Chapter Text
It was always a wonder how, no matter where they went, Elia could stir up trouble. She even managed to do so in Redcliff, surprisingly enough. Naturally, Eve was having none of it and was going on with her usual "stop being so reckless" lecture when Elia sighs and smirks.
"Hang on, Eve, just let me roll over to my other side so I can't hear you, then you can lecture to your hearts content." She joked and actually did roll over.
Of course things became quiet but they were a little too quiet, normally she could still hear Evangeline yelling at her to pay attention but this time all was silent. Curiously, Elia shuffled around again and was instantly on her feet at the sight of her sister wiping away her tears.
"Hey, please don't cry. I was just kidding. Ah shit!" Elia cursed but only received a smile from her twin.
"What are you going on about, Elia?" Eve asked, any trace of sadness or tears gone from her voice.
Elia frowned "Come on, let's go have a drink. You need it."
"Elia, no. We're meant to be lying low." Eve frowned when Elia grinned. Never a good sign.
"Exactly! Drinking will help us fit in!" Elia cheered, grabbing her sisters hand and running from their room in the direction of the tavern.
Not much was said between the twins as they sipped their drinks but the air became just a little lighter. It wasn’t long before Elia was telling a story about Bela, shockingly, getting into trouble. Naturally the story was exaggerated but just seeing Elia back on her feet and happy was enough for Evangeline to start smiling again. As the red-heads story dragged on, Eve began drifting, listening to the background noise of the tavern was calming. Until she heard something that destroyed all of Elia’s hard work.
“The circle was doomed anyway.” An off-duty Templar shrugged, “They were just waiting for the right of annulment as it was. Now all the mages will just be hunted down as apostates.” Well that information was new and Eve certainly didn’t need that today.
She couldn’t believe it. The right of annulment had been called. Which means Bethany would have been killed if-
“I’m going back to the room.” Eve muttered, quickly removing herself from the table and leaving a few coins for her drink.
“Hey what’s wrong?” Elia asked, quickly following after her sister at the sudden change in mood.
“I’m just tired, don’t worry.” Eve put her mask on again, “I’m fi-”
“You are not fucking fine and we’re talking about this.” Elia frowned, taking Eve’s hand and the lead as she dragged them back to their room, knowing full well their companions would be listening in through the walls.
Again silence fell between the women as Elia sat on one of the beds and Eve paced the room.
“Okay, what’s with the sudden change? You were fine a minute ago.” Elia sighed, not sure how else to say it.
“What are you talking about? I’m still fine.” Eve grinned but, of course, Elia didn’t buy it for a second and set her sister with a stern stare.
“You know you don’t have to deal with this on your own right? I can help you.” Elia offered. That was the last straw for Eve, tears started to run down her face like a waterfall as she turned to face the corner in a failed attempt to hide her emotions.
“No you can’t.” Evangeline sobbed, “This burden is on my shoulders and mine alone. It has nothing to do with you so I’m not going to let you be weighed down by my burden.”
“How stupid are you?” Elia sighed, “I just said it, you don’t have to do these things on your. We always do things together remember? That means sharing the burdens as well.” Her statement was met with a shake of the head from her sister as she turned around, finally showing her tear streaked face.
“But we haven’t! Haven’t you ever noticed how a lot of problems haven’t come back to bite us?” Eve questioned.
“Now that you mention it.”
“You always say I work too hard, well it’s because I work to make sure you and Bethany and Carver don’t have to worry. I work hard and shoulder all the burdens so you can be happy and have the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them.” Evangeline admitted, a small smile coming to her face, only this time it wasn’t a mask. “And nothing makes me happier than protecting you three.”
Silence fell again as Elia absorbed this information, it made perfect sense actually. Eve was always running around after her siblings fixing their mistakes and being a voice a reason.
“You’ve spent all this time protecting us, let me protect you now. You did the right thing, we all know that. So please, for your sake let me help you shoulder this burden.” Elia was once again met with more tears and another sob.
“But I didn’t do the right thing, Elia! I thought that Anders nearly killed Bethany, but you know what? Anders actually saved Bethany’s life! The right of annulment had been called, Elia, Bethany would have been killed if Ander’s didn’t do what he did!” Evangeline sobbed, wiping away her tears only for them to be replaced by fresh ones, “I thought he’d killed you and was going to be responsible for Bethany’s death as well, that’s why I killed him. Not because it was justice not because he was going to be executed anyway, I killed him because I was angry, I killed him for revenge. How does that make me any better than him?!” She cried, hiding her face in her hands as Elia came over and pulled her into a comforting hug.
“He killed thousands of people, Eve, what you did was justified even if your reasons were your own.” Elia whispered, not releasing her sister.
“So have I!” Eve sobbed, “All the years we’ve been in Kirkwall, how many people did we kill? How many of them had families? How many kids did we leave orphans? And yet we were hailed as champions for it.” Elia sighed and pulled her sister to arms length.
“Look at me.” She ordered and Eve complied, “What you did was not wrong. Anders was corrupted by a spirit of vengeance even if you killed him for revenge you freed him from that. You have nothing to be guilty about.”
“Everyone has a story they tell themselves to justify the horrible things they’ve done.” Eve muttered before placing a smile on her face once again, “And I’m no different. I’m just going to have to swallow every horrible thing I’ve done and smile through it.”
“Eve that’s not-”
“Shut up and listen. Seeing you and Bethany, Fenris, Aveline, Merrill, Varric, Bela and Sebastian happy, that makes me happy and that’s all I need. I won’t ever forget what I did but when I’m with all of you and you’re all smiling it doesn’t weigh as much.” Evangeline smiled again, a real smile and in turn Elia smiled back at her and hugged her all the tighter.
“Anything I can do to help, you know I will.” Elia grinned but frowned a moment later when Eve freed herself of her grasp and began walking to the door, “Wait, where are you going?”
“I just-” Even sighed but she was still smiling, “Need to be alone for a bit. I’ll be back soon.”