faderift | open, catch-all

He certainly does.

( and he's a shockingly good lay, which would probably be more annoying if tsenka had a different outlook on political differences between mages. or if she found his personality more irritating, instead of sort of entertaining to watch happen.

possibly the fact cassius black's personality isn't a deterrent to her explains a lot about how primed she is to apparently get along fine with byerly rutyer. )

Well, you know what the pay is, I've nothing so fancy as his like. But Lowtown is as good a place as any to be.

( and better by far than the gallows. )

Is it?

[ His smile crinkles the fine lines around his eyes. ]

I can think of a few that are finer, at least by reputation. More flowers and greenery, more light...

And if you should like to pay for me to live in any one of them, I would not decline,

( with aplomb. )

Well, it's not my fault you decided to join Scouting.

[ As if everyone doesn't get paid basically the same. ]

Ah, well, then.

( a philosophical tip of her pipe— )

There's worse places to have landed.

Worse places than Lowtown, or worse places than Scouting?

Certainly,

( in an agreeable sort of way.

her glass is not much less empty than it was upon his sitting down; a taste of it here and there (unobjectionably drinkable), but more occupied with the little circles of smoke she can send up to the ceiling. it's nothing headier than tobacco. )

Many mages end up in Forces instead.

[ Another lift of the cup to his lips. He barely wets them. His progress through the liquor is agonizingly slow. ]

Makes sense, ( she allows, without seeming to give it much thought for herself beyond that easy agreement. ) My brother did—your Captain of the Guard.

( ah, marcus rowntree, with whom she shares an accent if not surname nor species. )

Suits him, I expect.

[ An arched eyebrow. A little dryly: ]

Brother.

[ "I don't see the resemblance" goes unsaid. ]

Aye.

( byerly is by no means the first person to challenge that assessment; tsenka shrugs. )

Is that very strange to you as grow up outside, to love the people you're close to?

[ The eyebrow raises a scant millimeter further. He paraphrases her question - ]

Do I love the people around me?

[ Which seems, to him, tautological; if he is close, there is love. But: ]

You'll forgive me. The term brother typically implies that there is shared blood between two people.

Or that they were raised together, ( easily, ) as brothers and sisters are.

[ Noble Byerly, who as a child sat learning genealogies by heart, has, of course, a rather less flexible definition of the term. ]

Foster is most typically appended to the title, in that case.

[ But: ]

So you are from his Circle, then?

( another shrug; the parts of what he says that don't interest her sliding off like water, curiosities of how another person sees the world without being anything she feels the need to adopt for herself. )

Together our whole lives. Besides the bit where everyone thought me dead.

And why did they think that?

( tsenka holds up her wrists— )

Do you not know, or do you want to hear it as I tell it?

I don't know.

[ A truth? A lie? Hard to tell with Byerly. ]

( her laugh is bright— )

Well, it's probably written down someplace, I bet you can give yourself permission to read it.

( not in terribly great detail, but about the same broad strokes tsenka would summarize it in. he's likable, this one, and she likes him fine, but stripping naked her recent traumas—

at minimum, he'd have to buy better drink. )

What brought you to Riftwatch?

[ He tips his head slightly to the side in acknowledgment of her refusal. If, indeed, it was a lie, and he knows, the lie was surely for that purpose - to give her the ability to feel as though she's not in the presence of someone who knows to pity her. And who knows? He's a busy man. Maybe it was true. ]

Would you like an exciting lie, or would you like the truth?

( it is, on first impression, difficult to imagine byerly pitying anyone, particularly.

but she lifts her fingers from the edge of her pipe, an elegant sort of gesture, habitual, )

Whatever you like.

[ So he shrugs in response. ]

The Venatori aren't a threat only in the North. Even beyond the Frostbacks, there is concern.

Well, and as well there ought.

( as someone who knows a thing or two about making her continued existence the problem of everyone around her, the venatori really fucking excel at that. )

How long has it been Riftwatch, and not the Inquisition? I don't remember hearing about it before I came here. Small world to cross so many familiar paths in it.

[ A light smile touches his lips. Many would follow with other questions - after all, Byerly's manner isn't that of someone who would fight for patriotism. The odd juxtaposition would perhaps draw suspicion from those with deep wells of curiosity. Perhaps Tsenka does not have those wells. ]

A few years now. The arrangement has suited us well enough. Given this group, oversight by an organization as disciplined as the Inquisition - [ ha-ha, low bar to clear ] was rather uncomfortable.

( byerly strikes tsenka as someone with the presence of mind to know that a world under corypheus' bootheel will be a world without dank, comfortable pubs to sing for liquor in—

probably there are deeper reasons. probably it's rude to push at them, after you've pushed someone away from your own. she doesn't imagine this will be the only time they ever talk (would be disappointed),

and there's always his dreams. )

Not many here who seem as they'd do well in an arm of the Chantry.

( there's some fondness in the observation, so whatever keeps tsenka at arm's reach of riftwatch, it isn't dislike. )

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