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

slides this under your doorstep at the crack of dawn anyway

[heorte]

When she'd deposited Ellis into the healer's tent, Jone had picked a good place; an out of the way corner where she'd propped Ellis as comfortably as he could be. He'd dropped off somehow, slumped against Jone's shoulder, exhaustion winning out against the dull roar of pain racing around his body.

A Marcher healer had prodded him awake once. There had been a potion, to stave off pain and ward against the kind of serious injury that never meets the eye. But that had been all, and the bruising that's risen across his skin, alongside the swelling at his shoulder and over the left side of his ribs, since then is shockingly impressive. Thot doesn't have to work very hard to find bruises. Ellis has them in abundance.

Ellis doesn't remember dropping off a second time, only that it must have been easier.

The pressure of Thot's questing paw wins her a sharp intake of breath, falling into wince, but not expulsion. The inhale is too deep, and his off hand raises instinctively up to his chest, against the flare of pain, but Thot's perch is undisturbed.

Jone kept her promise, adjacent but asleep. That registers, amidst the confusion of waking to a semi-familiar creature treading on his wounds. It takes a moment for his gaze to lift from Thot to Richard, eyebrows raising.

[nonvenomous]

Dick hisses, ssst, and Thot lurches back from where she’d been stretching in for a nibble at Ellis’ ear or nose or chin, her crest pinned flat, the cruel hook of her beak left half-open in silent protest. She’s more hawk than cat, bristled with sable feathers and scaly grey feet, but she is easily recognized via the guilt-stricken bug of her eyes -- a vivid sage green.

She’s in far better form than her master, who settles on the footstool as if it’s the first chance he’s had to sit in hours. Richard is a dusty, blood-streaked shamble, all hard angles and rough creases, absent the soot and smell of burning that marks so many of Tantervale’s refugees. The empty bottle he’s plucked from a nearby table gets a sniff before it’s held out for Thot to sneeze at.

He gives Ellis a sharper look-over with the knowledge of its former contents.

Goodness.

“I heard you let a building fall on you.”

[heorte]

"Aye."

The answer muzzy with sleep, Ellis still sharpening to full wakefulness. All that pain is still present, if muted and held at bay. The hand over his chest lifts to continue it's progression along to stroke carefully along Thot's feathers.

"You've been busy?" he questions, Richard's appearance finally sinking in enough for Ellis to wonder at what sort of injuries or otherwise Richard might have acquired.

[nonvenomous]

“I rode from Hasmal.”

...is a much abbreviated retelling of events that have hitched at his posture and resolved in some bandages of his own -- filthy, dust-blasted rags in need of changing. There will be plenty of time for that here.

For now, he leans to splay his anchor hand over the swelling, careful to hover until the last possible second, and a mild:

“May I?”

Thot’s great, taloned feet knead while she’s stroked, claws flexed too delicately not to be deliberate now that she’s been shamed. One foot at a time, she shifts and resets, her weight swayed gently side to side.

[heorte]

There is a measuring pause. Ellis watches Richard's face, the motion of his hand continuing over Thot's feathers without pause.

"You're tired," isn't an answer. But it's true, surely. Richard is tired and it is very late and Ellis knows so little about magic, but he knows it takes as much from a mage to cast a spell as it does for him to wield a mace.

"None of this will kill me," Ellis tells him, which is truthful. "I'll live till morning, at least."

Ha, ha. A Joke.

[nonvenomous]

“We’re all tired,” says Richard, touching down upon battered ribs because you’re tired doesn’t translate directly to don’t. He presses the point with a glance to Jone. No one here is alive or awake enough to ssst him, as he did his familiar. “The dragon could return before morning.”

Thot has followed his look to Jone and keeps her eyes fixed there, croaking to herself as she rolls right to left, left to right. She seems pleased -- friends all piled up in an aching heap under one roof.

It’s difficult to tell. She is a bird.

Somehow Richard is harder to read, all business placidity beneath tatty fringes and a layer of grit. His eyes are clear and focused.

“Is the pain sharper when you breathe in?”

[heorte]

"I'm flattered you think I could kill a dragon," Ellis says, knowing full well it is not what Richard had meant. His voice doesn't waver, even as he clearly hesitates over the lay of Richard's hand, debates over how to answer the question.

Carefully, while still ruffling the soft feathers at Thot's neck, Ellis says, "Aye, it's sharper then."

Glancing back over to Richard, he follows that with, "I know what it is. I've injured my ribs before."

There are scars to illustrate. Richard might have seen them, that first time they spoke, sunk into warm water up in a lodge on the Vinmark Mountains. Ellis remembers the snake slipping into the water more than he remembers the drift of Richard's attention all these months later.

https://i.imgur.com/zqVBn9I.gif

[nonvenomous]

He’s seen it all -- lines of ink and scar tissue alike -- but it’s been well over a year, and he’s as curious now as he was then. A quick study is easy under the pretense of medical assessment; Thot has tipped her beak down to preen at Ellis’ wrist as her feathers are stirred beneath it. It’s like being smooched on by a meat hook.

“I’m not sure you should be flattered that I wouldn’t put it past you to try,” he murmurs dry between them, mild beneath an arch at his brow.

Focus is harder to come by here than he makes it look -- evidenced in the way he furrows his brow when he finally breathes in and closes his eyes to start.

Warmth doesn’t crawl numb along tortured cartilage and cracked bone until he begins to speak, the words sibilant, alien, the pace plodding after the fashion of a chant. Not quite as rehearsed, little spins of in spite of his propensity for bounding headlong into danger and the like embellished into abyssal prayer over the sensation of fresh, sharp-edged splinters wearing down into an older ache, pain drawn out from the depths of subsurface wounds like venom.

The sensation trails off when his words do. Bruises, scrapes, swelling: that all remains in force, for now, but he’s considering a second run, calculating against the late hour, the likelihood of rest --

[heorte]

And Ellis' hand comes up, folds over Richard's where he's laid his palm over the livid, red-raised bruises splotched across Ellis' ribs.

"That's more than enough," he says, digging in against the possibility of Richard expending more of his ability on piecing Ellis back together. His handiwork has already had a tangible effect, dialed down the pain to something manageable. It's more than Ellis had wanted him to do for something that would keep until he made it back to Kirkwall.

And the lessening of pain leaves room for exhaustion to press in further around the edges of his awareness. Richard's presence here already has a surreal quality to it, appearing in the middle of the night with Thot, working magic in a way Ellis has never seen before.

Quieter, he offers, "Thank you," up to Richard, though it feels paltry when set against ribs nudged along towards mending, achieving in minutes what Ellis knows would have taken weeks of rest.

[nonvenomous]

There’s a splinter of defiance through the fierce blue of his eyes in low lamplight, the back of his hand kept splayed beneath Ellis’ grasp -- disinclined to be told when he’s done.

It’s fleeting, muted under a gathering look to the floor, and gone entirely by the time he’s drawn his hand back to rustle in one of his pockets. There’s a familiar tin in there somewhere, complimented now with a runic lighter.

“You’re welcome.”

Thot resumes her nibbling after a beat’s pause.

“Was Jone injured?”

[heorte]

Richard's hand withdraws, so Ellis' own hand returns to Thot and her sharp beak, her sleek feathers.

"Aye," Ellis answers. "She sliced her palm open, getting me out."

Which is along the lines of the truth, omitting the finer details of what happened.

"I wouldn't wake her for it," is truthful too. Ellis might not be trusted to assess his own injuries, but he wouldn't risk anyone else. "Not when you need rest as much as she does."

[nonvenomous]

Fine. Silas vets Ellis’ assessment of Jone’s damage with a glance while he fishes in his tin. It’s easy to imagine that his eyes linger on her palm only for the slash of a fresh injury there.

“You will be expected to travel tomorrow.”

He speaks tightly to keep the joint poised at his lip before he clicks out a tongue of flame; a light pair of puffs sees the cherry take root. He has to lean to tuck away the tin. The lighter, he slips into his vest.

“The survivors are all fleeing south.”

[heorte]

"Aye, I know."

Even if he hadn't more than one reason to return to Kirkwall, seeing the survivors safely along the road would have drawn his attention. But his armor is a wreckage, and he needs a new helmet, and he wants to see Tony.

Ellis doesn't volunteer these things. He watches the curls of smoke from Richard's joint. He ruffles Thot's feathers, drawing his hand up and then smoothing them back down.

"Are you coming as well?"

[nonvenomous]

“I’ll rest for a few hours and ride further down the line of refugees. Thot is useful for scouting the road for hazards.”

It might be a while before he sees another healer is the implication behind a look that’s at least as resigned as it is disapproving. But it’s Ellis’ choice to abstain (for now) and he has elfroot to mellow him. Any second now. When it hits. Surely. Particularly given his deep-breathing disregard for anyone in here suffering who might not care for the smell.

The hawk on Ellis’ arm has no such issue relaxing, the faint buzz of something that feels very much like a purr puttering at his fingertips beneath her feathers.

“I can leave her with you for the night if you like.”

[heorte]

"Where will you go?" is a precursor to the same request he'd put to Jone: Please stay.

Breaking from Thot's feathers, Ellis extends a hand in silent request for the elfroot.

[nonvenomous]

“Tonight?” The joint is already at his fingertips when he sees Ellis reaching, turned to pass. Easy.

“Not far. There are structures still standing in the vicinity.”

[heorte]

Ellis' answer is delayed by the business of the joint. Inhaling deeply is still painful, and Ellis navigates that as carefully as he can, suppresses a wince. The ember at the end of the joint glows bright, trails a slight curl of smoke when Ellis draws it away from his mouth.

"Stay here."

Not that Ellis is offering luxurious or comfortable space. But they've slept on the ground adjacent to each other before. This is hardly so different, making room in a healer's tent after a dragon attack.

[nonvenomous]

“I’m not infirm,” is swift and unkind, as no thank yous go. “But I will steal a blanket if it will ease your worry for my well-being.”

Of greater concern for the short term is the possibility that Ellis might cough; he watches him toke in with a late flicker of trepidation. This is not very responsible doctoring. He is not a very responsible doctor.

“I’ll be within shouting distance.”

[heorte]

The smoke burns through him. The wince only eases when Ellis exhales, draws a few shallow breaths against the ache flaring in his chest. The process leaves him time to consider Richard's denial. It's not unexpected, just not what Ellis wanted.

It's so rare for him to dig his heels in that the stubborn urge to do so takes him by surprise.

Ellis begins, to speak, draws a breath in to dredge up an answer, then stops. Draws a secondbreath. Rolls the joint between his fingers, extends it back to Richard with an entreaty, "Stay until I can manage to get back to sleep then."

As if that is the end of the matter rather than Ellis considering another angle.

[nonvenomous]

Richard retakes the joint without answering. There is something he’d like to say also, risen up restless under a hitch at his shoulder once he’s set his elbows to his knees and discarded after another look over the condition of Ellis’ person.

“Alright.”

But he won’t pretend to be thrilled about it, particularly as Thot has abandoned the dignity of her perch to turn herself clumsily over onto her back in the crook of Ellis’ arm instead. She wobbles like a feathered gourd as she nudges herself down into place, tail lifted and talons stretched tentward to nest herself in.

He flattens the line of his mouth at her while he smokes.

[heorte]

This time, Thot has avoided putting claw or weight onto bruises in the course of settling herself into place. She occupies Ellis' attention, his fingers returning to the downy feathers of her chest.

He has never thought of anything more of her familiarity. Animals tends to like Ellis, or warm up to him in due time. Thot, for all her leggy, lanky, nosy qualities, is easy to indulge.

And he is quiet. Still exhausted. The tension between them lurks, present but unconsulted.

It's not so long before Ellis extends a hand out, beckoning silently for the joint.

"Does she prefer the feathers?" is a throwaway question, coming while Ellis studies Richard's near-frown.

[nonvenomous]

She doesn’t have preferences is both true and clearly untrue. She looks to be thriving in a hawk-shaped bundle at Ellis’ side, with great, draconic grey feet lax in the air. Here and there, she stretches her beak to preen at a snip of beard or a bandage; her crest pins flat and her pupils slice thin in a kit-cat clock check to Richard nearby after an abortive reach for Ellis’ nose.

Impulse denied.

“She’s pleased to exist at all.”

The thought renders Dick Dickerson all the more dour by contrast, with his bony wrists and dark clothes and hollow, watchful eyes. He draws off the joint and deposits it into Ellis’ waiting fingertips, careful to flick ash onto the floor before they connect.

“Is there anything else you'd like me to do for you while I’m here?”

[heorte]

Momentarily preoccupied with the business of drawing in a deep inhale of smoke, Ellis' gaze cuts up to Richard's and holds there for a moment.

Yes, there is something he would like. Surely Richard can guess at it, if he were inclined.

Reconsider, Ellis doesn't say. His tips his head back, slowly exhales a plume of smoke. The ache in his ribs simmers dully beneath the smoke, blanketed into quiet.

"No," he says instead, interpreting the question literally. "The rest of this can wait."

Bruises, swelling, scrapes, they'll keep. It'll be an uncomfortable journey south, but the worst of it Richard has blunted.

"Whose blood is all that?"

[nonvenomous]

There’s a latent burr to the expectation in Richard’s asking at all, primed for an argument, if Ellis will take the first swing. Thot has gone very still through the eyefucking hold of his answering No.

The moment passes in a plume of smoke. The conversation moves on. Thot flexes her toes, twisting tension leaves the back of his jaw. Easy.

“Mine, for the most part.”

There are bandages peeking from beneath the raggedy roll of his left sleeve, blotched with old bleed through, his tunic on that side more heavily stained.

“I was discovered meddling in the quarters of an operative in Hasmal.”

How embarrassing. He opens his hand in silent request.

[heorte]

A beat of silent scrutiny in response, less for the request of the joint than for the bandages, the rust-spotted stain.

Ellis puts the joint into his hand.

And rather than settling, begins the task of levering himself fully upright.

"Let me see," is the request made, as one hand props himself towards a seated position and the other supports Thot in her slouched nest. She'll be forced to readjust, make herself comfortable all over again, but Ellis has faith in her ability to do so.