Whispering wind is blowing [Open]

[nadasharillen]

WHO: Nari and you! (And special for Cade and Simon)
WHAT: October catchall for Nari
WHEN: Early Harvestmere
WHERE: Various Kirkwall
NOTES: Anything that comes with Cade. Super-sina-sadness! Cami don't read this in Panera :P

[Chantry Forest - open; come in at any point]

It had taken Nahariel a good amount of time to go into the forest. She'd been before, of course, but not for this. This was different. Beginning this work meant acknowledging an ending.

Early light of morning finds her wandering, looking at the wood with the frank and evaluating eye of a carver. Just before midday, she's found what she wants. A branch - good, straight, sturdy, just fallen. Tall enough.

Midday finds her sitting on a large tree's roots, somewhere near the center, thumb rubbing the haft of Dahlasanor's arulin'holm. The Dalish ceremonial tool for the beginning and ending of a work had been well taken care of in her absence, but even so she oils, polishes, and sharpens it with slow deft strokes. She raises it, turns it to catch a beam of sun that had managed to pierce the canopy, and makes the first cut.

Her afternoon, and several afternoons after it, are spent carving with singular focus. Curling vines and herbs and flowers and grasses and trees grow slowly from the wood, twining around it. Thoughtful halla begin to graze and keep watch, curved around the sides. Constellations of Ghilan'nain's guiding stars rise over the fields.

The details are refined with patience that could only be born of love, the wood sanded and polished to a silken sheen. It's only after she raises and lowers the arulin'holm to make the final cut she'd been saving for it - the only rough place on the smooth surface - that she weeps. It's a deep sound, broken and raw, rising and falling like waves as she rocks side to side, her arms wrapped around Sina's funeral staff.

[Docks]

When she's not working, Nari is down in the harbor. Sometimes it's helping to load or unload cargo, sometimes learning to fish, sometimes carving small animals or puzzles for the local children out of scrap wood, sometimes telling them stories, and on the warm days, sunning with a farmer's flopping straw hat down over her face. No matter the activity, she's always glad to see you.

[Elsewhere!]

Catch her leaving or returning from the forest (Chantry or Planacene)! At the markets! Drinking in the Hanged Man! Something else!

[Chantry Forest - closed]

She'll meet the two of them at where the entrance to the Chantry would have been, a pack full of sketches and measuring tools and some simple lunch slung over her shoulder, a roll of carving tools fastened beneath it. Upon seeing them, Nari raises a hand in greeting. "Thank you again," she says. "Feel free to disagree, but I thought perhaps the right place for her would be about where she was before?"

Comments

[nadasharillen]

"...well, how she holds her sword. What she wears. If she's graceful or strong, willowy or sturdy. If she has a kind face." And all other manner of esoteric questions. "I thought of all the people I knew of, you'd be best able to tell me about Andraste," Nari says. She tries for a reassuring smile and nearly avoids it looking as awkward as the rest of her stance.

[onlyhymns]

"Oh, well," Cade begins, thinking. He searches back through his memory; this isn't a hard question to answer. "She's strong," he decides, "but not too big, strong like... Wren." She's one of few women he can think of who matches that description, being taller than him and probably able to throw him across a room. "She holds her sword like this, or at least she did in the Kirkwall Chantry. In some places it's different."
Proving himself unusually talkative, Cade bends to pick up a stick, which he uses to demonstrate the position of Andraste's sword. "And she's.... she's always graceful. And kind. She's the Lady of Light." He takes a deep breath, the way one might when thinking of the object of one's desire. "...Our Lady."

[nadasharillen]

While he's talking, Nari has pulled out a bit of charcoal and begun to rough out a form in the parchment journal she keeps for such things. Strong, but curved lines for grace. She smiles as Cade shows the sword with a stick, the hilt pointed upwards. It's not a gesture of violence or threat, but one that shows she will do more than speak to defend. Kindness... it will be mostly in the face, and that Nahariel always decides while carving, but she adds it in the Lady's body by opening her other hand in a gesture that invites the viewer to take it, arm curving to offer the support. She begins to rough out some robes, but then furrows her brow and looks up from the drawing.

"Does she wear armor?" the elf asked.

[onlyhymns]

"Sometimes." Cade has actually begun to smile mildly, enjoying the task. "Sometimes she's just in a robe. It depends on whether you want to show the Warrior Andraste or the Bride of the Maker Andraste. It was a bit of both here, sort of like the T-" Suddenly the wind is gone from his sails, and Cade stumbles over the word to fall silent a moment.
"...like the Templars. Like Knight Commander Meredith." His eyes go distant, dismayed. "...she looked a lot like her, actually. What we know of her."

[nadasharillen]

As she's adding light armoring--pauldrons, a chest plate with a light tunic beneath over the flowing lines of the robe she'd already begun to sketch out--Nahariel feels the change in Cade like a change in the air; the promise of rain, or snow, or wind on the horizon. I forgot he was there when it happened. The awareness passes over her face like a cloud and she thins her lips.

"I'm sorry," Nari says simply, meaning it. "This must... we can come back to this later if it's bringing back bad memories."

[onlyhymns]

"No, it's fine." Cade rubs a hand across his face, trying to push away the bad thoughts. He's not a Templar anymore, Meredith is dead, but he still loves Andraste. He still wants to do well by the Chantry.
"I... I have a book with pictures from the Chant of Light," he muses, "if you want to borrow it."

[nadasharillen]

Books. Simple enough things, it seemed, to most of the shem'len she'd met; Nari was endlessly fascinated by them. This one was no exception - her face brightened at the opportunity to see not just a book, but an illuminated one.

"I'd like that," she said with a nod, "I don't know much about the Chant. Or about Andraste."

She knew a little about Andrastians, but she tucked those bits away. If not all of the People could be trusted, not all shem'len were to be distrusted either. What a world.

[onlyhymns]

Her reaction is enough to convince Cade that it would be worth it, and he nods with a faint smile. "Um. Can you read?" Is that an impolite question? Even after being friends with Beleth for a while, he still doesn't know what is and isn't appropriate to say to Dalish.
"I can.. lend you the Chant of Light, if you can."

[nadasharillen]

The response is a chuckle, and a slightly embarrassed head scratch, "Enough to write reports and notate my plans, but all I've learned is specific to its purpose. Enough for the Chant? No." Nari raises her shoulders in a brief shrug, "All our histories are aural. Every story, every technique, every lesson I've ever learned came out of someone else's mouth."

Which gave her a thought both unusual and interesting.

"You could ...teach it to me, if you like," she said, an odd smile playing on her lips, "The Chant."

[onlyhymns]

This presents an interesting challenge, but Cade is surprised to find he doesn't mind. In fact, the suggestion hits him in a way that almost feels right.

"...you'd want that?" It's a strange but not unwelcome surprise. "I can... yeah, I can read it to you." Abruptly he starts to blush, and looks down, but at least doesn't flee.

[nadasharillen]

Nahariel opens her mouth to tease him about her surprise that he hasn't got it all memorized already but Cade's body language still says 'kicked dog' to her, no matter the light tone of the discussion. So, taking advantage of his lowered eyes, she pops it shut again and tries again.

"I would. Maybe while I'm carving? That is," she amends, "if you've nothing else more pressing."

[onlyhymns]

Cade considers, then shrugs. "I don't," he admits, and it's the unfortunate truth. "..um... maybe in the mornings? I can come by after the chapel."

[nadasharillen]

"Mornings would be--" Nari casts a quick measuring glance at the position of the sun, eyeing the dapples it created across the small clearing Cade had led them to. "--perfect. And Gallows repair is wrapping up, so they'll be fine without me," she says, nodding at him.

"Tomorrow, then?"

[onlyhymns]

"Tomorrow." Cade gives a small nod of affirmation. And the faintest of smiles plays onto his mouth, which he doesn't hide, necessarily, but he doesn't let it grow bigger either. Elves still make him uncomfortable, but he's getting better.

"See you then."