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WHO: Gavin and OPEN
WHAT: Gavin getting his bearings of Skyhold as the Inquisition reels from its loss.
WHEN: Beginning of game timeline, aka, nowish?
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: He's a derp, don't say I didn't warn you. Also, as I mentioned in his app, he's spent a long time wandering Thedas - so if you'd like to have it so they've already met previous to the conclave, and want to hash out some back history, let me know.

He hadn't expected to feel such a weight of helpless loss. After all, he hadn't even met her, despite being in Haven at the time. Despite somehow surviving the mess than ensued. He'd seen her, sure, but she was something high above him and they never actually crossed paths. Which was why, when her death hit him so hard, he was surprised.

It wasn't even the hopelessness that the situation was prone to give birth to. It was honestly for her - for the individual, rather than the Mark on her hand. But how could you mourn a person you never really knew?

Mostly, it turned out, by throwing himself into absolutely anything else. (At least this sort of running from his problems was productive. Mostly.) Luckily, Skyhold was hardly without things to do. The place was a shambles - an absolute mess - so he mostly tried to tag onto whatever work group was currently working. He sort of forgot to sleep, but that wasn't strange in of itself. Nor was the fact that he wasn't actually making himself very useful. He kept getting distracted. It wasn't his fault that everything in this place was fascinating. And fascinating things were much, much better than grief.

Which was why, anyone who happened to be in Skyhold, could find him in some very peculiar places. He'd managed to nearly plummet to his death from the rookery, get tangled in cobwebs in the hidden library in the basement, climb through the hole in Cullen's roof to get distracted by a bird instead of trying to fix it, and even had spent thirty minutes trying to get to know one of the horses. Also he kept not watching where he was going - physically running into people, or backing up into them, letting out a hasty apology and a lopsided, shameful grin.

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"The library would be good. There must be books from all over." Ellana didn't catch his quick expression change, but at least she moved on to speak of this place as opposed to the Herald.

"And I suppose a prison is understandable. Surely whoever once lived here was powerful and had enemies. All powerful people do, don't they?"

"Ah - Yeah," He said, laughing a little nervously. He couldn't read well enough to tell where any of them were from, but it seemed a safe bet.

"As far as I've ever been able to tell? Yes. Though I think a lot of people who only wish they were powerful also manage to make plenty." He led her through the courtyard toward the keep.

Her eyes darted around, trying to take everything in because things were constantly changing. There were more tents up here than there had been an hour ago. People were set up with projects everywhere. And everyone beyond the members of her clan was a stranger to her. She wanted to know all their names, where they were from, what their lives were like. But she had to wait.

"Mmm," she said, to show she was listening. "If those people make enemies of the Inquisition, we'll know where to put them, won't we?"

He pushed the big doors open into the hall - still an absolute mess, with rubble everywhere - chuckling as he did so.

"Well - you might want to see the jail, first... There's a- er- well there's kind of a long drop. Not sure I'd want to take anyone down there - for my sake, not theirs."

He walked her over to the stairs up to the library. "So this is - well, pretty obviously, I guess - staircase - but it leads up into the main tower. Library, rookery. More library."

"Oh, that would be quite the punishment, wouldn't it?" She sounds amused, but quickly focuses on where he's leading her. The whole point of this was to get a tour so she doesn't get lost.

"I'm excited to see the library. I hope there are a lot of books-- oh." The last word is breathed out as they reach the top of the stairs so she can actually see this library. It's amazing! So many books all in one place! More books than she's ever seen in her entire life. If even a small percentage of them are on subjects that catch her interest, she'll be very happy indeed.

Of course, she has to remind herself that this isn't a pleasure trip; she's here to assist the Inquisition, not run around gathering books and acting like she has all the leisure time in the world. But maybe... maybe she'll still have time to read a book or two at night by candlelight.

"Where to next?"

"You can take your time, you know," he teased. It was impossible to miss her delight at the books, so he folded his arms and leaned up against the guardrail. "Go on. Take a closer look. No need to rush anything - we'll be here for a while, hopefully."

He said it with a conviction he didn't feel - a voice at the back of his mind always reminding of him of Haven, of what would happen if Corypheus were to show up here, now, with the Inquisitor dead -

But he pushed that as far away as he could.

Ellana exhaled a soft laugh. It was true that she hadn't wished to linger for his sake. She always put others above herself and hadn't wanted him to have to wait on her. But since he had given her the go ahead, she now moved over to the nearest section, running her fingers along the book spines and tilting her head to read their titles. Most seemed to have to do with politics or the Chantry, and that didn't suit her at all.

Moving on, the next section proved more fruitful. There were histories of different nations and she read a few titles out loud to Gavin. Then she plucked one from the shelf and started flipping through.

"I probably shouldn't but-- it's on the fall of the Dales. I'm sure it doesn't tell our side at all, and makes us look horrible." And sure enough, her scanning eyes found a passage about the savage elves turning away from the Maker's Light and she promptly snapped the book shut, putting it back on the shelf. "Don't let Beleth know that book's here," she commented idly as she searched on.

He smiled as she flitted around, pleased to at least give her a few moments of joy. Discovery was his favourite way to bring joy to himself, and it was heart warming to do that for Ellana. She'd had little enough of it, that was certain.

"I don't think me trying to tell Beleth about the contents of a book would go well at all," he said, grinning. "But I'll keep your secret for you."

Indeed, all of this was new and exciting for her; almost overwhelming, really. It was good that Gavin was here to help so she could stay focused instead of running wild, wanting to see everything at once.

"I like our secrets," she said, leaving the book search behind to come over to him. "Like the comb you gave me. I brought it, you know. And the stories you told me that our Keeper never knew about."

He grinned, reaching out to ruffle her hair as he stepped over.

"Good to know my thoughtfulness isn't going to waste," he teased, and then the grin settled into a warm smile.

"You're going to have secret stories of your own, soon enough, Ellana."

Ellana scrunched up her nose and blew a wisp of hair out of her eyes, but for the moment, she left the rest alone in its ruffled state.

"That's true. I'm not going to tell the rest of the clan even half of what I learn here. I'll tell you, though, if you ever wish to hear it. You know that... that I feel I can tell you anything about my un-Dalish interests, don't you?"

He grinned down at her.

"I would hope so," He replied. "You know me, I like to hear about everything." He'd remember it, too. His memory for oral history was like nothing else - one of the reasons he'd been apprenticed to the Storyteller.

At least until he'd started to throw random dragons into the stories.

"But you know, Ellana, I think it would only help the clan if we talked more openly about that kind of stuff. Keeping it all secret makes it seem so..." He trailed off thoughtfully. "Shameful, I guess. I don't see why we can't be ourselves and part of the world, but then, I also don't understand how I earn quite so many knocks on the head from the keeper."

His words leave her looking thoughtful, and she takes a moment while thinking to smooth down her hair before taking his hand in hers.

"You're right. I've always wanted the clan to grow, to be more than we are. I've wanted us to know our past, but not let it be all that we hold onto, otherwise we'd have no future. But I've always been too afraid of being hated, or being called a race traitor. Things are different here. The whole world's opened up to me for the first time." She squeezes his hand and smiles.

"I can't hide how much I want to know about others and their lives, and I shouldn't have to. If the others don't like it, then that's on them."

He smiled down at her, fond and warm. "There you go," he said. He felt a touch guilty - the 'race traitor' label would be one she would not really be able to avoid. "I have a feeling they'll come around. With Pel and Beleth here..." He trailed of in a laugh.

"Well, if we can change Beleth's mind, we can change anyone's."

Her face scrunched up a little in distaste. "I'm not planning on holding her hand through it. She can come to see the good people of the world on her own, if she allows herself." If she ever looks up long enough to see.

That made him laugh - her expression, more than her words - and he offered her a half smile and a shrug. Mostly agreement. But he never could manage to keep his mouth shut and let people come to their own conclusions.

"Well, come on. Plenty more of the castle to see, and hopefully no more contraband items we'll have to hide from the others," he added with a wink.

There'd be enough of those later.

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