faderift | [OPEN] Heaven bend to take my hand

WHO: Hermione Granger and YOU
WHAT: Hermione's seen some shit and is trying to get over it.
WHEN: Mid-Kingsway through the end of the month.
WHERE: In and around Skyhold.
NOTES: Takes place after this plot, so some threads will likely have mentions of child death and/or signs of depression. Please let me know if you'd like me to avoid any triggery topics.

Library

Though the curly-haired rifter has become a staple in the library over the past six months, Hermione has been relatively scarce there lately. She has no real heart for research anymore, not after the things she'd uncovered in those journals in that cave in Fromage, and there's so much more to Thedas than what can be found in books. She'd learned that the hard way, and now instead of reading and taking notes, she finds her thoughts wandering as they rarely do. For once, she can use a distraction from her failed attempts at studying.

Stables

Avoiding people isn't always as easy as she'd like it to be. But if she can preoccupy herself with animals, Hermione can withstand a bit of small talk. There's usually a kitten or two playing around the stables, and if not, at least helping to feed some of the horses will make her feel productive as well as distracted. And if that doesn't work, there's a certain dracolisk that she'd been slowly learning to get friendly with, assuming it won't sense her dour mood and become agitated.

Battlements

The battlements are actually quite pretty. She'd never really come up here before - if she wasn't in the library then that usually means she wanted to be social, and so the courtyards were where she'd spent more of her time - but now that she's looking for a change of scenery... well, there are worse places to get some quiet with a beautiful view. She's not always alone, since there are always people passing back and forth, but most people don't seem all that keen on hassling the young woman perched in between two turrets, staring out into the mountains. Indeed, unless someone happens to recognize her or just manages to catch her as she wipes at a stray tear, most probably wouldn't even know she's there.

Healing Tents

Returning from Emprise had been difficult, for more reasons than one. Beyond the obvious, Hermione still had a few physical injuries that she'd intended to ask the healers in her group to help with on their way back, but had clearly never gotten around to it due to the extenuating circumstances. Of course, she can't indefinitely deal with waking up with a sharp pain in her back and some of the bruises had begun to look particularly gruesome, so there's nothing wrong with making the occasional visit to the healing tents. If she takes care of one thing at a time and sees a different healer each time, it minimizes the chance of any awkward questions being asked, which is all the better; she's not ready to talk about that dreadful day and is in no rush to change that.

Wildcard!

She probably won't be quite so cheery until later on in the month, but Hermione still needs to eat, drink, bathe, and presumably sleep. She may be a little awkward around those that had gone to Emprise du Lion with her, but she isn't about to actively ignore anyone or send them off. Her nerves might be a bit frayed, but there's still such a thing as etiquette, after all.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She can't really take the promise all that seriously, given that Hermione is far too familiar with the fact that men will often hurt themselves even if they try not to, and even then, they pretend that they hadn't really been all that hurt. She just hopes that Jamie isn't quite that stubborn, especially in light of the fact that he's actually injured at the moment.

So she watches him warily, tensing when he holds out his hand but still ready to jump in and do what she can to help him should he need saving. When nothing happens, she frowns a little in confusion, looking up at him as he begins to turn towards her. Then she jumps, startled, staggering a little at the sight of that strange beam of power despite the fact that it isn't exactly aimed at her. "Jamie!"

Despite her surprised outcry, things seem to calm down, and she stares from him to the dummy and back again with wide, bewildered eyes. "What was that?"

While he can be that stubborn - and has in fact pretended not to be all that hurt more than once - this time he means what he says. The last thing he wants is to wind up spending more time in the healers tents than he has to.

Luckily, the after-effects that come with shooting out a single burst of energy from his hand are manageable, even in his current condition. An aching hand, feeling faintly drained...he's used to that. So long as he doesn't have to repeat the trick all that often, he'll deal, although there's something a touch more tired in his eyes as he looks back at her.

"Same stuff as that comes out of these marks when we close the rifts, as far as anyone knows, only it can hurt things. It- it's like someone's take one of those laser gun things and stuck it in my hand, only I've no idea what I need to do to get it to work reliably."

Hermione has enough worries when it comes to the shards. She doesn't like the idea of there being some foreign magical object embedded into her hand, and she certainly doesn't like the fact that this foreign magical object apparently might be a beacon for demons on the other side of the Veil. But knowing that the extent of its magical capabilities might just be much more powerful than simply being able to close up a rift is something else altogether.

Gingerly, she reaches out for his shard hand, careful not to touch the dim green glow as though afraid that that same energy is going to burst out towards her. "How-... how long have you been able to do this?" she murmurs softly, looking down at his hand for a few moments before looking up to meet his gaze. "Who else knows? The advisers? Solas?"

"Aye, I'm fairly sure the advisors know. It first started happening when I was out on a mission back...oh, a few months ago."

He knows full well that reports are filed for those, even if he hasn't had to personally submit one himself. Chances are someone's said something in one of those at some point, or word's gotten back to them some other way, just as he's fairly certain Solas knows what's going on, for much the same reason. At least now that he was able to get the mark to cooperate he knows he doesn't have to worry about inadvertently shooting Hermione - something he hadn't been sure about until just now. Still, even though he lets her take his hand, he still keeps it turned away from them...just in case.

"Likely Solas does as well, although I'd not had much success when I went to go ask him about it. But I'm thinking he's been told about it one way or the other, since he's supposed to know the most about the these marks in general, and they'd want his advice. I've no idea what they've said to him about it, though."

"He should have come to you and tried to help you!" Hermione started immediately. "The mark is changing - evolving! Even if he had no interest in the marks, that's at least something to research! You could hurt yourself or someone around you!"

And what if it isn't an isolated case? After all, if Jamie could randomly develop something that could be referred to as an ability, how many other rifters might find themselves being able to do something similar? Hermione has suddenly images of sleeping peacefully, her hand cradling her head, only for the shard to suddenly discharge whatever magic it uses and render her headless.

"Has anyone else been able to do this, do you know?"

"I'm not even sure he's in Skyhold any more, Hermione. You know people get sent out all the time. But he still might be researching it, even so."

He could understand by she was so upset, though. He'd been just as upset when it'd started happening - and maybe a bit lucky as well, given when it'd happened. If it had come up at some other time, or some other place, who knew what might have happened? But it hadn't, and he was starting to get the hang of it even without Solas, which was probably good if he didn't come back to Skyhold for awhile.

"I've not heard of anyone who can shoot things, but I've heard rumors of some folk who can make shields while using it. And before you ask, I've not heard of that many even for that. There's nothing saying it'll happen to everyone. But it's also a sort of magic, isn't it? There's people here that can help with that, lots of them."

He brought a hand to his head, rubbing at it for a moment. It was starting to hurt again, and even though it was likely just a regular headache, he knew he should probably go back in soon. For the moment, however, he let his hand drop back to his side.

"Besides, you'll know if it's going to act up anyway. It's like when a rift opens unexpectedly near you. The mark sparks and flares up enough that it'll wake you even if you're asleep. Believe me."

Hermione knows that Solas is busy, considering he'd barely been able to spare a few moments of his time to answer her questions in all the months she'd been at Skyhold, but she can't help her concern. Jamie might get hurt if he can't properly control what the shard can do, and if it's evolving then that might just make him an even brighter target for demons. She doesn't want to think of that.

She frowns up at him when she sees him rub at his head like that, and once he drops his hand she gently takes it up in hers and gestures back to the healing tents. "Have you spoken to Adelaide? Or Anders? Someone should be able to help you manage it, just to make sure you don't unintentionally shoot your own face off while you're sleeping."

And as long as that's a potential risk, Hermione decides that watching Jamie while he sleeps might just be the safest thing for him, at least during the daytime. He'll certainly need to catch up on his rest, which is what she intends to get him started on as she gingerly tries leading him back to the tents.

"Come. Let's try and get you a head start on that sleep business. Or at least on resting up."

[OPEN] Heaven bend to take my hand

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