Put on your sunday cloak, we're gonna get lost in town.

[laurenande]

WHO: Galadriel and You
WHAT: Catchall for December
WHEN: After the return from Nevarra
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: Galadriel around Kirkwall and the Gallows, not generally obeying curfew because clearly that is for other people without magic cloaks. This can't possibly go awry.

Gallows - Early Morning

Galadriel rose with the sun.

She was given to watching the dawn and, despite her latent need for sleep, her body had become far too accustomed to the early hours to permit her excessive rest. When she ventured forth into the halls and through the courtyard of the Gallows, she found that Kirkwall could be a peaceful place, after a fashion. The sky was grey and dreary, the air was thick with the cold fog that only the ocean could provide, and everything was deathly still. The world was supressed by the night stillness and, all too gradually, the sun would burn the fog away and the day would be renewed.

She savored what she could of the early morning, but did not linger long in the open. This place made her uneasy and while she was not evasive, not truly, she did not tarry between tasks. Her first task was breakfast and she made her way to the silent kitchens that were free of staff. She expected they would also be free of any other occupants at this hour as well.

(If you want to catch Galadriel kicking around the Gallows at freaking-early-o-clock, please have at. She will be baking in the Mage Tower kitchen area, and then probably learning the layout of the building before she scrams. She will be leaving before nine a.m..)

Lowtown - Day

It was hard for Galadriel to truly gague the wealth and prosperity of mortal cities. They functioned so strangely and with such inconcistancy that identifying affluence was often a gamble. Halamshiral had been no challenge for her--the poor lived in startling poverty and the wealthy lived in opulence that was equal to the highest courts she had ever known. Here, the lines were not so exaggerated, but they were decidedly present.

Lowtown, then, between its name and the dilapidated state of it, must have been where the poorest lived. The streets and alleys were in disrepair, the buildings loomed with presence rather than height, and there was something--not desperate but not entirely unlike desperation--that wove its way through this section of the city.

Galadriel disliked this place, it was a stark reminder of the ways of Men, of how they worked the world in their short time, and is distressed her. Unfortunately, when compared to The Gallows, or even to Halamshiral, it was far preferrable. It was brown, void of most growing things, and filled with noise and chaos, but it was no darker than it pretended to be. There was no pretense here and, if only for that, she was thankful.

Hooded and cloaked, Galadriel traveled the maze of alleys and storefronts, past hovels and dark, silent windows that stared down like the eyes of a dreadful beast. She was ignored, by in large, and found few things of note until she stumbled upon the Alienage. There she found a painted tree, the Vhendahl, and she was so glad to see it she embraced it.

(Run into Galadriel shopping around, being suspicious in her full cloak and hood, getting hopelessly lost in alleys, or hugging a tree. Or maybe you could try to mug her, your call.)

Hightown - Afternoon

The climb up the steps was a telling journey. Galadriel had seen few cities with a feature so dramatic and each of those had been made to defend against a siege. Kirkwall had never been designed to withstand siege and, at first, the point of these stairs confused her. Then she recalled the statues that stood in the harbor, the chains they towed and the way they bent toward the waves, and she was far less confused.

Hightown was, by comparison, a beautiful city. The buildings rose above the streets and into the sunlight. The roads were clean and the stonework in good repair. Green things and decorations grew in small, decorative plots along the roadside and where the stairs plateaued. It was a place of ease and beauty, but it was still very much the same city as the one below.

Galadriel wandered a while and avoided the stationed guards as only someone with a gift for concealment could. She walked through the streets and the crisp air, and tried to decide if Kirkwall was tolerable. It was, perhaps, a bit much to ask from a stroll beneath decorative features, but it was one she asked all the same. Eventually she stumbled upon a plaza with a fountain and took a moment to wonder at it. In Orlais she could not enjoy them, too great was her disgust, but here she seated herself and watched the water a while.

(Hello, City Watch, there's a woman in a grey cloak outside staring intensely at my water feature and petting my roses. Please come take care of this.--Uh I mean run into Galadriel in High Town as she Judges It(tm).)

Docks - Dusk

In the end it was not surprising that she found her way to the docks. The sounds of the sea drift all across the city, but the sight of the water was another matter altogether. From Hightown it was too distant to truly enjoy, just a glimmer below, but Kirkwall has a number of docks and she managed to find her way to one of them. She was conflicted about the ocean, true, but standing on the waterside was something to be relished.

The setting sun was beautiful and, while the sounds of the docks were not exceptionally familiar, the overall din was nearly universal.

(Hey look a dock. Is she gonna get stabbed? Sing a lay to the ocean? Flip off the Valar? who knows?)

Gallows - Night

Returning to the Gallows was both a chore and a relief; the silence and relative quiet of them fell in sharp contrast to the rest of Kirkwall. Galadriel was unaccustomed to such constant dissonant noise and while the stones in the Gallows still sang, whispered the Old Song, that was faded and familiar. She lingered a time in the courtyard, beneath the stars and open sky, before finally traveling in.

(Run into Galadriel at night, or spy her glowing self when she ditches the hood to look at the sky. She's really terrible at hiding in the dark, just awful at it. Alternately, run into her in the halls, or getting dinner, or, if you're feeling saucy, in the baths late at night. She gotta scrub that Kirkwall off of her, afterall.)

Comments

[serannas]

"Oh," she says with a laugh, rubbing at her cheek which must be chapped from the cold. "Not far, but high. I was jumping between rooftops. It's to train myself to be more stealthy. But how are you? There's so much I wanted to talk to you about when I first saw you, but obviously the time wasn't right."

Ellana points to the stairs. "We could talk in private, if you'd like. I have a room."

[laurenande]

"A room? Yes, of course," Galadriel says after a moment of distraction, imagining Ellana leaping rooftops like the Ghaladrim jumping between trees. It brings a smile to her face and she steps aside to allow the Dalish elf to lead the way.

"I am recovered, but beyond that I cannot say," Galadriel beings and follows once Ellana begins walking. "I feel terribly weakened."

[serannas]

"Really?" she asks with concern, looking her over and thinking she means she might faint. Moving close to her side, she stands ready should Galadriel need to lean on her. "If you need a break as we go up the stairs, please let me know." But then she can't really contain herself anymore, and she starts talking.

"I've left my clan. I don't really consider myself Dalish anymore. I think the title keeps elves divided when we should be united. I've been writing a book about my explorations and how it led us to finding the Sulevin Blade. I hope to get it published someday. Felix is gone now. He was sent on a mission for the Wardens and we felt it was for the best if we separated. He wouldn't be back for years and with so few years left to him anyway..." She trails off and shrugs. Those are some of the most important things that Galadriel has missed, and Ellana hasn't even gotten to the stealth mage stuff yet.

[laurenande]

Ellana's sudden torrent of information is unexpected but delightfully enthusiastic and Galadriel's smile stretches wide as she listens. She takes Ellana up on her offer for support, but it is largely symbolic and maintains only as long as the stairs do.

She has left her clan because the title divides the people? It is an attitude that is very forward in thought and once that Galadriel finds she supports. That she has written a book is no surprise, and Galadriel notes it for another day. She is not saddened to hear that Felix is gone, but she will not disparage the warden before Ellana, despite his absence.

"I should like to read your book," Galadriel says as they climb. "Have you had any grand adventures since my departure?"

[serannas]

"Of course! You can even read what I have so far; you don't have to wait until it's published." Galadriel is worthy of a sneak peek that few others would be.

"A few. I went to an island off Rivain. There were sea monsters to fight and elven ruins there too. But mostly I've been focusing on my book and things back here, like the specialization I created."

[laurenande]

"Specialization?" Galadriel asks and makes a note to question her about sea monsters as well. Ellana has definitely had a lively time in her absence.

"It sounds as though you have done very much in a short time, are you not exhausted, my friend?"

[serannas]

"Exhausted? No. At least, not yet!" She lets out a laugh and guides Galadriel towards her room. "I always do a bunch of things at once to see what I'll stick with. I drop the extra things. But my specialization? I call it Spellcloak. I developed a set of spells to help me be more stealthy so I don't get dragged into battle."

[laurenande]

"Stealth?" Galadriel asks, honestly surprised as they walk toward their destination. "Your specialty is concealment?"

It is hard to pick out of her tone, Galadriel is so often inclined to sound pleasant and cheerful, but there is a thread of honest delight in her voice and on her face. She watches Ellana with absolute interest and, indeed, a feeling of excitement that seems fairly unlike her. She cannot be blamed, however, as her friend is pursing a path that Galadriel herself once walked.

"You must show me."

[serannas]

"Yeah!" she replies cheerfully, feeling a swell of pride at the way Galadriel responds. This specialization has been a labor of love and she's thrilled she can share it with her friend now. "Here's my room," she says, waving away the magic she has locking it with one hand while the other pulls a key from her pocket to unlock it the traditional way.

Pushing open the door, she gestures for Galadriel to go inside first. As a former enchanter's room, it's not as bleak as other housing in the mage tower. There's a window across from the door with a deep enough sill that Ellana has a green tea set, wooden flute, and wooden halla figurine displayed there. Her bed runs alongside this wall with the window, a bear slanket on prominent display across the end. And the foot of the bed is a simple trunk, and there are two shelves on the wall holding books and other gifts. Her lute is resting against the trunk, and there's a small armchair wedged into the corner. Beyond that, there's a beaten up old wooden nightstand with various toiletries crammed onto it and a fireplace opposite the bed.

Once Galadriel is inside, Ellana closes the door behind her. "You can sit wherever you like." The bed or the chair, that is, unless she'd prefer the floor. "I'll show you the most important spell I created for this specialization. I call it True Stealth." And with that said, Ellana simply vanishes from sight. She's still there, and can be heard or touched, but the room past her body can easily be seen with no distortion in the way.

[laurenande]

Galadriel moves to sit but, when Ellana casts her spell, a look of amazement and delight jumps across her face. This is momentous and truly impressive, given how little concealment magic she had seen in Thedas. Galadriel reaches forward and, once her hand bumps into Ellana's shoulder, clasps it joyfully.

"What a skill!" Galadriel cries, a laugh lacing her voice. "It is a rare feat, to disappear entirely, and how well you've mastered it!"

[serannas]

Ellana laughs too, smiling widely in her invisible state. She's so pleased Galadriel likes what she's accomplished.

"Thank you! I did a lot of studying magic texts and experimentation before I figured out how to do it. Now it's my little secret. My safety net when trouble finds me." She soon reappears, still smiling at her friend. "Once I had that spell learned, I built off from it to get the rest. I can create a decoy of myself to distract enemies while I run away under invisibility. I can put enemies to sleep. I can cast a field of silence around me so I can do stealthy work without being heard. And I can push people back from me so I can escape fights."

[laurenande]

"Wonderful," Galadriel says, her eyes bright and delight still painted upon her. "I have seen nothing so alike to my own skills in these lands yet, I cannot tell you how this tends my heart."

She takes Ellana by the hand and draws her toward the bed so that they both may sit. Despite her great age, Galadriel is filled with enthusiasm and looks not so much like an elven queen as a young woman eager for stories.

"You must show me these skills, I would delight to see them, or to learn them if I could. How impressive that you have created these spells in so short a time!"

Galadriel straightens, an idea dancing in her mind and bends again toward Ellana like a flower toward the sun.

"Would you care to learn my own skills? The powers that I favor are not so separate from what you have achieved that I could not explain them."

[serannas]

"Oh, well it didn't seem so short a time to me? It was in the works before we left for Kirkwall and that's been, hmm, nearly seven? Eight? Months that we've been here. And a lot of it came easily once I'd started." It's not false modesty, but a belief that anyone could do what she did. A Dalish elf who wasn't even schooled in Dalish magic could hardly have the creatively or brainpower to exceed those around her; especially those raised in Circles surrounded by books and with Enchanters to teach them. It's probably just a matter of them not needed to make up their own spells.

The offer of learning some of Galadriel's magic has Ellana practically bouncing on the mattress. "Yes! I would be thrilled to learn anything you can do! And honored!" To learn something of the magic of Arda would -- in some small way -- make her feel connected to that land she'll sadly never see.

[laurenande]

"Months?" Galadriel repeats, surprise and awe on her face as she stares at Ellana. "Oh, mellon nin, when I learned my skills it took centuries to perfect them. The--" she pauses and translates the parlance in her head quickly, "--spell I prefer most was made by a woman who was Ainur, kin to the Valar themselves, and she did not finish crafting it in any time so short as mere months.

"You have accomplished a feat, truly, and I am proud for you!"

[serannas]

Ellana hadn't realized it was so shocking a thing until Galadriel explains it to her and her eyes widen. Surely magic in Thedas works differently than in Middle-earth?

"Well, I--" she begins, not used to being praised so openly and unsure how to respond. Her heart says to be humble, but her head says to be proud. She settles for something in between.

"Thank you. It means so much that you would say so. Do you think I could learn your magic, or would it take centuries too?"