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[thereneverwas]

[For correspondence, private scenes, and anthrax.]

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[cozen]

Anne.

[ She sniffs and wiggles her nose, because it itches but she's trying too hard to make a good impression to scratch it. ]

You're from Ferelden?

[thereneverwas]

[With creeping dread,]

Yes?

[cozen]

[ A long moment of courage-gathering silence, and then she is very frank, with very earnest eyes: ]

My mum says you're my father.

[thereneverwas]

[It's enough to make a person's whole brain shut down.]

...excuse me?

[RUN, RUN YOU IDIOT]

[cozen]

My mum says you’re my father.

[ With earnest patience born of being a little too young for a teenager’s attitude. She looks him over. There’s a little bit of skepticism to her face—a bit of him?—but mostly interest. Someone looking for a resemblance would be able to claim to see one. ]

She called you a lot of other things, too, but I’m not supposed to say them.

[thereneverwas]

[Shit. Fuck. Run. Throw her in the harbor? No, that wouldn't do, he couldn't,]

Which one-- er, [maybe she just wants money?]

--what's your mum's name? [Maker, it could be anyone.]

[cozen]

Lorna.

[ Another itchy nose wiggle. ]

She's working, but—I can take you to see her if you want. Maybe she's wrong.

[thereneverwas]

[He's still wracking his brain for a 'Lorna' when the girl speaks again, and Barrow goes very still, furrowing his brow at her.]

Working?

[He blinks rapidly.]

She's here?

[cozen]

[ Anne shakes her head, taking here to mean right here, and points off toward the rest of the city. ]

She’s a laundress.

[thereneverwas]

[Something is amiss.]

And how long have you two been living here in Kirkwall, Anne?

[cozen]

[ A shrug, a screwed-up thinking face, and, ]

Five years? I was seven.

[thereneverwas]

And where'd you come from before that?

[He starts lighting up a cigarette.]

[cozen]

[ She wrinkles her nose in distaste at the cigarette. Or at the question. Or both. ]

I remember Highever and Amaranthine. I don’t know. We traveled a lot.

[ Her arms cross. The slightest glimmer of an attitude. ]

Where’d you come from?

[thereneverwas]

Ferelden, [spoken cagily, one arm crossing under the other as he squints down at the girl.]

Your mum always been a laundress?

[cozen]

[ She squints back at him. ]

No.

[thereneverwas]

[sqqquuint.]

No? What'd she do before?

[cozen]

[ A sqqquuint back, and a stubborn little chin lift. ]

This and that.

[thereneverwas]

Yeh?

[He tilts his own chin up, exhaling a puff of smoke.]

What's her family name?

[cozen]

[ She scoffs a little. ]

We aren't that fancy.

[thereneverwas]

[There it is. Barrow smirks.]

So whaddyou want, money?

[The question comes out as a grumble, not especially threatening.]

Who told you I had any?

[cozen]

[ She doesn't know she's been had. Her bottom lip comes out, just a little, as if she's hurt but trying not to show it. ]

I don't want your money. I only wanted to meet you.

[thereneverwas]

No no, none of that.

[He shakes his head fondly, digging into his coin pouch.]

You had me going for a moment there, kid. Take this, go on and get yourself a better scam.

[He approaches her to offer out what equates to around half a day's wage in coins.]

[cozen]

[ She considers him, considers the coins, and snatches them out of his hand. ]

How long did I have you going? You think five minutes?

[thereneverwas]

[He scoffs.]

If that. But.

[He leans down a little closer.]

I'll double that if you tell me who put you up to it.

[cozen]

[ She has to count the coins first, comparing what she’s being offered to what she stands to be paid if she keeps her mouth shut, but then she says, ]

Him.

[ And turns to point down the docks, a few vacant slips away, where Bastien is leaning on a wall. Looking at the sea, mostly, but his peripheral vision includes them enough for her point to make him turn and open his mouth in feigned outrage and shock. ]