[Semi-Closed] On the Longest Night

[nadasharillen]

WHO: Everyone who signed up--and maybe you!
WHAT: Solstice celebrated a la Dahlasanor; with a little play (and a big surprise).
WHEN: Winter Solstice, Haring
WHERE: For Sina and Beleth, everywhere but the Skyhold garden. Everyone else (and eventually Sina and Beleth), the garden!
NOTES: Anyone's welcome to take part, just check the sign-up post for deets and drop a line in it so we know to wait for your contribution to the sunburst. ♥

--[Preparation]

The sun was slowly dipping beneath the parapets of Skyhold earlier and earlier. Dark came sooner, and stayed longer. It seemed to Nari that it echoed the slow dissipation of Sina's energy; like a tide that ebbed a little more each day, receding towards the horizon. Unlike the tide, it showed no sign of returning. Something had broken inside her clansister. Something Nari hadn't been able to reach, let alone try to put back together again. In the night, before sleeping, she stared troubled at the subdued movement of Sina's thin back. Whether the First was asleep or not was immaterial. Nari had learned that either way, she wouldn't talk.

This year, Fen'Harel wins... Nahariel thought idly, chin in her hand. And then she blinked, suddenly energized. She'd been avoiding talking about anything having to do with the People, had translated her endearments to the trade tongue after seeing Sina wince at the sound of their language... but the solstice story--that wasn't just People, that was Dahlasanor. If she were to start it... Sina still loved Ghilan'nain, of that there was no doubt. She'd still honor the Halla Mother, wouldn't she?

And by the end, perhaps she'd remember that there was still light in the Dalish, even amidst the dark. Light enough to live by.

The more Nari thought, the more excited she got. Yes, this was it. But how to do it here? She'd need people, people who loved Sina. And she'd need to spring it on her clansister, or the younger elf would have time to throw up walls. Nari chewed her bottom lip, and thought furiously until she'd come up with a plan. And then she let herself put hope in her heart again. And then she slept. And in the morning, she left their tent with a spring in her step to find her moving parts.


↠Merrill and Merrick
She'd thought at first to just ask Merrill if she might be interested in being their Star, but then remembered how Sina had to struggle to keep from giggling the year the part had been played by the two Halaani siblings most different in temperament, and decided quickly to ask Merrick as well. And so they were both sought out, and when all were together, she told the tale of the Dahlasanor tradition, and how she hoped it would be able to reach Sina, as far away as she was--and seemed to be going.

"The Stars are the first light that Ghilan'nain sees on her journey through darkness... and you'd be the first people that Sina would get to see. I know she's fond of both of you, and I know it would mean a lot to her to see you there, so... would you?"


↠Pel
Pel she found nearer noon as a courtesy, in case she was bothered by morning sickness, catching the other woman on her way to the practice ring.

"Pel! I have a favor to ask," she began, trotting up to join her on the walk. "I know you know well enough that Sina hasn't been the same after you all came back; how she's closed herself off from everyone, even you, I think, even though you were there," she said--and then made a gesture of apology. "I hope that's not unkind of me to say. It's that I've thought of something that might help, but I can't do it alone." Out came the story; Solstice, the tale they'd enacted each year with the clan, how happy Sina had been when she took her place as Ghilan'nain for the first time, and then about the Moon. A wise woman, often a new or expectant mother, who contrasted the bright energy of the Stars with a cool and constant light.

"I want to do it here, as a surprise. I thought even though the clan isn't here that the people she cares about were the closest to clan she has, and I know she cares for you, so...?"


↠Thranduil
Nari, to her chagrin, didn't know the elven rifter. She had, however, become familiar with him in passing as he often came to visit with Sina--first as she healed, and then after, again and again, as patient and consistent as the wind that slowly wears away the jagged edges of a cliffside. She found him in the library, stepping close enough to catch his attention, and speaking quietly.

"I have a request to make of you--and not a small one. I know you're not from Thedas, and so our traditions and our gods aren't yours... but I also know you care deeply for Sina, and this would mean a lot to her. Maybe everything." The smaller elf hugged her arms to herself and continued. "Our clan has a story that we tell together every year on the longest night. We missed it last year in the confusion of coming here and getting used to... everything... but Sina loved it, and I was hoping to put it together with people she loves since we have no clan here but each other.

"It's a story about finding light even in the dark, and two of the Creators--our gods--sparring over the nature of the People. Sina always plays Ghilan'nain, and Fen'Harel is usually the most senior hunter, but I'm narrating since I know the part, which means I don't have anyone to be Fen'Harel. Since it's sort of an adversarial role, I was hoping someone who Sina trusts a great deal would play it, so she knows for certain in her heart that no-one there wishes her ill. And... I was hoping that could be you." Nari paused, took a breath as if she was going to say something else, and then decided against it, releasing the air instead with a small worried smile.


↠Korrin, Rydia, and Sam
Next stop, mages. There had only ever been the Keeper providing magelights, while the rest held rushlights, but here in Skyhold... well. She had it in mind to make this a particularly bright and lovely Sun, and what could extra magic do but help.

One by one, Nari sought them out. First Korrin, who had become very dear to both of them, then Sam, ambushing the first shem'len friend she'd made in the workshop, then Rydia, who'd seemed so earnest and lovely over the crystals. Each time she explained her idea, and the great importance of what could seem like such a small part; in essence, representing the good in the world, the heart-light that sustained through the dark of the cold season, and the surety that the days would again get longer. And in this case, the lit up faces of people who cared. And each time she stood, shifting back and forth a little, waiting for an answer.

↠Ellana
And then for the fire that wasn't magic, Nahariel went straight to Ellana. She was slightly breathless from gallivanting around Skyhold when she found the other woman, but buoyant all the same.

"Savhalla, hearthmistress!" she called with a lopsided grin, "Would you help me with some fire?"

Despite being sorely tempted to leave it at that for humor's sake, Nari launched into an explanation of the evening; Dahlasanor's story, Sina's part, the attempt to reach her clansister who continued to slowly pull away. How she'd recruited mages for magelight, but how important it was that non-mages could participate, which meant actual fire, and could Ellana help to make sure everyone was safe, and what the best vehicle for the fire would be, and how they could light up very quickly at nearly the same time.

"From all my rambling, I think you can probably tell I'm out of my depth." Nari drawled wryly. "At home we usually had two people at the midline of the circle dip rushlights into the fire our hearthmistress had prepared for the occasion, and then we sort of passed the fire around quickly until everything was lit..." Nari said, and then spread her arms with a helpless look. "but the garden is so big?"

"...And even without all the questions, I know it would mean a lot to Sina to have you there, and know that the fire was ours. Does that sound stupid? I mean, it's all fire... but I think you'd make it different. Will you come?"


↠Beleth
This one was important. Nari was sure none of this would work if Sina caught the scent of it, and she could think of no-one better suited to preventing that than the Bard. Nari found her in the evening, sliding up next to her with a rather obvious air of conspiracy.

"Would you take a day to distract Sina? On Solstice. I need to make sure she doesn't go into the garden for the entire day... but then get her there somehow near midnight? And have her not suspect that's what's happening?" Nari's requests tapered into questions, not sure how that might be accomplished without arousing her clansister's suspicion, but the earnest look in her eyes made obvious her hope that Beleth would know.


--[On The Day]

In the afternoon, after she was sure her clansister was occupied, Nari passed the word around that it should be safe to meet up in the garden to go over any last additions, changes, and questions anyone might have before they met again that night to put everything into motion. The normally rather stalwart carver is full of nervous energy that she seems to be holding in check by pacing enough to plant a new row of elfroot, but she nevertheless has a broad smile for everyone as they appear.

"Thank you, all, again. Really. It means a lot to me. And Sina," and by extension, the future of their tiny clan, but that wasn't anything anyone needed to hear. "There're just a few things I wanted to mention, mostly about light," she said, then nodded to Pel, and to Merrill. "Since Sina doesn't know where she'll be going, would you two mind making small lights as it comes time for her to go to you?"

"For everyone else, Ellana's going to explain how the sunburst is going to go," she paused for a moment to nod at the Hearthmistress, "and then we'll get to any questions anyone has, and then," she grinned, "I think Cyril wants to to make you all pretty." She paused, then amended, "Well, prettier."

With a last crooked grin, she'll step back to let Ellana talk about fire.


--[Solstice Night]

All was in readiness. Everyone was in their places, rushlights had been passed out to the non-mages, all the lanterns quenched--save one small one right at the entrance--to let the full dark of the night blanket the garden, and Nari had scrambled up to perch on top of the well so as to pitch her voice better.

And then they waited, attentive to the sounds that would mean that Sina and Beleth had arrived.

Comments

[rowancrowned]

"I seek the sun," he starts, again just somewhere over her shoulder, low and melodic. "-the same as you, youngest sister."

He is very committed to this play, and despite himself, enjoying it. His arm brushes Sina's shoulder as he walks around her, and stands before her.

[eolasemah]

Though she can see him, Sina pretends he evades her, though she does turn her head slightly when she feels Thranduil brush her arm.
"And have you found it, in your roaming?" she asks, with a hint of challenge.

[rowancrowned]

"No," he answers. "But I have seen the cruel ambitions of the People. They smile sweetly, then hiss lies behind each others backs, scrambling for power."

And then it's back off into the shadows.

[nadasharillen]

"With no farewell, the Wolf's presence faded, and Ghilan'nain walked on," came Nari's measured voice again.

"As she followed the tracks of darkness in the sky, she came soon upon the Moon," the storyteller's voice lightened with respect and gladness for the celestial sphere--and her earthly counterpart here, "bright and full in her beauty."

[mythalenaste]

A pale blue light shines just before Pel steps out, holding a round lantern of ice by a wooden base. Her hair, for perhaps the third time in the past two years, is loose and unbound and reaches her tailbone in grey waves. She sees Sina and gives a faint smile, almost apologetic, knowing Sina has not wanted to be near her in some time. This is how she hopes to help redefine what became of their relationship.

"Greetings, Halla-Mother," she intones, hoping she sounds wise and matronly enough. In reality, there is a baby kicking up a storm, so it's a little hard to focus.

[eolasemah]

Whether or not Pel sounds wise or matronly, Sina is in fact glad to see her. Her face seems to light up with the approaching lantern, and grins as she goes to hug her, all terrible associations momentarily forgotten.

"Greetings, wise moon," she says, pulling away, "tell me, have you seen the sun?"

[mythalenaste]

Pel actually chokes up when Sina comes to embrace her, and there's a moment where she squeezes tightly, breathless, till she regains her voice and takes a deep breath.

"My sorrow, Halla Mother," she rasps, "I have not seen the sun. But I saw the love of the People for your children."

Give her a second. Pregnancy hormones are playing a part, as well as sentiment.

"Even in this cold, they give the spaces of the aravel to the halla."

Her tears, forming in her eyes, shine in the pale blue light. She gives a smile to Sina, and steps back to let the play continue.

[nadasharillen]

"Ghilan'nain was touched," said Nari, sounding touched herself. She'd thought only of Sina's healing as she made preparations, but seeing Pel's reaction to being readily embraced gave the ethereal light of the ice lantern a bright halo as it refracted in her suddenly stinging eyes. Perhaps there was some comfort for everyone who loved the fragile First as well.

Nari cleared her throat surreptitiously--she hoped--and continued, "She looked down upon the People and gathered the light of that love to her breast, and walked on, following the darkness.

"Soon the darkness became pools, and the pools became tracks," she continued, letting her voice darken in twinned self-satisfaction and warning a third time, "and She could again feel the smile of Fen'Harel."

[eolasemah]

Sina smiles sincerely back at Pel, and before her friend withdraws, she places a little kiss on her pale cheek. She steps back again when Nari continues, angling her head slightly in the direction of her clansister's voice, though she doesn't try to find her in the darkness.
She does, however, listen for the footsteps of Thranduil, and turns slowly, all her senses straining.
"Thrice you cross my path, Lord of Tricksters," she says, in a voice that's almost challenging.

[rowancrowned]

It is a very small space, and he cannot wander far enough to be both out of her sight and yet pitch his voice to be heard. So again, there he is, beside a tree, glad of her inclination to play along with his supposed invisibility.

"Do you find that strange, youngest sister? We seek the same quarry. Should we not sometimes share in the hunt?" Thranduil says, appropriately measured and reasonable and not in the least suspicious.

[eolasemah]

Sina tilts her head as though listening, her posture of alertness resembling a deer's. "I find it strange to hear thus from He Who Hunts Alone."

[rowancrowned]

He waits, counting down, until:

"...Do you not tire of your seeking, Ghilan'nain?"

[eolasemah]

"I tire of your games," she snaps, in an irritation that's almost believable (she's done this many times), "I have not seen your face this journey. Why is it you hide, Lord of Tricksters?" Turning in a small circle, she makes a show of scanning the darkness around her.

[nadasharillen]

Nari counted slowly in her mind as Sina paced the circle, "And so Fen'Harel stepped forth into her view, out of a darkness," she said, voice ringing out only once the circle had been completed. She waited again, her eyes searching out Thranduil even as Sina's did, continuing once his face was clear in the firelight.

"And she saw that the trail she had followed led to that darkness, and the Mother of the Halla grew angry."

[eolasemah]

"You!"

Sina points aggressively at Thranduil and paces forward to face him, which is a fine sight considering she barely comes up to his throat. She stands on her tiptoes as though to make herself bigger, but at least manages to fight the smile off her face so she can yell at him properly.

"You have known this whole while where the sun lay, and you have kept it from me!" She steps back, stomping one foot and pointing again, into his face. "You have kept it from the People, Nightmare Bringer!"

[rowancrowned]

Hidden by the mask, he is free to smile down at her, hands loosely held at his back. She is a fierce little thing.

"I? It is not I who has taken the sun away, but the People themselves. Have you not listened to my tales? It is their darkness that smothers the sun, not mine. Their world is sunless because darkness calls to darkness, Ghilan'nain," he says, looking down his snout. "Tell me. Why is it that you tire your feet walking the sky to seek the sun on behalf of those who will only drive it away again?"

[nadasharillen]

"Ghilan'nain looked down, her eyes searching," said Nahariel from the darkness.

And here it was.

The First of Clan Dahlasanor had been born after the raid that sent them scattered and wounded into the forest, over half of their number lying dead amidst the ashes of their aravels, their Keeper among them. She had seen the scars, but never the wounds. They had wept with joy when she was born, their miracle child, and though life in the Planasene wasn't easy by any stretch, all the clan that remained had reached their hands to cushion the young First as much as they could. Deceit, betrayal, torture, infighting, murder--the dirt that stained the hands of so many in Thedas--had been swept away from Siuona Dahlasanor in all but story. And when it came to pass that she had to leave the shelter of the deep forest, the love Nahariel bore their little star would have nothing but that she accompany her. Although she had only two hands, she'd tried as hard as she could to do that same work. All of it.

And then, while the huntress smiled and joked with their emissaries and Ashara, Sina had seen it all. All the darkness Fen'Harel spoke of. And not from the shem'len she had been raised from birth to hate and fear. The People had betrayed her. Hurt her in places much deeper than the skin that bore the mark of it. In the work of hours, her world had been shattered.

The First had spoken these words many times. She had glowed with pride the first year she had stepped into Ghilan'nain's place, and every year since. But this year... this year the words would be real. The forgiveness. The acceptance of dark and light. That there was light.

The pause was almost too long, but finally, Nari's voice came again, hoarse with emotion.

"She saw the campfires of the People, dotted across the plains like stars."

"She thought of the Star, and felt the warmth of the light she had pressed to her breast."

"She saw the protective circles of their aravels."

"She thought of the Moon, and felt the warmth of the light she had pressed to her breast."

"And she thought of the faces of the People who had called Her," the voice broke slightly, "upturned and open in their hope. The hope that had sent her first to seek the sun."

Nari took a deep breath, her eyes trained more sharply on her clansister's face than ever they had on a scout target, and spoke with a strength and will she hoped would find the younger elf across the simultaneously small and vast distance between them.

"She gathered it up to her breast, and Fen'Harel could feel the smile of Ghilan'nain."

[eolasemah]

Though she's along for the game now, going by rote, Sina isn't deaf to the emotion in Nari's voice. This really means something now, to both of them; and as much as she herself as suffered from the pain and indecision of their circumstances, she's still the First. Her task is to guide and protect, even those older than herself, which describes most of the people in her life.
Of course she chose Ghilan'nain, for her vallaslin. The navigator, the only one among the Creators who began as one of the People.

Sina closes her eyes, a tear or two falling freely as she raises her head as if to address the sky. An abscess in her being has been punctured and can finally drain, bringing relief with it.

"As darkness calls to darkness, light calls to light," she says, just loudly enough to be heard.

[nadasharillen]

"And Ghilan'nain reached out her hands, overflowing with the light that had come from the People," Nahariel said, her voice full now of joy and purpose. She shifted her balance and stood from her crouch, bracing herself on the crossbar of the well--very grateful for the amount of time over the years she'd spent standing on tree branches--and reaching the prepared rushlight she'd been holding down to where it, too, could be lit.


"And from behind Fen'Harel," she said, "the sun burst forth."

GUESS WHAT, I'M BORROWING EVERYONE

[nadasharillen]

And it did.

It burst dazzling from the hands of the mages, blossomed outwards from them as Ellana's rushlights blazed into being in the hands of friends, servants, cooks, the healers from the infirmary. Light after light after light, face after face after face. Pel, Merrill, Merrick. Korrin, Rydia, Sam. Ellana. Cyril. Beleth. Nari herself, standing balanced atop the well, her flame held high, and Thranduil in majestic silhouette; all beaming near as bright as the sun they represented. Love. Hope. Companionship. A rag-tag clan of their own. For this moment, at the darkest hour of the darkest night, the Skyhold garden shone like summer.

Nahariel jumped lightly from her perch, and began to walk towards her clansister, her eyes shining with feeling.

"Even in defeat, Fen'Harel smiled as he slipped back to the Beyond," she says. "For even as the stars and the moon look down and see our deeds, so too does the Dread Wolf. And perhaps, one day, he will have the best of it." She turns to look at Thranduil, who flourishes with grand grace and turns away.

"But not this day." It's hoarse, strong. A great push against the horrors Sina had suffered. Finally, Nahariel stands before her and reaches a finger to gently lift the younger woman's chin with pride. "So did Ghilan'nain, Navigator, Mother of the Halla, return the sun to the People."