open. you believe what you want to believe.

[justashotaway]

WHO: Aenor Din'adhal, Laura Kint
WHAT: Catchall with open and some closed starters
WHEN: Immediately post-dream through the end of Guardian
WHERE: The Gallows and Kirkwall proper
NOTES: If you'd like me to write you up something particular, please PM justashotaway or dinadhal, PP , or disco dove#9906. Starters in comments.

Comments

[inkindled]

Oh. So the obvious answer, is what Matthias thinks--though he thinks it after a first initial stab of hurt. He can't help that. You get comfortable, living in Riftwatch. You don't forget, that there are people that don't want you to marry, that wouldn't even want you to live outside a Circle, that don't trust you--you don't ever forget all of that, of course, but the intensity of it is a little less. Day in, day out, you can live a step away from knowing that.

The hurt is followed by a flash of anger. But that passes quickly. Old scars make a kind of armor. Matthias shrugs.

"What does she know, anyway. And that was in the dream besides, so. It hardly counts. But even if it did, she doesn't know. It doesn't matter if it's what we want, right?"

[justashotaway]

"Right," she agrees, because the words for why it counts are difficult to find. Mrs. Fitcher was one of the first people she met in Kirkwall; she explained the purpose of cards and never seemed to mind that their conversations were small, strange things, rarely carried by the sound of Laura's voice. She's a plain, smart woman, older than Laura ever imagined getting, and stately about it in a sensible kind of way.

But Matthias isn't wrong. It was in the dream, in a world that doesn't exist. The things they keep from it are up to them. Her mouth tilts down further, her free hand covering his again as if locking his fingers up between hers might keep him safe from others' unkindness. And she tries to brush off the thought the way he has. "Her opinion does not change mine. And she might not feel that way now."

Doubt creeps into that last statement. But it would be nice, if it were true.