CLOSED | Heart that is broken, beats still unceasing; An ocean of sorrow does nobody drown.

[nadasharillen]

WHO: Nari & Cade (and open to Simon and any of the Chantry Relations peeps if they want to stop in sometime!)
WHAT: Carving of the new statue of Andraste
WHEN: Mid Harvestmere to Mid Firstfall
WHERE: Chantry Forest
NOTES: Cade the walking CW!

The morning finds the sun beginning to shine through the trees and a cool breeze ruffling the canopy. It has begun to carry the first promises of winter, and the shadows are seeming less inviting, but the sun grants enough warmth that shivers are still rare.

Nahariel is already there when Cade arrives. In contrast to her usual leathers, today she's dressed for comfort--although not abandoning her color palette of dark greens and browns. She has, however, abandoned her shamefully beloved boots to the side in favor of the grass between her toes. A bevy of coarser tools are laid out in the grass nearby; a two handled saw leans against a tree, a shovel, a woodsman's axe, and it's cousin the adz nearby. The Dalish artisan is staring with a thoughtful frown at the spot Cade had marked for their project, but turns at his approach.

"Morning!" she says, her grin quirking up, "Ready to begin the search for Andraste?"

Comments

storytime!

[nadasharillen]

The next day dawned brightly. This time, Cade was there first, and by long enough to consider that perhaps he'd been forgotten by the time Nari trotted through the forest to join him, her eyes downcast and her face creased in a helpless frown that flickered into a small smile when she caught his glance.

"Abela-- er, sorry," she said, interrupting her Elvhen with trade tongue, "It's, well... Sina had a bad morning," she finished, her gaze grazing the forest floor again as her shoulders curled downwards. With a small shake of her head, she stood straight again, and moved to the small stepladder she'd placed near the trunk, hefting the woodsman's axe.

"Tell me her story," said Nahariel, as she braced to make her first rough cut, "the Maker's Bride."

[onlyhymns]

Cade never really has a problem being somewhere quiet by himself, and fond of hunting as he is, the forest has always been a place of peace. By the time Nari arrives, he's just sitting quietly on their log, eyes closed, likely praying.
He comes to attention quickly enough, however, and stands as though embarrassed, brushing dirt off the backs of his legs. "It's fine," he says with a small smile, and steps aside to let the elf pass.
On her request, he moves to pick up his book, which he'd set down alongside his other things without any worry of them coming to harm in the mild weather. Sitting down with it on a patch of grass nearby, he turns to a page with a full illustration of Andraste and her followers.

"She was Ciriane and Alamarri," he begins, "...ancient human tribes." Maybe Nari knows that, he has no idea. "And born to mortal parents, though her life was tragic when she was little. Her half-sister Hallisere was killed horribly, and she was never the same after." He looks down, contemplating. "They say she went into trances and couldn't be disturbed. That she heard bells and voices."

[nadasharillen]

Despite the validity of her absence, Nari is still glad to have it excused. She’d readied her axe to begin when he did, but paused to listen first. She cuts an odd figure for a moment, axe over her head, and then releases it to come and peer at the book after a glance shows her that it’s open to a brilliant full-color illuminated illustration, eyes bright and intent as they always are to witness a new craft. She lays her fingers gently on the page to feel the paper-thin raises where gilded accents touch Andraste’s hair, robe, the painstaking curling patterns that surround the picture, and then smiles embarrasedly and quickly withdraws her hand as she remembers herself.

“It’s beautiful,” she says, and scoots backwards to return to her craft.

Ciriane and Alamarri... She makes a cut for the birth of Andraste and her people, the first bit of wood falling away to reveal the colors the statue will eventually be. A shadow briefly passed her face to hear about Hallisere—another cut, for the Bride’s half-sister, and another for her bells and voices. It would continue that way as Cade continued to speak, the elf listening and then putting it into the wood.

[onlyhymns]

Cade nods, looking a little more closely at the picture, as though trying to mimic how Nari experienced it. He's quite familiar with it, but her reaction gives him cause to think twice, and scrutinize it a little longer.
It's been a few long moments before he realizes he's off-track, and he clears his throat to continue, describing Andraste's life growing up, her marriage, her calling-upon by the Maker. No one understood that she was anything but crazy, because the Maker spoke to her and told her how to lead; he gave her the possibilities of the world, and trusted her such that she became his Bride despite already being married to Maferath.

[nadasharillen]

It's not hard for Nari to imagine deities as touchable--after all, she'd been taught that the Creators often interacted with the People before Fen'Harel's betrayal to answer prayers, to teach. It's a little harder to imagine deities as... people.

Andraste grew up, she thought. She would have eaten and drunk, had joys and sorrows, small triumphs, secret thoughts and hopes. She'd married--twice! Nari could hardly imagine one marriage to care for. I wonder what her favourite food was. There was a tiny giggle at that stray thought, quickly tucked away.

"Did the Ciriane and Alamarri know of the Maker already?" Nari asks instead, wondering if Andraste had been the first to speak to him.

[onlyhymns]

That's a good question. Cade pauses, looking at Nari, then looking forward for a moment before he shakes his head. "Andraste was the first person He spoke to," he confirms, "...and she spoke on His behalf, because of her dreams."