faderift | [Open] [I can move mountains, move mountains.. ]

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[Open] [I can move mountains, move mountains.. ]

WHO: Bethany Hawke and You
WHAT: Exploring the Inquisition
WHEN: The next few days of Wintermarch
WHERE: The garden, the tavern, the courtyard, the library.
NOTES: Content warnings, OOC notes, links to other relevant posts, etc.

The first thing Bethany did after arriving at Skyhold?

A bath. A beautiful, long hot bath where she soaked with nice soap and some sort of fancy oil and just ... cleansed herself from about a week's worth of sand and dirt. After that though, well.

Bethany used to be the sort of person who would keep to the edges to not be noticed. Kept herself hidden, to keep herself from being taken to a Circle. Her family went through such risks to keep her free - keeping her head down seemed to be a small sacrifice to make.

Now, nine years - almost ten! - years a Warden and she still observed quietly from the background. Yet now, she would step forward. Move more boldly, with more confidence and a great deal more poise. She also, as she had been apt to do even in her days in Kirkwall, stopped to help people.

So there you will find her, all around Skyhold, quietly soaking up everything, or chatting happily with someone as she helps them carry firewood or food out to the hungry troops training in the yard. The first thing you will know is that smile - dimples and bright, and completely unfeigned. Who knows, maybe it's just pointing at you.

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It's not an unusual sight to see Ellana jogging up to someone in Skyhold who is carrying a burden and offer to help them with it. If it's something she can lift with her own two arms, she'll do it. She can also lift boulders and scaffolding with magic, but with most of the direly needed repairs to Skyhold already done, there hasn't been need of her services there.

Seeing the woman carrying firewood, Ellana comes over with a friendly smile. She's been learning from Morrigan how to deal with people who don't take kindly to elves or mages, so some of her apprehension on meeting new people has slipped away. She'll be nice and if others are mean, she'll cut them down to size, as Morrigan said to.

"Hello. Would you like some help carrying all that?"

Bethany turns with her arms filled with wood, and beams at the young elven woman who came to help her. Gracious, she thought she would drop them on her own feet here after a moment. "Yes, oh thank you! The healers said they needed more wood for the fires, and all the soldiers are busy so I said I would make a run..."

She put about three or four logs off the top into Ellana's hands, laughing a little, as she shifted a little so her staff would stop banging her between the shoulder blades. "And of course, ended up loading myself down. Come on, this way."

A pause, before she shook her head, "Maker, my manners. I'm Bethany Hawke, who am I thanking again?"

Helping the healers isn't something Ellana often does, because she feels she'll get in the way. It's better to just let them work and stay back. But wood for fires? That, she specialized in. Back in the clan, the furthest she was allowed to wander was in the nearby woods, looking for dead fall.

"Ellana Ashara," she replies, the name 'Bethany Hawke' registering to her as someone Varric's written about. "Have you just arrived? I don't recall seeing you before, but it is a big place."

Bethany's talents had spread far, and she had solid healing spells, but she was no Circle trained healer herself. Yet whatever she could do, she would do to help those suffering.

"A pleasure, Ellana. What a pretty name! Sounds like poetry." She smiled again, glancing over at her, "Oh, yes, I just arrived a day ago with my friend Nathaniel. We'd been traveling for ... quite some time to get here." By going to one end of Thedas and then all the way to the other. "I have to admit I spent my first day here bathing, and sleeping."

"Oh, thank you. I don't think I've ever heard anyone call it that before. But you make it sound like it's romantic. I like that." She can't help but have a heart designed to love romantic tales.

Ellana giggles at Bethany's confession, but nods her head in complete understanding. "I can believe that. There is nothing like those two things to soothe a person after a long journey."

"Well, probably because I am something of a romantic. Used to drive my sister crazy -- she's so pragmatic. Still, it's always nice to imagine your life a little more glamorous." Even as a Grey Warden, she had her moments of pure romantic ideas -- which were usually interrupted by darkspawn, but still.

She grinned at Ellana, tapping her nose with some effort. "Exactly so. Besides, I didn't want to make a bad first impression. Smelling of the road for about a week did not seem appealing."

"My best friend is like that," she says, voice fond. "She doesn't want anything to do with love or romance, and she wonders how I can." But that's mainly because Ellana and Atisha were led on by the same man. The two of them just had very different responses to finding out the truth. For Ellana, she guards her heart a little more closely now, but would never lock it away. Atisha locked hers away tight and has been suspicious of everyone and their intentions ever since.

"If only more new arrivals shared your concerns," she jokes. "But eventually they get to it. Perhaps they're too tired to wash."

"Well, that's because we can see ourselves with some dashing so and so sweeping us off our feet. And what's wrong with that? Honestly, I could do with some sweeping." Bethany grinned, dimples flashing, as they walked across the bridge again.

She laughed at Ellana's joke, "Maybe that should be a sign at the door 'You shall not pass, until you bathe.'"

"I wouldn't mind being swept," Ellana says, a very clear picture in her mind of a certain person doing the sweeping. It causes her pale cheeks to tinge pink, but she doesn't stay on the thought long, hoping to move on. Her face always gives her away.

"It would ensure Skyhold is a place full of sweet-smelling individuals, yes."

"See, precisely that. Getting swept up does a woman good. Cleans out the sensitive cobwebs of youth." She glanced over at Ellana, and her dimples flashed. "Now look at you - who are you thinking of?"

"Bless me, now that would make getting swept all the sweeter." She would have put a hand to her forehead dramatically but, well, carrying logs.

"No-- I'm not--" She stumbles over her words, unsure of what to say, especially to someone she's just met. Ellana hasn't been open about her feelings for Felix with anyone else yet, because she doesn't want to get her hopes up too high. The last time she had a romance, it all went horribly wrong, and she wants to be smarter this time.

"I mean, I may have been, but I can't talk about it right now. I'm sorry."

Oh, no. Bethany stopped, her expression going from smiling to worried at Ellana's voice, and her unsure expression, "Oh, no, I just meant to tease. I didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable."

She turned towards her, "You can always tell me just to take my nosey nose out. I won't be offended at all."

Ellana is quick to reassure her with a smile. "You're not being nosy. I just have a hard time hiding what I'm feeling. And I haven't told anyone else either, so it's not just you." She's hardly certain what she feels right now herself, so it's best not to try and put a name to it. She doesn't want to get ahead of herself and feel too much too soon.

"I'm really not a very secretive person," she goes on to say. "We could speak of other things."

"I see ... well that, I absolutely understand. I've had enough crushes to bury myself, and Maker knows I never hid it well but what could I say? But if it is making you uncomfortable - let's talk of something else."

She continued forward, shifting the wood in her grip again. Thank the Maker, they're almost across the bridge so they could put down this load and rest their arms. "What is your favorite field of magical study?"

Well, that sure is a thought-provoking question. Ellana hasn't really studied much magic beyond the basics.

"It's hard to say. I'm most experienced in the fire spells, but I think I like using the storm spells more. I know few cold spells, but I'm taking lessons right now in order to learn them." She pauses, and then adds, "There is talk of harnessing the power of the rifts to fuel spells. It's still being studied, of course, but it sounds interesting."

Bethany nodded her head, her lips quirking up at the edges. "I've always been rather fond of fire myself, honestly. I never could get the handle of storm spells -- but ice? Oh yes."

Now that was intriguing ... "Magic from bending the power of the Fade itself? I didn't even know that was possible. I've master the forces around us - but the Fade ... " She shook her head, "I'm sorry, just the principles behind it are fascinating. How would you control it?"

"I assume you must have a strong will to wield that source of power. You have to control it, and not let it control you. But beyond that, I'll have to wait until more works are published to see what it's all about." It's something to consider as a specialization. The spells that would come from twisting the rifts to her will would be amazing.

"You would have to. A will like iron." Her expression was wistful - Marian could have done it. But Bethany was prejudiced -- she honestly thought her sister could do anything. "Maker, I hope they come out soon -- I'll have to catch up on the principles when it does."

She sighed, with some regret, as she dropped some of the wood by the first healing fire.

"The Grey Wardens get a lot of the best volumes of magical theory -- but you have to be assigned to a regular fortress to have access to them."

"And I take it you weren't?" Ellana asks, moving on a little to put her wood down at the next fire. "I know a couple of the Wardens here. They're friends of mine."

"Not for any long stretch of time, no. I think the longest I was in a fortress before going back to the Deep Roads was, oh, six months?" She paused, then grinned. "Which ones, so I can tell you horrifying stories about them?"

Ellana ticks them off on her fingers. "Alistair, Sabriel, Scipio, Kaidan, and Felix." She says the last name easily enough, but if Bethany is observant, she may notice the way Ellana's eyes dart away at the name and her cheeks go pink again. Araceli has been giving her lessons on how to lie and tell when others are lying, but she's not doing very well yet at keeping her emotions hidden.

Bethany goes through the names - she of course knows Alistair, but Sabriel is virtually unknown to her except by family reputation, just met Kaidan, and has yet to meet Scipio ... or Felix. Her eyebrows lift at that little blush, and she wonders if this is the particular fellow her new companion might fancy.

However, she politely bites her tongue and smiles instead. "I'm afraid the only one I can really tell embarrassing stories about is Alistair. I don't know the others well enough, well, outside of reputation."

"Oh, I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate you telling me such things." Ellana only lets that sentence hang in the air for a moment before adding, "So of course, you should tell me everything." Alistair would pout and whine, and then wave it off. Maybe turn it around to make another joke about Ellana's feet. It's his way, and she wouldn't have him be otherwise.

"I think this wood will be good for a few hours." She says think, but in truth, she knows. One doesn't stare at fires all day every day without become well acquainted with how they burn based on the type of wood, weather, and other factors.

"He absolutely wouldn't, and will probably bring up some rather embarrassing stories in turn." Bethany dimpled, brown eyes glowing, before her expression became a little more serious, "But I would never say anything really horrid about him, because there isn't anything. Alistair is one of the best people I have ever had the privilege of working with."

She eyed the piles of wood, before she pursed her lips, "Are you certain?" She doesn't want to leave them without enough wood for the water they'll need for bandages, and the like.

It's not surprising that Bethany would think so, as Ellana shares her sentiment. Alistair is one of the people here that she considers a close friend. He's funny, easy to get along with, and he helped save Felix, even if he claims it was all Sabriel's doing. Obviously he was needed for whatever the ritual Kaidan spoke of entailed.

"I believe that. A funny story that's just a little embarrassing would be fine by me."

She catches that bit of doubt in Bethany's expression and nods, moving to pick up a piece of wood.

"Oh, yes. Look at this. This is hawthorn. It's one of the best woods to use because it burns a long time. And it's dry too. Green wood doesn't burn nearly as well as dried out wood. This wood in this amount will last them."

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