[open] exploration, study, and practice

[kartereo]

WHO: Waver + Open
WHAT: Mucking about
WHEN: Month of Drakonis, contemporary timeline
WHERE: In and around Skyhold
NOTES: None

i. Woods around Skyhold
Months ago, Iskandar had talked to Waver about wanting to build a small place for himself in the area. While Waver had had concerns, like the shards, he also wasn't going to argue with having a little bit more private space. And so with melting snows and the promise of spring that came with longer days, he set out into the forests.

He was methodical as he went, relying on horseback to get to whatever area he wanted to focus on on a given day, and then spending hours on foot making notes on natural clearings, where snow naturally drifted, and where it seemed as if there were heavier animal tracks for the sake of hunting.

Waver didn't enjoy the wind and the cold, but he enjoyed the quiet around him, the challenge before him, and the fact that he was actually working outdoors without wheezing and panting like he might have been a few months ago. For better or for worse, Thedas forced him towards the physical, whereas his life in London had only been academic. Or else it was Iskandar making him do the same.

His work and his thoughts are coupled with keen ears that listen for anyone who might be approaching. Animals, he expects, and hopefully none of them predators.

ii. Library
With Merrill having approved of his general approach of creating course schedules for the Skyhold classrooms, Waver was now tweaking what he had come up with. He wanted to build in a break week at the end of every cycle, both for courses to catch up or for people to take missions, and besides, some complimentary course timings were an issue.

So he sat at a long table in the library, parchment cut into squares in one pile and a drawn up calendar in front of him. As he worked, each class was placed on the calendar, and the squares arranged then rearranged as he tried to find something that would be as close to ideal as possible.

There were mutterings of fuck every so often that snaked down the shelves, coupled with that won't work or else ugh.

But it kept him busy, and he loved the puzzle of it all. And as he worked, there was a pleased smile on his face, one that wouldn't go away even if interrupted.

iii. Training
In asking Iskandar what might be the best weapon for him to learn given that magic might not always be available to him, Waver had been told that knives would be an excellent option. And while most of that learning was done away from prying eyes, there was always the need to practice.

Today, Waver did that in a corner of one of the grounds within the fortress, taking advantage ofa dummy left aside by someone else who forgot to put the thing into proper equipment storage. The daylight was fading, and the area looked as if it would see no traffic.

His movements were faster than they were when he and Iskandar had started out. But with the two little practice knives Waver had, he did nothing but miss mark after mark. The issue he knew was that he was now working with a skinny little dummy, rather than a man who was as big as a house.

He gave it several more attempts before muttering, "Goddamnit."

That one knife also went flying from his hand escaped Waver's notice for a moment. When he realized his left hand had nothing in it, he then immediately let out another swear before starting a search. "Where did that thing go--"

iv. Wildcard
For anything not covered above

Comments

[foxsays]

"James? Sí, I can barely imagine being able to travel as he does. My own story is small but I will tell it; I am a student of the Nightingale, or Leliana if you know her by that name too, one of the advisors to the Inquisition. She knew so little of me when she agreed to teach me the ways of being a bard so I wrote her the creation story of my world in a letter that she might understand who I am, where I come from. That tale means so much to my people. It has shaped us in so many ways." Nearly all of Araceli's tattoos reflect the sea and another that sits above her heart holds the moon and waves. The ache when she speaks is a good ache, or so she tells herself. "When a letter back came for me, it said I might enjoy the stories of Rivain and there is precious little recorded of Rivain worth knowing that isn't in Rivain itself so I was granted the opportunity to go there. To study, mostly. I spoke well of the Inquisition with the sailors too - sailors talk, I hope my words hit the mark.

"In Rivain I learned of mages who were in trouble after an annulment long ago in their Circle at Dairsmuid. Templars hunted them and those who had sheltered them, so I arranged to have others from Skyhold meet me to bring them here for their safety. We ended up having to rescue them from the Templars after an ambush. It wasn't how I ever imagined writing of the sea and the moon to Nightingale going." There's a lot she's left out of the story but she tells it proudly with a smile because there was so much good that came of it, people rescued and new friends made who have a new life for themselves. Next time she gets to go to Rivain though, Araceli hopes it'll be for something with less blood and death, a chance to explore a place that reminds her of home, somewhere with a culture that left such an impression on her.

It takes a little while to parse the word just right, always a hazard when Araceli needs to make sure it makes sense when in her own tongue too but she considers the idea. "Perhaps it's the thief in me or my father talking, always having to have more than one plan, as many routes as possible. You never know when a guard will turn around again or a sudden storm will blow in. One wrong move, one slip and perhaps all we have accomplished here unravels entirely - each time there is a party or a soiree? I have my heart in my mouth the whole night."

[kartereo]

He listened very quietly as Araceli spoke. There was no interjections of mm or mmhmm, only a very occasional head nod to show that Waver was engaged with the story and, indeed, quite intrigued by all of it. There was no doubt in his mind that there was material left out, but even so, it didn't matter. It had so much going on, what with recording oral histories, dealing with the matters of mages in the current environment, and just a hint of spreading the word about the Inquisition that it was more than enough on a fist listen.

"That's," Waver began, when the tale came to a close. "That's a lot to pack into one trip." A little smile flicked across his face, but it didn't linger. "Do you intend to go back to Rivain at any point?"


"No, that's the person who knows how politics work and how easy it is to upset a delicate balance," Waver said. It wasn't a correction, more a confirmation that such a thought was pretty much the best one to have in response to something that in theory sounded so lofty and secure. "Which speaks to a sound strategic mind."

In Waver's opinion, that was a compliment.

[foxsays]

"More than I had bargained for, when I finally returned to Skyhold that was when I could truly sit down and think about it all. After we had the Rivaini mages settled." That's leaving out how they'd had time to contact a Dalish clan, everyone getting to do some exploring, having a little time to relax before the ship was ready to depart where people got to see the Inquisition - mages, Templars, rifters, a Dalish elf, so many different people in all, out in the wider world doing more than whatever rumour said they did. Oh and she made two men named Malcolm duel each other to decide who could truly be called Malcolm. (And because the Inquisition is sorely lacking in duels.)

"If I could settle somewhere in Thedas, it would be Rivain. Somewhere near the sea to let me go to Antiva whenever I pleased but having this," she raises her left hand with a sigh. "It limits options for us, or so it has been noticed before."

She'd been starting to hurt by the time a few others had shown up in Dairsmuid.

Favouring Waver with a look that's more guarded, she considers how to reply to that. Maybe it's too long being comfortable with her secret and so many knowing her that it's just caught her offguard but she flinches. Or close to it. A twitch of the mouth, the way her eyes dart so sharply his way. "The Nightingale would be happy to hear such a thing, as would my mother and father were they here too so that they could sit smugly and sayy that all the lessons of my childhood were worth it, even when I would try to climb out the windows or up rigging to escape."

[kartereo]

"The time to process things doesn't exist in the midst of action," Waver agreed. After the Grail War, it had taken years to fully take in the scope of what he had done and experienced. At the time, everything had happened too fast to remotely register the threats to his life, the things scene, and the emotional weight of it all. "Although I now realize, I don't know how many years it is that you've been here. Is that too forward a question?"

Less forward than some questions, but still. "I'm trying to figure out if anyone has written about why these damn things act like a leash to this place. I can't think of a logical reason for that to be the case."

"Ah, but trying to escape requires some level of strategy and planning in and of itself," Waver pointed out . He then registered the look he was getting and paused. "Sorry, did I say something wrong?"

[foxsays]

"It's...Drakonis now, I arrived at the end of Harvestmere," she murmurs that quietly to herself as she works it back in her head because she doesn't like to think about it precisely though she probably could, if asked, work it out quicker. Had once been able to tell you the number of days. "Almost eighteen months. Give or take. I have to add in the confusion of it being summer where I was and it being much later in the season here when I arrived. And you?"

"Someone told me once, many many months ago something that made sense; it only took the Herald to seal rifts but it takes several of us." Normally able to recall a face or clothes, how they hold themselves, Araceli finds her mind slipping past the details. "There are more pieces of the mark and that the song is scattered that's all I can recall." That more doesn't surface troubles her even months later.

It doesn't help with her trying to wave away the subject, wondering if she'd slipped and if so where. Had she become too comfortable? "No. It isn't a thing I hear a person say about me but most of my friends do not care for politics in the first place. Others think you're too ignorant just from a glance." People see what they want to see, it works plenty of ways.

[kartereo]

"Not even six months," Waver said. He had kept count, because so much of him was conflicted about being away. Beyond anyone else there was his apprentice-bodyguard-whatever-other-role-she-decided-on, Gray, and if he was gone then she was doubtlessly worried. "The deathly gray of autumn, before winter began properly."

It was always a poetic time of year to describe. "Hm. So one versus many. If they ache for each other, then Skyhold as a central location for where everyone must be makes sense." Waver tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Good, there's a logic to it at the very least." He hated illogical magic.

"Ah." He nodded, and at this point, Waver was happy to let the subject go. "Well, I'll not dwell on it then. I just wanted to make sure I didn't cause offense or hurt feelings."