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

[poleaxed]

Jone rubs her thumb and fingers together. "No pay at all," she agrees. At least, that's what she thinks Beth means. What's a dollar?

"Tried threatening him, and the bastard called my bluff. Lost all credibility with the twat. But you," Jone says, smile widening. "You look a sight like his daughter. Maybe he needs the soft touch, aye?"

[littlemissfutility]

"How d'you know what his daughter looks like?" is the main question she has by the end of Jone's explanation. Which is basically yeah, sure - what's she going to do, say no?

They have a job to do here, and part of it is making sure there's food for the people here in Starkhaven.

[poleaxed]

Jone scratches her head, momentarily embarrassed. "She, uh, came over to see what the fuss was about, when were were... negotiating."

She's not bothered by yelling or yelling in public, so much as she dislikes how utterly she failed the brief.

[littlemissfutility]

"Okay." She's got an idea for this, half-formed and maybe unlikely to work, but it's worth trying, right? And if the guy digs in his heels, they'll have to try something else. "Wait here."

Beth walks over to the vegetable stand, giving the man her best apologetic smile. He's younger than her dad was - most people in Thedas are - but she can see how he'd be someone's father. "Hi. I, uh, I wanted to say I'm sorry about my friend. I know she can be...kind of a lot."

It takes a while, and she only gets him to agree to give up half his wares - and only after she also buys herself a little sack of green beans. But it's something. And when she comes back to Jone, she holds out the open bag, as if to say here, have one. "He's gonna deliver half his stuff to the storehouses tonight."

[poleaxed]

Jone gives a wry grin, all canny approval. "A sweet face does heaps for the war effort, eh?"

Still, she takes the green bean. It may be some very hungry days ahead; best stock up now. Jone stands, starts walking toward her next job (stand in a busy intersection and look menacing enough to keep everyone on good behavior). Beth gets a friendly pat on the shoulder.

"We'll get someone to help him tonight. Maybe ol' Gab; the man's a bloody workhorse."

[littlemissfutility]

Beth rolls her eyes, pulling a bean from the little bag for herself. The rest - a handful at best - go into the larger bag she's carrying, where most of her stuff is stashed. At some point, she'll actually need to eat, not just be seen eating for the sake of politeness, and that's what the remainder is for.

"A scarred face, more like." They're the only marks she can't easily hide, and they haven't done much for her sense of self-admiration. She's experimenting with ironic acknowledgment, these days, in hopes that they won't feel as much like a burden as the scars on her wrist and throat. "If you want Gabranth to help, you're gonna have to ask him. He's not gonna say yes to me."

[poleaxed]

Jone can't comment on that; while she has grander terrors, she's judiciously avoided any wounds to her face as best she can. It's not out of vanity so much as preservation. She hasn't much beauty to begin with; making herself more hideous will do her no favors. Attempting reassurance where words fail her, she pats Beth's shoulder again.

"Don't worry, I will if there's a need." Reconsidering, it may be better she goes with an apologetic tone. "Though I promise, he doesn't hate you, luv."

Not that she's ever discussed it with him. She just has trouble imagining he's got some grand grudge against a teenager.

[littlemissfutility]

"I'll believe that when I hear it from him." It's not bitter, really, or argumentative. From where she's standing, it just looks like a fact to her. Gabranth was nice to her once, and then he was a jerk, and now they don't talk to each other. That's just how it is.

On the other hand: "Besides, he seems to like you pretty well."

That's just a little sly.

[poleaxed]

Jone is ready to caution Beth's expectations-- Gabranth is a creature of action, not words-- when Beth reminds her of how she's still a young girl. Was Jone like that, when she was a small thing? She doesn't think so, but years of head trauma have taught her to mistrust her memory.

So Jone opts to play it off. "Oh, yeah. It's my winning personality."

[littlemissfutility]

"Didn't he move his tent next to yours?" she asks, all innocence. Because look, if they're going to talk about Gabranth, she kind of prefers this particular conversation. It reminds her, somehow, of the prison - and even if it's just for a minute or two, it's something to talk about besides how everyone's going to be trapped inside the walls of the city soon.

(She'll realize later that it's not the long siege she's experienced, really. It's the enemies at the gates, the Governor ready to destroy everything and everyone they love. And when she does, she's not going to want to think about what that means for them here.)

[poleaxed]

This is torture.

But, things as they are, Beth is hardly the worst person to discuss this with. Honestly, if they all survive and happily trot back to Kirkwall, she'll have to have this conversation more than once. Others would not be so indirect.

"Aye, that we have," Jone relents, not realizing her slip. We, not he. "What of it?"

[littlemissfutility]

"Just seems like it was probably okay where it was before." It's like the prison, when things were okay, and also weirdly like high school, before everything fell apart. He likes you, I can tell. Do you think he's gonna ask you to Homecoming? "Except that wasn't as close by."

[poleaxed]

She is all too ready to lie, an old habit from when such actions were paramount, only to realize there's no point. There's no point, and it feels like it would shame Gabranth himself, to claim distance when none exists.

She does not speak of the urge to reach into his tent, to feel the cool shell of his ear, the smooth heat of his pulse.

"Proper detective, you are," Jone grumbles. "Have you a theory, or are you just trying to tease me?"

[littlemissfutility]

Beth shrugs, glancing up at Jone with a little smile. Just trying to tease you is probably a fair assessment, if that includes for fun, not to be mean. "It's not my business, why he wants to be close to you."

You know why. They don't actually have to say it, right?

[poleaxed]

"Look-" she says, only to realize she's no idea what she wants Beth to see. Shaking her head, she reorients her focus. What matters? What's important?

"This don't change anything." There it is. "About what I promised. I'm not some cloud-headed maiden. If he's cruel, let me know, and I'll set it straight."

[littlemissfutility]

Which is as good as saying yeah, you're right. And even if she's teasing, she's not doing it to get details Jone doesn't want to share, so really, that's enough.

It's nice just to think that they're happy - or as happy as Gabranth gets, anyway.

"He's kinda giving me the silent treatment right now." Beth rolls her eyes again, as though she hasn't been avoiding him just as hard. (Not that there'd be much to go to him for, at the moment. She's been busy doing Diplomacy stuff, and she's pretty sure no one would describe that as Gabranth's forte.) "So you don't have to worry about him being cruel."

[poleaxed]

"Maybe he's just trying to give you some space," Jone considers aloud. She considers it internally as well. "No, you're right, he's probably ignoring you."

Jone rubs at her face. Is she managing him? Will she become some henpecking shrew? No, no, you have to be married for that, so she's safe, at least for now.

"I'll worry about what I like," she rejoins, jocular. "He means well, he's just a pillock."

[littlemissfutility]

This, at least, makes Beth laugh. Maybe it's just the surprise of the word pillock, which she's never heard before and yet instantly gets from context. "He can ignore me if he wants. It just means you gotta be the one to ask him about this."

And then, if only so Jone doesn't have to keep talking about Gabranth unless she wants to, she adds, "I used to live in a prison. Not when it was actually a prison, but that's what it was before...before they abandoned it. So there wasn't a lot of privacy. You kinda got used to knowing everyone's business, at least a little."

What comes along, implied, is That's why I figured out about you and Gabranth. And maybe Sorry about that.

[poleaxed]

Jone gleans some information from this. Beth was very poor. Her family had to hide in a ruin. They lived among others and found a tenuous peace. The problem with that, of course, is they were outlaws. Unprotected by any true life on the land, it couldn't have lasted for long.

The scars on Beth's face always made some sense, but now they make perfect sense.

What do you say to that?

"Know you didn't mean any harm," Jone says, not quite softly. "Thank you to keep this to yourself, though."

[littlemissfutility]

Beth's always been a pretty good liar.

She's been leaning on that since she got here, pretty much. There's a war here, and there's people who lost their homes. If she just makes home sound like here, no one'll ever actually wonder what kind of place she came from. Keep it vague, talk about them, don't say anything about stuff people here won't get - like phones or computers.

So far, it's worked. No one asks who they were.

"I can keep a secret." That's what she's been doing this whole time, after all. "I found an abandoned house the other day, if you guys need somewhere private."

[poleaxed]

"I..."

Jone's mind immediately considers it. Would Gabranth tolerate that? A moment to themselves is a moment lost to work, and both of them are intolerably prone to pushing themselves. Yet now that the idea is there, it sticks in her mind.

"Strewth. Where is it?"

[littlemissfutility]

Beth grins, all sympathy. Every boyfriend she'd had at home, trying to get some privacy sucked. "If you don't have to do anything for about twenty minutes, I can show you."

[poleaxed]

Jone bites her lip, momentarily caught in temptation. She shakes her head. "Shouldn't take that much time off the war effort, and he wouldn't either. A fine thought, though, and I thank you for it. I'll talk to him, yeah?"

[littlemissfutility]

Some disappointment shows on her face. Even if she's not invested in whether Jone and Gabranth have somewhere to mess around while they're in Starkhaven, for a moment it had felt like there was something besides the war to think about.

Jone's right - it's a war, they have work to do - but the idea'd been nice.

"Yeah. I mean--if you want to. I don't want him to think I asked you to." Beth doesn't know Gabranth that well, but she has the feeling that'll only make his opinion of her sink lower. "If you want help with more merchants, I'll be around here for a couple more hours."

[poleaxed]

Jone pats Beth on the head again, unable to deal with that disappointment any other way, unsure what it even means. What is it with the round eyes of youth that makes her so nostalgic? Probably the same dreck that made that merchant give up his wares.

"Let's see what we can do, then," Jone says, studying the market.