or are you emblems of truth?

[heorte]

WHO: Ellis, Ellie, Abby, Vanya, Marcus, Strange
WHAT: Road trip into the Hunterhorns.
WHEN: Cloudreach
WHERE: Hunterhorn Mountains
NOTES: Trying to find a Warden in a mountain range.

THE JOURNEY

Seeking a camp in the Hunterhorns is—

Difficult. To say the least.

In the eyrie, in the midst of saddling the griffins and strapping supply-laden saddlebags into place, Ellis had unfurled the map and spanned the likely places a hidden contingent might be found. It had not looked like such a formidable stretch of mountain range to search, bracketed by Ellis' thumbs.

In practice, it is weaving through high peaks, bundled against cold. It is alternating between dipping low to examine traces that may be tracks or signs of a past camp, and soaring high to avoid less than hospitable wildlife or weave through jagged peaks. It is painstaking work, seeking a trail within even this narrow strip of range.

Each night, they must descend. Find a ledge upon which the griffons can land without scrabbling for purchase and nearly toppling. Hope for a cave that might house them, or a flat ridge upon which the griffons can roost while they sleep in the saddle.

And in the morning, they must do it all over again.

THE CAMP

But eventually, the search ends.

Not in retreat, but in a small camp, cleverly hidden. We'd rather not be spotted by air, their leader says, a self-possessed, serious woman who introduces herself as Mila. She studies each of them intently, lingers on the griffon embossed on Ellis' breastplate.

Yes, they are permitted to stay. And to talk, mingle among the dozen or so Wardens within this camp. Ellis vanishes, first into a tent with Mila, and then later, when campfires are lit and a cask of wine is cracked open in a kind of welcome, into a second tent with a tall, dark-haired man, for a time.

The Wardens around the fire are pleasant enough. They answer questions. They speak frankly, if carefully. Some defer to Mila. Some prefer to speak in tandem with a partner. Some sigh through their recitation. But most speak of the same things when explaining what drove them away from their fellows in Weisshaupt—

Questions that piled up and up, with few answers. Some speak of Adamant and the binding of mage Wardens to demons, and how many of those mages died of it. Or how many of those mages disappeared into Tevinter to be treated and never returned. Some object to the use of darkspawn and demons by Corypheus' army, murmur darkly about the rumor that Corypheus is a darkspawn himself. Some worry after red lyrium, and the new strain of darkspawn that have been reported as fused with the substance. Many speak of their distrust of Tevinter.

One, Reynald, speaks of something wholly new, absent from Riftwatch's records until now: he was tasked once with guarding a portion of the Deep Roads along with an entire contingent of Tevene Wardens. Venatori mages came and went, he explains. He saw nothing of what took place, but he heard darkspawn, and the jangle of chains, and red lyrium had been maneuvered out past the Wardens in near-overflowing carts.

What have they been doing? This is a topic the Wardens speak more freely about.

Setting up a pipeline, they explain. A pipeline to help Wardens, and any others who oppose the Tevinter regime or draw the ire of the new authorities in the Anderfels escape, and join them in the mountains.

They're trying to spread word, they say. They want it to be known that the Wardens are heading in the wrong direction, following bad ideas into worse outcomes. But this is not going so smoothly, because they are still Wardens, and they are occupied with protecting local villages from increased darkspawn activity in the western Anderfels. They have contacts in Hossberg, and in Weisshaupt, and in other towns and cities, and they travel when they can to grow their network and spread word, but they are only a small company, and all this takes time. Sometimes they do not have any time at all.

We aren't leaving, Mila will inform them the next morning. But now you know where we are.

A send-off, of a kind: Mila's decisive answer to an unasked question and the implication of parting on friendly terms before shooing them onto griffon-back and out of their camp.

Comments

never.

[notathreat]

Ellie's working over Artichoke with a loose rake after dinner, clearing out a couple of impacted feathers, the dust of the day, brushing the places where the saddle's rested. He's lying down, taking the extra attention as his due. She saw to him earlier but this is still a way of settling them both.

"Tell me about it," she says sympathetically, glancing over at the others. Abby especially is having a rough go of it, but she can't imagine Marcus and Strange are having a good time either. "I had a horse named Callus forever ago. For reasons. It would be a good name for a griffon too."

Vanya asks, and the ring of genuine care in the question has Ellie pausing, working the rake deeply in behind Artichoke's wing, where she knows he likes to be scratched.

"I'm okay," she says, and it's actually truthful. She is okay. It's a weird feeling, noticing it, saying it out loud. She's having more and more days when she's genuinely okay.

"Kinda worried about Ellis. But that's normal." Ellie pauses, then looks up at Vanya.

"What about you, are you okay?" It's not the same question, but.

[wearyallalone]

He musters a smile, though it's clearly a little tired. "I'm well enough. I'll admit I was a little concerned; this is the farthest from the Gallows I've been since I was ill, but it is not a problem." Maybe he's a little more tired, but maybe that's all in his head. Either way, it's not bad enough that he's not able to keep up or pull his weight.

He does, however, glance over at Ellis when Ellie mentions her worry for him. "Warden business is hard for outsiders to assess," he says, a bit quieter. "I am glad, at least, he asked for the help." Certainly not a foregone conclusion, under the circumstances. It's easy for Vanya, and probably for Ellie, to imagine him taking off on his own if he thought it best.

[notathreat]

Ellie nods. She can't think of a time when she was seriously ill, just hurt, but most everyone in the Gallows knew that Vanya had a tough time of it recently. It makes her worry about Mobius and Barrow. Whether they'll take the same route, or be rightfully wary of just how hard it would try to kill them rather than break its hold.

"Yeah, you're doing really well." Ellis wouldn't have pushed him past what he could take; that would be irresponsible and Ellis is nothing if not responsible.

She presses her lips together as Vanya lowers his voice, a quick glance out of the corner of her eyes before she nods, studying her boots.

"Me too. Dude's absolutely the worst about asking for help with anything." A brief smile flickers across Ellie's face, but that's the only way she acknowledges that both she and Vanya could probably fit into that category, too.

"I'd say he wanted the moral support, but he's even worse at asking for that."

[wearyallalone]

Her reassurance wins a small flicker of a smile from Vanya. But he looks thoughtful as she continues her thought about Ellis. "I think he's worried this could go wrong in a more practical way," was a gracious way of agreeing that he probably wouldn't have asked if it was only moral support he thought he'd need. "I hope it doesn't come to that, though. Both for his sake and because Wardens are known for being especially hardy opponents."

He hasn't had a life that put him in the way of fighting many Wardens, but he's heard stories (and, for that matter, seen Ellis himself fight).

[notathreat]

"I hope not. But I don't see why the Wardens would attack us."

They seem to want all the same things, unless she's horribly misreading the situation. She doesn't know anything about Ellis' past, but she also can't see him doing anything that would make him an enemy of the other Wardens unless something went terribly wrong...

But then again, shit happens. Maybe something else is going on with the Wardens she doesn't know about, or their are other factors at play.

Ellie presses her lips together, glances at Vanya.

"Do you think it'll go that bad?"

[wearyallalone]

"I honestly don't know enough to make a good guess," he says, frankly. "I hope not too. Wardens generally are known for being focused on one goal, and I don't see how an attack would advance it. That said, they're also known for not taking kindly to outsiders interfering in their business, so." A small shrug. "Hope for the best, plan for the worst?"

Or maybe that's just his general approach to life. The first part may or may not be optional.

"I trust Ellis, though. He would not have brought us if he expected it to go badly, or badly in that way."

[notathreat]

Ellie tilts her head to one side, considering. Vanya's right, but-

"I think he'd bring us if he expected it to go bad. But I also think he'd tell us if he expected that, so we'd be ready. He wouldn't kneecap us like that."

Though it says something that they're speculating rather than asking Ellis directly. It occurs to Ellie that maybe they should.