Chapter Thirty: Pettiness Pays Off

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age 2.

Petrice didn't actually show up but they could hear crazed ranting so they decided to go in anyway.

"Like any beast, remove the fangs and they are lost," Varnell was bragging in that annoying nasally voice of his. "They are weak before the faithful of the Maker."

"Oh, is that how crazy people see the situation?" Emma sounded fascinated as she stepped forward to confront him. "Because here in the land of sanity, we would call it 'people who are unarmed are usually at a disadvantage to the armed' and 'they were ambushed while unarmed and there is nothing to be proud of in that.'"

"Yeah…well…you're a qunari-lover!" Varnell accused.

"Not really, actually, they kind of annoy me," Emma admitted. "And I'm still not sure why I'm here but I hate templars and so I may as well kill you."

"Ser Varnell!" Petrice arrived then, full of righteous – if totally hypocritical – fury. "I'm here to pretend that I had nothing to do with it and offer you up as a scapegoat for Hawke if you can't kill her."

"Yes, Mother Petrice," Varnell said obediently.

"You're not fooling anyone," Anders told her.

"You might kill me," Varnell said, trying to sound brave, "but I'll kill these qunari friends of yours before you can stop me!"

He took out a blade and stepped nearer to the one in the center.

"Anders, Merrill?" Emma asked.

The three of them simultaneously cast ice spells and froze him before he could kill them and then Varric shot and shattered the ice.

"Well, he's dead," Varric said, satisfied.

"Why would he think we'd wait until he killed the qunari we came to save before attacking him?" Isabela asked. "Idiot."

"But not as idiotic as his followers," Fenris noted as the crowd Varnell had gathered around him turned on them despite just having received very good evidence on why that was a terrible idea.

"Aveline, you go cut the qunari down," Emma instructed. "Merrill, make sure that neither she nor the qunari dies before she gets through with this. Talk about a bloody headache."

This mob of rabid Chantry followers were tougher than the average band of random bandits that they usually faced but they were still felled in time.

"Hooray for you, you did it," Petrice said disgustedly, having watched the fighting from a safe place in the doorway. "And the qunari even live! Happy days!"

"Your Chantry is weak and cowardly," one of the qunari announced, walking over to them.

"Oh, definitely," Emma agreed. "We kind of hate them."

"And being abducted from the halls of the viscount himself…how can a leader truly be so weak?" another one marveled.

"Well, the real leader is pretty much Knight-Commander Meredith," Carver admitted. "And say what you will about her fanatical hatred of mages and her growing mental instability – Maker knows everyone else does – but she's hardly weak."

"We will give the Arishok a negative report of Kirkwall even though we had earlier been inclined to give him a positive one," the first qunari informed them. "But we will remember your strength, integrity, and courage to him, Emma Hawke."

"We were here, too, you know," Carver said, a little bitterly. He shook his head. "What do I even bother?"

"I don't know," Anders told him. "They're never going to listen."

"Why not?" Carver demanded, frustrated.

"Probably because we don't actually need you here and you're kind of useless," Anders opined. "Plus, you're working with the Chantry so you're probably actually on Petrice's side."

Carver gaped at him. "Are you mad?"

"And now because I'm a mage I must be mad?" Anders exclaimed, outraged. "Truly, the atrocities of the templars! You're no better than they are, you know."

"Emma!" Carver called to her. "Can't you do something?"

"Busy," Emma said, not listening, as she dug through the pockets of the fallen 'faithful.'

Carver rolled his eyes. "You know what? I don't need this. I'm going home, everyone. If you need me, I'll be there. Let's see if tomorrow Anders can not jump down my throat and everybody else can not not care."

"That's a double negative, you know," Aveline informed him.

Twitching, Carver stormed away.

"What's his problem?" Emma wondered.

"And now the qunari dogs go running to their masters about what a mess Kirkwall is!" Petrice spat at them. "Way to go, Hawke."

"Me?" Emma demanded. "Your idiot follower is the one who kidnapped them and started all of this!"

"That," Petrice sniffed, "is completely beyond the point. I'm telling the viscount on you!"

"Oh would you?" Emma asked, pleased. "Good because I have no intention of going to see him again and letting him know about any of this."

"Carver, you're being absurd!" Leandra was protesting when Emma arrived home that evening. "Gamlen and I have plans to go out and you can't keep blocking the door forever."

Gamlen was evidently so bored by the delay that he was reduced to playing with Loghain in front of the fire despite the fact he really couldn't care less about the mabari on a normal day.

"Emma, thank goodness!" Carver said, moving away from the doorway to let her through.

"What's going on?" Emma asked, puzzled. Hadn't he been mad at her earlier?

"Your brother has gone insane, Emma," Leandra informed her. "He won't let me leave the house."

"Carver, I know we haven't actually talked about why you shouldn't hold people prisoner and I know it might be a bit late for you since you're a templar but you really shouldn't hold people prisoner," Emma lectured.

Carver rolled his eyes. "Oh, please. I'm not holding anybody prisoner."

"You won't let me leave," Leandra reminded him.

"That does sounding like holding somebody prisoner to me," Emma remarked.

"Emma…" Carver trailed off pleadingly. "Emma, look at the desk."

Emma's eyes darted over to the writing desk. It looked pretty much the same as it always did except it had some… "White lilies," she breathed. "I've heard something about them recently but I can't remember where."

"We were at Gascard DuPuis' residence, remember?" Carver prompted. "That's how he knew that what's-her-name was going to be the next victim. The serial killer always sends a bouquet of white lilies to the woman he abducts on the day he abducts them. I can't let her leave. I can't just believe that this is a coincidence."

"I'm too old to be abducted by a serial killer," Leandra said dismissively.

Emma was shaking her head, though. "We just can't take that chance, Mother."

"And what do you intend for me to do?" Leandra demanded. "Stay in this house for the rest of my life? I mean, it's a nice house and all but I just can't do that. I'd almost rather be abducted by a serial killer."

"Leandra always was so dramatic," Gamlen noted, barely paying attention.

Emma and Carver had a quick, silent conversation.

"How about this?" Emma asked at last. "You and Gamlen can go out to the Hanged Man where my friends can make sure that you're not abducted and dismembered and we'll go after the serial killer and end him for daring to target you?"

Leandra looked uncertain. "Gamlen?"

"Oh, I always love the Hanged Man," Gamlen said, climbing to his feet. "Does this mean we can leave now?"

"Yes," Emma agreed. "Let's go."

"You know, if it was going to be that easy to find and stop the serial killer then it makes us look kind of terrible for not doing so earlier and only getting involved when our mother is the intended victim," Carver told her.

"What part of 'we were busy' are you incapable of remembering?" Emma demanded.

Varric had decided to come with Emma along with Anders and Aveline while everyone else stayed to guard Leandra who still insisted that it was quite unnecessary. Carver wanted to go with them to end the monster who was hunting his mother but he wanted to make absolutely sure that nothing happened to Leandra even more.

"I know that people in Darktown don't really have an address," Varric said as they looked around. "But surely he could have given us something more specific."

"It's really not all that hard to find people," Anders informed him. "Take it from someone who spent a few years here."

"Alright, Blondie, how do you find people in Darktown?" Varric challenged.

Anders took a deep breath. "Gascard! Gascard DuPuis!"

Varric laughed. "Seriously? That's it?"

"Yes, what do you want?" Gascard asked, coming out of nowhere to talk to them.

"Your serial killer is after my mother so we have to kill him now," Emma said flatly.

Gascard drew back, horrified. "He took your mother?"

Aveline shook her head. "Not yet. That's why we have to hurry. He sent her the white lilies, though."

Gascard nodded. "I see. I'm not sure what you expect me to do, though. It's not like I'm his former apprentice or anything."

"We never said that," Emma said, giving him a strange look. "But you said that you cut what's-her-name's arm to take a sample of her blood for tracking purposes. I know that you said that she's a lost cause but she's got to be dead by now so tracking her blood should lead you to the killer."

Gascard brightened. "That is a brilliant idea! One moment…"

He disappeared into the darkness again and soon came back with a vial of blood. He closed his eyes and a blue glow surrounded the bottle. "This way…"

"Say, shouldn't you maybe keep your eyes open?" Varric asked after he nearly walked into one of the beggars milling around.

"That's what you're here for," Gascard explained.

Varric sighed and helped him up the steps.

Maneuvering Gascard carefully so that he made it all the way to where he was trying to take them was incredibly annoying but if it saved Leandra then it saved Leandra.

Finally he opened his eyes and said, "We're here."

"This place looks vaguely familiar," Emma noted, frowning.

"This place is where the bodies were first found three years ago," Aveline immediately identified. "Oh, if only we had bothered to search the area at all then maybe all this could have been avoided."

"Since Carver's not here, I guess I'll have to say it," Varric decided before fixing Aveline with an annoyed look. "Yeah, if only."

They split up to explore and Anders found a badly-hidden room.

They had barely stepped foot inside before they were attacked by demons.

"Don't you just love those nice, obliging demons that only attack when you enter the bad guy's lair?" Emma asked sarcastically.

"Personally…yes," Varric confirmed. "It saves us a lot of trouble whenever we don't enter the bad guy's lair."

"But we always do," Aveline pointed out.

"And at least then we expect the demons," Varric told her.

Emma stopped suddenly and picked up something off of the ground. "I know this locket…it belongs to Mother…"

Gascard was confused. "I thought you said that your mother had not been taken."

"She wasn't when I left and there's no way she could have been kidnapped and brought here in time to lose the locket before we arrived," Emma said confidently. "Clearly someone is, in addition to planning on murdering her and creepily sending her flowers as an apology or whatever, being a stalker and stealing from us! I'm going to see if I can't kill this guy twice."

"Hey, Emma, isn't that your family's crest on this shield?" Anders asked.

"Damn it, serial killer! Enough is enough already," Emma said, eye twitching as she gathered up yet more of her family's belongings.

"Hey look, I found a creepy shrine!" Aveline called excitedly.

"Why is that a good thing?" Gascard asked her.

"Well…it's not," Aveline admitted. "But everyone else got to find things so I wanted to find something, too. And doesn't that woman in the portrait look like your mother, Emma?"

Emma examined the portrait closely. "No, not really. I don't see the resemblance."

"They have the same skin tone," Varric offered.

Emma rolled her eyes. "So does most of Kirkwall. We're not a very diverse group."

"What do you think the shrine is for?" Gascard wondered.

"Well, if I know anything about blood mages – and I'm assuming a blood mage is involved because of all the demons and the fact that all blood mages are evil – then I'm going to guess that his wife or sister or maybe just the girl that he was stalking died. He can't handle reality and so is mutilating all these women to try and rebuild her and then somehow bring her back to life," Anders declared.

"I think I've heard that story before," Varric said slowly, frowning. "It didn't have a happy ending."

"Well of course it doesn't have a happy ending!" Emma exploded. "Think of all the murdered women!"

"No, I don't think it was that," Varric disagreed, shaking his head. "It was something about sown-together body parts being too hideous, I think."

"You would think he'd be able to tell that before he brought her to life," Aveline remarked.

Varric shrugged. "You would think. But then, who even knows with these mad scientist guys?"

They finally found a human – or, well, a monster who looked like one – in one of the back rooms. "Hello, there. Did you bring your mother, Emma?"

"I'm going to kill you," she growled.

"You will never understand my purpose!" the man raved.

"Is it to find people who have similar features to some dead girl and then cut them up and sew them together to try and make someone who looks like she would look if she were in a terrible accident and thus had all these ugly stitches and then to bring her to life and then live on in happy – possibly marital – bliss?" Anders inquired.

The man blinked. "Oh, I see that you do get it after all. Hey…Is that Gascard DuPuis?"

"Is this the part where we find out that you never had a sister?" Varric wondered.

"Sister?" The man laughed. "Did you really fall for such a transparent ploy? Gascard is my former apprentice. I ditched him awhile back and I guess he wanted vengeance. Or, you know, you can help me kill them and I promise I won't ditch you again."

Gascard looked torn. "I-" He fell over dead.

"Varric," Emma complained.

"What?" Varric asked innocently. "Like you really wouldn't have done the same."

"But I wanted to do it," Emma whined.

Varric shrugged. "Sorry. You can get the next one."

Emma brightened immediately. "Like this serial-killing lunatic?"

"I wish the First Enchanter Orsino were here," the man sighed. "He's devoted so much time and energy into making sure I didn't get caught and supplying me with research materials because he wants to see if people can really be brought back from the dead. I'm sure he'd take care of you and I wouldn't even have to lift a finger."

"Is there anyone in this entire freaking city who isn't corrupt?" Varric demanded. "Maybe Meredith. But her extreme lack of corruption is kind of the problem..."

"We can't just go around accepting the word of a serial killer that Orsino is corrupt," Aveline protested.

"I don't know if he's guilty or not but if we just kill this guy then we don't need to know," Anders reasoned. "And investigating him would just hurt mages."

The man laughed. "Oh, that's just what Orsino said about why I couldn't be caught ever."

"I really don't think that there is anyone non-corrupt," Emma said awkwardly. "I mean, Meredith is so insane that I'm just calling her 'corrupt' by default at this point."

"But should that really mean that mages have to be able to go around being serial killers and enabling serial killers and whatever other reprehensible behavior mages choose to get involved in because it would hurt all mages?" Varric couldn't believe it.

"It really shouldn't, no," Anders said pointedly.

Varric decided to take his frustration out on the serial killer in question by firing a bolt at him.

The bolt hit him square in the shoulder. "Ow! What was that?"

"That was me attacking you," Varric explained.

"But…we were talking and you never told me you were going to attack me," the man protested. "You can't do that!"

Emma smiled darkly at him. "What's that? You want fair? I can give you fair…"

Despite knowing that the serial killer, whose name they still didn't know, hadn't gotten his hands on Leandra, Emma rushed back to the Hanged Man once she had finished thoroughly looting the area and Aveline had gotten started on the cover-up.

Leandra was sitting at a table with Isabela, Carver, and Gamlen and laughing when Emma came in.

"Mother!" Emma cried out, throwing herself in her mother's arms.

"Hello, Emma," Leandra greeted her. "I hadn't actually thought I would enjoy myself here but your friends are very welcoming."

"I'll just bet," Emma murmured, glancing Isabela's way.

"I keep losing," Gamlen complained.

"You always lose," Carver pointed out. "So…did you get him?"

Emma nodded. "We got him."

"I still don't know what any of this is about but I'm glad that you two are going to stop acting like crazy people now," Leandra said, satisfied.

Emma smiled almost wistfully. "Mother, this is Kirkwall. I don't think there's much hope of that happening anytime soon."

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