"Some of us have to have optimism. How you think and feel about a thing colours how you do it, and there are always eyes on us." People see what they want to see but more than that now, the people of Kirkwall need to see the Inquisition being the Inquisition it can be and that it must be when putting its' best foot forward, even if it isn't at this particular moment giventhe state of things in Kirkwall. "I have never been one to back down from a challenge. This is a challenge with stakes as high, if not higher, than what faced us in Orlais. When we spoke before I said I had as many ways in and out of a place as I needed, but I still went in each time thinking I can do this. Not thinking about how high the odds were stacked against me."

If there are people who are lining up to call her naive - and Araceli doesn't consider herself naive enough to think that there aren't already if they hear this sort of thing from her - then they're free to do that. She'll keep moving forward, keep trying.

"It's the lifeblood, having a thing like that, no? My whole home is made of many islands but I live on the main 'heart' and all the waterways cut through it. Makes you stop and appreciate things, take in the view. I can do that here. Watch the ships come and go when I have a break." It's one of the things that's so small it's hard to explain why she missed it so much but she did it every day. She could hear them in her room. Hopefully they can live somewhere else than the accommodations afforded to them thus far because she likes the idea of the docks longer term.

Sighing quietly, Araceli nods. "Her journey to Skyhold in the first place involved coming by sea and she didn't enjoy that one. I hadn't planned to come so early but when I heard she was coming I said I would go with her, thinking that I might be able to help. Where her mark sits...well, that complicates things too. She was struck in the chest, not the hand like the rest of us."