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

[mythalenaste]

She peers at the runes, not recognizing the symbols but finding some fascination with the idea of runestones. At the bottom of the stairs, she stops to take a proper look.

"How interesting. Is it like a good luck charm? Do they mean anything?"

[byblow]

"They're dwarven," he says--most runestones are, he thinks, when they aren't made of ancient weird fade-fire. "The white one means south--we use it on signs sometimes in Ferelden, for people who can't read--and the black one means water." He folds his hand back around them and returns them to the pouch. "I can't say they've made me lucky at all. Maybe if they were enchanted."

[mythalenaste]

"My brother likes to make things like this. From halla antlers, though. He made this."

She pulls out a pendant on a string, an ornately carved point of an antler.

[byblow]

"That's beautiful," he says, stooping down a moment to look more closely. "Did he give it to you at your arlath--your meeting?"

[mythalenaste]

"Oh."

That had been misleading, hadn't it?

"I meant my...adopted brother, I suppose. Merrick. We're not actually related, but we're very close. The ring, though--"

She's talking about a green amber and silver ring, strung on the same cord as the pendant.

"--is from my blood family. My mother."

She catches both pendant and ring in a single hand, turning them for him to see.

[byblow]

The next time Alistair hears Merrick mentioned, it will be Zevran comparing him to Taliesin--maybe the fact that Pel cares for him will keep Alistair from immediately deciding to hate him. Maybe.

"That's lovely, too," he says. "I've seen a lot of rings--" Looting bodies, you know how it is. "--but never one like that."

[mythalenaste]

"Dalish make. She said it's something passed down through our family. It dates...I think it dates back to around Halamshiral. But I'm always working too much to wear it on my finger."

She puts it away, then folds her arms as they keep walking back toward the carts.

"Did you ever have anything from your family?"

[byblow]

His eyes widen a little at Halamshiral, impressed, and he says, "Wow," and catches another look at it before it vanishes again.

"Yes. I mean, nothing they gave me on purpose, but my guardian kept an amulet of my mother's for me. She was one of his servants. And I wound up with my father's sword and some of my brother's armor for a while, but they weren't really the sort of things I could wear around. I left it all in Denerim. I'd probably have to fight someone to get it back now, and honestly I don't care enough. Wasn't meant for me."

He stops at the cart and holds his arms out to be loaded up again--not because he means to be helpless about it, but because he isn't sure what he can touch without possibly ruining things.

"That sounded sullen. I don't mean it that way." Much. "It was just very shiny."

[mythalenaste]

Father's sword, brother's armor. He didn't know his family. Grey Warden Alistair. Denerim.

It finally clicks. Pel stops walking suddenly, mouth opening.

[byblow]

He stands there a moment with his hands still outstretched, fingers wiggling, but it doesn't take him long to figure out what he's done wrong. Shouldn't have said anything. His shoulders slump--that's genuine weariness. His annoyed glare, on the other hand, is only a quarter genuine, with good humor poorly hidden in the corners of his eyes.

"I hate it when people look at me like that," he says, and pointedly elevates his waiting hands. "No one looks at Leliana or Zevran that way." That's probably not true, but Alistair is going to talk until this stops feeling awkward, whatever lies that may require. "I don't know which of us should be insulted. Probably me. It's because I don't look heroic, isn't it? I can't help that I was born so puny and weak-chinned."

[mythalenaste]

Her heart sinks.

"I don't...that's not it at all. And you said Zevran--Mythal'enaste I must look such a fool. I am a fool."

Zevran the Entertainer. She leans against a nearby wall, arms folded.

"We didn't hear much detail as a clan in the Free Marches. And it was ten years ago. I'm sorry I didn't recognize you."

Not that she expects that's actually a problem, considering how little he and Zevran have been forthcoming about their roles in the Blight.

[byblow]

"I wish you hadn't," Alistair says--so, yes, not a problem at all. "I need to start lying more, but I'm not very good at it." He lowers his hands, finally, and tries smiling instead. Eventually something will work. "And see, now you have me at a disadvantage. I haven't had anyone to tell me oversimplified and wildly exaggerated stories about your life. You'll have to do it yourself. Tell me about your brother, how about, but add a couple of dragons."

[mythalenaste]

She's put at ease by this, a smile coming back to her face.

"I can do that." She peels away from the wall and starts guiding him toward the cart again. She considers. "When Merrick was first born, he leapt from the Keeper's arms and tore off the head of an attacking bear."

[byblow]

"A bear," Alistair echoes, duly impressed. "Fully grown? I'm amazed." And mildly disconcerted, belatedly, now that there's nothing left for him to inadvertently give away: "Is that really his name?"

[mythalenaste]

"Yes. No relation."

[byblow]

"I assume he's an elf," Alistair says. "Otherwise I'd tell you not to be so sure. His Majesty got around." Exhibit A. Alistair isn't convinced Exhibits B through F aren't out there somewhere. "What about you? How many bears have you beheaded?"

[mythalenaste]

"Oh, five or six. I'm the one who taught him to perfect the art. Arms out." They've arrived at the cart and she's ready to start loading him up with the rest of her goods.

[byblow]

Arms out, as ordered; he's grinning again, back in comfortable territory not so overpopulated with broodmothers and betrayal.

"I hope they did something to deserve it."

[mythalenaste]

"They understand the deal. Everyone's fair game if they look crosswise at the other one's young."