OPEN: this will be a better year

[faderifting]

WHO: Everyone
WHAT: First Day
WHEN: Wintermarch 1 (forward-dated)
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Scouts from both the Western Approach and Emprise du Lion are welcome (but not required) to have returned to Skyhold in time for this event.

There have been better First Day feasts, and less crowded ones, and cheerier ones. It isn't a good year for many to look back on, and this one isn't starting any better. Reports from both Eastern and Western Orlais are grim. Many in the Inquisition can't afford to take more than a few hours away from their work, if that.

But for those who can, the ambassador does her best. At lunchtime some tables, hot food, and finery are reserved for visiting nobility and wealthy pilgrims--cause for grumbling in some quarters, perhaps, but they're the people filling the Inquisition's coffers, and allowances must be made--but there's plenty of stew, bread, and ale for everyone, even with the soldiers and refugees who stay outside the fortress invited inside for the holiday. The recently repaired garden and its carefully tended plants aren't off limits, but anyone noisy and holding a drink will be stopped at the door; the battlements, with their potential for deadly falls, are blocked by Inquisition guards. But the courtyards brim with people, most of them happy despite the possibility that the world might end before another First Day arrives.

If the courtyards are too full of tipsy visitors for comfort, there's also the valley beyond the fortress, expansive, barren, and covered in snow. By the river the soldiers help the refugees make a bonfire larger than would ever be allowed inside Skyhold's walls, and some lend their shields to use as sleds down the embankments. A group of scouts start the most intense game of hide and seek Thedas has ever seen, with snowballs to the face for whoever is found first. In the camp, a refugee girl with her hand wrapped in a green scarf chases other children around the tents, shouting raaar, I'm from the rifts!

Comments

[kallian_endris]

"No... I'm not, I'm just another elf," she said, shaking her head. The woman was touching her. How... strange.

"Not by a Circle, if that's what you mean. I was always in the alienage. But, after my mother was taken, I was taken in by a mentor. She had been in the Circle, but escaped years before I was born. She taught me for twelve years. She was old and very recently passed. After she was taken care of, I left for the Inquisition."

[fleurdesel]

"An elf that is a spirit healer." Adelaide snorted softly. "That is a rare thing no matter where it is you are from, nor where it is you were trained. Circle, Vashoth, Dalish, Apostate- none of that matters compared to what it is you are capable of. Pride is something we must attempt not to indulge in for the usual reasons but- please do not think this is nothing."

[kallian_endris]

Kallian shifted uncomfortably. The woman didn't understand. How could she? She might be a mage, but humans weren't usually hunted for sport the way elves were.

"...please don't tell anyone..." Kallian pleaded softly.

[fleurdesel]

"But we need you." That anyone would be so reluctant is baffling- bu an apostate elven mage? Of course the girl is wary. "...if you are more comfortable with my silence, I shall be silent. But you are safe here. I'll not allow anyone to harass you simply for being a mage."

[kallian_endris]

Kallian smiled. So to speak. It was a wry stretching of her lips. Gallows humor of a sort.

"Your offer is very kind, Madame, and I thank you, but there is no such thing as 'safe' for someone like me. I will give what help I can, but I am most protected when no one knows I'm there."

[fleurdesel]

"We have a council for the mages of the Inquisition here- We protect our own." It is not a perfect system, nor a polished one, but it is what they have and she'll be damned if she allows any mage here to live in fear of their lives when they are supposed to have sanctuary.

[kallian_endris]

"It's not just because of that. One thing alienage life teaches is that others will use any excuse to hurt someone if that's what they want to do. Mage or not, being small, being pretty, being an elf, being a woman, being poor, or even just because someone's bored and finds cruelty a pleasing diversion--or no reason at all, it doesn't matter. The alienage is supposed to protect their own too, but it doesn't always happen."

Kallian shrugged.
"It is just the way of things. So I offer what help I can give, and disappear the rest of the time."

[fleurdesel]

"What we do here is meant to be better than anything any of us lived with in the past. If someone, for any reason, gives you cause to fear your safety? Find me or send for me." It will not stand. She won't permit such things, this much fear and discomfit to fester in what the Inquisition is trying to build.

[kallian_endris]

Kallian hesitated. She had known this woman only a matter of minutes. A human woman. Offering to protect her, help her... She seemed kind, but the little elf wasn't sure if she was ready to put her trust in a stranger, however well-intentioned.

"...what is it you want me to do here?"

[fleurdesel]

"Work with us in the healing tents, that is where you will do the most good. Help me teach others that wish to learn what we know. Learn from others if that is what you would wish. I have met one other Spirit Healer here in my time with the Inquisition. We are so few." And there is so much work to be done. "Thank on it. Make no choices tonight, nor tomorrow. We are to be celebrating, yes?"

[kallian_endris]

Kallian nodded slightly.
"I can help with the healing. Make poultices, bind wounds, soothe sicknesses. I have mostly done so with animals, but it was all in preparation to aid people."

She paused at the mention of another healer.
"Does the other healer also work there?"

And... then she blushed and looked down.
"I don't really... Celebrations... I mean, they aren't meant for elves..."

[fleurdesel]

"If that is how you are most comfortable helping, yes." She would rather the girl make use of her talents but- she cannot force it. Will not. "He works alongside me when he is not working on his own, yes."

That next, though- "Alienage- you were raised in an alienage. Of course you think that way- here things are different. More equal; or at least I am trying very hard to see it so. If everything here in the courtyard is overwhelming there is another celebration in the Valley with a bonfire. And you are more than welcome to either."

[kallian_endris]

"And... it is just us three?"

She scuffed a toe in the dirt.
"...I've never really been welcome anywhere. Even in the alienage. I was born in Denerim, but my mother... Well. Fereldan distrust of Orlesians is not limited only to its human residents. And the Dalish... are little more than stories... Along with everything else..." She shook her head.

[fleurdesel]

"There are other healers, a few surgeons, but I only know of we three Spirit Healers for certain." If there are others? They have not made themselves known to her. Gently- more than she feels she is normally capable of, Adelaide squeezes Kaillian's hands. "You are welcome here, and among my students."

[kallian_endris]

"I... thank you. I don't know what to say. No one's ever..." Kallian faltered. "...thank you."

[fleurdesel]

She's heard that it is harder for elves in the Alienages. Has seen shades of it when she's traveled through on her missions- but the long term effects of such a life? She has never seen firsthand until now. "You are welcome, Kallian. Whenever you wish, you've a place with us."

[kallian_endris]

"You make it sound so easy..." She squirmed and looked away, torn between wanting to retreat and wanting to go along with all this.

[fleurdesel]

"It is if you want it to be. If you are uncomfortable- there is no pressure for you to do anything you do not wish to do." She releases Kallian's hands. "But we are here if you ever want or need us."

[kallian_endris]

"...you're sure there's no catch?" She wants to believe this woman means well. That trust in her will not be misplaced. But actually doing so is so hard...

[fleurdesel]

"None from me. Come if you wish. Don't if you do not. The Inquisition is a sanctuary for Mages whether they want to be known as such or if they wish to not be known at all." There is so much more they can do if she wishes to be known but- Adelaide is not going to force the issue.

[kallian_endris]

"...how? How is it that free mages can live in sanctuary? I know there are templars here, I've seen them. As long as they are watching..." She shook her head. "It's not freedom. It's not sanctuary."

[fleurdesel]

"They do not have authority over mages here. We self govern- it is a new system but it is...we are working it out as we go. The templars answer to the templars and the Inquisition Advisors. The mages answer to the mages and the Inquisition advisors. We are not commanded by them." Baby steps, but steps none the less.

[kallian_endris]

"And they just... let you? The Chantry doesn't interfere?"

[fleurdesel]

"The Inquisition has been declared heretic by the Chantry, despite having a writ from the previous Divine to form and act. They have no authority here."

[kallian_endris]

"...I see." Kallian still looked doubtful.

"Well. I... I will think on what you have said. And the healing tents will have an extra pair of hands as of tomorrow. But I shouldn't keep you from the party."