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( another pause as Zevran debates the merits of just hanging up and not answering that question. Really, he shouldn't have drawn attention to it at all, but it had been bothering him since he found the item on his nightstand. )

An earring. It is a memento from my very first job with the Crows. It is not - the gift itself is not the issue, but the timing of its arrival, as if the Fae are mocking me.

( Sorry for the vagueness, Max. He's feeling a feeling and he's not sure how to say it. )

I'm guessing the memories it's bringing back are painful ones? Is this an anniversary of some kind?

I have a theory about the fae, that it's not really the sex they want so much as the emotions it stirs up. I think they sometimes do things like this to get us stirred up in different ways, too.

( zevran laughs at that. ) No, no. I have rather fond memories of that night and the man whom the earring belonged to. A beautiful merchant prince - I would say it was a shame he had to part with it. But. Well. ( assassin business and all that.

He sighed after, frustration evident in his tone. ) Mm. I suppose that makes sense. There is certainly something unpleasant stirring in me currently. I just - I cannot quite explain it. A friend of mine from home arrived recently, and I had - no. Nevermind. I am babbling.

I should go.

( it probably made no sense to Max, the correlation between whatever emotion the earring had triggered and the Wardens arrival. But, honestly, it barely made sense to Zevran. And saying it out loud hadn't helped as much as he had hoped. )

[Max, maybe naively, is not going to infer that the owner of the earring was a target for assassination. He could just be a lover. Right? Right?

Besides, Max is far more distracted trying to parse the rest of what Zevran has said.]

Wait. No! You don't have to go. Who was it that just showed up?

[A friend of Zevran's is here? Max would like to know more.]

( Why not both?

There's a soft clinking sound as Zevran sets the earring down, followed by the creak of what one could easily assume is his bed as he settles onto it. )

I spoke of the Grey Wardens, yes? ( He knew he did to a few people, but he couldn't recall, given how most comments were said in passing anyway. ) Solona, the one that I and a few others were traveling with...she is here. ( There's a fondness in his tone, and if Max is perceptive enough, just a touch of sadness. )

Yeah, a little.

[Max does pick up on that tone of sadness. His curiosity grows.]

Solona, huh. Are the two of you close?

I was hired to kill her, I failed, she spared my life and allowed me join her and her other companions on their quest to rid the world of the Blight.

Yes, you could say we are close, I suppose.

( A beat. ) The thing is - and I am uncertain if I should speak on her behalf - she is dead. I had not expected to see her again.

Oh. Uh... Wow. That's one hell of a first meeting story.

[Max would ask more, but the other half of this cautions him to tread more carefully. Meeting someone here who you know to be dead must be a shock even for an assassin. Maybe especially.]

I can see why you're troubled. Does she know?

She does. ( He'll just skip over the part where she had a breakdown over it in the hallway when she arrived. ) I am well acquainted with death, and though I was sad to see her go, we all knew what would happen when she struck the final blow. But I - I am not used to the dead returning, and while I am happy to see her I am...uncertain about a few things.

[She does. Well, that cuts down on some of the awkwardness, thinks Max, though probably not the pain.]

I'd think it's pretty natural for you to be uncertain. I mean, you had to mourn her and accept her death and now here she is again.

Can you be a little more specific? Did the two of you have some things that were unresolved still?

A fair enough point.

( Zevran is silent again, and when he speaks its with a faint hint of annoyance. )

No. ( no. he couldn't be more specific and no they don't have anything that needs to be resolved. definitely not. ) We were traveling companions, good friends - if I were to be so bold to call anyone such. Nothing more than that. ( The exhaled breath at the end of that thought sounds like he was about to say something else. but he doesn't. ) That is why I do not understand why the bloody fae would give me this.

[Nothing more than that? Then, why the annoyance in Zevran's tone? Unless... perhaps the assassin doth protest too much.]

Did you want to be more?

( Unfortunately, his displeased tone lingered, and grew just a little more aggressive when he spat out his reply. )

There was nothing more to be.

[That sounds like a touched nerve.]

I'm sorry...

[Max's tone is careful and soft as he adds.]

What did you intend to do with that earring?

Nothing. ( a lie. ) Really, I should have pawned it ages ago in Denerim. An item as beautiful as this could have earned me plenty of coin. But it is...sentimental, I suppose, for whatever that may mean to an assassin such as myself, with little room or need for such things.

I don't see a problem with being a little sentimental. But I'm not sure I understand the connection between this and Solona.

[Is it just that two things from his past showed up at once or... is there more to it?]

( there's more to it than that, but Zevran can barely comprehend the connection himself, let alone admit it out loud. )

Nothing, I suppose. I must have simply linked them together with how quickly one arrived after the other.

Now that I have spoken of it aloud, I see I am being a bit ridiculous. Ah, but even I have my off days.

If you say so.

[Max doesn't sound like he's buying it.]

I'm happy to act as a sounding board any time.

And, Zevran, you obviously care about her a lot. I don't see any reason to hold back now. this could be a second chance for both of you.

[Hint, hint.]

( Zevran hummed, his tone still leaning on the side of irritation. He opted to not give a serious response though, and offered instead, a joke: )

You are right, Max. I should take this chance to finally woo her into my bed.

[There's a huff from Max, almost assuredly accompanied by an eye roll.]

Well, sure. That's the name of the game here, isn't it?

But, here's a crazy thought: you could take her on a date.

Would you like to know what happened to the last person I took on a date, Max?

When you say it like that, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to like the answer.

What do you mean, Max? I was just going to tell you that I took her dancing, swept her off her feet, shared a bottle of the finest Antivan wine and then made sweet, sweet love to her until the sun rose.

Oh, and then I plunged a dagger into her heart. Romantic, no?

[Well, that's something he would have been happier never explicitly knowing.]

Zevran...

[Heavy sigh.]

I'm sure that kind of... lifestyle didn't make forming attachments easy for you. But, is the idea of waking up next to her the next morning, you know, without putting a knife through her heart really that scary for you?

( wow max he thought you were his friend??? friends don't call friends out like that on their emotional vulnerability. )

I cannot imagine how waking up beside a beautiful woman could ever be scary. ( just going to dodge, duck, dip, dive, dodge over the implication that that has anything to do with love or whatever horrendous emotion he is currently feeling. ) Well, unless she is the one intending to do the stabbing.

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