Chapter Thirty-Eight: Strong Familial Resemblance

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age 2.

Emma felt no compunction just barging into Meredith's office once again.

"I hear that Huon and Evelina were killed," she said before Emma could say anything. "It was regrettable but necessary."

"You're so sure of that?" Emma demanded. "You don't even know what happened."

Meredith raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to confess to me that you killed mages where you did not have to?"

"Well…no," Emma conceded. "But apparently Evelina would have been fine if your idiot templars didn't treat her like she escaped from the Ferelden Circle and was an apostate."

"But according to my records, that is exactly what happened," Meredith said, frowning.

"She turned herself in," Emma said pointedly. "Maybe templars would have eventually caught her – though I doubt it – but they didn't have to because she quickly announced who she was. That was pretty terrible of her, too, since it meant she was leaving the kids she was taken care of to starve but it just goes to show how deeply she's bought into Chantry bullshit."

"Then why did she escape the Ferelden Circle in the first place?" Meredith challenged.

Emma rolled her eyes. "By the Maker, even I know that one! She didn't. The Circle was pretty much destroyed and so the remaining mages could either go join the army or try to survive by fleeing Ferelden and the Blight and since Evelina had children to look after she chose the latter. But all she escaped from was the Blight."

"She still chose to become an abomination," Meredith said flatly.

"Yes, she did, and having been properly trained you know that she did it on purpose," Emma agreed. "But you've really got to wonder what it says when so many people like her choose to do that, don't you? When that seems like a better alternative than just staying as you are."

To her surprise, Meredith nodded. "Indeed. I do not understand what mages are thinking and it just goes to show that we must protect ourselves against them."

"And you don't think that maybe you're, oh I don't know, cause in the matter?" Emma asked pointedly.

"I do not," Meredith confirmed.

"You really are crazy," Emma said, almost awed. "But even though your actions support this, your words can come across as quite reasonable sometimes."

Meredith ignored this. "And Emile is brought back to the Circle. I knew that you would see it my way."

"Don't make me stage another break-out!" Emma threatened automatically. She coughed. "I mean, um, I'm still not on your side and I never will be so just give it up."

"Not that it really matters anyway," Meredith remarked.

There was a noise down the hall.

"Oh, honestly!" Meredith huffed, seeming to forget that Emma was there before she stormed out of the room.

Emma was torn between going through Meredith's things and going to go see what had convinced Meredith to just up and leave and compromised by quickly scanning the things on her desk and then following Meredith.

"Every time an escaped mage, be they blood mage, simple apostate, or outright abomination, flees to Ferelden you give them your protection as if you have any right to do so!" Meredith was crying out.

"They're just eager immigrants who quickly take their vows of citizenship and then, as their king, it is up to me to protect them from foreign powers," the handsome blonde man was saying.

"And your little stunt with letting the world know about the lyrium has given us plenty of addictive personality types but not much else in the way of recruits," Meredith complained.

"That was an accident," the man claimed.

"An accident you keep repeating," Meredith retorted.

The man shrugged. "You'd think I'd have learned by now."

"You are a Ferelden," Meredith sneered.

"So I am!" the man agreed, sounding amazed. "Well-spotted, Meredith."

"King Alistair, I'm never going to give permission for the entirety of the Kirkwallian Circle to be transferred to Ferelden," Meredith said frankly.

"Of course not. You'd lose your power then, wouldn't you?" Alistair said knowingly.

Meredith glared at him. "No, it's just that that would be dereliction of duty on my part and I've heard some of the things that mages get up to in Ferelden! Court mages? Mages in the army? Free healer clinics in the Chantry?"

"I know," Alistair said sardonically. "Sometimes I wonder why the Maker hasn't struck us down already."

"Evidently he is otherwise occupied," Meredith said icily. "Now while I usually approve of the respect shown when a foreign dignitary visits in person, in this case I'll have to ask you to go home." So certain was she that Alistair would obey her that she didn't even bother to stay to make sure of it.

Naturally, Alistair stretched easily and made no move to leave.

"Your majesty-" the man next to him began.

"It'll be fine, Teagan. You worry too much," Alistair told him.

"You don't know what I was going to say," Teagan protested.

"Were you going to worry?" Alistair inquired.

Teagan smiled sheepishly. "Perhaps."

Alistair's eyes fell on Emma. "Angélique?" He seemed horrified.

"No, my name is Emma," Emma introduced.

"Sorry," Alistair said, still eyeing her warily. "You just look like someone I know."

"I believe that this is the Champion of Kirkwall," Teagan explained.

"Ah, right, good then!" Alistair exclaimed. "I'm Alistair, king of Ferelden."

Aveline was suddenly there on bended knee. "Your majesty, may I say what an honor it is to meet you. I want you to know that I share your healthy distrust of your father-in-law."

"She does," Emma agreed, deciding not to even bother asking where she had come from. "She doesn't even like my dog."

Aveline's head shot up. "I do too like him!"

"Then why do you keep feeding him stolen meat that you've recovered?" Emma demanded. "And for that matter, if you're just going to get rid of the food you recover then why bother recovering it at all?"

"It's a matter of principle," Aveline claimed. "And Varric's taught your dog how to play cards!"

"Varric is a good friend," Emma agreed.

"You look extremely familiar," Alistair said again, unable to take his eyes off of Emma. He tried to keep his expression neutral but there was something faintly terrified about his tone.

"She looks like the Hero of Ferelden," Teagan volunteered.

Alistair rolled his eyes. "I know that! That's why I thought it was her when I first saw her. And you really can't justify being so formal with the heavy-duty flirting you two get up to."

Teagan shrugged. "She likes to flirt. I'm only obliging the lady."

"The Hero of Ferelden?" Emma asked blankly. She had heard of the Hero, of course, but it was ridiculously difficult to actually get any real information (such as, say, name or gender or species, let alone background...) about the Hero. Seriously, hundreds of years after previous Blights people still remembered whoever that one foreign elf was (not Emma but, well, other people did) and yet they couldn't even be bothered to know anything about the Hero that had just ended the Blight and was the only one to live to do so? Who was, in fact, still alive now? If Emma didn't know any better, she'd suspect that this was because the Hero was from Ferelden and nobody seemed to like or respect them very much for some reason.

"Ah, right. Angélique Amell," Alistair answered.

Emma's eyebrows shot up. "Amell? My mother is Lady Amell, actually."

"You two are…related?" Alistair's horror returned in full force. "I…It's been nice meeting you. Protect Kirkwall and stuff. I've got to go."

"The boat doesn't leave until tomorrow, Alistair," Teagan pointed out.

"I will swim back if I have to!" Alistair announced as he all but fled from her.

Teagan sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Most people would ask where my brother went wrong with that one. I would like to know where he didn't. Goodbye, Champion." With that, he hurried after his king. "We'll pick you up when we pass you!"

"I like him," Aveline announced. "He seems nice."

"Thank you for coming, Champion," Orsino greeted politely. "Few will associate with me now that I am the focus of Meredith's ire."

"And yet somehow the one person who will is the person whose mother you nearly killed," Emma remarked. "Odd, that."

Orsino rolled his eyes. "Come now, Champion. Before I just enabled the near-murder of your mother and now suddenly I did it personally? Pick a story and stick to it."

"I'm going to stick to you personally trying to cut her head off unless you agree to admit that you enabled her," Emma said flatly.

Orsino sighed. "Fine, whatever. It was a long time ago and she's still alive today so it doesn't really matter and I have far bigger concerns. Meredith leaves me in a difficult position as she is not entirely wrong."

"I know," Emma instantly commiserated. "Having to admit that she might not be completely wrong about everything ever really bums me out, too."

"There's a secret meeting happening tonight and I don't know why. It might be totally innocuous, perhaps a dance since Meredith doesn't like our music. But it might be a plot to consort with demons or something and so I'd appreciate if you checked it out," Orsino told her.

"It can't be that secret if you know about it," Emma pointed out.

"Actually, several signs were put up in the Gallows last week but they're all in Ancient Tevinter and none of the templars can read it," Orsino explained. "They would have taken the sings down but that would force them to admit that they don't know what the signs say and their pride is too great for that."

"Why can't you go yourself?" Emma demanded.

"Meredith insists on knowing where I am at every moment," Orsino explained. "The templars would catch me and the others for sure and then we'd all be a target."

"But Meredith's telling people that I agree with her or something and some of them actually believe her," Emma pointed out. "I really don't think that my getting involved in this is in any way a good idea."

"If you can't find out what they're up to and stop them if need be then the templars will," Orsino said bluntly.

Emma pouted. "I hate it when people make sense when I don't want to do something!"

"Be careful. We don't want to give Meredith what she needs to justify the Rite of Annulment," Orsino cautioned.

"You know," Emma said thoughtfully, "it may not seem like it but it might actually be a positive sign that she's actually still trying to justify it instead of just killing everybody. That's what a real crazy person would do."

"Not that I'm complaining that you've agreed to help Merrill try and get the Eluvian to work," Carver said as they made their way up to the Dalish camp, "but I can't help but get the feeling that you're really only doing this because Merrill mentioned that you might have to kill her if she gets possessed."

"If someone gets possessed, often the only thing you can do is kill them," Anders said wisely.

Carver stared at him. "Seriously, you are the least self-aware person I've ever met."

"Be honest, Carver," Emma told him. "If it weren't for the fact that you're married to Merrill and have two kids with her, would you think that the Eluvian is a good idea either?"

"I never said that I thought it was a good idea," Carver replied. "In fact, I don't. We've just agreed to disagree and I'm here in case she needs my help not to die while-"

"Summoning a demon and listening to it?" Anders interrupted.

"Anders, I'm not sure how you thought you had room to talk but let me assure you that you really don't," Carver retorted.

"Daisy, I still don't understand why you're risking becoming an abomination for this," Varric spoke up. "Is it just because after so long of fighting for this, you don't want risk looking stupid by admitting that you were wrong? Because I promise you that we will not judge you any more than we've already been doing this entire time."

"That's so sweet," Merrill told him. "But that's not it. If we can just regain one piece of our knowledge then all of this is worth it."

"Except that if you become possessed then you won't get to reclaim anything since the demon won't care and so your getting possessed cannot possibly be justified by results you will not be getting," Fenris pointed out.

"And how can fixing a mirror and letting you go to a different dimension help you regain your history anyway?" Isabela wanted to know.

Merrill shrugged. "That is a great question, Isabela, and I can't wait to have an answer for you. Unfortunately, first I have to fix the Eluvian."

Isabela just shook her head and looked at Carver. "You married her."

Carver smiled fondly at that. "Yeah, I did."

"So when are we getting married, Anders?" Emma asked, a little – a lot – jealous.

"Keeper!" Anders cried, running ahead. "We're back!"

"Merrill?" Marethari asked hopefully. "Does this mean that you're finally ready to come home?"

"Keeper, I've married a human and had two human babies," Merrill reminded her. "Sooner or later you're going to need to accept that that's never going to happen."

Marethari deflated. "I will never give up on you, child."

"See, this is why I hate coming here," Merrill confided. "She always makes me feel so guilty, even when I've done literally nothing wrong at all."

"Though now is most certainly not one of those cases," Anders added.

Merrill blinked at him. "Oh, no, it is. I actually wasn't intending to talk to you but Anders needed a distraction from his commitment issues."

"Well, it's not much of a distraction if you bring it up!" Anders hissed.

"It wasn't much of a distraction anyway," Emma told him. "Merrill, I want you to know that the only reason I didn't just kill you when you told me that, regardless of if I came or not, the only reason that you would not do this is if you were dead is the fact that Carver wouldn't want me to and I do not want to spend the next fifty years listening to him complaining about that time that I killed you."

Marethari looked uncertainly at her. "Merrill, you are sure that this is the kind of life you want?"

"Some days more than others," Merrill admitted.

Once they eventually reached the really inconveniently located cave where Merrill's demon was located, Merrill ignored them and practically ran to the altar at the back of the cave.

"Something's wrong," she finally announced.

"I'll say," Anders agreed. "Perhaps it's the fact that you're trying to summon a demon to help you use blood magic to revive a dodgy artifact that turned to of your people into darkspawn."

"That's not it, no," Merrill informed him.

"Well, what about the fact that you're forcing me to agree with Anders?" Fenris inquired.

"I can see how that might be strange for you but, no, that wasn't it either," Merrill replied.

"Are you sure, Daisy?" Varric asked her. "Because they have some good points. Well…Anders did and Fenris agreed. The bit about Fenris and Anders agreeing isn't as unprecedented as they make it sound. They both hate Sebastian, after all."

"That doesn't count," Isabela argued. "Everyone hates Sebastian. The grand cleric really doesn't seem all that fond of him and if she were allowed to hate people then I'm sure that she would."

"That's really not it," Merrill insisted.

"It probably is," Aveline remarked. "But what is it that you believe is wrong outside of this whole situation?"

"The demon is gone," Merrill informed them, her voice shaking.

She was right. That was a problem.

"So you're admitting to working with a demon now?" Anders asked triumphantly. "Whatever happened to 'Anders, I know what I'm doing and I would never work with a demon and could never end up like you'?"

"I still feel that way," Merrill claimed. "It's good advice, I really wish you would have taken it."

"Regardless of the quality of the advice – and it's really not that good – you only issued it after I already was in this predicament!" Anders exclaimed.

"I would have told you earlier if I had known you earlier," Merrill insisted. "And it's not like I trust the demon or anything."

"I'm sorry but how many times have you gone to it for advice on something incredibly dangerous and that you don't understand and then done exactly what it told you to do?" Fenris asked pointedly.

Merrill looked down. "I…"

"Maybe you managed to free it with all of your good work," Fenris suggested. "The only question is whether or not it's going to want to 'thank' you in person."

Merrill frowned. "No, the demon can't be released so easily. It's a really strong seal."

"Well, that's done," Emma said cheerfully, looking hopefully towards the exit. "What do you say we just head back to Kirkwall now?"

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