faderift | OPEN: this will be a better year

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!

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James gave him a long, hard look, before he snorted softly, "Well, it would explain why you were trying to escape through every locked door in the village." Another shake of the head "I am glad to see that you live, whoever you are."

His eyes widen, and he blushes. "N-not every door! And at least one was unlocked... obviously..." His words trail off into muttering. He heaves a sigh. "Whoever I am is Salvatore. I don't suppose I ever thanked you, for the help I most certainly did not need or ask for."

"Yes, obviously, although you could have just waited for us to leave." Is Norrington's dry response, and it only gets drier from there. "Oh, you are welcome, for the help you didn't need, or ask for. I am delighted that our unwanted intervention kept you in one piece."

"And deal with an angry mob of villagers. Yes. Of course." He doesn't have a response, except to press his lips together and glare back. "I said thank you." Sort of. "And I gave you my name. You could at least do the same."

"We could have protected you from the villagers if you had, in fact, wanted our help." Norrington retorted, before he rolled his eyes again. "Yes, your thanks was so very gracious ... James L. Norrington. I believe you know the title."

"Forgive me for exercising caution. I didn't know you from a mole on my ass." He saw that. He sighs, takes a swig of his until-now forgotten drink. "Norrington, then. Fine. You've joined the Inquisition then?"

"You know, I would have allowed that with an easy pass, Salvatore ... but at that point I had already saved your life twice." He said dryly, before he sighed in turn. "Yes I have - as I was going to do when we met on the road."

"Did I not fight as well? But perhaps someday I can repay you for the trouble." Salvatore inclines his head. "Took your sweet time, but welcome. How long have you been here?"

"That you did ... and well, at that." One corner of his mouth twisted. "A few weeks, nothing more."

He looks a little taken back by the compliment, but recovers with a nod and a smile. "Thank you. You weren't so bad yourself." A few weeks... "Ah. I've been away. Were you greeted with trumpets and fanfare?"

Well look at that, the young man could actually smile at a templar. Norrington's mouth twisted wryly. "More like suspicion by the mages, wariness by the general populace and cheers of relief from my fellow Templars. I am working on the first two, and the third ... well my brothers and sisters have been silent too long. It is time we started to pay back for the sinners of our dark kith. I will no longer call them kin, though."

Oh, he's done more than smile at a templar...

"I see. What is it you plan to do about the first two? Mages in particular." He's curious. Very much so.

Well, that wouldn't be the first time James had heard of that. Not that he wasn't doing that himself. Ahem.

"With mages? Leave them be. Blood mages, hunt them. Abominations, kill them. Rogue mage who killed my mentors? Bring them to justice."

Edited 2016-01-03 00:44 (UTC)

He gives Norrington a long look, then nods. "I suppose you're alright then."

Norrington arched an eyebrow at that, and his response was decidedly dry, "Oh, thank you. Although I suppose I can say the same."

Yet another apostate who was coming here to save the world -- he really was going to have to re-visit his own thoughts on the matter.

"Fantastic! It's all I hoped for." Cheers. He takes a sip of his drink. "What was that about a rogue mage?"

"Which one?" Norrington stated dryly, "There are still enough out there to fill all of Skyhold."

"The one you want to bring to justice. Killed your mentors?"

He looks over at the younger mage, his jaw tightening slightly. "What about her?"

Oh. Shit. That's a face he doesn't want. "Bad subject? Sorry. You did mention it first, but I will not mention it again. Fair?"

He paused, then sighed, waving his hand. "It is ... a tense subject. I have not caught her. Yet."

"Still on the hunt then." He sighs himself. "I should excuse myself before I say anything else. I'm sure we'll meet again."

"I assure you, she is someone worthy of executing." Norrington said darkly. "She single-handedly brought our circle to outright bloodshed and chaos. Many innocent mages died because of her actions."

Oh, they were still...okay. "I see." He wasn't overly fond of execution. Mostly against it. He felt more and more his foot was going to wind up in his mouth if he remained here. "I'm sorry for your losses. B..." He pinched his lips together. No buts. Nope.

Norrington's gaze narrowed as the other man pinched his lips together, before he sighed himself, "I should let you go, Master Salvatore. Before we both say things we will regret. Good evening."

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salvatore_underfoot - 2016-01-27 18:42 (UTC) - Expand

judgemewhole - 2016-01-27 21:28 (UTC) - Expand