OPEN ↠ HARING EVENT

[faderifting]

WHO: All
WHAT: WINTER IS HERE
WHEN: Haring 15-Wintermarch 1
WHERE: The Gallows, Kirkwall
NOTES: You can use this post as an event-style mingle log, or just use it as background information for your RP elsewhere!

It's been a chilly month already, but in mid-Haring the temperature suddenly plummets. One day it's merely cold, and the next morning the Inquisition wakes to frost on the inside of the window panes and an icy draft whistling through every crack in the tower's masonry. Downstairs, the pipes that feed the bathing chambers and the kitchens creak in the walls, loud enough to be heard even out in the courtyard, where they run beneath the stones, and around midday, when the sun has failed to raise the temperature above freezing, a blocked pipe finally gives, cracking open to spill water across the central court and send it running down side passages. The whole area floods several inches deep and almost immediately begins to freeze, presenting at first a gigantic, treacherous slush puddle and, after a few hours, a sheet of sheer ice.

Melting a safe path from door to door and laying down sand or wood to keep it from becoming slick again is a simple enough undertaking, but before the entire courtyard can be thawed, someone appears with ice skates—and that’s a better idea, surely, for at least a few days. Anyone who complains about the frivolity can be assured it’s good exercise, not to mention good training for a force that may have to travel or fight on ice in the future.

Temperatures remain cold enough that even some parts of the harbor begin to freeze, first just at the calmest edges of the shoreline, and then the more protected nooks and crannies of the bay, inlets and the spaces between piers and beneath docks. It snows most days--not real storms, just a couple inches here and there--little enough for the window to blow most of it off the icy plain of the courtyard and other wide open, paved spaces, accumulating on branches and in alleyways, and creating growing drifts in corners and against walls.

After a week or so actual chunks of floating ice begin to fill the narrow channels of the harbor, threatening smaller and less-sturdy vessels, and the situation in the poorer parts of the city begins to grow dire. With the Viscount's blessing, Inquisition teams (particularly mages) are called in to help. Some are assigned to the docks, to clear ice that makes landing and unloading treacherous, others to help escort ships into harbor by melting a path ahead. Others are sent into Lowtown to clear ice and snow and to provide warmth and medical attention where needed. At least one mage is sent with each team, and while many neighborhoods are pleasantly surprised and grateful for the quick work fire glyphs make of cold hearths and frozen streets, a few are unable to overcome their distrust, and refuse the teams entry, determined to take care of their own without the help of dangerous outsiders.

In the last week of the year, a true blizzard strikes, snow falling steadily for more than a day, blanketing the city at least three feet deep. Digging out the Gallows will be a group effort, and most non-essential trips outside the base will be cancelled for a few days until travel is less difficult, while those who reside in the city or elsewhere may be encouraged to stay a night or two in the fortress so they might continue to work without traveling through the storm. But on the first day of Wintermarch the First Day feast goes on as planned, with modest but plentiful food and ale served in the Gallows' dining hall for anyone who wishes to celebrate the new year.

Comments

[laurenande]

"Do not apologize for despair, Haldir, it is a something that must be felt by all of us, in our time," Galadriel replies and reaches forward to smooth her fingers across his cheek and banish the tear tracks there upon. "We will feel it often in our long lives and, if nothing else, I should hope we can share in one another's joys and sorrows.

"Though our kin walk beneath these stars, we are the only Galadhrim, you and I. We, above all others, understand what this world has lost, what it might regain, and how cautiously we must guard ourselves against the night." Galadriel tells him softly. "It would not be so difficult to create an Elvenhome in these lands, a new city of safety and rest, and in truth is there a purpose that holds more joy than that?

"It will not be tomorrow, nor soon, but one day we shall do what we have been brought here to do, accomplish what only we can, and the world will be gladder for it. Until then, do not deny the joys and sorrows of this world, for we live yet and to live is to know them both."

[hallabackdir]

He blushed red as a tomato at her touch. She had rarely, if ever, been so direct in her affections and care of him before. But, to be fair, they had never had long moments in which they sat and sought out each other's council. Often, there would be a task that needed doing, and she would let him know what she wished, and he would make sure it was completed. It was a different shift in their relationship, but not one he disliked by any means.

"I feel strangely fortunate in coming here. Fortunate that I can be here for you, and Thranduil. He seemed more than a little relieved to see another Silvan elf. And, fortunate for meeting Ellana and hearing about new adventures. I will admit the treatment the elves have endured is disquieting, and building a place of refuge for them would be a noble goal. If you have a wish to have that formed, I will do all I can to see it a reality."

"But, I also long for home. I do not know how you keep going, Lady. I miss our home, our trees, our people. I even miss Rúmil and Orophin, and you know there has never been much love between us. I don't have the connection to Lorien you have, nor a love waiting for me. The love between you and Celeborn often left me in awe, and I cannot imagine what the pain of that loss would be like."

[laurenande]

Her hand falls away from his face as he speaks, his ill-ease with the gesture written upon his face and in the set of his shoulders. She will not refrain from it, because he had not asked and because she knew Haldir's moods well, but she will give him time before taking such familiarities again. She listens as he speaks, gladdened by his fortunes in Thedas, but his regrets and longings are so terribly close to her own. Her smile, soft and earnest falls away as she considers him, as she conjures a response worthy of the statement he has made.

"I have not lost him," she says and it tastes only half a lie. Thranduil had made it perfectly clear that their bond had not severed, but for all his comforts, Thranduil knows his cousin's mind far less intimately than Galadriel does. She is comforted by the idea that Celeborn has not passed, but always she is aware of the limits of their love. A sea will divide them as surely as the sun will set.

"Though we are terribly far apart, it is neither the first time I have been parted nor the farthest I have been taken from those I love. Celeborn is strong and has his home to ease him, I worry not for his heart in my absence. Without such worry, my longing is a distant, girlish thing; I shall survive."

Again, it tasted only half a lie.

[hallabackdir]

He resisted the urge to touch the place on his cheek Galadriel had touched. But, he drank her words like a man dying of thirst, and it filled the hole in his chest.

"I would not call such longing girlish, Lady. It is a longing we all share. And most of us have never held love so dear as you and Celeborn." He paused for a beat, greiving for them in his own small way.

"There is a difference between surviving and living. My short time here has given me insight into both. I would not wish you just to suvive. I wish you to thrive. You have endured, through more than I will ever know, but I wish more for you. I will fight for that future, tooth and nail."

[laurenande]

Haldir cannot know how deeply his words strike her, nor how painful the twist of them is as he assures her of the dearness of her husband's love. She does not doubt him, more than anything she wishes she could believe as he does, and it pains her to know that it is untrue.

His well wishes are honest and heartfelt and there is naught to be said in the face of such feeling, such earnest desire. Haldir's heart is true and devoted in a way that few elves ever manage and, in times like these, she recalls why he has ascended to his station and remained there for such a span of time. She would have no other head her guard, no other that she trusted so implicitly, and her soft smile says as much.

"Thank you, Haldir, your words are a balm. I am glad to have you here, more than you can know." She settles back in her chair and lifts her spinning again. "Say hello to Ellana for me, when next you see her."

And so simply, he is dismissed and their moment set aside next to all the others that have passed between them.