Closed | The journey goes on as your love ever nears

[mythalenaste]

WHO: Pel and YOU
WHAT: Arriving back at Kirkwall
WHEN: Early Firstfall
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: Pel would have written to her close CR to let them know she's coming back, so if you think your character would have known about this, assume she wrote! Prompts written by request.

Closed to Close CR

The woman who steps to the dock from the boat is scarcely changed from the woman who, nigh-on a year ago, stepped from the dock to the boat. Her hair is a little lighter, perhaps, and plaited down her back instead of on each side. There is more lean muscle, a body harder and sturdier than ever before. She is not wearing armor at present, but she does carry a unique sword, which few saw before she left--an ancient elven blade with a hilt long enough to effectively double as a staff. Nevertheless, she has changed. Her heart has grown, her mind has stretched, her decision to live quietly as possible exchanged for the certainty that she must do more than study in order for this war to be won. It is not a joyful certainty. She wanted to continue in peace with no greater worry than raising a child, but that would not be realistic. If she falls in battle, she prays Sina will forgive her.

It is the child she hoisted up to the dock who has changed. Little Sina walks straight up to a total stranger and hugs his legs, her host of white, wild curls mussed from the journey.

"No-no," Pel says quickly, taking the toddler's hand, "that's not your lethallen." She steers her daughter in the direction of the nearest greeter--you. Sina immediately transfers her embrace to the correct person this time, despite not recognizing you any better than the random stranger.

"This is your lethallen," Pel says with a grin.

Comments

Closed | Val

[mythalenaste]

There's a vigorous rap at the door of Val's room. Upon opening the door, Pel is there, smiling and so glad that she is very nearly showing teeth. That's a big deal--she hates her teeth.

"Hello, lovely. Did you miss me?"

Of course she wrote to him regularly, and also to let him know she might be coming back to Kirkwall. She didn't confirm.

[degenere]

She had written, of course, and not just to tell him that she was thinking of returning. She had written before that, and Val had written back, long letters full of complaints and musings, with butter and jam smeared in the margins, and sketches at the spare space at the top and bottom, half-formed and fully forgotten.

And she had written, to tell him that she was thinking of returning, and Val had read those words and had been pleased, of course. But he is less attentive to the days as of late. Old habits have resurfaced, like sleeping beneath a library table and carrying about a folded bit of parchment and a wax crayon, so he can make a note or take down a thought, should such a thing strike him as he goes about his day.

Therefore he is slightly more pale, when he opens the door. More scholar than adventurer, at present, though that will soon reverse. And there are ink spots on his cheek, like beauty marks, and his hair is tousled (artfully, inadvertently)--and his eyes are slightly unfocused, still back at the work that he has stepped away from, to answer this knock--

But when Val sees that it is Pel on the other side, he gasps aloud. Whatever peevish expression might have been brewing clears, immediately, swept entirely away, and he grabs hold of her in an embrace, such as a de Foncé has never offered to an elf.

So, there.

[mythalenaste]

Pel squeezes him tightly. It’s good to know Val gives good hugs, better to know that his affluent friends haven’t talked him out of their friendship. Of all her companionships, this is the strangest, and for that it is exceptionally delightful.

“Missed you,” she says, showing no sign of letting go.

[degenere]

"Did you?"

Val squeezes her tightly before he lets her go, and even them he keeps his hands on her arms, holding her at arm's length so he can good a good look at her. She looks much the same as she did when she left.

"Ah, but of course you did. I read your letters. And how could you not! Now, come in, you must come inside--"

He pulls her into the room after him. All available surfaces are stacked with books and parchments, half-rolled maps and inkwells, cups of tea and mugs of ale, half-drunk. There's a large plan tacked to the wall--a pit dug into the ground, and four star-shaped diagrams drawn meticulously in the margins. The fifth one is half finished.

Val pulls out the chair from the writing-desk with a flourish. "And you must tell me everything of your journey here. I did not realize, how quickly you would arrive!"

[mythalenaste]

Pel sits in the offered chair and props her feet up wherever she can. It’s been a long day and this is her first sit-down in hours.

“Well it’s only a climb down a mountain and a ride on a boat,” she understates, as if there’s nothing to any of that. “And hauling things in a barrow down to the alienage. I found a really wonderful caretaker for Sina while I work. What have you been up to these days?”