OPEN POST - there's a green glow coming from the library window

[mythalenaste]

WHO: Pel Ashara and everybody in Skyhold
WHAT: Pel returns from the Fallow Mire with crazy amounts of research and will wall herself up doing work and being totally antisocial unless you save her!
WHEN: 19 Firstfall...or is it the 20th? Today. Today and really, really late tonight.
WHERE: Skyhold courtyard and library
NOTES: This is prior to the general return from Skyhold, obviously. Pel just caught a ride back to Skyhold well ahead of the crowd.

Arrival

It turns out a large caravan full of pious Andrastian humans will leave a tiny heathen elf-woman alone if she carries herself like she's about to kick someone's ass. The trip from the Mire to Skyhold was uneventful. In fact, there was never a good enough reason to use her magic, so none of the van was tipped off that Pel is a mage.

Unfortunately, she had no pack mule, so she's having to haul a lot of crap around by herself. One of the nicer people let her keep her heavier things on his cart, but now she's having to get it all unpacked carrying it with her own two hands. She's too proud to ask for help, but you can offer it if you like.

Library

From the time she arrives, she's in the library. During the day, she can be found bent over books. Sometimes, she's asleep on top of one.

At night, long after the keep has gone to bed, a green glow can be seen in the library window, flickering like flame. If someone chooses to check this out, they will find Pel standing over a stone slab with a veilfire flame in her hand, held over her work like a candle. A rune on the slab gives a faint green glow in response. The fire reflects in the elf's eyes like a cat's as she stares suspiciously at you.

Comments

[the_effect_she_has]

Katniss looked at her, watching as her body language changed. From tense, to ... less tense. As if the Dalish woman had seen something in her that was not dangerous. Which honestly, Katniss would have stated she was plenty dangerous. Just ... not in a library.

One eyebrow raised, "Why, to make fire normally do you have to slice open your wrist and call out to the Dread Wolf?"

[mythalenaste]

"I don't do blood magic. Or any other form of self-mutilation." She has trouble enough keeping a particular clanmate from doing that, what kind of example would she be? "I have matches."

To demonstrate, she picks up a box of matches from the seat of a nearby chair. She was running out of table space.

[the_effect_she_has]

"Then you can light fire however you want. Matches though, seem to be faster." Is Katniss's response, as she heads over to the table to take a candle, and then look down at everything on the table.

"Hm." One eyebrow raised, "Are you sure you should be doing ... whatever you're doing, around all these volumes?" Taking the candle, she held it out so it could be lit. "I mean, if you're worried about magical fire ... figured you'd worry about the books."

[mythalenaste]

"I'm not worried about anything." She strikes a match and lights two candles. "I'm not in the habit of throwing fire around like a child throwing a tantrum anyway. Even if I was, fire isn't my element. Veilfire--the green stuff--is different, it doesn't consume anything in this world."

[the_effect_she_has]

"No, of course you're not ..." is the quiet mutter, and Katniss is ready to turn away when she frowns and turns back, "But how is that possible? Flame needs air to grow, fuel to consume. It can't exist on nothing."

[mythalenaste]

...Hey, wow. A non-mage who is interested in hearing her talk about magic.

"Well...veilfire isn't exactly fire. More like...someone's half-remembered dream of fire, made semi-real."

She hesitates.

"You know how in dreams, everything that should be right and sensible is mucked up and makes no sense once you're awake? You're able to fly and things like that? Well, in the Fade, fire doesn't follow rules either. It doesn't need to consume anything or even heat anything up. It's perfectly content to burn on its own and provide a bit of light without devouring anything."

[the_effect_she_has]

Well, she's more interested in why fire is not working like fire, but sure..

She frowns at that, tilting her head to the side, "So ... how does Veilfire work out here? Our dreams kept in the Fade. They haven't started coming out of the rifts."

Oh Maker, Syllaise, and all the Elvhen... "They ... haven't, have they?"

[mythalenaste]

"Not at all. Mages can summon veilfire, just like they can summon any number of things from the Fade. I can't tell you what Circle mages use it for, but it makes for a good light in a pinch, if you haven't any other sort. More to the point, it can activate certain spells lying dormant, or it can...the best word I can think of is interpret these runes. The ancient elves used these to communicate--not just words, mind you, I think words work fine on their own without any theatrical nonsense."

Her hand hovers over the stone reverently, though she doesn't summon the fire again.

"Images, emotions, thought and intent. Memories, sometimes. This here is a layered, textured communication from one of our ancestors."

[the_effect_she_has]

"Always comforting to find out mages can summon all kinds of things from the Veil." Katniss muttered, before she took another look at the runes, "Well, the stone is fairly pliable. They didn't have to strike hard to mark them. Beyond that ... "

She looked at the stones, and said quietly, "Harhen'durgen. It must be old beyond imagining." She shook her head a little -- no no, she was not going to get pulled in by Dalish things. She wanted the here and now, "Well, ma'serranas. Good luck."

[mythalenaste]

"That's what magic is, though. Drawing on power from the Fade."

She purses her lips briefly. "Weren't you here for a book?"

[the_effect_she_has]

"Well, I know that. And I don't know how they educate mages, Dalish or otherwise. But shouldn't there be more thought put into what you pull from the other side? The Veil is there for a reason, after all." Katniss held up the candle, one corner of her mouth twisting.

"I am ... but my book is clearly not mage-reading material. I'm looking for Master Tetheras." She showed the list she had painstakingly written out.

[mythalenaste]

"That's why the clever mages don't use magic for just anything. But veilfire is safe, so long as one doesn't try making it something it isn't."

Tethras, eh? She smiles secretively.

"You've found the right elf. I'll show you his good ones. Which have you read?"

[the_effect_she_has]

"Keep it as fire, it will stay as fire." Katniss canted her head a little, "I can agree with that."

Was she actually speaking to a Dalish elf that didn't treat her as a pariah as her mother had? Well, then again, this Dalish elf didn't know she was a half breed so ... yes.

"...All of them." A faint pink tinged her cheek. "I used to own them all before - well. Before."

[mythalenaste]

"Have you met him yet?" Pel heads to the section where Varric's books are kept and starts half-pulling them from the shelf, to show where they are.

[the_effect_she_has]

This was all so ... odd. If she could have imagined her simple life changing this much in such a short amount of time.

She had wanted to go quietly into the fight and just ... leave this world. She was starting to wonder if that was what fate really had in store.

Her fingers went automatically to the 'Tale of the Champion', brushing the binding lovingly before she pulled it out. "No, of course not. Varric Tethras doesn't go wandering through the Hinterlands, looking for hunters to moon over his writing."

[mythalenaste]

Pel smiles like the cat that found the cream. She might have just found a way to make a friend.

"I'll arrange for you to meet him. Privately, of course. A casual tea or something. You'll see him around here and there, but he's much less intimidating once you've got him alone."

[the_effect_she_has]

Well that was an effective way to make a friend - or at least make Katniss less likely to give Pel the side-eye.

Of course right now, she's staring at Pel, grey eyes wide with surprise. "What - why is Varric Tethras here?" Because this was a bloody war zone.

[mythalenaste]

"Because before he was an author, he was bloody good with a crossbow. Far as I can tell."

[the_effect_she_has]

"Well yes, the crossbow is pretty prevalent in the 'Tale of the Champion'... so he came to join the cause?" Wow. "That's ... pretty damn heroic. Of course if I count as coming here as brave, we're all heroes."

[mythalenaste]

"I don't know the details, truth be told. You'll be able to ask him yourself." She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. "What's your name?"

[the_effect_she_has]

"And you truly know him? I could - meet him?" Katniss said slowly, her eyes still wide, before she shook her head. Right, this was not the time to moon like one of those village girls over the Arl's Knights. "Katniss. Katniss Everdeen. And you are?"

[mythalenaste]

"Pel, of Clan Ashara. And I really do know him. I actually work for him, these days. I read his books to look for mistakes before they're published."

[the_effect_she_has]

It's on the tip of her tongue to ask and she very nearly does ... but then again she doesn't want to know. Perhaps it was better to stay that way, to never know what really happened to her mother. She doesn't know what would be worse - finding out she had died, or finding out she had finally abandoned her and Prim totally.

Instead, she says quietly, and with a grudging note of respect, "You must be very smart."

[mythalenaste]

She shakes her head. "I work hard, is all. Just like anyone can. No doubt you do as well."

[the_effect_she_has]

"I do. But I work on improving my aim, my balance and my stance. I work on being able to take someone out with my hunting knife if they get too close for me to shoot effectively, or to take my arrow and use that instead. I work on my tracking, I work on my hunting practices - what parts of an animal I can use to craft other items. It's mostly ... well."

She took one hand off the book she was carrying, smirking. "Hands directly on."