" Carver objected.

"Aveline's here," Leandra told them, gesturing towards the captain of the guard.

Carver groaned. "Oh, joy."

"Hang on, I have to change into my 'I'm a noble now so suck it' outfit," Emma said, holding up a finger and running off.

"So…" Aveline said awkwardly. "You still a tit?"

"Fuck off, Aveline," Carver snapped.

"I'll take that as a yes," Aveline said delicately.

They lapsed into a hostile silence as they waited for Emma to come back down.

An hour and a half later, Emma reappeared.

"Sorry," she said half-heartedly. "I fell asleep again."

"I'm starting to suspect you have a problem," Carver told her seriously. "A sleep problem, that is."

"Oh, no," Emma waved him off. "These beds are just insanely comfortable. Probably why you mooch off of us instead of staying with the other templars."

"No, I do that because they all have bunk-beds and I'm not twelve anymore," Carver retorted. "Besides, you donated a really comfortable bed to 'Bethany's room at the tower.' You didn't get me anything."

"I didn't need to," Emma argued. "But anyway, Aveline, what did you want?"

"So I haven't really seen you for three years," Aveline told her.

"We've been busy becoming fabulously wealthy and just fabulous in general," Emma explained.

"Since I don't like either of you I have been rather enjoying this reprieve," Aveline said wistfully. "Unfortunately, I need something done."

"Does it involve mages?" Emma asked immediately.

"…It's possible," Aveline said slowly. "This is Kirkwall, though, so pretty much everything involves mages. There's this templar, Emeric, I think you might have met him. He thinks that just because there's a bunch of random murders of women all done in the exact same way each with a different body part missing and there's the exact same story about their final days according to their family and friends that these murders are somehow connected."

"Imagine that," Carver muttered sarcastically.

"If you could go humor him or shut him up or something, just to give him someone new to bother, then that would be most appreciated," Aveline told them.

"You are terrible at your job," Carver declared.

"And you're just jealous because you couldn't hack it as a guard so you had to become a templar," Aveline sniffed.

"She has a point," Emma told him.

"She does not! Guards just stand around all day and don't stop the crimes that go on right in front of them. Templars go up against demons," Carver reminded them.

"So will you do it? Kirkwall is a dangerous place and I have better things to do than investigate when someone turns up dead," Aveline said. "Unless they're someone important, of course."

Carver put his head in his hands.

Emma shrugged. "I guess. After all, with so many dead women there's bound to be a mage or two in there."

"Great. Bye," Aveline said before quickly leaving.

"You've received ten letters since you left this morning," Leandra informed her.

Emma sighed. "Why does everyone keep pestering me? I'm thinking about burning them."

"How about I read them and summarize for you?" Carver suggested.

Emma shrugged. "Whatever. Just try not to be too annoying about it. I know that that's a difficult concept for you but remember, you volunteered for it so the least you can do is make an effort."

Carver went over and sat down at Emma's desk. He read through the letters for a few minutes. "Feynriel's mother admits that you were right and thanks you for saving her son."

"As well she should," Emma said haughtily. "I still hate her, though."

"She wants to meet with you in the Alienage. Feynriel sent a letter, too, saying he's having nightmares and wants to talk to you…for some reason. There's this apostate you helped escape who thinks that, though she is doing nothing to help others, you should do more and wants you to talk to a Mistress Selby by the docks," Carver continued.

"Don't be such a templar, Carver," Emma said absently. "Next letter?"

"This one's to you despite the fact that you weren't even there to deal with that blood mage at the Blooming Rose though she does thank you for saving her life and turning her over to the templars who won't let her leave her cell. At least they let her post letters?" Carver asked rhetorically.

Emma made a face. "I do not want credit for that!"

"Too bad," Carver said unsympathetically. "You've got a letter offering to help with your…male organs which you don't have. I have no idea. Does someone just randomly write letters trying to sell useless junk and send them to all nobles houses or something? The father of that girl you saved from that crazy not-mage thanks you for giving him justice and says that his daughter, like everyone else in Kirkwall who isn't me, was accepted into the guards. Aveline still manages to taunt me through other people, I see."

"Get over yourself, Carver," Emma advised.

"There's this guy trying to scam you from Starkhaven and I'm not even going to tell you about it as I'm sure it'll work on you," Carver said bluntly. "We've got a random letter from someone I don't actually remember knowing from Lothering and a letter from one of mother's friends that I'm sure she won't answer because now that she's a noble again she's doing her best to pretend that she was never in Lothering."

"Lothering?" Leandra asked, sticking her head over the railing. "Was that in Orlais?"

Loghain did his namesake proud and started barking up a storm.

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