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It's truly sad what happened to the Amells, isn't it? I still remember Grandmother talking about the balls that Lord Aristide used to hold at their estate and the Antivan violin players and dancers from Afsaana. No expense was spared and no one would dare miss it, lest someone think they weren't worthy of an invitation.
And then poor Revka had the child. Magical talent, running in one of Kirkwall's most prominent families? The templars had considered Lord Aristide to be viscount after Threnhold's arrest. Can you imagine the scandal had he been chosen? They whisked the child away to the Circle, and the Amells simply had no luck after that. Leandra ran off with a Fereldan mage and then Damion was accused of smuggling. Poor Lord Fausten almost bankrupted his family trying to get the charges dropped, but I hear Viscount Marlowe simply wanted the Amells out of the picture. And it worked, too, didn't it? By the time Lord Fausten got sick, there was only young Gamlen left and a mountain of debt.
I spoke to Dulci just the other day, and apparently Gamlen is now living in some Lowtown shack—sounds like the sort of character you'd cross a street to avoid! And let's not even talk about the estate.
Mother says we should remember the Amells because that sort of thing could happen to any of us. You know the old saying: "A Marcher's fortune rises and falls with the tide." If you ask me, this is just another misfortune that magic brings to honest folk. Andraste help that poor family, whatever lies in store for them.
—Excerpt from a letter written by Lady Amelie de Montfort