003 🌿

[ancarrow]

WHO: Eirlys and OPEN
WHAT: Eirlys realises she belongs both to the Inquisition and the alienage, and simultaneously to neither of them.
WHEN: Beginning of Kingsway
WHERE: Skyhold, then Halamshiral
NOTES: If anyone has messages they'd like Eirlys to deliver to their CR in either Skyhold or Halamshiral, hit me up!

a) Skyhold
She'd made the journey back to Skyhold toward the end of August, to deliver a report about how things were going in Halamshiral. Eirlys is noticeably tired - not in the same washed-out way she's been noticed to be in the past, but a sort of determined resilience that's keeping her going despite how weary she is. She only stays a single night in Skyhold, making sure to do the rounds in the healing tents, and to deliver messages to friends of those that she'd left in the camp in Orlais.

It's during the latter activity when she finds out the news of Asher Hardie's death, and though she didn't know him well, she struggles to keep herself together when she remembers how she'd mixed the medicine into honey for him when she'd nursed him, the same way she'd done with her sister both in their childhood and more recently before her death. The purse he's left her, though, astounds her. She's never seen so much money all at once before, and she's not sure how best to put it to use. Placing it in the deep pocket of her cloak, she heads over to the chapel to pray to the Maker for him, but ends up just sitting with her head leaning against the stone wall, feeling rather numb.

Before she leaves, she ropes anyone she can find into an emergency session in the courtyard to make as many poultices and potions as she can to take back to Halamshiral with her, before loading them into the wagon along with anyone who wants to make the trip, watching Skyhold fade into the distance.


b) Halamshiral
It had become very clear to Eirlys, especially in the incident with the cart, that out here she wasn't regarded as a city elf with experiences and suffering in common with the elves of Halamshiral, but solely as a representative of the Inquisition - an outsider come to tell them how to live, one of a few token elves in a new offshoot of a human institution that had arguably bulldozed its way through southern Thedas. She couldn't blame them, there'd be plenty in Gwaren who'd be just as suspicious, but it still stings as the wagon moves through the narrow streets, knowing that most of the eyes that pass over her see her as an intruder and a target, and wondering whether the supplies she's bringing will even make it back to the camp.

The next few days sees her throwing herself into her work, helping with healing and renovating and logistics, but looking very nervous and unsure when she interacts with the local city elves and a little sad around the Inquisition, really not quite sure where she fits any more.

Comments

[ancarrow]

"Since the end of Drakonis." She decides not to mention the brief period the winter before when she'd ended up abandoning the Inquisition, as it was still a source of great shame to her and talking about it to Leliana had only served to increase her guilt. "I take it you're newly arrived?"

[fightorfright]

That information, in concjuction with the other woman's comparison of the two, causes Amélie to laugh shakily. "Actually, it was 'round about Drakonis when I came," she admits, fidgeting a little with the leaves in her hands. "I guess I've never been good with change."

[ancarrow]

"Truly?" Eirlys raises her eyebrows a little in surprise - from the way she was talking, she'd assumed Amélie was very new indeed. She feels a little bad that she still doesn't seem settled after so many months. "My sympathies. Skyhold - and the Inquisition itself - can be such a big change for anyone."

[fightorfright]

"It just feels... it's the largest place I've ever been." When she had first gone to the Circle, the tower had felt huge. Now, she knows better.

"If I may ask, what is it you were doing before you came here?"

[ancarrow]

"I'm from Gwaren." She doesn't add that she's from the alienage there, figuring that will be obvious. "I was in service to a herbalist there, that's how I learned my trade."

[fightorfright]

"So you watched this herbalist and learnt from them?" she asks, head tilted to the side. "Most of what I learnt, I learnt in the Circle."

[ancarrow]

"Aye, and when he became older and more infirm I gradually took over more and more of the duties of crafting potions and poultices." She laughs darkly as she continues. "Although no one was to know it was me. The good townsfolk were probably scared an elf would poison them all."

There was a time when she'd have been nervous at the mention of the Circle, but the friendships she's forged with Anders, Ellana and Korrin has made her embarrassed to think there was a time she'd been scared of mages. "I imagine the healing taught there must be quite varied, and valuable."

[fightorfright]

"It is," she says, nodding in easy agreement, "but I never got so far in my studies as others here. Maybe one day, once everything quiets down, I'll be able to find someone to teach me."

[ancarrow]

"There are quite a few magical healers here - I know they wouldn't mind if you asked to learn a little more from them." She smiles encouragingly, placing another bundle of elfroot on the table to be chopped and prepared.

[fightorfright]

Amélie shifts some of the newly deposited elfroot closer to her, so she may use it in her next poultice. "Yeah, there are," she says, nodding absently as she chews at her bottom lip. "I just-- wouldn't want to be a bother, you know?" What she truly means to say is that she is intimidated by most of the other healers; they are so sure in their powers while Amélie is certainly not.

[ancarrow]

"I understand." She gets feeling like she's just in the way, especially when magical healers are around who can do with a simple spell what it takes her far longer to accomplish with her rudimentary medicine. "With the growing amount of sick and wounded the Inquisition will have to deal with, though, I know you'd be a valuable asset and not a bother at all."

[fightorfright]

"That's the thing though, isn't it," she starts, turning to face the other woman, a crooked smile slanting on her face. "They're so busy, I don't even know how to approach the matter."

[ancarrow]

As soon as she sees that smile, Eirlys is pretty sure that this was Amélie's plan all along. She resists the urge to roll her eyes, though she does sigh just a little. "I can speak to Councillor LeBlanc if you like, though I know she'd think more favourably if you were to ask her yourself. Otherwise the only magical healer I'm personally acquainted with is Anders, so it's whether you'd feel comfortable with me asking him at all."

[fightorfright]

The thing is, Amélie hadn't planned any of what she's saying; she's really just thinking aloud at this point, letting her tongue run free with pent up frustrations. "I can speak to her myself, that's no issue. It's just... getting started, I suppose, which is the difficult bit. I don't think I could even point her out in a crowd."

[ancarrow]

Eirlys nods understandingly, remembering how she'd felt when she still knew next to no one here, deciding to help however she could. "I'll make the necessary introduction," she promises. "She can be somewhat intimidating, but she's seemed very fair to me."

[fightorfright]

"I..." she starts, floundering when she finds she doesn't quite know what to say. "I would appreciate that very much, if it wouldn't be too much of a hassle."

[ancarrow]

"I'll do what I can," Eirlys promises, offering an encouraging smile.

[fightorfright]

"I appreciate it," Amélie says, offering the other woman a smile in return. "Truly, I do."