Where There's Smoke Pt. 2

[byblow]

WHO: Beleth Ashara, Gavin Ashara, Alistair
WHAT: Two and a half elves go apostate hunting.
WHEN: NOW
WHERE: The Fallow Mire
NOTES: Probably violence. Maybe crying. Perhaps success.

Comments

[byblow]

"No."

He says it before he looks back at Gavin, or he might not have had the stomach to sound quite so sharp about it, rough, like a mabari's quick warning bark. When he does look, turning his gaze away from the path(ish thing) ahead to make sure the answer took and there isn't going to be an argument, he softens almost immediately, because he's kind of a sucker.

"You've got a good heart, Gavin," he says, "and that is what I look for, but you'd be joining for a bad reason, at a very bad time. And you don't look anything like a Maxwell."

[slipshot]

The answer had taken - technically it had taken even before Gavin had voiced the question - but the sharp answer still came as a blow, regardless. His ears were tucked tight and low against his head, and the misery that he'd so far managed to stave off was unfortunately obvious. When Alistair looked back, however, he immediately tried to regain something of a normal expression, and failed.

"No, you're right. It was a terrible idea. I definitely don't have the jaw for it." He tried to make it sound lighthearted, but again, he failed.

"I would have though worse timing would be, you know, during a blight, but I guess the end of the world due to a massive hole in the sky is pretty terrible timing too." He was grasping at straws - he had no ideas left and he had to think about something else before he just sunk into misery. So - obviously - let's talk about the end of the world. Far less miserable.

[byblow]

"Ha. During a Blight we'll take anyone," Alistair says, ruefully--because it reminds him that they took Loghain, and also because he feels like he has personally crushed every one of Gavin's hopes and dreams. "But your jaw would still be a problem, even then."

The ensuing pause is long enough to be awkward, maybe, depending on one's tolerance for silence. Alistair's is fairly low, at least when he isn't sulking.

Then, "I might be able to call in some favors or something," he says. "I don't know what favors. I don't know anything about anything." The nobility, he means. Politics. The Free Marches. "But the Arl of Redcliffe and the Queen's advisor are my uncles, kind of. They like me enough to let me say they are."

[slipshot]

Since he was sulking (not in Alistair's direction, just in general), Gavin had fallen into the silence with absolute apathy toward it - focusing on his feet rather than the rest of the bog - but when Alistair spoke, his ears pricked upwards a little bit, and he looked up at him.

"You think they could do something?" He asks, because he doesn't know anything about anything either, and is not very surprised to learn that Alistair's sort of uncles are nobility, because humans seem to have a lot of those.

[byblow]

"Sure," Alistair says, then downgrades to, "Maybe. Dear Lady Trevean, As you may have heard we have a demon problem here in the south, and so on, Ferelden is very grateful for your son's assistance, something something, invitation to a party it would be inconvenient for you to actually attend, and thank Andraste for that, you sound terrible."

[slipshot]

Despite himself, Gavin snorts - a half laugh through his nose rather than his mouth - and he gives Alistair a grateful, if unconvinced, look.

"Well it's worth a shot," He said with a lopsided smile. "Better than any idea I've come up with so far, though I doubt it will work." His face fell, and he frowned at the ground. "It would be different if he didn't mind, or if - if they found a match he wanted, but he says he doesn't want any match, so..."

He looked back up at Alistair and offered a sheepish smile. "Sorry. I've been rambling, haven't I."

[byblow]

"I don't mind," Alistair says, honestly. Even if Gavin were boring--which he isn't--he'd be better than silence, because silence is no longer just silence for Alistair. "But I don't think many people anywhere marry for love. The nobility marry for power and commoners marry to eat. It's all politics and status for dwarves. I don't know much about Dalish customs, but in the alienages marriages are arranged, too, from what I've heard."

He stops because one of his boots has sunk deep enough into mud that it requires effort to pull his foot loose, which also makes him think--"Maybe we should let Beleth catch up."