faderift | OPEN | "The old ways are lost," you sang as you flew

Entry tags:

OPEN | "The old ways are lost," you sang as you flew

WHO: Pel + YOU
WHAT: Open log for April/Cloudreach
WHEN: Cloudreach
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: Will update with any warnings.

Arrival

Between the cramped ship and the stuffy warehouse, Pel feels like cargo. It's also hot, or it feels that way to her. Everything that was comfortable has gone, except for familiar people she doesn't know how to approach for a hug. She's not accustomed to asking for care.

So rather than her usual aloofness, Pel looks genuinely shaken, even depressed, and altogether wan and sleepless.

Early- to Mid-month

By the third day, Pel has shut herself up in a small room in the warehouse. There are frequent flashes of light underneath the door. Posted is a sign:

I AM NOT DEAD OR POSSESSED
ANCIENT AND VERY PRECISE MAGIC BEING WORKED

If you must reach me, see the below instructions:

1. KNOCK.
2. If there is no answer, please get help.
2.a. If you are a mage and believe you can help, please do so.
2.b. If you are not a mage, please find a mage who can help.
2.b.a. Or Alistair or Knight-Commander Norrington. No other Templars.
3. If I answer, state your name and your business but do not enter.
4. If I give you EXPLICIT permission to enter, wait until all the lights you can see from under the door are gone before opening the door.
5. If I do not give you EXPLICIT permission to enter, do not enter.
5.a. Not even if you are a mage.
5.b. Not even if you are a close friend.
5.c. Not even if you think of something horrible that might be happening.
5.d. Not even if you have a delightful prank in mind.
6. If I have not come out for several days, please bring food.
6.a. NOTHING WITH EGGS IN IT.
7. If confused, please refer to the top line of this sign and read on from there.

Lowtown Bazaar

One or two days out of the month, Pel puts on a dress, girds her sword, and goes down to the bazaar. It's different from Halamshiral's slums--cleaner, with less fear and loathing. And there is a host of street food she has wanted to try out since hearing about this place.

One stall has fried Antivan doughnuts that melt on the tongue, sweet and spicy. Orlesian sweets, quiches (ew no no eggs), cakes. Broiled cheese scraped and spread like butter on peppered potatoes. Delicate crepes wrapped around candied fruit and nuts. Creamy yogurt with mint and lime. Skewers of charred beef. A massive variety of incredibly fresh seafood, seasoned and grilled on a stick or sometimes simply boiled or even raw. Rich cream cakes. Nevarran-style sausages with pickled cabbage. Vats of savory noodles. Tender chicken giblets in a spicy broth. Exotic fresh fruits. Fatty, juicy pork and pickled vegetables wrapped up in hot, crispy flatbread. Stewed intestines, fried sweet potatoes, stewed chicken with chewy dumplings. Almost all of this is incredibly cheap--not the fresh seafood, especially not the lobster, but nearly everything else. The places serving it aren't exactly clean, some downright filthy, but most of the food is delicious. Just don't get food poisoning.

Come with her on a food adventure?

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Anders leans forward to touch the ring and look at it a little more closely before leaning back again.

"It's lovely, and it's not silly. I'm certain you'd care just as much for a boy." Some he couldn't say that to. Some had clear preferences for what their baby was supposed to be, and he could only hope for the infant's sake that it lined up. Some people simply weren't meant to be parents. Pel, though, he has confidence in.

"Perhaps wait a few years, though. Everything goes in a baby's mouth, and something that shines would be quite the target for that."

Her smile tightens.

"I think it was given to Keeper Deheune to give to me when I was old enough." She turns it in her hand for him to examine further. "I always thought you could see the forest in this stone. That's how it always looked to me, anyway. I don't know if Little Sina will grow up in an alienage. If she does, she'll be able to see the forest in this. Her grandmother...my mother won't approve. My mother would probably prefer I return it. But my daughter won't be denied her heritage, not from me."

She is wilting. After a moment, she clutches the ring, warming it in her hand.

"My parents won't come be here for this. They won't see her at all."

He takes the opening, looking it over. It's a pretty piece, and it must be nice to have a tie to one's family, he thinks, until the conversation turns. Anders tilts his head, frowning.

"Pel? What's gone on? Why would your mother want you to return something traditionally given?"

Her gaze falls.

"I left my clan. I'm pregnant with a flat-ear's bastard. I wrote to them and they wrote back: they don't want us. So it's going to be just me and Little Sina. And Cyril and Merrick, when they're not out changing the world."

Slowly he reaches over and takes the hand holding tight to the ring. A half-dozen joking replies about 'and I thought being tossed out for accidentally setting the barn on fire' come to mind and are dismissed. It would work with some people, at some times. This doesn't seem to be the right place and time.

"You know it's not just you, though, right? I'm not Dalish, but I'll be around. There are others... It's not like we can replace what you've lost here, and it's not like we can or even should act Dalish for you, but you've friends. Alistair, um, Norrington? And there are others. You're not alone."

"I know." Her face is impassive, but she is unusually tense. Her shoulders are hunched when they are normally square, and she doesn't look at Anders. "My head knows it. But no amount of thinking has kept me from being afraid. Once this is over, if we win, what am I going to do? How can I work a job and care for a child without a clan?"

He's quiet for several moments. He's a Grey Warden, as is Alistair, which means there can be no promises about being around.

"The same thing many single parents do. They find a job they can do while watching their child, or they ask their friends for assistance. You've friends, Pel. You'll find a position that's near some of them, and it will work out. Or you'll find someone you want to pair your life with, and they'll help, or so on."

She thinks about James. She wonders if he would ever take her back, if he's her last hope. She nods.

"Right." She glances at him. "I'm...not really accustomed to this. Desperate and needy. I'm accustomed to being Keeper's First. There's a lot of pride that comes with that. I should go about the ways of getting used to this."

"Mm." The noise is more exhale than anything. He's never been used to being in a position where he was free to have pride and confidence. The Wardens had given him a little, but the time had been so short.

"I'm certain I can't know what you mean. My life was rather glamorous. Did you know I once took a bath in Hightown?" His expression is a blend of wryness and amusement.

Pel isn't actually certain if that counts as glamorous. She suspects it's not, but she looks at him blankly for a good long time just to make sure.

The amusement fades before he shrugs.

"It was Hawke's tub, we were all covered in mud after a long day and I got to use it as thanks for keeping everyone alive. But it was a nice bath."

A beat, and then another shrug.

"Desperate and needy can be scary, but there's a few of us around who are well-acquainted with it. You'll be all right and you'll have support, Pel."

A smile. A real one, no self-consciousness. He's seen everything else there is to her, so.

"Thank you." Her gaze falls away briefly. "Have you cured the Warden taint yet?"

He exhales, shaking his head as he sits down against the wall. They don't have a lot of time and he's so very aware of that.

"We've possible leads but all of them are slim or dangerous. I've a scrap of a report that says High Dragons do something to the Blight, but not what, so we need to kill a High Dragon and bring its corpse back for study. That'll be easy." His voice is sarcastic; it's a good cover for stress. "A Warden mage apparently gave birth and the child was given to the Circle so we could try hunting down what happened to Fiona's kid if they even survived dealing with the Chantry. Some man in Fereldan used some flower to cure a mabari of the Blight, but no one seems to recall the man's name or what the flower even looked like."

Four years. He has maybe four years to cure something that no one has cured before, and he's terrified he won't manage it.

Edited 2017-04-20 01:14 (UTC)

A stunned pause. She tries to pick the thing that stands out out of that pile of information.

"Fiona's child? You haven't talked to him already? And what does he have to do with curing the taint, when he's already a Grey Warden?"

It will occur to her in a moment that she is, once again, failing at keeping secrets.

Anders stares at her, trying to sort out what's being said. Then it clicks - she knows who Fiona's child is. She knows, and he's a Grey Warden?

"Wait, you know him?" If he's one of the Wardens up North and lost to them Anders will not be surprised... except Pel's Dalish. Was Dalish. Is? He doesn't know. The point is, she hadn't hung around a lot of Grey Wardens, likely. So that meant here? Who... Why was he thinking in circles when he could ask? "Who?"

"You don't mean Alist--"

Pel stops. This is something she was told in confidence. Was it a secret? He hadn't really said it was a secret. But she's already said the first two syllables, so stupidly, she finishes.

"--durr." Her brow furrows for a moment, then smooths to try to make this look like it wasn't an accident somehow.

"Alistair."

His mind goes back to when they'd been captive together, when the blood mages had been excited by something in Alistair's blood, and Anders shakes his head slowly. He's an idiot. A possible answer had been in front of them for so long, and had Alistair known? Except he's Blighted. Anders rubs the bridge of his nose, trying to tell himself this doesn't mean that path is a dead end.

"Alistair is Fiona's son. I... Would you mind excusing me? The exam is done and I need to speak with him." And then Merrill, because hopefully he'll agree to a blood mage poking at him.

Pel winces visibly. If Alistair hasn't mentioned it, there must be a good reason, and moreover it took the decision out of the hands of her friend. She tucks a stray hair behind one ear as she nods.

"Of course. I--"

Her gaze drops, her head bows. She's already said too much.

He stops from getting up, giving Pel a confused look.

"What's wrong?" Had there been pains or issues she'd not told him about?

She shakes her head, not looking him in the eye.

"I'm just...not sure if I should have told you. He didn't say it was secret, but I thought he would have said something if it wasn't."

That gets mulled over for a moment before he's shrugging.

"It's not like I've really talked parents with much of... anyone. You, today, Bethany and Marian because I knew their mother, Nate because he's my husband, and I believe that's it. If he didn't say it was a secret, then it's probably simply not come up. He didn't think it important, that's all."

"Yes, he did." Pel takes a deep breath. "It means he's both elf- and mage-blooded, and both are reasons his mother didn't want anyone to know. But I thought the Wardens knew. Dirthamen knows nobody can keep straight what the Wardens do or don't know, but I'd think a Warden pregnant with a king's child would be noted."

Her gaze drops again. "Just...go talk to him. I'll sort things out with him later, all right?"

Edited 2017-04-20 01:58 (UTC)

"Maybe it was noted and I didn't get the note." Anders shrugs. "It's not like I was exactly recruited because the Wardens wanted me." Or protected, or anything along those lines.

"I'm... I hope it will be easy to sort out. At the very least, I'll not spread the word around if he wants to keep it quiet."

Right. Of course Pel is worried about how this will impact her instead of asking Anders not to tell anyone else. She nods.

"Please don't. It's her secret as well as his, and from what I understand she's come back around lately."

"Of course." Even though it could give some mages hope, hearing that one of the children stolen from them had been reunited with their mother. Fiona can share that information if she ever chooses to. But considering Alistair looks human and likely gains some advantages he'd not have if he'd been born an elf instead, Anders can't justify taking that from him.

"Call me on the crystals if anything changes with you, as usual." Then he's getting up and stretching before looking over at her. "Could you use a hand up before I go?"

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