[open] a little truth arrives in the dying of each day

[eolasemah]

WHO: Sina and you
WHAT: here we go
WHEN: mid-Harvestmere
WHERE: Hightown and then the Gallows
NOTES: All Sina logs from this point onward will involve discussions/dealing with death and illness, so if you're sensitive about those topics I recommend passing these by.

I. Just outside the Forest Garden [single thread please, 1-3 people max]

Sina still looks like Sina, but if Thedas had photographs, and the ability to compare a person's image of two years ago to their image today, only then would it become achingly clear how much mass she's lost. As the weather grows chill, she has to bundle up more and more just to go to work in her gardens, and even then is constantly cold. But she's been all right, all things considered; she's still upright, at least.

Until she isn't. Having felt a little strange since they found the elf children in the warehouse, Sina has chalked it up to the usual business and the gut-wrenching trauma of what they found. Her chest has felt a little heavier, her step a little slower, her hands a little colder, nothing worth calling a healer about until today: she's nearly down the stairs of the former Chantry when she abruptly loses consciousness.

Crumpling like a doll, Sina scrapes her leg on the last few steps and collapses to the ground, basket of herbs on its side, its contents splayed everywhere. She wakes up at once, but with bleary confusion, disoriented and burning with fever.


II. The Infirmary [ota]

Those who spent any significant time with the rescued elven children may also have caught what ails Sina now, but with a body already so ravaged by weakness, fighting it is clearly difficult for her. She's asleep most of the time, coughing when she's awake, and unable to keep food down.
It's not the first time she's been in this position, but it may be the last.

Comments

[arlathvhen]

Beleth certainly hadn't meant it offensively. It was just. A little forest. Not one of the massive sprawling ones that they'd both once lived within.

She gives Sina another encouraging smile, and nods. "It might. I'll do what I can to look after it. And make sure that it's safe." From both natural ills, and from fucking Seekers, because Beleth was about to set those fucking Seekers on fire if they tried to touch the goddamn trees.

...Anyway.

"I promise, Sina. I'll protect it." She looks down at her hands, still feelings that awkwardness, but it's better, now. She has something to focus on. Something to hold herself to.

[eolasemah]

Mirroring Beleth's smile, Sina nods wearily. "I never thought... becoming so involved with the shem'len could be so good for us," she admits, "you do so much, Beleth. You serve the People well."

[arlathvhen]

A genuine, proud grin works it's way onto Beleth's face at that, and she ducks her head a little, suddenly bashful. "I do what I can. What any one person can do. Though...I still can't believe sometimes that I made it here. I knew we could use the shemlen, but I never expected that they would be so willing to work with us. I would have never thought that they'd allow me to lead them."

She reaches for Sina's hand, and suddenly, there's so much she wants to say, things she needs Sina to know. "It's not going to stop here, Sina. And it's not going to stop with me. The People will flourish, and we'll make the shemlen respect us. We'll prove that we deserve it." Even if she has to drag the rest of the Dalish kicking and screaming.

"If I could get this far in two years, think of how much further we can go."