[Past] Sins of the Father

Nathaniel breathed a little easier, relaxed a bit more when Elanna responded to his explanation. There were some that didn't care he was out of the country. All that mattered to them was that he was the son of the man that betrayed the Couslands. She even seemed a bit sympathetic, which was far more than he was expecting. He'd been carrying around a heavy weight on his shoulders ever since he came back, not to mention of the fiance he left behind him in the Free Marches. How the fuck was he supposed to explain to her that he left to collect his family's things and was now stuck being a Grey Warden? So sorry her life would not turn out like she'd expected? He wasn't really what to say now that the hard part was over, but he had to say something.

I wish everyone was as easy to convince, especially for my mother. She doesn't really have any friends left outside of me and my sister. They're still in Amaranthine. They didn't get run out of the city, but had to beg and scrape to find a roof over their heads. He paused. None of this was Elanna's problem. She had enough of her own. He listened as she explained why his father did what he did, and that only made him hate his father even worse. So many deaths over something so petty. It wasn't as if the Couslands had more than the Howes, or were more important than them. He just couldn't believe his father threw all their reputations away for jealousy. It was absurd. 

I'm glad you were the one to do it. You earned the right when he tried to murder your entire family. I'd expect nothing less. I wish I could say that being here, I could have talked some sense into him, but I fear he cared little about what I've ever thought. Sometimes I think I'd have been better off if I'd just kept my temper and stayed in the Free Marches, but here we are, no turning back now.