WHO: Loki, Erik, Adrasteia & y'all WHAT: Catch-all WHEN: Late Solace / Early August WHERE: Kirkwall NOTES: Language warning for Erik, otherwise nothing yet. Open starters in comments.
"Mmhmm." Adrasteia nods. "After Hasmal, I stayed here, trying to help prepare for the influx of people displaced by the war." Also because she was voiceless for a moment there, which she can only view as a hindrance to her own well-being, along with anyone nearby to her, on a war's front lines. "I doubt it will go over smoothly, having so many fleeing the war heading this way, but. I couldn't just do nothing."
There's aspects of it that seem easier dealt with than what Ellis remembers of fleeing from Ferelden. Those fleeing south are Marchers too. That might smooth things over, even fi they're accompanied by those who have come all the way from Tevinter trying to escape the reach of the war.
"There'll be more to do yet," Ellis says, bending again to the tray. It's a neutral observation. "Whoever stays outside Kirkwall will need better shelter than they've now."
It's all much easier when it's a Blight, Adrasteia imagines. The Blight is indiscriminate, it cares nothing about where you're from, or what you do, or what the politics of your people are.
Harder when it's a nation, and there are people of that nation at your door, asking for help.
Harder but not, in her opinion, impossible.
"Brother Gideon will probably have some ideas on how we can help with outreach. Hopefully we can build shelter before the fall rains set in."
"Speak with Holden," Ellis advises. "He's been spending time with them, he'll know what's needed."
Even if maybe both of them know what's needed by people displaced by forces far outside their control. It can't be so different, whether it's Marchers or Fereldans or Vints come all the way down from the Imperium.
Shelter. A place to rebuild a life.
"Maybe you could have a meeting with him in this newly painted office," is a suggestion veering away from the weight of the subject, more teasing than anything else.
"I will." Holden is good people, very focused on how to help more often than not. It'll be an excellent idea to work with him on this overwhelming project of helping people resettle.
She smiles up at Ellis. "You're welcome to use the office too, you know. I don't want to horde it all for myself."
"I don't have meetings," Ellis says, with some amusement.
But it's true. If there is business involving Ellis, he is the one summoned. Or the one who appears in the doorway of an office, prepared to make an proposal.
And on the subject of that—
"If all stays quiet here, I'm going to need to take some time to visit Skyhold. And Ansburg, as long as Prince Sebastian holds steady and there's some leeway to travel."
It's only a concession to worries he is sure Adrasteia will have. Ellis is still a Warden. There is still some possibility that a lone Warden on the road would be allowed to pass, if he were not obvious as to his connection to Riftwatch.
"You may yet find some reason to need an empty room." Adrasteia would shrug but she's holding this thing above her head, so. The casualness of her tone will have to convey it instead.
There's something not unalike to fear that begins to coil in her stomach, but she swallows it down and nods. Not at the idea of him going to Skyhold, that's all well and good; but Ansberg is off the Minanter, and ships have been stopped along the rivers, and beyond that, the city is considered something of the edge of nowhere in particular.
A lot could go wrong between here and there, even for a lone Warden traveling.
"Will you be taking your crystal with you?" She's already plotting how she can get him to take some potions with him, just in case.
Not that having their crystals had done the Scoutmaster or the Commander much good. Ellis knows better than to say this aloud, but still.
The scrape of Ellis' handiwork pauses. There is a clatter of spreader hitting tray, before Ellis lifts it from her hands to flash a brief smile down at her.
"I can do the rest from the floor," precedes the more relevant, "I know how to stay out of sight while traveling. You needn't be concerned."
Because he is nearly certain that's where her mind has gone to.
It's a good point, but it's probably for the best that Ellis doesn't mention it; Adrasteia is already trying not to catastrophize in her mind about his traveling.
He smiles, and she grins back, before stepping back and away from the wall. She can start painting on one of the unmarred sides of the room, then, if he's done needing her to hold things. "I know I shouldn't." That doesn't mean she won't. "What is in Ansberg?"
Adrasteia would be forgiven for assuming Ellis doesn't intend to answer. There's a pause while he steps off the chair, sets the tray there, and takes up the spreading tool once more before he speaks. It's enough time to have parsed how he means to approach this.
"I want to know if there's anything in our records that might show us a way to draw the corruption from that rift in the temple, and any others we might find."
It's a delicate topic. Ellis isn't looking at her when he says it, thinking of the shard in her hand and Richard's requests and how all of it is such a risk when they know so little of what they're attempting.
She does assume so, and hesitates to look at him over her shoulder once but, otherwise? She simply lets the silence sit until he says something, or clearly changes the topic. In the meantime she begins painting the baseboards on the opposite wall.
When Ellis speaks up again she doesn't startle but she does stop painting to turn back and look at him again.
Adrasteia bites her tongue to keep from asking the first thought that comes to her mind, namely if he's certain that he must do this alone. Ansberg is not that far from Weisshaupt, she figures; a dangerous place for either of them, but moreso her than Ellis. She shouldn't go with him even if she wanted to, and she does want to.
"I don't know," isn't a deflection. Ellis cannot assume it will be an easy journey, regardless of what they know of the enemy's movements. "I intend on Skyhold first, then I'll come back here before I go on to Ansburg."
Is that reassuring? Maybe, maybe not. But it's the only smart thing to do. Whatever he receives from Skyhold is better deposited safely in the Gallows than toted along with him to Ansburg. If he is unlucky enough to be caught up in the company of Tevinter soldiers, there will be nothing to attach him to Riftwatch, and nothing on him they might use for their own purposes.
"I'm not afraid," is certainly not reassuring, whatever Ellis thinks to the contrary. He's spackled the last of the pockmarks, taken a step back to examine his handiwork rather than watch her. "There's nothing they could possibly want with me, even if they could catch me."
"Alright." If he splits his journey then she can do whatever she can to prepare him for whatever risks he may find on the road; the Inquisition would have better supplies, certainly, but she can do her best to equip him with potions and grenades. Better still if he doesn't need them.
It is not reassuring, at all, but Adrasteia can't bring herself to say such. Instead she simply glances at him over her shoulder before continuing with her painting. "They could always just be happy to add another Warden to their numbers." They don't have to be looking for him in order to cause him trouble.
It might be difficult, but opportunity would present itself. Ellis doesn't believe they'd bother themselves with him. Not if they didn't know that he'd spent so much time this far south, that he'd been working with Riftwatch, adjacent to the Inquisition.
"We need to know, Adrasteia," he says, turning fully from the wall to watch her as she works. "If there's something we might try before we let more people do things they can't take back."
She has no rebuttal to that — it's true, they've both escaped from the wrong side of this war before — and so she says nothing in response. Expressing her concern to him won't change the necessity; if anything she imagines it would be frustrating for Ellis to have her reiterate her fears in the first place, so. Adrasteia bites her lip and keeps painting.
"I know." She doesn't think it's a bad idea, exactly, she just... has concerns and an active imagination for the many ways in which things could go wrong for Ellis on a trip such as this one. A sigh, and she pauses in her painting, catches him watching her. "I know. I only wish someone was going with you."
The consequence when all the people Ellis trusts most (and the only one who had offered outright) are rifters and shardbearers.
There is no reason to tell Adrasteia such a thing, but he doesn't care at all for the danger he's putting himself in. But he does care about the potential to inadvertently deliver a friend into enemy hands. They all know very well by now what waits for them there.
She exhales sharply and doesn't waste her breath on stating the obvious. Ellis knows himself, and there's no real point to it. Still, she personally feels that if someone were willing to take that risk on, he should be forced to trust them in the same manner he's forcing her to trust.
So distracted by that thought, Adrasteia almost misses his questions. "It? Weisshaupt?" She imagines he doesn't mean the Temple of Dumat.
Ellis has wondered. Had Fitz not vanished, this all might have come to pass sooner. They might have tried something else, and it might have felt like less of a risk but it would have been a gamble all the same.
When he'd left, Ellis doesn't know what he'd imagined. He'd been turning his back on his own handiwork, what he had wrought in service to a mistaken signal. Did evidence of that still exist there?
"I..." She sighs, shakes her head. "I imagine it's nothing good."
Because she's met those that stayed on the front lines on the wrong side of the conflict, and she can't imagine any place where Wardens are known to be would have remained clear of that problem.
Because they were almost all fooled so early on.
She picks up the paintbrush again and continues working.
"All will be well, Adrasteia," is a hollow reassurance. Ellis can't guarantee anything. But he can offer her this small thing at least: he'd like all to be well.
He can't promise that, he simply cannot. That's not the way their lives work, as people, as members of Riftwatch in a war, as Wardens.
She could be angry at him just for making the attempt. A promise he can't possibly keep all on his own. Instead, she's... something else. Moved, a little, that he'd try.
"Just..." A breath. She keeps painting. "Just be careful. Please."
The only promise he can give her. Ellis will be cautious, as cautious as he can be. There's so much riding on this particular outing. He can't be reckless with it. He can't gamble beyond what he's already setting on the table. If he's caught, it jeopardizes Riftwatch, Thedas, the fabric of their world.
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no subject
Halfway down, Ellis pauses to assess his work as he answers, "Aye, my mace came through it all fine."
A true relief. Ellis has had that mace nearly half his life, expects to have it for the remainder of it.
"And you came through it all mostly unharmed, aye?"
no subject
"Mmhmm." Adrasteia nods. "After Hasmal, I stayed here, trying to help prepare for the influx of people displaced by the war." Also because she was voiceless for a moment there, which she can only view as a hindrance to her own well-being, along with anyone nearby to her, on a war's front lines. "I doubt it will go over smoothly, having so many fleeing the war heading this way, but. I couldn't just do nothing."
no subject
There's aspects of it that seem easier dealt with than what Ellis remembers of fleeing from Ferelden. Those fleeing south are Marchers too. That might smooth things over, even fi they're accompanied by those who have come all the way from Tevinter trying to escape the reach of the war.
"There'll be more to do yet," Ellis says, bending again to the tray. It's a neutral observation. "Whoever stays outside Kirkwall will need better shelter than they've now."
no subject
Harder when it's a nation, and there are people of that nation at your door, asking for help.
Harder but not, in her opinion, impossible.
"Brother Gideon will probably have some ideas on how we can help with outreach. Hopefully we can build shelter before the fall rains set in."
no subject
Even if maybe both of them know what's needed by people displaced by forces far outside their control. It can't be so different, whether it's Marchers or Fereldans or Vints come all the way down from the Imperium.
Shelter. A place to rebuild a life.
"Maybe you could have a meeting with him in this newly painted office," is a suggestion veering away from the weight of the subject, more teasing than anything else.
no subject
She smiles up at Ellis. "You're welcome to use the office too, you know. I don't want to horde it all for myself."
no subject
But it's true. If there is business involving Ellis, he is the one summoned. Or the one who appears in the doorway of an office, prepared to make an proposal.
And on the subject of that—
"If all stays quiet here, I'm going to need to take some time to visit Skyhold. And Ansburg, as long as Prince Sebastian holds steady and there's some leeway to travel."
It's only a concession to worries he is sure Adrasteia will have. Ellis is still a Warden. There is still some possibility that a lone Warden on the road would be allowed to pass, if he were not obvious as to his connection to Riftwatch.
no subject
There's something not unalike to fear that begins to coil in her stomach, but she swallows it down and nods. Not at the idea of him going to Skyhold, that's all well and good; but Ansberg is off the Minanter, and ships have been stopped along the rivers, and beyond that, the city is considered something of the edge of nowhere in particular.
A lot could go wrong between here and there, even for a lone Warden traveling.
"Will you be taking your crystal with you?" She's already plotting how she can get him to take some potions with him, just in case.
no subject
Not that having their crystals had done the Scoutmaster or the Commander much good. Ellis knows better than to say this aloud, but still.
The scrape of Ellis' handiwork pauses. There is a clatter of spreader hitting tray, before Ellis lifts it from her hands to flash a brief smile down at her.
"I can do the rest from the floor," precedes the more relevant, "I know how to stay out of sight while traveling. You needn't be concerned."
Because he is nearly certain that's where her mind has gone to.
no subject
He smiles, and she grins back, before stepping back and away from the wall. She can start painting on one of the unmarred sides of the room, then, if he's done needing her to hold things. "I know I shouldn't." That doesn't mean she won't. "What is in Ansberg?"
no subject
Adrasteia would be forgiven for assuming Ellis doesn't intend to answer. There's a pause while he steps off the chair, sets the tray there, and takes up the spreading tool once more before he speaks. It's enough time to have parsed how he means to approach this.
"I want to know if there's anything in our records that might show us a way to draw the corruption from that rift in the temple, and any others we might find."
It's a delicate topic. Ellis isn't looking at her when he says it, thinking of the shard in her hand and Richard's requests and how all of it is such a risk when they know so little of what they're attempting.
no subject
When Ellis speaks up again she doesn't startle but she does stop painting to turn back and look at him again.
Adrasteia bites her tongue to keep from asking the first thought that comes to her mind, namely if he's certain that he must do this alone. Ansberg is not that far from Weisshaupt, she figures; a dangerous place for either of them, but moreso her than Ellis. She shouldn't go with him even if she wanted to, and she does want to.
"How long do you expect it will take?"
no subject
Is that reassuring? Maybe, maybe not. But it's the only smart thing to do. Whatever he receives from Skyhold is better deposited safely in the Gallows than toted along with him to Ansburg. If he is unlucky enough to be caught up in the company of Tevinter soldiers, there will be nothing to attach him to Riftwatch, and nothing on him they might use for their own purposes.
"I'm not afraid," is certainly not reassuring, whatever Ellis thinks to the contrary. He's spackled the last of the pockmarks, taken a step back to examine his handiwork rather than watch her. "There's nothing they could possibly want with me, even if they could catch me."
no subject
It is not reassuring, at all, but Adrasteia can't bring herself to say such. Instead she simply glances at him over her shoulder before continuing with her painting. "They could always just be happy to add another Warden to their numbers." They don't have to be looking for him in order to cause him trouble.
no subject
And so did she.
It might be difficult, but opportunity would present itself. Ellis doesn't believe they'd bother themselves with him. Not if they didn't know that he'd spent so much time this far south, that he'd been working with Riftwatch, adjacent to the Inquisition.
"We need to know, Adrasteia," he says, turning fully from the wall to watch her as she works. "If there's something we might try before we let more people do things they can't take back."
no subject
"I know." She doesn't think it's a bad idea, exactly, she just... has concerns and an active imagination for the many ways in which things could go wrong for Ellis on a trip such as this one. A sigh, and she pauses in her painting, catches him watching her. "I know. I only wish someone was going with you."
no subject
The consequence when all the people Ellis trusts most (and the only one who had offered outright) are rifters and shardbearers.
There is no reason to tell Adrasteia such a thing, but he doesn't care at all for the danger he's putting himself in. But he does care about the potential to inadvertently deliver a friend into enemy hands. They all know very well by now what waits for them there.
"And haven't you wondered? What's become of it?"
no subject
So distracted by that thought, Adrasteia almost misses his questions. "It? Weisshaupt?" She imagines he doesn't mean the Temple of Dumat.
no subject
Ellis has wondered. Had Fitz not vanished, this all might have come to pass sooner. They might have tried something else, and it might have felt like less of a risk but it would have been a gamble all the same.
When he'd left, Ellis doesn't know what he'd imagined. He'd been turning his back on his own handiwork, what he had wrought in service to a mistaken signal. Did evidence of that still exist there?
no subject
Because she's met those that stayed on the front lines on the wrong side of the conflict, and she can't imagine any place where Wardens are known to be would have remained clear of that problem.
Because they were almost all fooled so early on.
She picks up the paintbrush again and continues working.
no subject
The silence carries Ellis' agreement.
"All will be well, Adrasteia," is a hollow reassurance. Ellis can't guarantee anything. But he can offer her this small thing at least: he'd like all to be well.
He'd like to come back here.
no subject
She could be angry at him just for making the attempt. A promise he can't possibly keep all on his own. Instead, she's... something else. Moved, a little, that he'd try.
"Just..." A breath. She keeps painting. "Just be careful. Please."
bow on this y/n what are we feelin'
The only promise he can give her. Ellis will be cautious, as cautious as he can be. There's so much riding on this particular outing. He can't be reckless with it. He can't gamble beyond what he's already setting on the table. If he's caught, it jeopardizes Riftwatch, Thedas, the fabric of their world.
He can't allow that. He will proceed carefully.
"Now, let's see about these walls, aye?"