[open]

[eolasemah]

WHO: Sina Dahlasanor and you!
WHAT: Sina has a shard in her chest and has been told the rifters have similar ones in their hands. She wants to seek out rifters and investigate this further/compare marks/find out if they're demons or not.
WHEN: Frostfall
WHERE: Around and about Skyhold
NOTES: Please feel free to join if not a rifter! People on surveillance duty are also encouraged.



The diminutive elf resembled a deer as she made her way through the scattered crowds of Skyhold: dignified and alert, but ready to bolt at any sign of danger. The shard in her chest glinted conspicuously beneath the light shawl she wore, and her careful grey eyes scanned the area for any glowing that matched it. It was like a homing beacon, and for the first time since she'd acquired it, Sina wasn't trying to hide it.

[The Herald's Rest]

She'd never been in here before, having been warned off over raucous drunken humans and sword-happy Templars. She had a mission, however, and hoped she was right to assume the tavern would be less frightening in the daytime.


[The Healing Tents]

It was a wild guess, but surely some of the newcomers would need healing? She wandered along the rows of tents, seeking out the telltale green glow.


[The Dungeon]

The very act of going into this dismal place of stone walls made her feel ill, but perhaps there were still prisoners here, those accused of being demons. She steeled herself and made her way down.


[Wherever!]

Anyone who wants to be found somewhere else is welcome to post in! She's being very thorough.

Comments

[foxsays]

If there's a universal truth, it's that taverns are the place to go when you want to get the gossip and so that's where Araceli is, settled in a corner where she can see the door and the stairs. There's rum in her cup, watered down because it's early yet, and she's almost as content as any otherworlder as a right to be she supposes.

Her eyes have always been drawn to shining things and well, the glow is one that's close to familiar now and she waves the hand carefully, whistling through her teeth.

"Madam! A moment if you will!"

[eolasemah]

Sina heard a voice and turned her head to it, the glow from the woman's hand catching her eye first thing. Though she hesitated to look from Araceli's shard to her face, she then found herself trailing over to approach the human. She smiled uncertainly.

[foxsays]

“Sorry, I would have come over but this is a good table and I didn’t want to lose it.” The apology came easily enough with a smile, the fox beneath the table peering out at the newcomer before returning to whatever kitchen scraps she scrounged up for him earlier. “I couldn’t help but notice that we match only you have the same-” a hand extended to indicate the face markings she’d spied on many of the elves about Skyhold, “as the others when most of us marked folk seem to be not of this world. “Araceli Bonaventura, at your service, can I get you a drink?”

[eolasemah]

Sina was predictably distracted by the small face peeking from under the table, and while Araceli was midsentence, she gave a small gasp and stooped to offer the fox her hand to sniff. "Aneth ara, da'halaan!" she whispered, only to realize she was being rude and look back up at the human. Her head and neck were visible over the side of the table, but she showed no intention of not communing with the fox.

Her hand followed Araceli's gesture to touch her face, and her lips formed a small 'oh' in understanding. "Vallaslin," she supplied, and looked down slightly as Araceli continued.

"I... I'm not sure I should," she fretted, "..but I'm Siuona, of Clan Dahlasanor. As far as I've seen, there aren't any others from this world who have what I have."

[foxsays]

Upon realising that yes, that's a young lady giving you attention, the fox sniffed for half a second before butting his head up into her hand, eyes wide and pleading, as if he’d never been shown even a scrap of kindness. Araceli rolled her eyes, poking him with the toe of her boot.

“He’s a pest, sees anyone but especially ladies and acts the poor orphan as if I haven’t let him sleep in my bed all my life. Shameless.” All of it fondly said though and honestly, he’s been very good all things considered. “I don’t think either of us understood those words though, I mean I’m one to talk, I think only the Antivans around know what I’m saying when I speak my own language but I should make the effort when there are so many of you about.”

Especially when she’s had a few elves at her climbing lessons thus far.

“I can get water too, dilute it a bit, I like my drink strong.” Catching the eye of a passing serving girl, she smiled, leaning up to make the request before settling comfortably again. “That’s what caught my eye, I confess. I think for most of us it was the same story because it was the same place: we were taken from wherever we were, spat out from a rift in Haven and we had a glowing mark and I think most of us have marked hands. I wondered how it came to pass with you.”

[eolasemah]

Sina unabashedly scratched the fox behind his ears and cheeks, smiling fondly down at him. "That's all right," she said, "he's lucky to be so pampered." She glanced up again, blushing and concerned she'd made a fool of herself. "Halaan is what he is," she timidly explained, "da, because he's small." She ran her hand over the top of his head, then straightened up to seat herself, still smiling down at him. "Aneth ara, that's... it's like hello. I think." Although she was fluent in common for the most part, there were certain colloquialisms that were unfamiliar to her, including those that might seem obvious to others.

"Water is fine," she said, hunching her shoulders, "I've never had anything... more." A mind-altering substance seemed like it would be a mistake, especially when one was trying to glean information.
Having now grown used to telling the story of her own shard, she nodded at Araceli's portion of it. "I received it from a rift as well, though I didn't... enter it," she explained, "...or exit it, as you did. The sky opened, and this flew out and pierced me." She touched it lightly. "I have wondered how any of this came to pass, how... so many of you have appeared from nowhere." She smiled self-consciously, and added, "it's rumored you're demons, but I feel this isn't so."

[foxsays]

"Wait a while for when the red starts to show through the black again, when he’s brushed until he gleams." Her pride and joy as much as he’s anything else, that constant companion who has to look just as presentable. "I’m honestly counting myself lucky I understand as much as I do, I might lapse into my own tongue sometimes without even thinking," she explained, waving a hand and offering a sheepish smile because thus far she only knew for certain that Zevran understood it. "It's strange to be in a place where the most common tongue isn't yours, isn't it?"

You hear every tongue at the docks but behind any closed doors it was always her own, always the same rolling accents and it's odd to be the stranger for once.

"Never? Truly?" Any possible melancholy disappeared, eyebrows rising as she tried and failed not to stare in shock. There was always wine with dinner, watered down when she was little and then not, brandy and rum and everything else before she was even twelve. To have never had alcohol... "Then brandy is absolutely not the place to start, you'll have a terrible head and sore stomach before you know it and I would be ashamed of reducing you to such a state."

Touching her own hand, she felt glad she hadn't experienced receiving her mark in such a manner, still tingling if she thought about it for too long but a sensation she was becoming accustomed to already. "Did it hit you like a knife or an arrow would? I imagine that must have been painful." At least she'd had her shock to help her ignore it in those first moments. "I've seen demons, one terror, one despair and the green floating things, we don't have any where I'm from and I'm very certain I can't be one if they never even existed until I landed in Haven."

[eolasemah]

"That it is," Sina agreed, a twinge of relief in her voice-- it was nice to have her thoughts spoken aloud. Then, when the topic turned to drink, her large doe-like eyes flitted up to meet Araceli's when the woman expressed such surprise. "My clan partakes in certain things, but Keeper Thalia warned me off it. It clouds the mind, she said. She didn't approve of anyone doing it, least of all me." She smirked oddly, idly running her hand down the back of her neck as she once again looked down at the fox.

At the woman's question, Sina's attention was once more drawn upward. "I... suppose it was like that," she reasoned, "though I've never been hit by a knife or an arrow." She smirked helplessly. "It was painful. It... is." Her smile dwindled, though whether it was because of that or because of the things the human claimed to have seen, it wasn't clear. "They're awful," she breathed, "I've only seen... I don't remember what kind it was. Or they. I could only see them through the trees, surrounding the same rift that gave me this."

[foxsays]

When water tends to turn to stagnant slime on a ship, you turn to the rum and it had always been a part of their culture. "Ah, my parents introduced it to me as their parents did, just to make sure I knew what I was drinking, what it did and if I got sick then I had to work anyway and got no sympathy whatsoever. I don't think I've heard the term Keeper before though." Guardian, she guessed, or some sort of rank but if she could tenuously keep the Qunari-Vashoth-Tal-Vashoth thing mostly straight in her head she could add one more thing.

"Word of advice: don't get hit by anything like that if you can help it, it hurts and when it heals it itches and the healer always smacks your hands if they catch you scratching." She traced the borders of her own mark as she spoke, enough to feel something that was and yet wasn't like tiny little fish nibbling very delicately at the tips of her fingers or the brush of the floating anemone tentacles warning away intruders. "I hope for both our sakes then the mages who seem to have the best shot of understanding it can come up with something."

It felt less selfish to hope such a thing when she was hoping for another instead of just herself, almost enough to ward off the shudder at remembering the demons so close to her.

"None of them tried to attack you, did they?" She asked with something almost envious but then who wouldn't be if they'd had to look a despair demon in the face as frost crawled up their blade?

[eolasemah]

"The Keeper leads the clan," Sina replied, "she protects them and makes important decisions, and learns and keeps the history of the People." She smiled faintly. "I'm the Keeper's First, so when Keeper Thalia moves on to the next world I'll take her place." She clasped her hands together, pursing her lips self-consciously. "...I truly hope it's not anytime soon." The thought of leading anyone, let alone her clan, was enough to turn her stomach.

She first looked confused by the word of advice, then smiled once she realized it was a joke. "I... would rather not do it again," she agreed, "I'm sure the mages will think of something. That's why I was sent here in the first place." Not to join the Inquisition, but simply to see if anything could be done.

At the question, she shook her head. "They were far away. We gave them a wide birth, not knowing what they were and all."

[foxsays]

"Like a ship's captain then." After all, even a ship and crew had a history, knowledge to be passed down to guide them safely through the waves and she listened with a smile, chin propped up on her hands as Lux rolled over to stretch out, tail wagging lazily with happiness. "Seeing as I'm drinking, I will drink to her health, such is the way of my people." Hopefully it wouldn't be considered offensive but to be safe, she took only a small sip and set her glass to one side as the serving girl returned, a few more silvers than required slipped into her palm as Araceli poured water from the pitcher.

"Does it help you to understand it better then? I'm wrapping my head around magic. Around the different opinions of different people in the same and different places; it wasn't real until that day. Now it's very real and it confuses me the harder I think about it." Hardly helpful if she was meant to fix it but some things are such a part of a place that they have to be sewn in your bones and soul for them to ever make sense completely.

"Did you travel here with others? I kept to myself for most of the journey, making sounds like a beached whale when I saw just how much more damned climbing I had to do. My legs will never be the same." Seriously, she found muscles she had no idea she had and when parkour, duelling and swimming had always been part of her life, that was quite the feat.

[eolasemah]

The offer to drink for the Keeper elicited a genuine smile from Sina. She knew what the gesture meant, even if she'd never done it herself, and she found herself warming considerably to this candid human (the fox's presence didn't hurt). She bent down to stroke Lux on the chest, a bit mystified by the animal's domestic behavior, but not one to turn away a creature seeking attention.

"I'm not sure I understand much of what's happening now," she confessed, "though... I have the fortune of having been born in Thedas, so there's that." She smiled sympathetically. "I'm from up north, in the Free Marches. I traveled here with my clan sister, Nahariel. ...it was a difficult journey." The thinning air and exertion compounded with her mark had given her a rattling cough, and she'd had to be carried up on a Templar's horse. It wasn't an exceptionally happy memory.

[foxsays]

If asked, it might sound a sad story: a fox cub found on a ship when they were too far from land to turn back, brought home to an island where the only other fox happened to be Araceli, in spirit of course. Brought up tucked in her coat pockets and then at her heels, the one who always barked when trouble was about to find her. He'd even met a few fennecs on the way up only to stop and preen, smug almost at how much larger he stood with his odd ginger and black coat.

"Is that as far north as where Qunari come from? I've studied maps but very few countries actually physically border each other; I come from a place that's really many many islands all nestled close and bound together. To have this big blob with everything sprawling out, it's almost unseemly." The thought of so much ocean to chart made her giddy, how could it not, but still, everyone rubbing elbows with one another like that, no wonder there had been such conflict. "Marching up that mountain snow up to my hips, I'll be glad to go down but not to come back. I shudder to think of what happens when storms come. Did your sister stay? I imagine it's nice to have a friendly face amongst the rabble."

[eolasemah]

"Um... I think they're from farther north," Sina replied, considering. She knew some geography, but was mostly unfamiliar with the names and customs of foreign places.

"Yes, Nari's still here," she said, "though soon she'll be off to-- what is it? The Teeming Bog, something like that."

[foxsays]

“The Fallow Mire?” The name had been on many lips and a bog was a bog, it wouldn’t be the sea and it wouldn’t be pleasant but it would be going somewhere. It would be an escape from the snow and feeling like a spare part rattling around Skyhold with nothing much to make her feel relaxed. Besides, how many circuits could she make of the battlements before she grew bored? How many times could she hit practice dummies in silence before she felt heartsick with missing her usual companions? “I’m heading off that way too, I thought it’d be good to see more of the country here besides endless snow and mountains the sky might swallow. Are you still tired from your journey here? I confess, the idea of getting to see new things has me climbing the walls in readiness to escape.”

[eolasemah]

"I've never been one for wanderlust," Sina confessed, ducking her head in a bashful smile, "it's all the better if I stay here. But do.. be on lookout for any interesting herbs, while you're there. I've been doing my best to bring the garden here back to life."