Chapter Thirty-Six: Humoring Meredith

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age 2.

"Varric, let's have a drink!" Emma suggested brightly, plopping down across from Varric. There were, as per usual, many supposedly important things that various people (usually Carver) were pestering her about doing but she was not particularly interested in any of them and nobody was around to try and make her so they could just never get done for all she cared.

"I should make you buy the drinks, oh Champion of Kirkwall," Varric teased.

Emma stared at him. "You have to pay for alcohol?"

"Well, I don't," Varric conceded. "Not here. Once we got back from that expedition six years ago, I bought the place."

"Was that really six years ago?" Emma marveled. "I can't believe it."

"Believe it," Varric advised. "This city is, as you know, falling apart every time you turn around. I'm starting to wonder if we shouldn't just move."

"That's a good idea," Emma agreed. "But, on the other hand…I'm Champion here. I'm still not sure how that happened but it's a total power trip."

"I had the feeling that it would be," Varric said knowingly.

"After we get hopelessly drunk, do you want to come with me to meet with Meredith?" Emma asked hopefully.

Varric laughed. "Not likely. But now I can see why you wanted the alcohol. Why does she want to meet with you anyway?"

Emma shrugged. "No idea. She's been bothering me about it for two months and Carver's finally managed to convince me through sheer annoyingness."

"Yeah, Carver's always been good at that," Varric remarked.

"Emma, stop glaring at all of the templars," Carver hissed at her as they made their way to Meredith's office. "It's making them nervous."

"I don't see why," Emma said innocently. "My ability to make people's heads explode by staring at them is infamously unreliable."

"I think that's the problem," Carver replied. "Even if you aren't trying to, something bad could happen. Of course, if you could control it then chances are good that it already would have happened so…"

"I have a question," Emma said, seemingly casual. "Why is everyone here congratulating me on supporting Meredith?"

Carver winced. "I don't know what you mean…"

"The Knight-Commander appreciates your support, Champion," a random templar said as they passed him by.

Carver glared at him. "Thanks a lot, Jerry."

"What did I do?" Jerry asked, surprised. "I was just-"

"I know what you were 'just' doing," Carver snapped.

"So what's all of that about?" Emma demanded. "I think I would remember if I were a closet Meredith fan. Not that me being a closeted fan would make it make any sense for everyone here to know about it…"

"Well…" Carver began. He hesitated.

"Tell me!" Emma ordered. "I'm about to go face that woman and I should know why I'm supposedly on her side."

"Part of it is the fact that you said anything even remotely negative about Orsino," Carver told her.

Emma threw her hands up in the air. "Of course I did! He almost got Mother killed but he is not every mage in Kirkwall!"

"He is to most Kirkwallians," Carver disagreed. "But don't worry, most of them don't think that you're on Meredith's side. But…you know how Meredith can be. Her grip on reality is getting increasingly tenuous and she wanted to hear that you were on her side and so the minute you two parted company she began to remember it differently."

"So people think I'm on her side because she's crazy," Emma concluded. "But the fact that she's crazy makes me seem crazy for being on her side. This is terrible! Fix it!"

"I don't think I can," Carver admitted. "Those that believe Meredith clearly aren't paying all that much attention to the 'facts' anyway and they also want you to be on their side.

Carver knocked twice on Meredith's door but before Meredith could respond in any way, Emma barged in.

"Why am I here?" she demanded.

"Probably because I sent you a letter requesting your presence and you have finally decided to graciously respond to my summons," Meredith said dryly.

"A letter?" Emma scoffed. "Please."

"It only would have been the one and your brother need never have gotten involved if you had just come here. Or let me discuss what I must say with you while you've been here every day since I sent that letter," Meredith remarked.

Emma rolled her eyes. "Well, whatever. I'm here now so why don't you tell me what all of this is about?"

"Gladly," Meredith said curtly. "There was an…incident in the Gallows. Several phylacteries were destroyed and many mages took the opportunity to escape. Initial eyewitness reports said that your friends Anders was directly responsible but, upon re-questioning them, they all apparently remember nothing. I suspect bribery but, really, that's not the important thing."

Emma was dancing right there to celebrate this wonderful news.

"She's torn up about this, really," Carver lied. "She just reacts weird to things."

"We recovered most of the mages," Meredith continued.

Emma abruptly stopped celebrating.

"But the last three are proving to be very inconvenient and so we'd like your help," Meredith told her.

Emma narrowed her eyes. "Are these three, by any chance, the least sympathetic and most crazy mages you could find so that you could try to convince me that templars serve the greater good or something?"

"I cannot help which three mages have not been caught yet," Meredith claimed. "But really, track them down. If you think that they are deserving of their freedom, I'll never know if you help them flee the city…"

"Fine," Emma ground out. "But I'll probably do that no matter what."

"If you feel it is for the best," Meredith said, nodding and sounding surprisingly understanding.

"You're up to something!" Emma accused.

"Just do your job, Champion, and I'll do mine," Meredith replied calmly.

"Except you just asked me to do your job!" Emma exclaimed.

"So are you going to go after Huon, Emile, and Evelina?" Carver inquired.

"Who?" Emma asked blankly.

"You know, those people who Meredith wants you to find," Carver answered.

"Probably not," Emma told him.

"You said that you would, though," Carver said, surprised. "And we know how you are about keeping your word."

"That's only valid if I remember and I seem to be having a terrible time doing that," Emma said innocently.

"I'll remind you," Carver offered.

Emma grimaced. "That's so kind…"

"All of this," Carver said, shaking his head. "It's such a mess. I hope my children don't grow up to be mages."

"With your mage father, mage sisters, and mage wife, they probably will," Emma replied. "At least one of them."

Carver didn't get a chance to reply as some well-dressed foreigners came up to them.

"Hello," one of them said in an Antivan accent. "You're the Champion of Kirkwall, yes? Your reputation precedes you. By which, of course, I mean that people just will not shut up about you. I'm a noble from Antiva and I'm chasing this elven assassin that-"

"That what?" Emma prompted.

The man responded by falling over dead. His fellow nobles or bodyguards or whatever they were tensed up…only to quickly die as well.

"Okay, that was strange," Emma said, frowning.

"Hey, look, it's my new friend Zevran!" Merrill exclaimed. She waved at him. "Hi, Zevran!"

Zevran waved back, smiled mysteriously, and walked away.

"Seriously, what was that?" Emma demanded.

"It's best not to get involved with the affairs of Antivans," Fenris advised. "The entire country is run by assassins."

"Better them than templars," Anders said defiantly.

"So…the Alienage isn't too far from here…" Carver said pointedly.

Emma sighed. "Oh, whatever."

They made their way to the Alienage and then looked around.

"So…what now?" Emma wondered. "Merrill, you used to live here before you invaded my house. Do you know of anyone whose husband was taken to the Circle ten years ago?"

"Emma!" Carver protested. "You can't just expect her to know everyone who-"

Merrill nodded. "Of course. Right there." She pointed to a woman busy working in a stall.

As they walked over, Carver casually said, "Hey, Aveline, did I hear that that little elven girl who was kidnapped by that magister's son that wasn't really a mage that Fenris killed wanted to join the city guard?"

"You did," Aveline agreed warily.

"And that, furthermore, she knew nothing about fighting so you spent an entire year personally teaching her?" Carver pressed. "And giving her the proper attitude to have as a guard?"

"Yes, why?" Aveline demanded.

"I just wanted to confirm, once again, that you will let literally anyone else on the planet into the guards but you won't let me," Carver replied.

"Are you seriously never going to let that go?" Aveline asked, annoyed.

"Trust me, Aveline, I've long since lost any interest in being a guard," Carver said contemptuously.

"I don't believe you," Aveline sniffed.

"Hello, my mistress is away but perhaps I can help you with something," the elf woman suggested.

"I am looking for…" Emma trailed off.

"Huon's wife," Carver supplied. "Are you she?"

The woman nodded. "I am. I told the templars that he hadn't seen me but after they left he came. He's crazy now, I think, and so I sent him away."

"Did you see him use any blood magic?" Fenris asked.

"Would she know it to see it?" Aveline asked in her best sage-sounding voice.

Anders rolled his eyes. "Come on, Aveline. It involves blood. How could she possibly not notice?"

"I was just saying-" Aveline started to say.

"Just because we're elves doesn't make us stupid, Aveline," Merrill said, hurt.

"I know that, I just…" Aveline shook her head. "Oh, never mind."

"I don't know where he is now but he promised to one day return to take me away from this forever," the woman explained.

"A user just looking for another handout," Aveline diagnosed.

"Were you even listening to the same thing that I was listening to?" Carver demanded. "Yeah, he probably won't return to take her away from here forever because he's on the run but being forced to break a promise doesn't make you a user looking for a handout. And what do you mean another handout? In the Circle, he wouldn't have been looking for or receiving any! The more I think about it, the less your statement makes any sense at all! Were you not listening or are you just that anti-elf?"

"I am not!" Aveline cried out.

"Which?" Carver asked bluntly.

"Both! Either! You know what I mean!" Aveline burst out.

"I-I'm scared of him," the woman confessed, not paying any attention to the party's aside. "I think he needs help. Maybe…maybe the Circle will be able to heal whatever troubles him."

"More than likely that's what gave him his issues in the first place if he was fine before," Merrill pointed out.

Anders made a face. "I…agree."

"We'll see you later," Emma said, waving good-bye.

"I'd like to check on my mirror," Merrill announced. Emma hadn't let her bring her creepy blood magic mirror into her house so Merrill had still kept her old one even if she was rarely in it.

"Well I don't," Emma said, crossing her arms stubbornly. "How about we just leave?"

Carver frowned. "Don't you dare! We'll just be a minute." Of course, he went in with her.

"I better not be waiting while those two try for baby number three," Emma muttered.

"Daisy is pretty invested in that mirror," Varric assured her.

They lapsed into silence.

"Is it just me or is that extremely creepy?" Isabela asked after awhile, gesturing towards a rather creepy and almost demonic-looking elf that had appeared out of nowhere.

The woman they had been speaking to earlier saw him and froze. "Huon…"

Emma had taken off running before blood magic startled to swirl around Huon and she hit him in the head with her staff, knocking him out.

"Thank you!" the woman cried, dropping out of whatever trance her husband had held her in. She looked lost. "He wasn't…I think he would have killed me. He was talking about how thankful he was for my 'sacrifice' but it can't be a sacrifice if it's forcibly taken, can it?"

"I don't know," Emma told her. She looked down at Huon uncomfortably. "He's a blood mage and he would have killed his wife. When Carver gets out here…tell him what happened. Tell him to do what he will. He's the templar, not me."

"So are w-" Varric started to point out.

"I'm not listening!" Emma said, putting her hands over her ears and practically fleeing the Alienage.

"It's not like I don't like going to the brothel…no, actually, I hate being here and find it incredibly degrading," Emma told Isabela. "But you haven't even told me why you're so anxious for me to go there."

"Well…You remember how Castillon wants to kill me so I have to kill him first?" Isabela asked.

"I do," Emma nodded. "And I promised to help."

"I'm so glad that you remember that because I kind of need to take you up on that," Isabela admitted. "I have no idea where Castillon is but his right-hand man is apparently going to be at the brothel tonight the way he has been every night for the past week and so I want you to pretend that you're collecting my bounty and then follow me when they take me to Castillon. Then we kill him and take his stuff."

"I like that plan," Emma said, smiling. "Why aren't we going to tell the others?"

"I thought that perhaps they wouldn't like that plan," Isabela replied. "Right, so, is tonight good?"

"Tonight is excellent," Emma confirmed.

"Emma, get over here," Varric called out. "I think we found her."

Emma and Isabela made their way over to the rest of the group in time to see them talking to a redheaded boy and a blonde one.

"Now that we told you where Evelina is, she'll know and she'll be angry," the blonde said, worried.

"We have to hide!" the red-head said and the pair ran away.

"Odds are, she's an abomination," Anders said knowingly.

"I know better than to question your expert opinion," Fenris replied.

Anders glared at him.

"What, that sounded like a compliment!" Fenris claimed.

"I guess we should wander around aimlessly and hope we find her," Emma said, shrugging, out of anything better to do.

They wandered around quite aimlessly for about half an hour before finally stumbling upon those boys again.

"What are you doing here?" Emma asked, surprised.

"W-we thought that if we warned her about you then she wouldn't be angry," the blonde boy said. "But, well, it didn't work out like that."

"Look at you, you're trembling!" Anders exclaimed. "If you're that scared of her then maybe you should have just stayed out of the way and trusted us to be able to handle her."

"You can't handle her," the redhead said miserably. "No one can."

"Challenge accepted," Emma declared, twirling her staff between her fingers.

"These are my children!" a woman cried out, stepping out of the shadows.

"Run!" the two children cried.

"I will not have running away," the woman – probably Evelina – said in a creepy tone. She turned back to Emma. "You and your kind abandoned them!"

"I certainly did no such thing, I've never even seen them before!" Emma was quick to defend herself. "And as for my 'kind'…What do you count as that? Fereldens? Mages? Humans? You're all three yourself."

"I meant Fereldens and you get to feast on sweet meats while the rest of us starve in the under city!" Evelina accused.

Emma stuck her nose in the air. "First off, I will have you know that I am a vegetarian and therefore, no, I do not feast on any meats. Also, can people stop acting like I had everything handed to me? You have no idea how many people and creatures I've had to kill to get where I am today. And finally, I've been the number one donor in that Ferelden refugee collection fund by a huge margin for the past six years!"

"Not good enough!" Evelina insisted. "You should have personally fed, clothed, and sheltered us all!" She turned into a demon. "Kirkwall should be mine and then my children would have a whole city to play in!"

"They can play in most places now," Varric pointed out. "Really, nothing's stopping them from going up there, they just can't sleep there."

"Also, you're an evil demon so die," Emma said before she and the rest of the group went to work taking her down.

"Why do demons never pay attention to odds?" Merrill wondered vaguely once they were done.

The two boys were still around, looking traumatized.

"I don't understand," the blonde one said, his voice breaking. "Evelina loved us. She saved us. Why would she try to hurt us now?"

Emma backed away. "Ick! Genuine non-mage human emotion required! I hate comforting!" She threw a couple of sovereigns at them and then hid behind Aveline.

"That…wasn't Evelina," Fenris spoke up. "Evelina loved you but that was a demon."

"This isn't going to stop," Anders warned them. "The templars keep making us take desperate measures just to be free."

Fenris rolled his eyes. "I have had it up to here with that argument. How 'free' do you suppose people who lose their bodies to demons are?"

"Well…not very," Anders conceded. "I didn't say that those that are desperate are always particularly intelligent, you know."

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