Cold upon the mountain

[hlif]

WHO: Asher Hardie; open (npc appearances by The Boneflayers)
WHAT: Asher's fever returns and his crew drag him to the healing tents, knowing it's the end
WHEN: Last week of Solace - mid-whatever August is called
WHERE: Skyhold, healing tents
NOTES: eventual character death; language, discussions about death, violence, faith. Discussions about Asher's childhood. Other warnings in subject headers. Feel free to make your own threads and have them open or closed, the death thread will go up closer to the time! Related ooc post

Asher has known for longer than he's cared to admit so he hasn't admitted it. He's shrugged it off the way he shrugs off pretty much everything else in his life until three nights passed of him coughing and coughing and coughing, keeping his crew awake with it. His chest has been rattling since they brought him back until blood started coming up with it. And now there are wounds cracking open; little cuts that weep for days on end, ugly wounds from the Storm Coast or sparring that feel hot to the touch. (They smell, Amalia had hissed as she'd pressed her hands to his chest over the burn scars to try to force the fever out. Melisende had sworn.)

So they bring him to the healers tents, the sweat rolling off him as he staggers; two dwarves and a Rivaini to help him, his hound with him as ever. The mage in her red leathers explains what she can with a slight elven woman, and the elfblooded one brings up the rear with a hand to his back. They're a constant from that first day to the last, a different combination each time at least one will always be there, stepping out for privacy or finally curling up to sleep.

And Asher...Asher isn't good with this. This isn't how it's meant to be as he presses his fingers into the festering gash over one hip from where a sword bit deep through his armour but the pain only makes him swoon, makes him cough and bite his lip. Doesn't make him focus, doesn't make him want to fight. This isn't how it was supposed to be and for the first time since his mother put him out the house twelve years ago, Asher Hardie is afraid.

It makes him a rather difficult patient, to put it politely.

Comments

[gatheringstorm]

Korrin quirks an eyebrow at mention of a bet with Liadan, which would have claimed her focus if Asher hadn't kept going. Not that she really cares enough to keep talking about children, anyway. With everything even more of a mess than it usually is, having them in any sense is the furthest thing from her mind.

At mention of Zevran's kestrals, her brow furrows...then those eyebrows shoot straight up after a moment. "...Andraste's ass. No, I didn't see it at the time. I was too damn angry about what happened to Zevran with the Crows and what they did to him. I told him it was a waste of time to keep those remaining alive, certain they didn't deserve it and would just turn on him anyway." She sighs and rests her head in her palms. "Now I'm even gladder that he didn't listen to me."

Sorry, Nasir. If it had been up to her, his own kin would be dead right now. It's times like this that remind her why she's glad to to be in any leadership role. She's too hotheaded to see beyond the moment at times. Not that anyone could have predicted that, exactly, but Zevran's kestrals have proven to do more good than harm.

[hlif]

If there's one fine tradition of the Boneflayers that does not extend to those that aren't contracted members, then it's the complicated system of bets and wagers that are set up, where Yngvi and Gunnar collect the bets, and Liadan handles and keeps track of the financials involved.

"Don't think Nasir remembered. Don't think Nasir wanted to remember but when they all decided to stay after--" Korrin knows, no sense in reminding her about what isn't going to happen again, that there won't be some miracle recovery where Asher is his old self ever again. "Well seeing a ghost in the flesh brings it back. Zevran explained more about Crows than I think I wanted to know. S'good for him. Having that. One of the girls didn't seem so fond of you when we all went over so I s'pose that explains it." No skin off Asher's nose really, he wasn't there, he didn't really want to know beyond telling the lad that he was family but Asher has spent just as much time collecting bounties and hauling people in as he has straight-up taking skulls.