faderift | [closed] Oops I Did It Agurn

[closed] Oops I Did It Agurn

WHO: Nari and Saoirse
WHAT: Mistaken identities, habitat mysteries, rhino sieges, now with extra bees
WHEN: Early Bloomingtide
WHERE: nearly the Western Approach
NOTES: it's the Chantry Relations mission!

Nothing like a fairly clear morning, the jingle of tack on restive horses, and the promise of a journey to get the blood flowing. That the journey is specifically to promote good relations with the Chantry is a matter of some small inner conflict to 50% of the expedition, but that aside, there are people to free from being besieged (and bees to free from being beesieged), and the small mystery of why Gurns would even be doing this to begin with to settle.

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Nari has shown up promptly at the agreed upon time, and is quickly at work checking her mount's saddlebags.

Her partner appears to be the blonde slip of a woman she'd briefly spoken with in regards to the Chantry Forest before work on the statue had begun. She'd been quietly vehement about going through proper channels, about representing the whole and not taking choices away from others. Nari would have appreciated the sentiment more had she not been one of those who thought Sina's work had been rash and thoughtless rather than gift. Had also, she recalled, had the gall to imply she could speak for how the elves in the Alienage here felt. Typical of a human.

Of course, today Saoirse has her hair done differently, and the light of morning is considerably clearer than the somewhat smoky miasma of the lamplit Hanged Man. Both of these enabling Nari to see the tapered points of the other woman's ears.

"Oh. You're..." Not a human. "Oh."

Well, someone looks chagrined. Doubly so because that's not really a proper greeting.

Oh. You.re...

Saoirse glances over at the voice with a curious raise of her brow. She has been busily checking her own saddlebags, securing her staff in place and double checking her supplies. Stepping around her mount, she offers her partner in this mission a warm smile and slight tilt of her head in greeting.

"It's a pleasure to meet you again," she says with a slight chuckle. "Though I do not think we had the chance to introduce ourselves before. My name is Saoirse Ceallach."

Nari ruffles a hand through her hair, a smile poking through her fairly obvious embarrassment. "Nahariel Dahlasanor. A pleasure to meet you properly," she replies, the corner of her smile quirking wryly upwards. She returns to checking the horse's tack, giving the animal an affectionate pat once she's established everything's in order. "For what it's worth," she says over its back, "you were right. For all that it hurt to lose most of something that was a memorial for me, the wound was Kirkwall's, and they deserved to heal it their own way. The garden is beautiful," she admits. "I think it makes people happy."

Saoirse returns to her own second glances over her own supplies but Nari's voice distracts her soon enough and she looks back with a look that bleeds both fondness and a touch of sadness. "It is very beautiful. When I look upon it there is a warmth that I have not felt in this city since... well, ever."

Carefully she pulls herself into the saddle with a huff of air, smiling warmly. "But you were right too. Sina's gift was the stitching that was needed to stem the flow of blood from Kirkwall's wound. It's now up to them to continue making sure it heals."

Something lightens in Nari to hear the forest spoken of so; a stitching in a wound of her own, perhaps. She nods, that gratitude plain on her face, and then is in the saddle not too long after, shifting back and forth a bit once there to make sure she has her seat properly. She'll nod at the handlers and flip a coin to the closest, then look to her companion and nod before clucking to the horse, who sets off at a sedate pace. She'll wait for Saoirse to come apace before speaking.

"Although I admit to interest, I've gathered the feeling that Kirkwall's history is no topic to be visited on a nice spring morning. If you've a mind for it, now that I know to accord your experiences the proper weight," she says, a dig at her own ignorance the first time they'd met accompanied by a wryly apologetic smile, "it's been an inexcusable amount of time that I've been here without truly learning what the life of our people is like in this world. I'll happily trade stories of my days of wild barefoot running. All children have those stories, don't they?" Nari pauses and then snorts a light laugh. "Although I imagine that particular phase of my life may have lasted longer past childhood than yours."

Saoirse follows along without much in the way of pause. Her mount has taken a steady pace to keep time with Nari and allowing them to ride side by side without issue. Although she is steadily becoming at peace with Kirkwall and its memories, she cannot help the relief that floods through her veins as they pass through the city gates.

"That is, unfortunately, Kirkwall in a nutshell concerning most topics though things have begun to shine a little more, I find." It is said with a small frown but there is warmth to her voice and she offers a chuckle, shaking her head. "But if there is anything that I might be capable of answering then I shall do my best."

Yet her comment about running around barefoot earns her another giggle. "Perhaps! The constant mud in Starkhaven's alienage made the idea of shoes useless for the little ones but I must admit that I spent much time running about the Circles barefoot as well. It made it far more easier to play pranks on Herian when she could not hear my approach."

Nari's shoulders drop once they've left the city, feeling a similar relief to be out in the countryside. She'll relax even more when the cliffs recede entirely into the distance. It's not for the same reason; she has none of the haunting memories of the Gallows, the Chantry, the streets that Saoirse has. It's just the simple fact of being, to her knowledge, one of four Dalish elves still remaining in the press of what must be over a million. She never really gets used to the stares. Or, coming from a clan barely clearing twenty, the people.

"I'm glad to hear that things are improving. It must have been difficult to return," Nari says with some sympathy, and then shakes her head with a small smile. "All terrible questions, I'm afraid. And there are too many wildflowers springing up for that." There are-- the fields are beginning to sprout green, and the first hardy blossoms have begun to make their presence known.

"Starkhaven, though, how was it there?" She'd seen it on a map once. A dot, perhaps a little larger than others, but only a dot nevertheless. And then her eyebrows fly towards her hairline: "Pranks on Herian?"

She is already to talk about Starkhaven as she is always ready to gush about her home. As much as she loved to travel there is always a part of Saoirse that was always at peace while back home and within the familiar comforts of the valley the city was nestled in. The surprise quickly catches her by surprise as well and she looks over, a bit wide eyed, before breaking into giggles.

"Herian is my little sister," she says brimming with amusement. "We grew up together being devilish prankster and it continued when we both were brought to the Circle in Starkhaven. We were sent to stand in the halls as punishment or given extra lessons with the Chantry sisters for our pranks against others and each other."

Her smile is wide as she speaks, her gaze shifting back over the Nari. "Do not let her fool you. She was quite the prankster herself."

This is absolutely delightful to know, a feeling which Nari's answering wide smile makes obvious; although it makes Nari wonder what had happened between then and now to have changed Herian's manner so. Perhaps the stiffness was the sort of ruse a leader had to put on.

And then, 'little sister'? "You grew up together? In the Alienage? What was a--" Nari pauses as pieces start to click together in her mind. A childhood in an Alienage, Saoirse's feelings of kinship, the difficulty Herian had with the Dalish, her continued involvement and work for the Alienage children in Kirkwall (which Nari had previously thought typical "good moral human" grandstanding). "Oh! I--she's laim'lan? Elf blooded?"

Again Saoirse raises her brows as Nari cuts herself off. She figures, more or less, what the question might have been and nods lightly as the other woman confirms for herself of Herian's heritage, as well her ties back to the both the alienage and the elves that called them home.

"Laim'lan," she repeats carefully, quietly. "Herian's father was elven, her mother was elf-blood too and lived in the alienage. Her mother actually helped my mother when I was born despite the fact that she was just days away from giving birth herself. She has been an important piece of my life for a very long time, perhaps the most important piece in my life outside of my father."

"That must have been a comfort, to have her with you in the Circle," Nari says. She'd spent enough time with Anders at this point to know the litany of things that were taken from mages-- or that mages were taken from. Family being one of them. "And to come to the Inquisition together as well. A friendship like that is precious."

"She left for the Circle before I did and I can remember crying so badly that I would wear myself out before finally passing out," she says with a soft chuckle. "When we were reunited, I was beside myself and kept her in my thought always when we were sent to different Circles when ours burned."

She looks off, smiling warmly. "I wish to do all that I can for the Inquisition because it brought us back together. It helped me to find my little sister again."

A reunion like that is certainly something to fight for. Nari is left to consider her own reasons for continuing to do work for the Inquisition. It's not gratitude, of a certainty. Perhaps... a desire to not let the Magister who murdered her little sister get away with it? Or perhaps the simple fact of not being able to feel at home anywhere other than this strange hybrid place any more?

Now that Circle life has been brought up, though, she has some curiosity. "The Circles..." Nari begins, trailing off almost immediately. She frowns thoughtfully, letting the early morning breezes ruffle through her hair while she considers how she wants to phrase this. "When I first came to the Inquisition, I'd heard nothing of them. Bits and pieces more since then, but... most of it at odds with itself. They're not something that's easy to form an opinion of." Her mouth curves in a little half smile. "And not something I'm entirely sure I deserve an opinion on. But... was it a good life? For you?"

Upon arrival at the small Chantry, that's pretty much what's to be seen. The herd isn't stampeding (right now), but they are also not gentle guests. The gardens surrounding the building that supply the herbs for the creation of their mead have been cropped clean, trampled flat, or cropped clean and trampled flat, and a number of the hives range from partially damaged to entirely destroyed.

Someone's waving a small cloth from the belltower--apparently the clerics have been watching out for them.

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[closed] Oops I Did It Agurn

I. On the way there!

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II. Gurns, Gurns Everywhere

III. Handling the Problem Children

IV. Home again, home again