faderift | { OPEN } We lie beneath the stars at night

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{ OPEN } We lie beneath the stars at night

WHO: Ellana Ashara and anyone at Skyhold
WHAT: Back from the Fallow Mire, Ellana spends time researching in the library, helping in the gardens, watching weapons be made in the armory, and stargazing up on the battlements. I'm also up for any scenario you guys would like!
WHEN: End of Firstfall when more people have returned from the Fallow Mire.
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: n/a

{ in the gardens }
Ellana makes a valiant attempt to learn more about medicinal plants, but she's in a bit over her head. While she doesn't yet have the recipes memorized, she can follow instructions easily enough, and when she asks one of the healers if they need any help, she's directed to pick some leaves from the potted plants. Kneeling down before a group of pots, she does her work for only a few minutes before she starts sneezing. At first, she brushes it off, trying to carry on and raising the back of her hand to her nose to try and stifle each sneeze, but then her eyes water and she has to admit defeat, returning with what she's gathered so far.

"I think I'm allergic to this one. I'm sorry. I could gather something else?" With a second assignment, she goes to collect the leaves off a new plant, but she pauses to pick the butter yellow flowers it produces, nestling them into her side braid after stripping it of leaves. She can be found gathering a collection of leaves and flowers. Maybe Beleth can make a flower crown out of them.

{ at the armory }
The Fallow Mire wasn't the best first assignment, but Ellana is pleased to be contributing to the Inquisition however she can, and she can actually see the fruits of her labor firsthand. The summer stone and blue vitrol she helped collect is being made into swords, mauls, shields, and armor. On the upper floor of the armory, she stands with her arms crossed on the railing, looking down below as the metal is heated and hammered into shape. She's up for chatting with anyone else who may wander up there. Eventually she gathers the courage to head down and ask if she could have a staff blade added to her staff. She's told to fetch it and they'll take measurements. Therefore, she can be seen with an excited expression as she leaves the armory to retrieve her staff and bring it back.

{ in the library }
The elven runes in the Mire have Ellana curious about other elven ruins scattered throughout southern Thedas, so she goes to the library to do some independent research on the subject. The clan had few books, but what they did have, she read over and over again. As long as the book is written in the common speech of the land and the language isn't too academic, she can read it without issue. She sits alone at a table with numerous books spread out before her, because she's trying to cross reference information from different sources to see what information overlaps and what is different. At one point she stands, leaning a hand on the table so she can run her finger under a line in one book before moving to another book and doing the same. When she sees feet stop beside the table, she looks up, a bit startled and coming out of her own little world.

"Am I taking up too much room? I can move my books." She hastily draws several books closer so this person can have the other side of the table.

{ up on the battlements }
Once the sun has set, Ellana takes a blanket up with her to the battlements and lays out under the stars. Being away from the clan has been an adventure so far, but even she misses things about them. Like after supper it was always so quiet. Here the voices from the great hall or the tavern seem to reach most corners of the stronghold. It's so different, and it's taken some time to get used to. She's not far from the tavern now, and she can hear laughter from within. It makes her smile to herself, but she doesn't move to join the revelry. Instead, she picks out constellations that the elves made for their gods. She's been teaching them to Galadriel, and in return, she's been learning of the stars from Galadriel's home. If anyone passes who isn't an elf, she calls out to them before pointing up.

"Do you know the constellations well?"

If it's a fellow elf, she says, "Aneth ara. Falon'Din is bright tonight, isn't it?"

{ wildcard }
Ellana could be anywhere around Skyhold doing any number of things. Where will your character find her next?

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There aren't enough trees here, not enough space, not enough room to move around without running into at least ten new people. So, as per most times he's feeling overwhelmed, Salem heads up. The highest point he'd been able to find was up on the battlements, overlooking the valley. It's barely visible under the barely-risen moon, but the snow on the mountain peaks glittering faintly in the starlight.

Wrapped in a blanket stolen from the room that he now shares with his sister and the human that he hasn't been introduced to yet, Salem walks along the stonework, on the edge of it rather than the walkway, staying perched there until he hears the voice of another, yet another that he doesn't recognize. He might have ignored it and wandered on to find another place to stay, except for the constellation named.

Looking upward and scanning the stars, he smiles faintly. They're clearer up here where they're closer.

"Aye," he replies quietly, hopping down from his perch and approaching the blanketed figure, stocking feet silent on the stones. He crouches down beside her, keeping his blanket pulled tight around his shoulders, eyes pointed upward still.

"The mountains are a perfect place to stargaze, especially on nights like these." She rarely sees big, puffy clouds blocking the view, probably due to the winds in the mountains. "And Elgar'nan is easy to see, too." Her gaze shifts to a constellation that several cultures interpret as a sun.

Though she doesn't know this elf, it's nice to sit and gaze at the stars together. It reminds her that no matter where she goes in life, she can look up and know that other elves -- especially those in the Ashara clan -- are gazing up at the same sky.

He points off over the mountains, at a dimmer constellation. "Andruil." It was so much harder to see that one in the lowlands. Salem puts his chin down on his knees, looking upward and getting lost in the expanse of stars overhead. Being able to sit with another one of the elves here was making him a bit homesick.

"The Keeper told me a story once, about the people that came before, the ones that had named the stars. They were beautiful, immortal. They had magic at their fingertips and they all lived together. They offered their rites to the stars skyclad and walked with the evanuris."

"Our Keeper told us the same," she replies, smiling sadly at what the People used to be. It isn't a way of living that she thinks they can recapture now; not with the world as different as it is from the ancient days of Elvhenan. But back then they weren't scattered, and they had homes to live in, with walls and a roof to keep out the wind and rain. Ever since her parents and so many others died in a plague, she's believed that if they had had houses, it wouldn't have spread so far. It's what she wants the Dalish to have now. She knows it won't be easy, with humans claiming so much land, but if only there was a place they could stay permanently, then she would feel safer.

"To which clan do you belong?" she asks curiously, turning her attention to him. He carries Mythal's vallaslin too, and what's more, he chose the minimal version as she did. She loves Mythal, but she didn't want the vallaslin to be all people saw when they looked at her. She wanted Ellana to shine through.

Salem was the same, in that he wanted what the first elves had had, real homes and no separation of the clans. He smiles some knowing that the same stories were told by the other clans; they all retold them at Arlathvhen, but sometimes, with new Keepers, the tellings changed. It was always subtle, barely noticeable, but it happened.

The question draws his attention from his thoughts. "Clan Ghilan," he replied easily, sitting up with his arms crossed between his stomach and his legs. "Is everyone else here from Ashara?"

"Not all, no. I know of... four so far who aren't. But most are. I am." She moves to sit up, crossing her legs and sticking out her hand to him.

"Ellana Ashara," she says with a friendly smile.

"It's my great pleasure, Ellana. My name is Salem. You've ah...probably already heard of me through aggravated grumblings by now." He takes her hand briefly, touching the backs of her fingers to his lips then letting them go again.

So maybe he's flirting a little bit. It certainly can't hurt. Except where it can. He's surprised Merrick hasn't materialized just to berate him for even looking at another one of the Asharas.

"Oh," she says, recognition coming to her eyes. "Pel's brother, of course." And maybe there's a small bit of jealousy there, but that's no surprise. She has no siblings, no parents, but here in the middle of all this chaos, Pel gets to have her brother.

"You haven't been an easy patient," she adds quietly.

The way she says that, that little oh, is a bit disheartening. He folds his hands together in his lap and looks back out over the mountains instead.

"I s'pose not. I'm not exactly accustomed to so many people around me at once, and waking up surrounded by shemlen was...well. Shocking, to say the least."

He shouldn't feel disheartened. It's the way Ellana always is when it comes to Pel; she just doesn't measure up. Ellana is the extra mage who will never be a Keeper and therefore is drifting trying to find her place. Pel has a clear path set before her. Everything falls into place for her. She's the perfect mage while Ellana never feels mage-y enough.

"But surely you realized that there would be plenty of them when you came out here?"

"I know. I know this is human territory. I just didn't expect to be squinted at the instant I arrived by a pair of them that didn't even have the common decency to give me something to change into after they'd stripped me down, or leave me my knife, or let me take care of myself when I was ready to do so again. I had to run before they'd leave me alone."

He pauses in his ranting and looks back at Ellana, huffing quietly and rubbing his hand over his face. She doesn't look happy. And not just with what he said.

"How well d'you know Pel then?" he asks tentatively. He knows they're clanmates, but that never can really account for how close two people are.

It honestly doesn't surprise her that humans would treat him that way, but on the other hand, it sounds like they were trying to help.

"I think if they hated elves, they would have left you to fend for yourself, not try and care for you even when you felt it wasn't necessary."

His ranting is... well, not unusual for one of her people once they encounter shems. She hopes she's at least sounding neutral on the subject, and not like she's rushing to defend the humans; just presenting their side. Questioning her about Pel has her looking away briefly, because they probably should know one another better than they do. But Ellana doesn't think that's likely to ever happen.

"Pel's First. She's going to make a wonderful Keeper someday. She already cares for us and knows how to lead." There's a pause, before she brings her eyes back to Salem again. "We don't talk much."

He hadn't been under the impression that they'd hated him, not by any means. Just that they were being overly cautious and he was fine. Dumb humans.

The reaction to his asking about Pel makes him fairly certain that once again, he's said the wrong thing, so he just nods some. "Not surprised she's taken to leading you all. Definitely where she's meant to be."

It's not really a subject she wants to pursue, but it's not like Salem would know that, so she changes it.

"What about you?" she asks, eager to learn about this elf from another clan. "Where is your clan now? Tell me all about yourself."

The question makes him blink some, but he smiles once more, straightening up and letting his legs fall open to cross comfortably. Where to start...

"Well. You already know my name's Salem. I was born...some time in the middle of Cloudreach, can't recall the date. It was actually a little while after Pel left for clan Ashara. Um. I'm a hunter for Ghilan, don't know a damn thing about magic except it's interesting, it's important, and it's rather dangerous if you're not quite prepared for what it involves. Far as the clan's concerned, we don't really go out of our way to involve ourselves in things like politics or wars. I think the word that fits best is 'isolationist'. We keep to ourselves and we're happiest that way. Arlathvhen's the exception though.

"When I left, we had been staying at the Eastern end of the marches, pulled back from the coast. Lots of open land out there."

"You like being isolationist?" Ellana asks, head tilted in thought. "But... then why are you here?" It doesn't make sense for him to come so far to be a part of all of this. For her, it was an escape from the mediocrities of the only life she'd ever known, but the rest of her clan that were here seemed to have done it because they didn't trust the shems not to screw it up or didn't trust the others without a watchful eye.

Salem's brow furrows at that. He's not surprised at the comment, but he hasn't been asked whether he likes it.

"It's...kind of all I've ever known," he replies, his tone faltering. Not quite as confident as it was anymore. "I came because a lot of ours have gone missing. We'd thought maybe they'd sought you all or been taken after one of these damned rifts opened up near where we were. We wanted to know what was happening, and I was..." he grimaces. Why was he given leave to come? It dawns on him, somewhat painfully. "I was all they had left to give."

Ellana's lips purse before she gives him a nod of understanding. "Being separated as the clans are, it's difficult to learn such things. I had no idea that was happening to yours. I suppose you've found no answers as to their whereabouts since arriving here? Of course, you've been recovering, yes? It may take time."

"We hadn't received any word from yours either, which was why we thought maybe our men had gone to find you, maybe try and establish contact before we were all destroyed with the opening of the Breach." He looks down at the stonework between his feet, fingernail picking halfheartedly at the mortar. "I'll be fine, I keep telling people..."

"Is it so bad a thing, to have people looking out for you?" she asks, watching his movements. But without much room for a pause, she adds, "You look fine to me. I'm sure everyone will stop fussing soon and you can go back to looking."

"I'd just as soon rather be left alone," he sighs, rubbing his hand across his eyes then pinching the bridge of his nose between thumb and knuckle. "I don't know what I'll tell Keeper Asaya. I've found half of clan Ashara but none of our own men. I'll hang before I return empty-handed."

"Tell her that you'll keep looking. That's all you can do. And maybe you can ask the Inquisition advisers if their scouts could keep an ear out for any information about your clan." It wouldn't hurt to at least try.

"No, this isn't their duty. They have other things to focus on. This is my job and I'll see it through. I can write to the other clans, ask whether they've seen us, but the Inquisition, its shems, they can do what they will with their own." Somewhat unnecessarily bitter, but he honestly believed that he could do this himself.

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{ OPEN } We lie beneath the stars at night

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