faderift | [OPEN] Dance of the Herbal Tea Fairy

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[OPEN] Dance of the Herbal Tea Fairy

WHO: Sina and you!
WHAT: Deliveries of herbal concoctions, helpfully plucked and dried from our very own Skyhold gardens. Need a tea blend, a potion, a poultice, a pinch of a rare herb for your nefarious research? Surely you've sent word down to the gardens, and the delivery is on its way.
WHEN: Throughout Haring
WHERE: All over Skyhold
NOTES: Just assume you've made the request and say where you are in your reply! Also please feel free to run into her somewhere even if you're not waiting on herbs.

Sina, dressed warmly in her cloak and scarves, with boots too large and gloves with holes for the fingers, traverses Skyhold with a basket of small herbal packets for wherever in the Keep they're needed.

She's too shy to meet eyes with most passersby, and could likely be mistaken as a servant by some if not for her vallaslin and the green glow emanating from her sternum, even beneath the scarves. But now is the time to be brave and make herself useful, with a hopeful side-effect of meeting more of Skyhold's populace.

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Still processing what she'd learned, Sina stooped to scratch Lux above the base of his tail, and seemed to accept Araceli's explanation. "I do," she agreed, albeit shakily, and offered a little smile. "Bless you for having the courage to deal with it." With a final pat to Lux, she straightened again and looked down at her basket.
"I've been delivering herbs throughout the keep," she said, "I thought it would keep me warm." A faint smile crossed her features. "And I'd like to be of use."

"I don't know if courage has much to do with it, it's easier maybe when you don't really know what you're dealing with at first. I had a job to do and I did it, and it was the right thing." It was easier to think less about the Mire because she had more questions than answers when it came to the them and how magic really functioned. And even more questions about the mark on her hand and the connection it had to everything about them.

"The person I shared a tent with in the Mire had the gall to tell me it was only going to get colder. Colder! I cannot imagine it being colder than it is!" It means more snow and wasn't that a singularly horrifying thought. "What sort of herbs? Though I only know that blood lotus definitely isn't to be used for healing."

"It probably will," Sina said with a sigh, looking around them at the perpetually frosty grounds. "Not only are we in the mountains, but we're in Ferelden, which isn't known for its balmy weather." She grinned, and rooted through her basket, looking for something. "The Free Marches get cold too, but at least where my clan usually wanders we're closer to sea level."

She withdrew a small packet marked 'tea - restful sleep', and offered it out to Araceli. "All kinds of herbs," she belatedly answered, "but mostly for medicines and teas, wherever they're needed." She rested her hand in the basket again. "...some like to smoke them, but I won't supply that." She had more important things to do, as, she snootily believed, did they all.

“So what you’re saying is that I should start creating a stash of warm blankets now so I’ll have plenty for when the winter truly shows itself.” She could even trade for other things with some of them should she need to if she had the lion’s share of such things, a little like Raf and Skip’s way of doing business in truth and her own if she’d been short of a few bits and pieces or supplies for some of the artists. “Have you been to the sea? This is the longest in my life I have ever gone without hearing it crashing against the rocks or lapping at the shore, making the ships moan and creak all day and all night. I confess, I find it very hard to sleep even when I try to exhaust myself without such-”

She trailed off as her face lit up with a bright grin and had it not been for the basket, she likely would have hugged the elf. “These might be just what I need! Gracias Sina, you are a marvel. How much do you require as payment for such a thing?”

The lack of sleep? She hadn’t been joking about that, it was only through luck and sheer force of personality that she didn’t look as haggard as she might have done.

Sina beamed and shook her head when Araceli thanked her. "They're Skyhold's herbs, and they belong to Skyhold," she assured her. In a strange way, Skyhold was her surrogate clan these days-- the clan produced, and everything within it served to benefit it. Payment would be not only redundant, but insulting.

"And to answer your question-- I've... yes, I've been to the sea. On a boat." She winced a little at the memory. "Nari and I came here from the Free Marches, across the Waking Sea. I'm afraid I didn't like it much."

"It wouldn’t feel right if I take them, not when there are people worse off than me, would a favour be permitted?" Life was a series of balances for her; she could give freely herself, only asking for a payment that was someone being happy and enjoying their meal or allowing her to watch them work. Here in Skyhold she felt a need to earn her keep in a way she hadn't before, already on the back foot since falling through the rift.

Everyone clung to the familiar, to any sort of lifeline when a storm rolled in after all.

"But of course, there are many boats and many ships upon and around the waters and hopefully above, not below. Ah, it almost hurts to hear you didn't enjoy it." Her whole life had been around the sea, on her father's ship, running around the docks and the ship graveyard, always the taste of salt on her lips. "What did you dislike about it? Even my friends who came to Castileos all enjoyed their journeys."

Sina was uncertain about asking favors for tea, but since Araceli seemed insistent, she gave a small shrug. "Sure," she agreed, and proceeded to not come up with any favors. Maybe she would eventually-- at the moment, none were necessary.

"Oh, I... well we weren't supposed to go out on the deck," she said with a wince, "we couldn't afford much, so we stayed below. It was dark, and I was sick most of the time, and everything smelled like fish." She wrinkled her nose at the memory. "I'm not sure I'm meant to be on boats."

Well, next task: figure out what Sina enjoyed so she could leave her a small token at some point, hopefully whenever she next got to leave Skyhold for an assignment of some description. Besides, her attention was definitely on the other matter of sailing, frowning at the conditions described.

“What sort of captain wouldn’t let you on the deck?” She cursed, shaking her head. “Getting up on the deck and getting some fresh air usually helps with the sickness if the seas aren’t too rough and the air is more clear than down below, I can’t believe-- your captains must be very rude, none of ours would do such a thing unless you were a prisoner and you haven’t the look of such. Sailing takes time to adjust to for those who have forgotten that it’s in their blood.”

Sina smiled at Araceli's rant, a faint blush coloring her cheeks as she lowered her head. "Well, ah... a lot of humans don't trust the Dalish, and vice versa," she explained, "they probably thought we would curse them." Which, to be fair, she wanted to several times. "We were lucky we found a boat that would take us at all."

"A lot of humans here must be bastards if I'm being honest. I know people are afraid of mages but why would they be afraid of that? Even afraid, sailors want to earn coin, they shouldn't turn away business because they believe anything so stupid." Even though sailors were a superstitious sort of breed, it sounded so wrong, so backwards to her ears. She knew some bastards herself but if you had the coin and behaved, you were free to board and travel and if you didn't behave you were locked up or tossed off and well, Sina hardly seemed the type to go around cursing people.

Sina shrugged self-consciously. "I mean," she continued, "...I'm also a mage." It was a bad combination, when going up against the superstitious. "But it's all right. It's over now. And the only other time I'll have to sail will be when I go back home." There was a wistful note to her words-- she tried to sound as though she knew she would return, when in truth she could only hope.

"There is mistrust where I come from, I don't think people can live without such things, after all how else are we to stay alive but the way some here are treated. The mages, the elves I am discovering, the Vashoth or Tal-Vashoth all lumped together. The judgement though, it shocks me. It shames me to be a human at times here and I never thought such a thing would ever happen," she admitted, raking her hair back from her face with a muttered curse under her breath at the end. "Ah but there is only sea for you, no? Some of us will have to attack demons to find our way back and without a map to aid us."

"Don't be ashamed," Sina said quietly, "I'd never met a human before I came here, and... on the whole, you're quiet different from what I was taught to believe." She smiled, a bit uncertainly. "From what I can see, most of you, at least here at Skyhold, have nothing to be ashamed of."

Araceli's reminder made her blush and lower her head. "Oh-- ir abelas," she said, cupping a hand over her mouth, "I was being selfish. Please forgive me."

"I think you were smart to not have been around them if they're as described, it's a very ugly attitude that seems to creep through the masses. Maybe wanting to help means we know the strengths others have or maybe we're simply not selfish. It's hard to speak for the rest when I'm not exactly from around these parts."

Alarmed, because she hadn't meant to upset her, she set a hand on her arm, smiling warmly as Lux circled around Sina's legs. "Sina, no no no, no apologies are needed, I was only joking. It will be a grand adventure though I plan to stay and help so long as I am needed."

Sina wasn't too upset, just a bit embarrassed, and Araceli quickly convinced her not to be. Unable to resist Lux's attention, she stooped again, setting down the basket well away from the fox's snout and putting both her arms around him in an affectionate squeeze.

"I know it must happen eventually, but I'd be sorry to see you go," she confessed, smiling up at Araceli and still blushing a little. "Even if it means the world is fixed and everyone is safe again."

"I thought I wouldn't like it here, I think all can agree that we rifters from elsewhere have a less than welcoming arrival what with the demons. And the falling. And the snow or a bog," she pulled a face, remembering how she'd been there in the Mire to watch it happen as they all came spilling out, running quickly to aid. "But we've at least gained trust through helping and proving that these marks can do what they're meant to do. I've made friends here, I shall be sad to depart when it is my time. My heart will grieve for the loss of so many beautiful women, including yourself, a true tragedy."

Sina seemed about to ask a question, but something Araceli said instead made her pale face explode into a blush. She ducked her head to press her mouth against Lux's fuzzy scalp, trying to hide. "Hmm," she intoned, stalling.

Without bothering to hide it, she bent her knees to try to get a better peek at Sina's blushing face, giggling quietly.

"Cat caught your tongue?"

"No," Sina mumbled into Lux's fur, incapable of hiding her smile. She looked playfully back up at Araceli, smiling in spite of herself.

Bouncing up to press his cold wet nose against Sina, the fox chuffed out a please noise as Araceli's smile only grew, leaning closer with a raised brow.

"Why Sina, if I didn't know better I'd say you were embarrassed but surely not, you must hear such things all the time, no?"

"Nooo," Sina wailed quietly, still smiling and still very much blushing. She did lift her face from Lux to look at Araceli, looking as though she was waiting for the punchline. Beautiful? Her? A ridiculous notion for someone who was covered in mud more than half the time.

"Then you have been around a great many terrible criminals for it truly is a crime to go without complimenting a lady, I see I shall have to make up for their truly shameful ways." Oh did she ever mean that and it was all she could do to not pinch Sina's cheeks, simply from the fear she might actually burst into flame if she did something so bold.

Sina laughed, both from continued embarrassment and from the strangeness of it. "It's really not... it's all right," she said, standing again and folding her arms self-consciously. "There's not much to be said about me most of the time." She continued to smile, seeming to have no problem with this assertion.

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[OPEN] Dance of the Herbal Tea Fairy

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