[OPEN] i will be your true companion

[wheretheferngrows]

WHO: Fern + various starters, and OPEN
WHAT: Life keeps going, even when you lose someone you care about.
WHEN: Early through mid-January.
WHERE: The Gallows, Kirkwall
NOTES: None currently, will update as necessary.

I. HERB GARDEN (OPEN)


This was not how Fern had ever hoped to take on the mantle of Head Gardener--but with Sina gone and no one else in the base operations project possessing the same skill set, she steps into the role without complaint. Besides, some part of her cherishes the opportunity to familiarize herself with what would have been Sina's old routine.

She's bundled up against the cold one early morning, eyes still a little heavy from recent sleep and her expression tired and neutral, and is at work clearing out some of the remaining bits of dead brush that weren't gathered before the snow and ice storm arrived. Some of the brush is set aside to be used for kindling or mulch later.

It's simple work, tedious, but it helps to keep the lingering grief at bay.



II. BELETH & SORREL


Fern is cautious to approach them at first, even with Sina's promise in the back of her mind. The burial and funeral are over, and it would of course make sense for the two of them to put their own families and the needs of their clan ahead of some silly farm girl who may not realize she's overstepping their boundaries.

Eventually, she summons up her courage and seeks them out in the garden... waiting for the right time, of course, so as to not interrupt them in the middle of a private conversation.

She clears her throat and peers into their peripheral vision, hoping to catch Beleth's eye, or Sorrel's. "Um," she starts gracefully, "hello. I don't... know if you remember me--"

Sorrel surely does. Beleth may not.



III. MESS HALL (NELL)


It has been a bit easier for Fern to focus on her spellcasting since returning from the Plains--a bit, at any rate. Gaining closure in one respect doesn't mean she has a solution to her other most recent problem, namely Finch's arrival and all that that entails. Still, she's desperately afraid of disappointing Nell, and so perhaps tries too hard to focus on the lessons as they are described to her. Too much concentration means burnout, which means more mistakes.

She's trying not to dwell on them while they sit in the mess hall together eating lunch, but it's difficult not to get discouraged. And in the back of her mind, she's toying with another thought, one that Anders brought up to her when he reached out to her with a message the other evening.

In spite of whatever else it is they're discussing, when there's a pause, Fern looks across the table at Nell and asks, "Do you know Anders very well?"



IV. ELVEN ARTIFACTS OFFICE (PEL)


It's a bit of an adventure for Fern to find her way to the Elven Artifacts research offices, just because she spends very little of her day in this part of the Gallows--but find it she does. After a moment spent straightening out her shirt and tucking some loose strands of hair behind her ears, she knocks on the door and waits.

Comments

Herb Garden

[youwonscience]

Now that Cosima's elbow-deep in actual research projects, she has less time (if not less inclination) to cautiously poke at Thedas' flora and try to match living specimens with the descriptions she found in the library. That said, she likes the gardens very much, and everyone needs an hour off now and then. She's not always a morning person, but morning is a good time to take one.

(If anyone asks, she plans to say she's gathering clippings for something very important to do with her microscope. Maybe they'll leave it at that.)

Cosima's bundled too, resigned to the bane of fogging glasses, but when she catches sight of another person out this early, she makes her way over. "Hey," she says, when she's still far enough away not to startle her listener. "Do you need any help?"

[wheretheferngrows]

All the cold, dry grass and foliage underfoot means that Fern hears Cosima coming, and so looks curiously back over her shoulder to see who the visitor to the gardens is. It's easy enough for her to tell at a glance that she's looking at a rifter; they tend to carry themselves... differently, somehow.

"A little," she says, managing a small, distant smile. A very serious expression for such a young face. She looks down at the bundles in her grasp. "I'm just gathering up brush. There's no point trying to till the soil until spring but..." A little shrug. "It might make planting easier.

"Do you need gloves?" This she says while getting to her feet and dusting some dirt off of her pants.

IV

[mythalenaste]

"Come in." Pel's office is minuscule, practically a closet, but she has a desk and a blanket on the ground with Sina playing on it. Any time she needs a book, she has to get it from the shelf in the lab, but otherwise it's a sufficient setup for her purposes. If she is going to do anything besides paperwork, she'll be in the lab anyway.

[wheretheferngrows]

Here it goes--

Fern presses the latch and opens the door, stepping just across the threshold but not all the way into the office; it's small, she's worried about stepping on Sina minor, see. She summons up her courage and smiles a little. What were the words? Ah, yes: "Aneth ara," she says, leaning against the doorframe. "Are you busy? I can come back later."

[mythalenaste]

"No need," Pel assures her, setting down her work and gesturing to the chair in front of her desk. "I'll always make time for my clan, lethallan."

"Deh," adds Sina with a huge grin.

[wheretheferngrows]

It's hard to tell what brings the warm smile to her face more quickly, Pel calling her lethallan, or little Sina's giggling. Fern steps into the little office and comes to stand before Pel's desk.

"I was wondering," she starts and fidgets her fingers together, "if... Would you be able to teach me about Keeper magic?"

It's a tall order, she knows, and as though to offset any offence her question may cause, she says quickly, "I don't mean to make me a Keeper, that's not what I'd want, but--Sina told me, before she died, she told me that learning about it was my birthright. She wanted me to learn more about my heritage."

[mythalenaste]

Pel's eyebrows rise a little. Her initial thought is no, because one ought to learn from a Keeper because one intends to be a Keeper. The thought passes, she grimaces slightly at herself, and tics her chin up.

"Are you a mage?"

I

[untiltheyarent]

The stockroom is out of reeds for the stone floors, so Fifi opts to come straight to the source. Or... what may as well be the source until a proper shipment can be produced.
Her step is dainty as she picks her way through the slush and mud, her flat shoes touching onto dry patches and stones with effortless precision while she surveys the garden.
Spotting an elf girl, she has no compunctions about addressing her. "Pardon," she calls, leaning down slightly to try and catch Fern's eye, "dried reeds?" Though fluent in the Trade tongue, her Orlesian accent is heavy.

[wheretheferngrows]

Perhaps, if she could have the chance to speak her words over again, she'd have rephrased things--but the thought, the things that she wants, are still such a muddle in her head that it's doubtful she'd word them properly even if given a second shot at it. At the look Pel gives her, Fern drops her expressive gaze downward, before peering up at her again.

"Yes," she answers, then gestures out the door as though somehow that will help clarify things (it won't), "I'm being trained by Enchanter Nell right now, and she's very good, but--" What's a nice way of saying, 'you know, she's a shemlen'? There probably aren't many nice ways to say that.

"She doesn't know anything about elf magic, and I... I want to learn." She tries to still her fidgeting fingers, but can do nothing to keep the earnest hopefulness out of her eyes as she looks back at Pel. "Sina was going to show me, we just--we ran out of time." To teach, to learn, to understand... they ran out of time for so many things.

[wheretheferngrows]

Fern has two or three more handfuls of brush left to sort out in this corner of the garden when Fifi addresses her. She glances up--and is unexpectedly surprised by the sight of another elven face without vallaslin.

"...dried reeds?"

"Oh, yes," she starts, holding up a finger as though to mark that yes, this is her job, she knows her way around these things, and gets to her feet, dusting dirt and burrs from her pants as she does so. She gives Fifi a little smile and then waves her over. "This way," she says, already leading the way towards a little building towards one end of the garden. "I don't think we have much left at the moment, not 'til the next shipment arrives. I think all the ice and snow delayed it."

Reaching the door, she fetches out her keys and unlocks it, then steps inside and reaches out to touch her fingertip to a candle's wick, lighting it.

[writteninblood]

"Of course I remember you, Fern," Sorrel tells her, turning to address her more fully. He has shadows under his eyes, made more obvious than they should by the white of his Vallaslin, but he seems otherwise outwardly unchanged by the intervening days, "What do you need, lethallan?"

[arlathvhen]

Beleth turns as Sorrel does, the matching piece to their bookends of startlingly bright eyes and weary faces. She stares at Fern for a few moments, then turns back to Sorrel as he speaks. Once he finishes, she gives an affirming nod.

"You were...a friend of Sina's? You were with her." With her at the end, something that neither Beleth nor Sorrel could do. It was nice to know that someone had been there, at least. "What can we do?"

[mythalenaste]

Pel's eyes widen slightly. She presses her lips together in thought. Fern is a good person, kind and caring, and she was important to Sina. And there are fewer and fewer Keepers every year. Fern is exactly the sort of person they need keeping the lost lore and passing it on.

"As our Oath states, we keep the lost lore. That's what Keeper means. This magic is a vital part of our heritage, and it comes with a certain code of conduct. A philosophy, if you will. That will be your first lesson. Keepers are not show-offs like Circle mages. This is the magic of the earth and trees, and as you are the blood of Arlathan, it is not for me to decide whether or not you should learn, because it's your birthright as much as it is mine. We'll meet every day in the garden. Is that agreeable?"

[wheretheferngrows]

Fern looks aside only for a moment--she rather likes the flashiness of the spells Nell has been teaching her, seeing as her own education as an apostate left much to be desired in that respect--but she nods immediately afterwards. "Yes, yes of course," she replies, and already the earnest hope in her expression is giving way to a warm, excited smile.

(Nothing can ever truly take away the pain of loss except time, and little by little, Fern gains more of that.)

"Thank you," she says quickly, sincerely, and clasps her hands together in front of her chest. She bites her lower lip some to temper her smile. "Thank you so much, Pel."

[wheretheferngrows]

"You were... a friend of Sina's?"

Very briefly, Fern's eyes shift from Beleth's to Sorrel's, before she has to look away from him. 'Friends.' She supposes they were; that was all they'd had the time for, even with the kiss--

"...yes," she answers, a sad little smile quirking up the corners of her lips. "I was with her, we were--friends."

After a moment's hesitation, she takes a few steps nearer to them in the garden and clasps her hands together in front of herself. "Sina talked to me about the Dalish and the Creators. She said, if I wanted to learn more, I should speak to you--her clan." Her fingers fidget together nervously, before she adds, "I know I'm not Dalish, but I want to learn."

Garden

[keenly]

Colin approaches with a plain wooden box and a smile. "I come bearing seeds. I know it's too early to plant them, but here they are."

They are fairly common herbs and spices--cumin, basil, oregano, sage, thyme, rosemary, coriander, parsley, and mint. Colin feels positively greedy at the thought of fresh herbs to cook with every day.

[mythalenaste]

Something in her softens, and she realizes why--this will be her first chance at teaching someone how to be a Keeper, as she was meant. But whatever her regrets about never becoming a Keeper as she was destined, as she dreamed, this is the path she wants to be on. Maybe the Creators sent her this young woman so they could both fulfill their duties.

"You're welcome," Pel responds with a smile. "Da'len."

[wheretheferngrows]

She hears his footsteps crunching across the earth behind her, and turns some to greet him--then brightens at the parcel he's brought along. "Oh, lovely," she exclaims and gets to her feet, dusting herself off. "We can put them in storage for now. Here, I'll show you," and she turns to lead him towards the store room on one side of the herb garden.

[keenly]

Colin crunches after her. "I made sure to bring a lot of each," he says. "Of course I want them for cooking lunch every day, but everyone else will want them as well. I reckon so long as we plant a lot, we've a good chance of not running out. And if there's too many, we'll just dry them."

[wheretheferngrows]

"We might need a bigger garden," she answers and gives him another quick smile over her shoulder. Reaching the store room door, she fishes out her keys and unlocks it, steps inside, and nudges the door open with her foot so Colin can follow.

"Oh I can't wait for spring," she sighs, "it's always so dark in here." She steps over to the candlesticks positioned on one corner of the work table and runs her fingers across it, lighting the wicks.

(See, Colin, you're not the only apostate here.)

1/2

[keenly]

2/2

[keenly]

"I could probably find you a good oil lamp to hang at the door instead of stumbling about in the dark till you reach the table."

Her magic, like his own, is ignored. Does he think she's being reckless? Yes. But it's not his business.

[wheretheferngrows]

"Who's stumbling?" she asks him almost teasingly. Didn't he see her light that candle wick with her hands? She's certainly not in danger of the dark.

His discomfort is missed for the time being. "Here, put the seeds on this table. I can sort them out in a bit."

[youwonscience]

"Oh, thanks." She smiles a bit ruefully. "When I first came to Thedas, I almost ran afoul of rashvine before a kind soul saved me from myself." Gloves are important. (And if she tends to wear them when she's running errands in Kirkwall ... well, no less important, even if the danger isn't rashvine.)

"I'm Cosima," she adds, "sorry. I didn't mean to bother if you meant to be alone, I just thought the work would go quicker with two of us and I like keeping busy."

[writteninblood]

Sorrel has to look away at the mention of Sina's name. The ground, the wall, that thing over to the left, anywhere but Fern's sad, eager face. Friends? Perhaps not more than that, but not for lack of feeling. It seemed inadequate.

"What do you think, Sa'asha?" He asks, finally, trying for wry, though it's quiet enough that she of all people will know his difficulty; Sorrel wants this, but he can't do it alone, "It's not as if we'll be giving away ancient artifacts here."

Or giving the Vallaslin, of course. But then, perhaps that's not as far-fetched a thought as it might seem-- as if the Keeper would approve! That's all putting the cart so far before the halla that the halla hasn't even been foaled yet.