Things were happening quickly, and Claire knew they didn't have much time left before Anders' plan was to be set in motion. As was expected, he tried to keep it from her, and she had to overhear him talking to Hawke about the potion that would never exist to know it was in the works. Things in Darktown had gotten better and Claire was able to spend more time at the clinic because of all the people pitching in to help others out. It was nice to see so many work together, and seeing those working together had brought more into the community. It wasn't perfect, everyone was still broke and crime was still all over, but it was at least better. She prayed it would last after...
She looked over at Anders, wondering if she should tell him she knew about the potion, or wait. Part of her feared Justice, even though he'd stayed quiet for the most part since. He couldn't claim she was giving in to sloth or allowing mages to be tortured, he could only be frustrated that everything took so long to do. Would she ever tell Anders that his plan was probably the best route? That without it, there would be no telling how many innocent mages would be slaughtered under the Right of Annulment?
It wasn't until after she'd heard him arguing with Hawke, and seeing Justice come out, telling Hawke to leave, that she decided to approach Anders about it and tell him what she knew. She watched Hawke leave, looking stressed, and walked over to Anders.
"Are you all right, love?" She asked, wrapping her arms around him.
"It's getting harder, the further we go." He said. "I'm losing myself to him."
"I wish there was a way to separate you..." She sighed. "A spirit is not meant to inhabit a mortal's body, and it's destroying you both."
"Is Hawke right?" Anders still had his back to her, but she could feel his doubts. "I know you've been watching, I'm sure you know my plan... Is this the wrong thing to do? I can't stop him..."
"I didn't mention... but earlier... I went to the Gallows." She said. "I overheard the knight-captain talking to someone else. He said that the grand cleric is duty bound to uphold the Templars, and that it's cruel the way she leads the mages on. He later said that Meredith had called for the Right of Annulment. It's too late, they're going to slaughter all the mages. The time to act is now. The mages need a chance to fight back." She prayed she wasn't screwing it all up.
"Is this true?" He turned, his eyes wide. "But... why?"
"Meredith has gone insane with paranoia, sees blood mages everywhere." She said. "Cullen said Ser Alrik's plan would seem a mercy for what is to come. I heard rumors even the Divine is thinking of marching on all of Kirkwall..."
"This is madness!" He said. "I don't know that my plan will do any good... everything seems so dire. Is there truly no hope?"
"I think your plan is the one that will be the best." She said. "It will force the war that's been brewing for years, and give the mages the best chance they can get. For years they've been making them tranquil, weakening them, but they still have a chance. While there is breath, there is hope. This is war, Anders. We cannot back down. We cannot hesitate." Well, there went her inner extremist. He suddenly grabbed her in a hug.
"You don't know how good it's been to have someone like you at my side." He murmured. "If we die, know that I have been proud to know you, and to love you."
"And I am very glad to have gotten to know you as well." She kissed him. "Whatever happens, I will always love you. Never forget. And please, do not leave me out. Bring me with you."
"How? How can I risk your life?"
"I'll be fine, trust me." She smiled at him. "I need to make sure you'll be fine too. Even if..."
"Even if I die?"
"Yes."
The following night, Varric came barging into the clinic, looking overly pleased with himself. He made a beeline for Claire, and she started feeling nervous. What could he possibly want with her?
"Hey Sparky, so I did a little digging into your past and –"
"No." She cut him off, refusing to even think about what the dwarf had managed to dig up on her. She wasn't from that world, anything he had found had to be fake.
"What, that's it? You don't even want to know what I found?" He seemed hurt, but she was determined to not hear it. "You don't want to know about your real family?" She stared at him, unable to process the information. Real family?
"My family is dead, there's nothing to know." She snapped. She felt Anders come up behind her and she leaned into him.
"Oh, but that's the kicker!" The dwarf grinned. "They're not! I found them." She couldn't process it. She couldn't do anything. She couldn't respond, or move, or think. She was frozen with the thought that this dwarf had gone out of his way to find a family that matched her description of her real life family, and he'd found them, and they were expecting their daughter to still be alive...
"Claire, are you all right?" Anders asked, rubbing her shoulders.
"You're lying." She said, staring at Varric. "It's impossible. I saw them die."
"That's where it really gets interesting." He said. "See, the people you thought were your parents, were really not. They'd kidnapped you when you were a baby! Your real parents are still alive and they really want to meet you!"
"No." She turned and walked quickly to the back of the clinic, refusing to comprehend what he'd done, or thought he'd done. It was a lie. It was all just a lie. "I thought she'd be happy." She heard Varric say. "I thought she'd at least say something more than just 'no.'"
"You can't possibly expect her to suddenly accept everything she knew as a lie." Anders said. "She's been through so much, how can she just accept your word that she has parents who actually want to meet her, alive and well?" Especially now of all times? Thank you Anders, but I suppose I should meet them, if only to warn them to get out. She turned and marched back to Varric.
"I don't know what game you're playing, or why you want to lie to me like this." She snapped. "But if you've managed to convince two people that their daughter is somehow alive and well, and have put me up as her, you're going to have a lot to explain to them. I do not take being toyed with lightly!" Varric backed up a little, his hands up in surrender.
"Hey, all right, but I'm not lying, I swear." He said.
"You have to be!" She yelled. "I have no family! It's impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
Anders was convinced that if she had been a mage, Claire would have set them all on fire in her rage. Varric had chosen the worst possible time to drop such a bombshell on the woman, and Anders wasn't sure how she was not going to kill the dwarf over it.
"Love..." He stepped between her and Varric, taking her by the shoulders. "What makes you so certain he's lying?" She blinked back angry tears and looked between him and Varric, trying to say something.
"He has to be!" She finally said. "It can't be true. It just... it can't."
"Look, I've done all the digging I can to make sure I had the right girl." Varric said. "I trust my sources, they have no reason to lie, no one is getting anything out of this except for you and your parents. They thought you were dead, Sparky. They'd managed to track you until you were sixteen or so, but there was a man who got in their way and he produced a body and everything. Granted he ended up dead like a month later himself... I think they said his name was Markus." Varric shrugged.
"Now I know you're lying." Claire snapped. "There is absolutely no way. No way."
"But that fits with what you've told me." Anders said.
"It can't be true!" She broke down sobbing, clinging tightly to Anders as he hugged her tightly. Confounded dwarf! He cursed to himself, wishing he could ease Claire's pain.
"If I'd known her reaction would be this bad, I would have left it alone..." Varric muttered. "I'm sorry, Sparky, I had no idea."
"Would it be so bad to at least speak with them?" Anders asked. She had a chance at gaining a family, he didn't want anything to jeopardize it. What he would give... Then he realized what she was probably thinking, that they needed to get out of the city. The time had come to act, they needed to leave, especially if they were mages themselves.
"I just... I can't..." Claire stopped and took a few deep breaths before continuing. "I just can't believe it. I can't... but, I suppose I can meet with them, since they've come all this way."
"Yeah, surprisingly enough, they've come all the way from Vyrantium." Varric said. "Your father's name is Liberius, and your mother's name is Iustina."
"Liberty and Justice..." Claire seemed disturbed by their names, and Anders was a little, by the idea that her mother's name meant Justice... but the naming fit, with her name meaning clear victory.
"And yes, of course I told them to meet us in the Hanged Man. They have a room there, and I've talked to them at length, and let me tell you, there is a strong family resemblance."
"Impossible..." Claire didn't sound much like she believed it impossible anymore.
"Come on, let's go." Anders said.
Claire sat in shock, staring at the table in front of her, with Anders beside her. Her world had been turned upside down, and she was waiting for the people everyone was convinced were her real parents. But it was impossible. Claire wasn't even from Thedas, how could her fabrication mixed with reality become a Thedas reality? None of it made any sense. Their real daughter had to have been killed and she was just an impostor. How the hell had there managed to be another Claire Victoria with the same story as her though? She'd only told Anders! Surely he hadn't told anyone else, but how else...? A somniari? But if that was the case, then why her? She had nothing to offer anyone. She had no great gifts or talents, and they were about to blow up the Chantry and either be killed for it, or be made fugitives.
"Claire?" A feminine voice broke through her thoughts and she looked up, right into the eyes of a woman who looked so much like herself, Claire almost knocked the bench over standing up. It was impossible. This woman looked more like her than her own mother had.
"I don't believe it..." Claire choked.
"Varric was right, the resemblance is undeniable." Anders said. "I'm Anders." The woman was still staring at Claire as she nodded. The man shook Anders' hand.
"My name is Liberius, and this is my wife, Iustina." The man said. Even he shared a strong resemblance to Claire.
"I can't believe it." Iustina said. "All these years... we thought you were dead. We looked for you everywhere... Markus said you were dead..."
"From what I've heard about this Markus, he was a lying abusing piece of shit." Anders said. "Pardon my language." Iustina turned to her husband, her face angry, and began speaking Tevene.
"This must be some trick they've put us up against!" Claire never thought her Latin lessons would ever come in handy.
"I was going to accuse you of the same." She said, watching the couple suspiciously. "I have gone long enough thinking I had no family..." They stared at her in shock.
"You speak Tevene!" Iustina gasped.
"Does this confirm her for you, my dear?" Liberius asked, almost smiling in relief. "I cannot have doubts now, there are too many coincidences."
"It doesn't make sense." Claire said. "I still doubt. I still cannot wrap my head around having a family... alive..."
"We are here for you." Iustina said, switching back to common.
"Are you both mages?" Claire asked. They looked a little uncomfortable, but nodded.
"Yes, though not magisters."
"Do you care that I am not?" Claire pressed. Iustina shook her head.
"I don't care at all!" She exclaimed. "Just to see you... just to have you back..." It was impossible, Claire couldn't be her daughter, but the woman was just so happy to have a daughter, what could Claire say?
"This... this is going to take some time..." She said. "I keep feeling like your real daughter is going to come out and accuse me of being an impostor." Liberius laughed.
"Impossible. You are our real daughter." Anders gave her a squeeze, then pushed her towards her new family.
"You should probably have some time alone." He said. "I'll be waiting here." She looked at him, pleading, but her new parents beamed.
"Our room is just up there." Iustina said. Anxiety eating away at her, Claire followed them to the room, where the door shutting, locking her in, made her feel like they were going to sacrifice her.
"This... this is possibly the worst time for you to come to Kirkwall." Claire blurted out. "The city is about to blow, if you can't feel the tension. You need to leave, please. In the morning."
"But we only just got here." Liberius said. "What do you mean?"
"If we leave, won't you come with us?" Iustina asked.
"I can't leave." Claire said. "There's too much at stake. I have to help save the mages here. The knight-commander means to slaughter them all, it's going to be open war soon, and I've heard rumors the Divine herself is contemplating an exalted march on Kirkwall." The couple looked at each other with such looks of horror, Claire wondered if it had been wise to warn them.
"I had not realized things had gotten so dire." Liberius said. "If you want us to stay, to help..."
"This isn't your fight." Claire said quickly. "I don't want to see you dragged into it... I only... I only just got to meet you, I don't want to chance losing you so soon..."
"But if you stay..." Iustina put her hand on Claire's shoulder. "I don't want to lose my daughter again."
"Even for a noble cause?" Claire tried to smile. "I'll stay out of the fighting, but I won't abandon my friends. I don't go back on my promises, and I swore I would stand by them. I help run a clinic in Darktown, when the fighting starts, it'll get busy... when things start to calm again, if you're not too far away, maybe you can come visit."
"I would like that." Iustina said, smiling herself. "I'm a spirit healer, so perhaps I can help."
"That's what Anders is." Claire said, feeling better about everything.
"Then it's all the more fitting you should have chosen him for a partner." Liberius laughed. "Perhaps your children can share it as well."
"I wouldn't exactly say I chose him." Claire shook her head, grinning. "More like the Maker himself shoved us together forcibly until we got the hint."
"That sounds like a story." Iustina said.
"Well, we have some time..."
Claire was silent as they walked back to Darktown, and it was worrying Anders. She had seemed happy when she said goodbye to her parents, but then her mood darkened.
"Everything all right?" He finally asked as they walked into the clinic. It was strangely empty and quiet.
"Considering what's going to happen tomorrow?" She shook her head. "Of all the nights to find out there was a family looking for me... for me! And they're mages, and they don't care I'm not a mage, and she's a spirit healer like you, and it's just... we could die tomorrow, but I suppose, at least I'll know..."
"You should stay away." Anders said. "Don't come with me. You have a family now, you need to be with them."
"You're my family too!" She turned and stood in front of him. "I promised I would stay by your side, I will not break it. I will be with you, before anything else, you are my life. I cannot let you face this alone." He suddenly kissed her, overcome with love for her, and he felt her return it. Somehow they managed to stumble into the back before falling in a tangled heap on the bed.