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Varric hung back, leaving a large space between himself and Hawke and Aveline. He had a very bad feeling about this whole journey. Daisy's obsession with her mirror had been growing, taking over her every waking thought. No matter what Hawke was here for, he didn't see Daisy giving up until she had what she wanted … and he was man enough to admit he didn't want to be the one who had to take her out when "be careful what you wish for" was fully formed in front of him.
All was silence when he finally entered the cave and saw the statue in the center. Daisy was standing in front of it, but nothing was happening. Hawke and Aveline watched her with wary eyes, and she watched the statue with something that looked like despair.
And in the shadows, something moved. Varric held a hand near Bianca, ready to pull and aim her at the slightest provocation.
"This was where the spirit was bound! But now it just feels … empty." Daisy's voice sounded equally empty.
"Good. Let's go," Hawke said crisply.
"Hawke. What if it freed itself?" Aveline asked.
Daisy shook her head. "No. It would have taken powerful magic to free it from its prison. You couldn't just set it free. Not without doing something terrible. This is very wrong. What could have happened?"
The shadow moved again, and Varric recognized it. Marethari. A chill went down his spine. If Marethari was here and the demon wasn't—
Her voice answered Daisy's question. "I happened, da'len."
"Keeper, what have you done?"
"The demon's plan was always for you to complete the mirror. It would have been a doorway out of this prison and into our world. You would have been its first victim. I couldn't let that happen."
"Did you destroy it?" Aveline, always practical.
Marethari turned away. "No. It's still here. I made myself its prison. Kill me, and it dies, too. Merrill will finally be safe."
"No!" Daisy shouted. "No, Keeper! I won't do this."
"You always knew your blood magic had a price, da'len. I have chosen to pay it for you."
To Varric's ears, there was as much scolding as there was love in Marethari's voice. As there had been in every interaction he'd seen between her and Merrill. Whatever genuine affection the Keeper held for her former First, there was something else there, something that drove her to constantly put Daisy down and belittle her.
And that very pride was her undoing. The tenuous hold she had on herself broke, and a demon rose in her place.
Hawke and Aveline drew their swords and Varric pulled Bianca, but none of them were needed. Fueled by anger and grief, Daisy battered at the demon with every weapon in her arsenal. Varric had fought by her side for years, and he had never realized until now exactly how powerful she was.
Before her, the demon backed away and away, into the depths of the cave, until it shrank down and became Marethari again. She fell to her knees at Daisy's feet. "You've beaten it, da'len. You are so much stronger than I imagined."
Daisy stood over her, a small dagger in her hand. "The Keeper would never say that," she spat viciously, and the knife entered Marethari's heart. Catching the body in her arms, she lowered it to the ground, watching as the body writhed, the demon within it dying. "What have you done?" Daisy demanded. "I don't want this. I never wanted this! If there was a price to pay, I should have paid it. You had no right to interfere!"
Neither Aveline or Hawke spoke a word as she keened and wept over the body of the Keeper, occasionally pummeling it with her fists. Varric would have liked to have said something, but for once, he couldn't seem to find the words.
At last, the storm of grief seemed to pass, and Daisy rose to her feet. In a voice drained of all life, she said, "I—I should go to the clan. Someone needs to know, to come … come take care of her."
She led them out of the cave, the rest of them relieved to be stepping out into the sunlight—even the stunted sunlight at the top of Sundermount.
But the clan had followed them up here. Maybe they'd known what was happening, maybe the hatred of Daisy that had burned in them all these years had finally come to a boiling point. They charged her in a body, all of them angry. "We know the Keeper came here. Where is she?"
Daisy's head drooped. "She's … she's dead," she whispered.
"Look at her! She's covered in blood," hissed one of her clan.
"What have you done, Merrill?" demanded another.
"I should have guessed you'd turn on her, you monster." The elf spat at Daisy's feet.
Hawke put herself in front of Daisy, pushing the other elf back. "No one is going to harm Merrill while I'm here." Silently Aveline moved to stand beside her, the two of them a formidable wall. Varric pulled Bianca and joined them.
The angriest elf, who seemed to think he was the new leader with Marethari gone, shook his head. "You murder our Keeper and then you think you can threaten us, shem?" He turned to the others. "We've suffered enough because of this traitor! It ends now."
And then it was like any other time a group of people decided they wanted Hawke dead. Only, instead of being well-trained, well-fed mercenaries who were used to fighting, these were half-starved elves who hadn't moved in years, who had hunted out all the game in the area long ago and lost their edge.
Hawke tried to stop it, when she realized what a bloodbath it was going to be, but the one thing the entire clan were certain of was that they were not going to back down. They kept fighting as long as they could raise an arm.
Looking around him, Varric tried to feel horrified. Angry. But all of this felt so inevitable, as though each of them had been moving towards it from the first time he and Hawke had set foot in the Dalish camp. As though it had been destined.
"I'll … send people out to care for them," Aveline said at last, after they had all stood there, motionless and stunned, for a long time. "They need to be buried, don't they, Merrill?" When Daisy didn't answer, Aveline turned to her. "Merrill?"
"Yes. Buried," Daisy said at last, dully. "Like they've been, here, all this time, by the Keeper. If only … if only she'd taken them away, as she should have, gone on with their lives instead of staying here."
"She chose you over them. That's why they hated you. You were their death warrant. And somehow they knew it. She failed them. And you."
"What do I do now?"
"Move forward," Hawke said. "Smash that mirror. And look around you. There are plenty of elves in Kirkwall who could use your help."
Daisy nodded, sounding stronger than she had in a long time. "Yes." She looked around them and shuddered. "Let's … let's go."
"Yes, let's." And together Hawke and Daisy began the long walk down the mountain, Varric and Aveline behind them.