[closed-ish] we live and dream in an ancient hallowed land

[eolasemah]

WHO: Sina with Nari, and with Korrin and Araceli (let me know if you want a specific starter)
WHAT: the aftermath of this thread
WHEN: the following night and a few days after
WHERE: the Dahlasanor tent, the tavern, wherever others want
NOTES:The third prompt is open to all!

Directly after her argument with Pel, Sina made a beeline for the tent she shared with Nahariel and all but dove inside, immediately flattening herself against her bedroll and burying her face in her modest pillow. Small, angry crying sounds emanated. (Nari)

The following day, Sina went to the tavern of her own volition for the first time. Not to drink, of course; perhaps it was because it was the last place anyone would look for her. She sat by a window with a cup of tea, her knees drawn up to her chest, melancholy emanating from her very being. (Korrin + Araceli)

Over the next few days, she could be found ghosting around Skyhold, avoiding most people, particularly Clan Ashara. When not out and about, she threw herself into her gardening with a tenacity unusual even to her. (errbody else)

Comments

[arlathvhen]

Beleth thinks on that for a moment. Sina didn't seem to want to talk about it, and Beleth doesn't want to pressure her. But there's one topic regarding Pel that has been rattling around in her head ever since she argued with Norrington. If Sina doesn't want to talk about it, it's fine.

But Beleth will.

"I think Pel is going to leave the clan." She whispers it, a secret that if spoken aloud could threaten to become reality. "I think she wants to leave and marry that awful Templar man." And the truth was, Norrington wasn't even that awful. If he hadn't been courting Pel, she might have liked him. But he was taking the woman that had been raised like a sister from her, from her clan, from her family.

He has no right, and that Pel might agree is even worse.

[eolasemah]

Sina doesn't answer right away, but her eyes slowly shift to meet Beleth's, and it's obvious that this is indeed what the issue is. Her eyebrows furrow desolately at the phrasing-- 'Pel is going to leave the clan'-- but she isn't sure she could argue otherwise. "Maybe," she finally says, her voice low and her gaze cast downward. "...I believe there's... more to it than that, but that is..." She chews her lower lip for a moment. "..an issue."

[arlathvhen]

"Ellana, Gavin, and now Pel." Beleth counted them off on her fingers, looking away from Sina. There's probably more to it, like Sina said, but the end result was all the same. No one looked interested in overhearing a couple of Dalish talking to each other, but Beleth had to be careful not to make a scene. So she stays calm, if somber. "What will the Keeper say if I return with half the people she sent? Or none of them?"

It was selfish to think of that. To worry about how that would effect her. But the idea of the Keeper's face, the way that her mother would look at her, lay out how she had failed. It made her want to hide under a rock and hope that maybe the world did end.

"What's so special about Norrington, anyway." She hissed it, voice still quiet enough to keep from attracting attention. "He's a shemlen. A Templar. How can you leave your family for one of them?"

[eolasemah]

"Ellana?" Sina asks, fixing her attention on Beleth. She hasn't heard this, and she's only met Gavin briefly. But Ellana? Beautiful, perfect Ellana? "Why?" she asks, her tone almost a lament.

She's worrying about this when Beleth speaks again, and she shifts her eyes to watch the other elf's face. "I don't understand it either," she confesses, "if I didn't know any better, I'd think she's being influenced somehow. Coerced." Fretfully, she shifts her gaze forward. "But I... don't. Know any better. I don't know anything." This has been a hard truth to accept lately.

[arlathvhen]

"I don't have any proof with Ellana," Beleth admitted, leaning down to pick a handful of long pieces of grass, starting to tie them together. "But..." She hesitated. Beleth's suspicions were mostly conjecture, feelings, and reading into observations. And while she knew Sina well enough to shit talk the humans, the clan? Was different. "...It's just a feeling. I hope I'm wrong."

Her eyes widen when Sina continues. She lets two words slip from her lips, like a name that might draw the Templars crashing down on them right in the garden. "...Blood magic...?" Or. Maybe just ordinary coercion. Beleth shook her head. Letting her imagination run away. "I'll keep an eye out. I don't know either. No one tells me anything. Maybe if I confront Pel, she'll...I don't know. Tell me everything is okay and she'd never leave us."