MOD PLOT ↠ The Soldiers of the Demon Charged

[faderifting]

WHO: Everyone!
WHAT: Striking closer to home.
WHEN: Justinian through Solace
WHERE: The Western/Central Free Marches
NOTES: OOC post. Please use appropriate content warnings in your comment subject lines.

WEEK ONE: THE COLLAPSE OF HASMAL

Recently in Hasmal, growing outrage from native Hasmalis over the swelling number of Tevinter refugees within and outside the city has led to a series of smaller violent incidents that went largely unanswered by local authorities, leading to additional targeting of more established Tevinter communities within the city and the makeshift fortification and arming of the camps outside. In the last week or so, after a period of simmering tensions, the situation in Hasmal has boiled over into violent riots. Reports out of the city conflict about what finally caused the rapid escalation, how bad things got, and whose fault they were. But they agree that it very quickly became a dangerous situation that the city authorities utterly failed to bring under control. Fires burned in some quarters of the city and deadly clashes between factions forced uninvolved citizens to barricade themselves in their homes. Some city leaders urged calm and peace while others encouraged supporters to seize the moment and fight for the upper hand. The Grand Vizier was nowhere to be seen. Somehow, amidst the chaos, the gates were opened and in marched the Tevinter army.

The violence, and then even more Tevinter's arrival—supposedly to help restore peace to the city, though it's unclear whether that has actually happened—has caused many to flee the city, particularly the refugee community who had fled from Tevinter once already. With nothing but the Tevinter desert of the Silent Plains to the north, most either jumped ship down the Minanter or came south across the river into Tantervale territory and Wildervale, with some now arriving in Kirkwall with their tales of chaos in the western-most March.

Also, Commander Flint and Scoutmaster Yseult are missing, having gone to meet a contact coming across the Minanter from Tevinter some days ago. They ought to be returning, but neither has been in contact since. In their absence, Ambassador Rutyer and Provost Stark will be running Riftwatch, and can direct Scouting and Forces as they see fit and delegate authority for those operations as necessary.

UNKNOWNS

This is a fast-moving situation, with events clearly already running well ahead of news. With limited resources at hand, intelligence networks in the previously quiet Free Marches have been somewhat neglected by the Inquisition and Riftwatch both. Much remains unclear, subject of wild rumor and conflicting reports from the few sources in the area:

There are stories that the Grand Vizier Rekam Antoninus, ruler of Hasmal, is either complicit in the Tevinter takeover or in league with refugees to try to bring down the city's nobility. There are rumors he has fled the city, or even that he's dead by a half-dozen different hands.

There are similarly conflicting reports about other Hasmal city leaders, with some said to have been encouraging the various factions involved in the riots, trying without success to calm the situation, or using the situation to advance their own interests in one way or another. It's likely that at least a few were cooperating to some extent with Tevinter, though exact numbers and identities can't be known right now.

The size of the Tevinter force in Hasmal isn't yet clear, as the numbers reported by those who fled the city at their arrival range from "most of the Tevinter army" to "five times the size of the entire Tevinter army."

All reports at this point are coming from people who have fled Hasmal, so there's essentially no reliable information about what the situation is like inside the city since Tevinter moved in.

RIFTWATCH'S WORK

As soon as word begins trickling in, Riftwatch will begin sending parties north to investigate the situation. Anyone with a relevant skill or two might be assigned to venture out to:

• AERIAL SURVEILLANCE: Use griffons for aerial surveillance of the region between Kirkwall and Hasmal, to watch for any further movement of the Tevinter army. Using sending crystals, they'll also be able to send back reports of the routes any large groups of refugees seem to be taking. And they'll be charged with assessing the roads and terrain between Kirkwall and Hasmal, identifying the routes an army could take to reach further South and what chokepoints—bridges, narrow passages, castles and fortresses with defenses that might hold—could be exploited to slow them down. (The distance from Kirkwall to Hasmal is too great for the griffons to be flying back and forth every day; aerial teams will be gone for several days at a time, and in the meantime staying on the property of a druffalo farmer in Wildervale or in wilderness camps of their own making.)


• ASSIST TRAVELLERS: Intercept people fleeing Hasmal—to assist them, when necessary, but also to get as much information from them as possible to try to separate rumors from first-hand accounts or find consistencies between stories that might point toward truths. Many of these people will be refugees twice over, already having fled from Tevinter in the wake of Corypheus' takeover, so some may have relevant information about Tevinter as well. And there is always the possibility that some loyal to Tevinter and the Venatori are disguised among the refugees, so they'll need to keep an eye out for anything suspicious.


• ASSIST TOWNSFOLK: Meet with the Countess of Wildervale and local leaders of smaller towns and villages. Those south of Wildervale may need to be alerted about the waves of travelers they're about to see, while those north of Wildervale will have been reached by refugees before Riftwatch and may be overwhelmed by the sudden swell of visitors and potential long-term residents. Some of those fleeing Hasmal may be settling into these villages for the long haul due to exhaustion or a lack of resources, while many others are terrified of Tevinter at their heels and want to go further south to put at least one major city between them and Hasmal. It's a valid fear, so in addition to discussing the refugee situation and how many more people the villages can viably feed and house, Riftwatch teams will need to help assess their defenses and escape routes if the invasion pushes further south, ideally without causing a panic.

Meanwhile, in Kirkwall, those who aren't suited to fieldwork or who are between trips out of the city will:

• ATTEND MEETINGS: The Viscount, Kirkwall's nobility, and City Guard representatives in Viscount's Keep will be meeting for long hours to discuss whether or not Kirkwall will be able to accept refugees (and to what extent) and the city's defenses and fortifications. Riftwatch won't have any formal say in these decisions, but its representatives may be able to provide information as it becomes available and maybe sneak some opinions in there as well.


• READY LOOKOUT TOWERS: Assist the city with transporting supplies to and chasing bandits out of rarely-used guard towers in the Vinmarks.


• ORGANIZE RIFTWATCH'S EFFORTS: Amass, organize, and disseminate the information being relayed back from the teams in the field—for example, making sure the Riftwatch teams advising refugees on which villages and cities will be able to take them in aren't directing them all to the same place and causing it to become overwhelmed.

There are also a few specific missions that will be assigned to those with suitable skills at the end of the week. Based on the available information, teams will be sent to Hasmal and to Tantervale to accomplish the following:

• HASMAL AERIAL SURVEILLANCE: The Hasmal team will travel by griffon to conduct fly-over surveillance of the city and the territory to the north and west, to try to gather information about the Tevinter forces. From griffonback, the team may occasionally spot Tevinter scouting parties or small clusters of soldiers that can be picked off or harassed, whether from the air or by landing to confront them.


• HASMAL GROUND SURVEILLANCE: The griffon team will also be carrying passengers, a small team who they will have to stealthily drop into Hasmal so that they can spend two days gathering information about the situation in the city itself before they're picked up by the griffons once again.


• TANTERVALE OUTREACH: The Tantervale team will try to meet with Tantervale's leadership to coordinate defense and relief efforts. They'll travel by horseback (griffons would only remind folks how weird Riftwatch is) and work through diplomatic channels and court backchannels to try to gain an audience with the Lady Chancellor and/or her ministers and persuade them of the benefits of working together.

These missions will be interrupted by the red lyrium dragon, which will first arrive over Hasmal just as the griffon riders are collecting their spy passengers for departure. The dragon will chase the griffons off before continuing on to Tantervale, where the team in the city will be forced to flee its attack and escape from the city.



WEEKS TWO & THREE: THE RUIN OF TANTERVALE

After the news of Tevinter's takeover of Hasmal, its closest neighbor, Tantervale, is calling a muster of whatever fighting-age men are left in its territory. Most of Tantervale's soldiers have previously joined the Exalted March, leaving the city-state only lightly defended. Whoever remains is ordered to arm themselves and meet outside the city within the week to protect against the threat of Tevinter incursion, or possibly even to threaten to join any supposed 'peacekeeping' force in Hasmal. The exact plan is unknown, but the citizens of Tantervale—known across Thedas for their religious zeal—appear eager to answer the call to defend their home and any fellow devotees of the Chantry from the dangerous northern heretics.

But in the end, how many they manage to attract to this makeshift defensive force hardly matters. The gathered host is powerless to stop the sudden, devastating attack of the corrupted high dragon. The huge, red-lyrium-infected beast—known to be under the command of Corypheus for some years now, but rarely seen since it perched triumphant atop the Archon's palace in Minrathous 3 years ago—emerges above Hasmal before flying the short distance east to Tantervale and laying waste to that city.

Simultaneously, confused reports are reaching Riftwatch from both Orlais and Ferelden, indicating an array of calamities: scattered across both countries, several small villages and their fields were recently set aflame, an important bridge over the Drakon River destroyed in Ferelden, a noble family and their entire staff found hanging evenly spaced from rafters in their estate not far from Halamshiral.

UNKNOWNS

Riftwatch agents present at Hasmal and Tantervale during the early stages of the dragon attack witness its beginning, but as they have to run for their lives, little is immediately known about its outcome. Given the destruction they did see, it's believed that Tantervale was a massacre, resulting in many, many deaths and much of the city destroyed by fire and corruption. A wave of people have now joined the stragglers from Hasmal fleeing south, but how many of them actually managed to escape the city of Tantervale itself as opposed to its surrounding countryside is unknown, and among those who survived, many begin to show signs of darkspawn corruption on the road.

Per the reports coming from the South, the leaders in both Ferelden and Orlais initially respond as if being invaded before realizing that the incidents were not the beginning of a larger military push. It will take some time for it to become clear that all of these events happened on the same day as the assault on Tantervale, mostly by individual actors.

RIFTWATCH'S WORK

Most of the work Riftwatch was doing in Week 1 will continue in Weeks 2 and 3, while pivoting or expanding to include dealing with the situation in Tantervale as well:

• ASSIST TRAVELERS & TOWNSFOLK: The attack on Tantervale will essentially double the number of new refugees fleeing south, testing the work Riftwatch did in Week 1 and greatly increasing the strain on communities in Wildervale. Some they may be able to persuade to make do and accommodate more fellow Marchers, while others will reach the end of either their supplies or their patience or both, and Riftwatch agents will need to help calm tensions and find alternatives.


• SHORE UP DEFENSES: Efforts to shore up defenses in the region will ratchet up, and Riftwatch agents will be called on to do things like help train emergency village militias, build makeshift defenses, and provide advice on what to do in case of dragon attack.

For those in Kirkwall:

• ASSIST ARRIVING REFUGEES: Pressure on Kirkwall itself will increase as the first refugees arrive at the city and an even greater number look likely to do so in the near future. Kirkwall has a fairly fraught recent history with refugees from a crisis—the influx of Blight refugees from Ferelden caused a nativist backlash that went on for years. In this case, the locals will be somewhat more friendly because the refugees are their fellow Marchers, as well as slightly more frightened because this crisis isn't happening across a sea. But there will still be a fairly tepidly charitable response to the needs of incoming people, and those escaping Hasmal who are clearly of Tevinter origin will have an especially difficult time. Riftwatch's help will be needed in connecting the new arrivals with those who are willing to help them and aiding in the construction of some temporary structures and camps for those without other means of housing themselves.


• PREPARE FOR THE WORST: Riftwatch will be called upon by the Viscount's office to work with the City Guard to review Kirkwall's defenses, work on emergency upgrades, help man observation posts further afield to provide early warning of any imminent attack. For the time being, a regular rotation of Riftwatch members will be sent to keep watch at some of the further towers, since their sending crystals will allow them to pass along more information more quickly than the warning fires. There will also be a lot of discussion about how to handle a dragon attack--with the expectation that Riftwatch will take a lead role in defending against any such attack.

Elsewhere, Riftwatch will send teams to:

• STARKHAVEN: Believed to be the most likely next target for assault other than Kirkwall. Riftwatch will send a team to meet with current leadership to offer to provide mage support against a potential dragon attack, coordination of defensive efforts, and to learn how Starkhaven plans to handle Tantervale refugees.


• OSTWICK, MARKHAM, HERCINIA, ANSBURG, & WYCOME: Too far to have been directly affected yet. Riftwatch will send representatives to court to try to meet with leaders to discuss coordinating efforts across the region for mutual defense against Tevinter, encouraging them to raise soldiers, shore up defenses, and take in refugees.


• FERELDEN & ORLAIS: By the end of Week 3 it will be clear that what happened in Orlais and Ferelden is likely a diversionary tactic, meant to compel them to keep their attention at home rather than throwing too much of their weight behind assisting the Free Marches, but a few people will be sent to investigate the sites of some attacks for any evidence of how they were coordinated and to be sure further attacks aren't impending.

(OOC Note: For attacks in Ferelden and Orlais and for small villages around Hasmal and Tantervale, you're welcome to invent the names of these places and invent details of what exactly happened without checking in with us. If your character is from one of these areas, you're also welcome to say their hometowns or places they're familiar with were affected, as long as: (1) it isn't a place big enough to be on the canon map of Thedas and (2) if someone else's character is coincidentally from the same place, you check with them first.)



WEEKS FOUR & FIVE: THE MARCH ON STARKHAVEN

The situation in the Free Marches continues to deteriorate rapidly. With Tantervale now more rubble than city, nothing substantial stands between the Tevinter force in Hasmal and either Kirkwall, home of Riftwatch, or Starkhaven, the cultural and financial heart of the Marches. An advance on one or both of those cities is believed to be the next logical step, but nobody knows for sure which it's going to be or whether it's going to come in the form of an attack by dragon or just ("just") an army.

Reports from the Riftwatch teams in and over Hasmal at the end of Week 1 spotted signs of that army readying to move, and further griffon reconnaissance during Weeks 2 and 3 confirmed that with Tantervale out of the way the army is now moving quickly. Their path is clearly pointed east toward Starkhaven. Like Tantervale, Starkhaven is lightly-defended, much of its forces—along with its ruler, Prince Sebastian Vael—in Orlais with the Exalted March.

Help from elsewhere is unlikely to arrive in time. Those Marches who might have been best positioned to support Starkhaven in its time of need find themselves with problems of their own, as coastal communities in Ostwick and Hercinia suffer a rash of brutal and unusually well-organized pirate attacks. The port towns of Torbay and Ogwell near Ostwick and Noli near Hercinia take the brunt of it, sacked and burned by marauders. There are several attacks on shipping reported as well, with prizes taken from normally safe waters where the Waking Sea meets the Amaranthine. Both city-states have increased naval patrols and are now on alert, but they're looking outwards, not inland.

UNKNOWNS

How quickly reinforcements will arrive. Agents and Inquisition contacts in Orlais report that the Exalted March is now aware, and that there are urgent debates among the commanders about how to react. Prince Sebastian Vael is thought to be planning to return imminently, but precisely how long that will take—and how many men he will bring with him—remains unknown.

RIFTWATCH'S WORK

• SLOWING THE ADVANCE: Riftwatch will do its best to slow the enemy advance and buy Starkhaven time to prepare. Without the numbers to engage the host directly, teams will instead be tasked with making the journey as difficult as possible by creating obstacles along the way: think rockslides, blown bridges, washed out roads, felled trees clogging the river, sabotaged boats and wagons, and so forth. Traps or small guerrilla-style attacks may be laid at some of these points, but with strict orders not to risk it unless conditions allow Riftwatch the advantage to attack swiftly and then escape again. The goal is to harass and pick off low-hanging fruit, not get caught up in an unwinnable battle.


• PREPARING STARKHAVEN: Preventing an attack on Starkhaven seems impossible, but Riftwatch can at least help the city prepare for it. At this point a siege is the best option, but it will mean being (or at least looking) strong enough to withstand an initial assault. Top priorities are:
  
  • Reinforcing city defenses. These efforts were already underway by Week 2, but will become far more urgent, and leaders will be much more eager to hear from Riftwatch anything they know about the enemy forces.
  
  
  • Stocking the city. This includes bringing in supplies to prepare for the siege they now hope comes, whether by wagon or boat or griffon, and Riftwatch may even be asked to help negotiate with merchants and farmers to get deals done and goods delivered faster if possible.
  
  
  • Bolstering numbers. They need all the fighting manpower they can get, so Riftwatch will be helping recruit by explaining the situation, the context of the war, and encouraging anyone able to fight to help, and then transporting them from the countryside to the city walls as fast as possible. Bringing in fighting men means more mouths to feed, so Riftwatch will also be asked to help ferry vulnerable people out of the city to safety in other Marches. At first this effort will focus on the young and old with political importance, but it will be expanded (if Riftwatch pushes and also if they work fast enough to make it feasible) to include young and old of all classes.
  
  
  • Helping keep the peace and avoid a panic. Between the news of the on-coming army, the rash of high-profile assassinations (see below) and the horrific fate of Tantervale, the people of Starkhaven are understandably on edge. The mood in the city is one of barely suppressed terror, and city officials are anxious to avoid any incidents that might light a spark and distract from necessary preparations. Riftwatch will be asked to assist the guard in patrolling public areas where people tend to gather and help defuse situations, from breaking up brawls and preventing theft and hoarding of supplies to chasing off an obnoxious crier who won't stop stirring up fears with his vivid tales of how he received his scar at the hands of the vicious, unstoppable Tevinters.


• PROTECTING THE COUNTRYSIDE: The enemy journey through the Marches isn't as orderly as it was in Orlais. Parties of enemy soldiers and mages are veering south (occasionally north, into the strip of Marches before the Antivan border, but mostly south) across the river to attack travelers, sack villages, burn farms, and generally cause chaos. This will also involve periodic dragon attacks in the regions between Hasmal, Wildervale, and Starkhaven. These attacks are sudden and brief, hitting random locations, causing death and damage, and leaving as quickly as they arrived. Riftwatch agents traveling through the region for any purpose will need to be on guard, and teams will also be tasked to help patrol the countryside and major roads to protect against enemy attacks. Some teams may be stationed in towns and villages for days at a time, ready to respond to any reports of enemy attacks nearby and coordinate via crystal.

And in the midst of this work, there will be some additional specific missions:

• STARKHAVEN ASSASSIN: An assassin is stalking the streets of Starkhaven. Four prominent citizens have been murdered in the past two weeks, including two high-ranking guard captains, a celebrated knight who won the Grand Tourney not long ago, and Lord Kennech, a frontrunner to replace Lord Greer as regent. The murders have been brazen and bloody, not identical but each marked with the sigil of a prominent family drawn in blood, the first (over Lord Kennech) being the symbol of House Harimann, now most famous for having arranged the murders of Prince Sebastian Vael's family in a coup attempt in 9:31. The other houses referenced similarly have prominent betrayals and power-grabs in their history. No one is quite sure what any of it means, but it has certainly set the city even further on edge and has suspicions between members of the ruling class nearing a high. As a neutral party, Riftwatch will be asked to help provide security for potential targets.


• DRAGON TRACKING: Corypheus' dragon has rarely been sighted very far from him, and its presence in the Free Marches raises the possibility that he's somewhere nearby. A few different small teams on griffon- and horseback will attempt to track it to where it's resting between its excursions to terrorize the countryside, with the hope that Corypheus is there and this may present an opportunity to confront him directly with fewer fortifications.


• FIREBOMBING THE ARMY: As the army nears Starkhaven, another griffon-based team will make one last push to slow them down. The evening before they inevitably reach the city, the team will fly over their camp with mages, Antivan Fire grenades and breakable flasks of oil, and anything else they can come up with to rain literal fire on the Tevinter camps.

WEEK SIX: FALLING ACTION

The Tevinter force finally arrives at Starkhaven. After all the work to delay the enemy and speed preparations, the city is ready to hold fast against them at least until Prince Sebastian can return from Orlais with the army and (they hope) the Exalted March in tow. The Tevinter force, clearly still hoping to take the city before those reinforcements arrive, sets up camp as if for a siege but then launches a pre-dawn attack in hope of breaching the gates. This is repelled, but periodic assault (mostly magical) on the city walls continues—thus far with little effect.

Now that the enemy has arrived at Starkhaven, there isn't much more Riftwatch can do to help directly. The force is still too large for them to take on, and while they can get away with some limited griffon stealth missions in and out of the city, the large-scale operations of previous weeks are no longer possible. Prince Sebastian and the fastest part of his forces will arrive by the end of the week, and he will then take the lead in determining how to defend Starkhaven. He'll be happy to talk to Riftwatch about what they've seen and done in the interim and will be grateful for their efforts on behalf of his city. But there's a lot for him to figure out at present, and coordinating the type of smaller-scale work Riftwatch is best suited for isn't top of his agenda at the moment. Essentially, he'll be in touch.

RIFTWATCH'S WORK

All agents in and around Starkhaven are pulled back just ahead of the Tevinter force's arrival, along with any last group of vulnerable citizens they're able to get out. Riftwatch will continue to put more focus than it previously had on the Free Marches, with increased patrols and surveillance, and will keep an eye on the refugee situation as things develop. The enemy presence in the Marches will continue to cause trouble, with occasional parties of soldiers and mages marauding, posing new hazards closer to home than before that will periodically require Riftwatch's attention. And the situation in Starkhaven will continue to develop and may require more assistance in the future. But otherwise, it's more or less back to business as usual for now, just with a new set of issues added to the pile.

Comments

[heirring]

"A fine excuse. As if, were our positions reversed, you wouldn't expect me to borrow one from a companion in order to—"

She insists on rattling on even as she is drawn in by the shape of his arm. The very last part, "—make some report that I was yet hale and hearty and there was no cause for alarm—", is said as Wysteria takes his chin with her free hand and turns his face by the degrees necessary to examine the various bumps, bruises, and scrapes up close.

"Well." Tsk. She turns him back by the chin. "It is not so bad underneath all the color. But you might avoid consulting a mirror for some days if you haven't already."

[heorte]

The scrutiny interrupts Ellis' trajectory, sparking a moment of hesitation over so quickly that it is easily swallowed up in the combination of scolding and scrutiny. He submits to it obligingly enough, does not volunteer that he is fortunate to have come away with only a lost helmet and bruised face and without a cracked skull to match the assorted fractures he's toting along with him.

Instead, a low chuckle, shaking his head as he loosens his grip on her wrist to loop his other arm around her waist as well.

A beat of silent contemplation follows after while she is inspected in turn. She is such a welcome sight, wholly unscathed and face pinched into disapproval. Ellis draws in a breath to speak, perhaps defend himself or reassure her that yes, he would certainly expect exactly as she said or to say some other, quiet thing, before instead—

Ellis bows his battered body down and puts his bruised face in against her shoulder, arms tightening around her, holding on to her tightly.

[heirring]

How does she expect Ellis will receive being so berated? A defense, certainly. Some sober apology, she thinks—he is very practiced with such severe things and she has seen such a strategy exercised more than once, has she not? It is the second arm drawing about her which should cue her to reconsider him before her. But she is so unqualified to do so that it hardly seems remarkable in the moment—

She is unprepared for how he crumples down into her. All at once, the spectral shape of the fear which had acted as her companion along the road rises up again to devour the hen pecking irritating that had feigned to take its place. It is by instinct that she put her other hand about him to hold him there against her shoulder while a pattering fear grips closes tight and sharp.

It is very strange to hold someone rather than to insist on being held. She can't think of a single past instance in which she has done so.

Without thinking, her hand is in his hair. She touches the crown of his bent head, strokes the dusty tangle of his curls like she might an animal in need of soothing. "There, there," she says, gentler and more stricken both. "It will be all right. It can't be so terrible as all that."

[heorte]

All along the left side of his chest is painfully tender, reflecting some inner facture outward. It aches now, the worse for how he's leaned down into her. But even so, Ellis closes his eyes, listening to Wysteria's voice, focusing on the sweep of her hand through his hair, where she's reached up to hold onto him.

"I'm sorry," is a murmur, easily heard because he has put himself so close to her. Two words, very concise, but sincere.

In his pain-blurred recollection of the space between the impact of all that rubble and Jone's hand prodding at his face, Ellis knows he had thought of Wysteria. He had thought of her and he'd thought of Tony, and what a wrench it would be to leave them. It comes back to him now, cutting just as sharp as it had then, perhaps more so for having had the time to fully consider how narrowly he had avoided that particular outcome.

[heirring]

It makes her heart ache, the combination of those two concise words. The combination of them and his weight and the tight cinch of his grip is like a hand closed about her and the quiet fear that lives behind her ribs. It is strangling and not strangling; there is a kind of desperation, isn't there? To grand him some modicum of comfort.

The movement of her hand becomes an automatic rhythm—not rote, but stabilizing for its regularity. There is something comforting any pattern. The tick of a clock, the slant of light through the course of a day. The order of things can be reassuring, simple. Easy.

"It's nothing. I've forgiven you already," seems like the reasonable thing to say on top of it being true. "I was only a little angry and you're perfectly well. In fact I think your face will recover marvelously, so there is no reason at all to fret over it."

[heorte]

Laughing hurts, digs at the tender, fractured point in his chest. But there is a laugh in reply, bright and muffled against her shoulder, then a labored, shallow series of breaths following in it's wake to steady himself afterwards.

His hands have settled, one drawn up across her shoulder blades, the other around her waist. The temptation to stay here, underneath the continuous sweep of her hand, is hard to shake. He lingers longer than he should.

But eventually, he straightens by degrees, drawing upright without breaking out of her grasp. He is quiet, looking into her face. Several things come at once to mind, catch in his throat, are discarded unsaid.

"I'm not worried about my face," is what all that indecision resolves into, some small measure of humor underscoring the words. Then, more seriously, "But I am sorry I scared you."

[heirring]

Pained as it seems, the laugh floods her with relief. If it weren't for the sound of it, she might bristle over allowing him to straighten from her at all to begin with. As it is, Wysteria takes great care not to let her hands scuff along whatever scrapes and bruises are most obvious. The one side of his face seems safe enough. Hovering about his left shoulder will have to do for the other.

"Nonsense," she answers, brisk and immediate to make up for the mortification of his very sincere examination and, worse still, his extremely severe apology. It is rare for her to feel any embarrassment about predicting a person's reaction, but look at her, Mister Ellis. When has she ever been frightened in her whole life? It is atrocious that he would even suggest the possibility.

"Worry and fear may very well be very close cousins, but they are not the same thing at all. And have you considered that maybe you should be. Worried. About your face, I mean. You have see a healer, yes? Where do these bruises end?" She folds the collar of his tunic impatiently back from his neck and squawks in outrage to discover some manner of abuse beneath its edge. "And where do you think you are going in this state? Trudging into the nearest roadside ditch, I suppose. Why have you not procured a horse? I know you are able to ride. Or a spot in the back of some wagon, at the very least?"

She twists then—not out of his grip, but to look back toward where the burned wagon committee had once been bickering. And then, turning back again, says, "Oh surely not that wagon. There must be better alternatives available."

[heorte]

The urge to put the smile working it's way across his face back in against her shoulder comes and goes, ghosts along the edges of his thoughts. His hands come to settle at her waist in the course of her questioning and inspection, waiting for the flow of inquiry to come more or less to an end before offering answers. There is some tender line working at his expression, present even alongside the faint smile that rises in response to Wysteria's scrutiny.

"It looks worse than it is," is likely not going to be a well-received claim, but feels truthful to Ellis. He has lived through worse injuries. This could have yielded worse injuries. It diminishes his assessment of his present state. "Jone took me in to the healer's tent straightaway, and they've checked me over, I promise."

A very glossy description of events, certainly, with the notable exclusion of specific diagnosis. Part of it is certainly an attempt to shield her from the full weight of what had happened, but some part of it is Ellis giving himself distance from it as well, stepping back from the pain-fogged recollections to remain firmly here with Wysteria.

Looking briefly past her to mark the progress of burned wagon, suppress some exasperated agreement in favor of tacking on, "When things have been settled and the rest of these people started on the road, I'll see about a horse."

If only because by the time he walks back to Kirkwall in this condition, the entire war might be over.

"I'm alright," is a reassurance followed almost immediately by, "What about you?"

A question that feels delayed to him, spoken as the thought occurs: he has not asked after her and it has been some time since he's last seen her.

[heirring]

He is fortunate. The majority of this explanation receives only the world's most skeptical sidelong look.

A scoff— "Me? I think you'll find I'm perfectly well. A little saddle sore maybe, but we"—meaning some small contingent of research and forces, likely—"Have been dashing about all over the countryside making trouble, and so that's surely to be expected. And I have not singed off either of my eyebrows doing it. Look, smell."

Her hand shifts from the right side of his face to comically cup his nose. There is a faint whiff of something rank and earthy, and then she is drawing her hand away with a wrinkle of her own nose.

"I've been stripping ghoul's beard for antivan fire for weeks. I keep finding little bits of its awful hair in my clothes."

[heorte]

The absurdity of her hand covering his face startles another laugh out of him, and the process repeats: punched out bark of good humor ceding to shallow, pained inhales. But the amusement doesn't wane, remains when her hand drops, stays while Ellis catches his breath.

Even in spite of Ellis' longstanding opposition of Wysteria's familiarity with combustibles and explosives, it is such a relief to hear that she's been—

Well, not out of danger, not entirely. But that she's more or less at a distance from the worst of it. That loosens the tight, panicked vise of fear that had sparked up at the thought of her having been in Tantervale through the dragon attack, of not having realized until afterwards.

"Have you learned enough of it that I'll need to find a way to cultivate it in the garden, or would you rather never see it again after this?" is only partly a serious question, but mostly to hear her scoff or laugh about the prospect of attempting to grow such a particular plant in Kirkwall.

Though maybe, a section of the cellar might suit, if the idea suits—

[heirring]

Her Eugh is emphatically negative, so repelled by the prospect that she makes as if to pluck his hands from her person. Never mind that she's just given him a nose full of the residual stench from the plant's brambly secretions—

"Ask me when I haven't spent the last week up to my elbows in it."

Because it is an admittedly rather useful plant.

"You are returning to Kirkwall when you've finished your business, I trust?" It's a little like a demand, her hands on clamped at his wrists like manacles. "We should go together when you do. I'm expecting a parcel from Orzammar any day now and need to retrieve it personally."

[heorte]

A parcel from Orzammar sparks immediate interest. Ellis' hands flex carefully against her waist, thumbs set against parallel seams, as he makes some pretense at humming in consideration over her question.

But he doesn't hold out long enough. There are precious few things Ellis ever denies her, and the truth of the matter makes acquiescing very easy.

"Aye, I'd like that," is the real point, even if he had intended to return to Kirkwall regardless. The journey back will be better for having made it with her. "I need to see the blacksmith about my armor."

And, as if anticipating the obvious, he adds, "And the infirmary, about the rest."

The rest, waving away the specifics in favor of asking, "What sort of parcel?"

[heirring]

It is the correct question with which to avoid further inconveniently directed interrogation. That much is obvious from the spark that gleams briefly hot in Wysteria's blue eyes.

"The piece that does the active enchanting for mine and de Foncé's project. I will have to install the crystalized lyrium myself of course, but that should only take a few hours. And if it doesn't immediately fail,"—explode or electrify or render everything within a radius paralyzed—"Then I shall have the whole arrangement ready for assembly in short order. Your friend Aldrich is very agreeable by post, I must say."

[heorte]

Fail pricks up some immediate sense of danger. Ellis' eyebrows raise, momentary, clear consideration of pressing her on what failure looks like, before deciding he doesn't want to know. Not just yet, anyway.

"He likes most people better at a distance."

Though the real danger is that Aldrich will appreciate Wysteria enough to tolerate her up close, so the only real saving grace is the distance between Orzammar and Kirkwall.

"I'd like to see it, when you've finished," he tells her, eyes falling to study her hands on his wrists, his hands at her waist. "Before you take it out into the field."

Because he can only assume that is what she is going to do. The timing is right. What better way to test something than by aiming it at a swath of Tevinter soldiers?

[heirring]

"Yes, yes, of course. If you like, and time permitting I shall of course show it off properly," she says without thinking. And then swifts amends, a little guilty as if he has found her with her hand in the metaphorical murderous cookie jar, "—Though I haven't decided yet how I mean to test it. For the record."

Yes she has. Obviously the moment the last screw is tightened she means to pack the whole thing up and go racing off to make trouble with it.

"I will bring it to you in the infirmary while you're resting."

Checkmate.

[heorte]

Yes, she has. Ellis knows this about her, has had some time to become very familiar with the excitement that comes along with some new thing she's worked up.

"I don't think anyone would like it if you fired your gun in the infirmary," Ellis says, very seriously in spite of the smile working at the corner of his mouth. He is still making a study of their hands, watching her only from his periphery. "So I shall have to come to you."

[heirring]

"I wouldn't fire it inside the infirmary," is the natural sullen defense, stubborn and paltry only because— "The tests themselves must remain at least a little secret and it would hardly be very subtle to go cracking off there where anyone might see."

She loosens the cinch of her grip from his wrists, giving the back of his hands each a soft chiding pinch.

"But we can discuss the particulars when we are well south of here. For the time being, I trust you have a long list of things which you believe you need to do before you turn in that direction. So you may as well go ahead and split it with me. That way I can at least look to be a slightly useful reinforcement versus a very silly one, even if my motives are secretly all very selfish."

[heorte]

The pinch raises his gaze, lifts his face up to look into hers. The turn of phrase she's chosen (which you believe you need to do) doesn't go unnoticed, if the widening of his smile is any meter to gauge by.

But the list isn't immediately forthcoming, though Ellis knows more or less what he had intended to spend his time doing today before Wysteria had arrived. Instead, there is his hands at her waist, thumbs moving briefly along the seams before turning up to catch her hands in his own.

Indecision is not a thing Ellis is given to experiencing. But he feels it in this moment, stood in a field not so very far from a place where he very nearly died with Wysteria in front of him.

He draws a breath, feels the answering ache in his chest, and says—

"First, there is a need for some ghoul's beard."

[heirring]

"Ugh!"

She wrings her hands from his grasp with a great to do of scoffing and eye rolling and miscellaneous good humored threats—"I might slap you if I didn't think I might do some lasting damage, you scoundrel."

When she is nominally free of him, Wysteria presents one of her palms upright and expectant between them.

"My crystal, if you please. I believe you caught it."

[heorte]

"Aye, I did," he confirms, producing it from where he'd stowed it away without thinking. Ellis sets it in the center of her upturned palm, one hand just beneath, a sliver of space left between them. "There. Returned, undamaged."

No thanks necessary.

[heirring]

"I should hope so," she snips, primly brisk in a way that isn't reflected in the sidelong look she shoots him or the hint of a smile that tugs persistently at the corner of her mouth.

Well there. She has made him laugh at least a few times already, and even if it seems to pain him to do so surely that is a far preferable alternative to whatever grim mood might come more naturally here in the shadow of such a distinct—loss? Failure? The whole world smells like smoke and fire and the haze of the day can't be due to the weather.

She thwaps the hand hovering beneath hers with the back of her knuckles, and then the crystal is disappeared into one of her own pockets. Afterward Wysteria offers him the crook of her arm.

"Briskly now, Mister Ellis. We don't have all day."

put a bow on this y/n

[heorte]

In the midst of all the things Ellis has convinced himself not to say, one particular sentiment comes to him as Wysteria holds out her arm, and he finds no reason not to tell her this:

"I'm glad you came," he says, in the same motion as he winds his arm through hers. It's said to the tune of Thank you, those two words only held back because he won't give her space to dismiss this gratitude. It's a straightforward, uncomplicated offering, in a way. All that comes attached remains shadowed and insubstantial.

Ellis clears his throat in the wake of it, tells her, "Lead on," as warmly as he's ever done.

Yy

[heirring]

"Of course I did. For one, I haven't ever been to Tantervale and I suspect this is the closest I'll get to it for some time. And for two, I am, technically speaking, only following orders."

She pats his hand where it hangs at the end of their figure-8 looped arms, and does exactly as she's asked: steering him gamely around in dusky shadowed afternoon, summer sum beaten grass rasping about them as they pick their way back toward the chaotic sprawl of a fleeing encampment not quite yet in motion.

"A case ought to be designed," she says as they go. "So it will be harder to misplace your crystal the next time."

You're welcome.