CLOSED: a prayer that will be answered

[byblow]

WHO: Adelaide, Alistair, Anders, Hercules, Kaisa, Lena, Sabine, Teren, Velanna
WHAT: Some safety precautions
WHEN: Solace 1-7
WHERE: The Deep Roads beneath the Western Approach
NOTES: OOC post.

Comments

ota

[doneisdone]

(travelin')

Despite her years, Teren is often one of the first to volunteer when a task requires someone lightfooted. It's at one blockage that she spots an alternate way out of the corner of her eye, mentions it idly, and then absconds to investigate, making her way up and down the deadly, crumbling rocks as nimbly as a mountain goat. In this way, she makes for an excellent scout, identifying weak patches and barking admonishments at anyone who ventures too close to them. Or falls into them.

(campin')

Maintaining her temporary-turned-apparently-permanent duties as Warden quartermaster, Teren ensures that everyone is fed and sufficiently watered when they stop for the night. She also, as with Skyhold, has a tendency to keep the ... well, "night" watch, not that anyone can really keep track.
Anyone who drinks too much or seems about to is offered her blunt assurance that if they stumble off a cliff, nobody's going after them.

(fightin')

Teren always seems to disappear during fights. This isn't because she isn't present, but because she invariably gets herself quickly out of the way so she can commit all her murders from behind and in secret. Usually she reappears a while later with a sack or two of scavenged supplies.
Honor is for Templars.

campin'

[justice_is_blond]

He joins her on the second 'night' watch, slipping out of his bedroll to sit next to her and peer out into the darkness. His dreams are dangerous again. It's taking a lot of work to adjust.

"Anything exciting going on? Or is this where you're indulging in the best snacks?"

[doneisdone]

Teren turns to look Anders in the eye, expressionless save for a small rise of her eyebrows.
"You've caught me," she says flatly, and digs into her pouch to brandish a thin wrapped bundle of dried meat, the fare they all brought along just in case there wasn't fresh food to be found, or fires weren't safe to build.
It is tough and unpleasant, just like her.

[justice_is_blond]

"It was an attempt at a joke," he says lightly, settling in. "I didn't know what else to say and I can't sleep."

Warden dreams and demons both are a bad combination. "If you don't want company, I could go... two rocks over and stop talking with you. The problem is I'll be humming."

[doneisdone]

"I know," Teren sighs, giving him a break for once. The not-being-able-to-sleep seems like a trend, and especially annoying now that they're all in one place together. "Spare me the music," she says wryly, her gaze drifting until she's looking down into the chasm below them.
"You know, if I'd thought I'd be spending my final days in a vast black pit with a song stuck in my head, I'd never have left my village."

[justice_is_blond]

Anders exhales and looks down as well.

"I'd still have run. Even knowing I'd wind up underground often. We have orders to follow, but we're people. I don't have to worry about my friends vanishing in the middle of the night to never be heard from again, I can kiss who I like without a beating, I have a cat." He says it like it's the greatest joy in the world, as for him it's pretty high up there. "And when we're not assigned to the depths, I can see the sky any time I want. It's not everything I wanted in life, but it's more than I was getting if the Chantry had its way."

[doneisdone]

Teren is about to make a blunt response, but is stopped when she realizes he's not just talking about being a Warden, or a rebel-- he's talking about being a mage, something she will never experience or understand. She watches him as he rants, her brow slightly knit. Despite her have-nots, she has always had access to the sky.
"Fair," she says plainly, looking from him back out at the caverns. "...there are times I forget some of us wanted to join."

[justice_is_blond]

"I didn't... want to join, actually. My choice was be executed for apostasy, or be conscripted. I figured better a life as a Warden than no life." He exhales. "It was. ...I take it you feel Warden life wasn't better than village life, though? What did you... What were your prospects? Before leaving?"

[doneisdone]

Teren gives a humorless chuckle. "We have more in common than I thought." And then his question.
"Prospects? Being a seamstress, like my mother," she says quietly, "...growing into an old maid, unlike her. Though I suppose I've done that anyway." The corners of her mouth are pinched, her expression hard.

[justice_is_blond]

"Apparently so," he says before listening to the rest. Anders looks down again as she continues.

"Would you have enjoyed being a seamstress in a village more than being one for a lady? I suppose if you're sewing in an estate you don't see a lot of the world, so travel isn't one of the things you get to experience. I can't... I don't know if you want to talk about being single or not."

[doneisdone]

"Not really," Teren says, the answer coming easy if perhaps a bit too hastily. "It would have been different. Not in the best ways. Sewing won't always pay for food and lodging, but there are ways a seamstress can keep her head above water." She continues to stare fixedly out. "At least in a lady's home, one is provided for. ...as long as she wills it, anyway." Until murders happen in her quarters.

[justice_is_blond]

He's quiet for several moments, staring out into the dark.

"I'm sorry," is his eventual response. "For what it's worth, I'm glad to have the chance to get to know you. Even if I think sometimes you're one loud noise away from stabbing me." The smile he gives her is small, just enough to show that he's teasing with the last.

[doneisdone]

Teren looks at him when he apologizes, her brow furrowing in either confusion or irritation. "For what?" she asks, then promptly looks uncomfortable when he starts getting mushy. Oh no. Must deflect.
...but he's not such a bad kid.
"Nonsense," she says gruffly, "the knives are for darkspawn. I'd smother you with your pillow."

[justice_is_blond]

The exhale from him is nearly a snort, nearly a laugh.

"That would hurt less, but I think I'd still prefer the knife." He's spent enough time trapped in the dark, struggling to breathe. Sure, it had been panic that choked him, but the main point is the same. "Perhaps just a quick thrust. That would be the best option."

[doneisdone]

At his laughter, Teren can't help but break her stern tableau, the corner of her mouth twitching up in a smile. "I'll keep that in mind," she decides, and casts him an odd look. "You think often, about ways you'd like to be killed?"

[justice_is_blond]

He shrugs, not quite looking back at her. "It's something I've had opportunity to think about for a very long time."

Another shrug. "I was an apostate, ran an underground healing clinic, smuggled mages to safety, and then destroyed the Chantry. I've had a death sentence looming over my head for... something like thirteen years." Joining the Wardenshad given him a break, oddly enough.

[doneisdone]

Seems legit.
"No harm in being realistic," she concedes. It may be a morbid way to live, but she can hardly fault anyone for embracing the facts of their existence. "Lucky you've managed to keep your sunny disposition throughout." The words are delivered with sarcasm, but may, perhaps, contain a tiny bit of sincerity.

[justice_is_blond]

His expression becomes wry.

"Would you believe I was an optimist once? I believed I could be free for a time, I believed I could find happiness in the Circle for a short time after that, I believed I could regain my happiness and gain freedom after that..." He'd been broken of those notions, of those habits of hoping. Eventually it had become desperation and defiance driving him, until defiance failed and it was only despair and fear and grief and anger.

"It's better in our little camp of tents. Sky, cat, and Nate. And people who don't entirely mind me. Or they like me better than they like my humming, at least." He gives her another small smile.

[doneisdone]

Teren's smirk mirrors Anders'. "Do you not consider yourself free, as you are now?" she asks, with some genuine curiosity. "Being a Warden is a choice, after all. Choosing to live, even in unfavorable circumstances, is a sort of freedom."

[justice_is_blond]

"I'm free in that," he assures her. "The Wardens aren't jailers, and while I'm not fond of the Deep Roads, I don't resent being a part of the Grey Wardens. I mean that I've a dozen pairs of eyes at any given time watching me, waiting for me to make any mistake with which they can hang me."

And hanging is high on the list of ways he doesn't want to go. "My actions mean I'm not free, and I won't be free. Not that I'm saying I should be. It's simply that... I won't be."

[doneisdone]

"Ah, well." Teren gives a small shrug, and pats him on the shoulder. "Perhaps it'll die down in time. It's amazing what people can manage to forget, given enough distraction."

[justice_is_blond]

He half-chuckles. "Perhaps it will, though if Corypheus, an ancient Tevinter magister, running around riding a dragon isn't making people forget... Well. We'll see."

A beat. "So I take it you've not thought on how you'd prefer to go out, if you had a choice?"

[doneisdone]

The reminder causes a sudden shudder. Corypheus, the dragon... She'd never seen an archdemon before, and it was enough to shake even Teren to her core.
She's silent for several moments, either mulling that over or considering Anders' question. Then, "my only choice is that it be my choice." Her eyes harden. "I die in my bed an old woman, I heed the Calling and descend to the Deep Roads of my own volition. It would be the direct result of my own decisions, the path I've willfully taken, not becoming the hapless casualty of another's cruelty or carelessness."

[justice_is_blond]

He nods as she answers, taking it even more seriously than he did.

"I respect that." He doesn't know how likely it is that she'll get to die at a time of her choosing, but the Calling is a definite possibility. Anders studies her for a moment, truly looking at her and searching for signs of the Blight. He can't see any. That doesn't mean anything. "Let's hope the latter doesn't come for some time yet, though."

In the dark, alone except for Darkspawn... he doesn't want to go like that. And while he at least knows he won't go alone now, that's not much of a comfort. He doesn't want to think about Nate dying.

[doneisdone]

Teren catches his last remark, and glances at him with a small smile, fonder than it is wry. "Let's hope," she agrees, "I have much to do in the meantime."