[Open]

[unharrowed]

WHO: Vasran and OPEN
WHAT: Celebrating being declared a Real Mage, training with her very own staff
WHEN: Late August
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: N/A

In the end, the pseudo-Harrowing endorsed by the Mage Council had turned out to be just like dreaming. Vasran had been prepared for what she was about to face, as well as one could be prepared. To walk in the Fade was to know that nothing could be trusted except one's own mind. And it was the mind that was truly important, because demons could trick the eyes, could distract the senses, could so easily toy with emotions. Logic and will, two things which were so simple and yet so difficult to wield effectively, were the only things that could be counted on.

It was a Desire demon that had tried to take her, offering her comfort and wealth and position enough to take whatever she wanted from a world where everything had once been lost to her. Of all things, it was Vasran's pride that allowed her to refuse the demon's offer.

She would take what she got back from the world on her own terms, and no one else's.

The day after she woke again, she celebrated in the Tavern, a place where she had rarely been seen before, dancing and tossing back as many cups of wine as she could afford — or convince others to pay for. As the evening went on, she got bolder, approaching a few people head-on with her empty cup and shoving it toward them.

"Buy a drink for a demon-slayer!"

In the days after — once the subsequent hangover had subsided — she could be found on the Training Grounds, drilling battle techniques with her staff, sending bursts of electrical energy toward the targets.

Comments

[nadasharillen]

"Well..." Nahariel gesticulated vaguely, the subject of their conversation crinkling on her face as her brow furrowed in thought. Her mouth opened and closed several times, lips thinning farther in frustration each time, until finally the elf huffed out a sigh and quirked a grin at Vasran.

"I don't really know," she said, green eyes sparkling with self-aware mirth, "I never thought much more deeply about it than simply meditating on which of the Creators I wanted to honor. I bled some, during. Most everyone does. I guess I thought that's where the name came from." She shifted her stance, lifted her shoulders, let them fall.

"For all that I went through the Rite, I'm no Keeper. I didn't know much more than it was how you became an adult, how you said to your Clan and the Creators--and anyone else you met--that you chose to keep the old ways. That you were the last of the Elvhenan, and never again would you submit."

[unharrowed]

Something in Vasran bristled when Nahariel started going on about the old ways. She worked not to show it, particularly because she didn't quite understand it. It was like being challenged, even if Nari wasn't issuing any challenges in the least. It was that air the Dalish were said to carry around with them, the suspicion of strangers and the protectiveness of their own kind. As if they had something that made them superior.

"Staffwork, you said?" she prompted, wanting something more to do with her hands and arms while they spoke. If Nari needed to use her staff as a demonstration, she would offer it.

[nadasharillen]

Nari saw the way the other elf's facial expression flattened slightly as she spoke, and sighed internally, lips thinning slightly as she tried to judge whether she'd made enough of an alliance with the other woman to try to make a foray into the deep breech that lay between the Dalish and their city-dwelling brethren.

She decided not--at least not yet--and so took the offered out with gratitude.

"Aye," said the hunter, casting her eyes about the practice area and nodding when they lit on a few simple staves leaning on the wall. She moved to retrieve one, gesturing for Vasran to follow. "I can't boast any real skill, but I know a few good counters that might help out if you ever find yourself faced with a dual-wielder like myself." She gave the staff a practice twirl. "I like to pop out of nowhere behind the lines and go for the mages, and I've heard the Red Templar have some similar fighters."

She opened her mouth to continue, and then shut it again, scratching the back of her neck with an apologetic grin. "Before I go trying to teach you what you already know though... did they teach you any mundane staff combat in the Circle?"

[unharrowed]

Vasran shook her head. "It was mostly 'here's how not to blow things up accidentally' and 'don't listen to demons.'"

Perhaps there would have been some staff training once she'd earned the title of Mage, but. Well. She'd never gotten there before.