[Closed] Looks like I'm taking the hard way home

[wearyallalone]

WHO: Vanya, Marcus, Gwenaëlle, and Gela
WHAT: Rescuing a family of Nevarran refugees
WHEN: Now, more or less
WHERE: Hasmal, and points between there and Kirkwall
NOTES: OOC post

The Journey Out

When Vanya had received the letter now tucked into his overcoat pocket, he had been shocked and then worried. He hadn't thought that Flint would be inclined to let him go, much less allow him to take a couple Forces members and a fellow Nevarran. But either he'd made his case well or (as he suspected) he'd spent enough years never asking for anything other than permission to undergo lyrium withdrawal that he'd built up some amount of goodwill. Or maybe a grateful contact in Rivain was enough to sweeten the pot. He hadn't asked.

While he and Rowntree meant the four of them could have gotten to Hasmal on griffon-back, ultimately horses made more sense. While slower, it would risk less attention. They also wouldn't have to split six adults among two griffons somehow on the way back; a cart or some additional horses would be easier to secure. That did mean, however, a fair amount of time on the road. Before they'd set out, Vanya had filled them in on the basics: A family of four, Nevarrans fleeing the chaos of their home country. Felix Baumer had a friend in Hasmal who'd given the family a place to stay, but they didn't have the resources to get out. The merchant would presumably be very grateful if they helped get him and his family to Rivain.

It's a story that leaves out nothing tactically useful, but presumably one that raises at least a few questions.

Hasmal

Tevinter rules Hasmal, but considering the state of other city-states, this one seems to have gotten off lightly (for a value of that which includes occupation by an enemy force). While Tevinter's presence is obvious, the forces present don't seem especially concerned about local resistance or external assault. Life continues with an uneasy calm. At least in public, the locals seem inclined to keep their heads down and get on as best they can under the circumstances.

Their destination is in a bourgeois quarter of the city, suggesting that Baumer likely knew his local contact through business before he and his family fled. It's not any more heavily patrolled than anywhere else, but they will still need to take some care not to draw too much attention as outsiders.

The Journey Back

The four Baumers (Felix, his wife Tatiana, his son Sergej and his daughter Lenka) are uniformly and quietly grateful at first. As time wears on, their personalities begin to show through a bit more.

Felix is a naturally friendly and perceptive man in his late 40s, grateful for conversation when it's offered but unlikely to press when it seems unwelcome. He's aware of the close call the family has had, but the farther they get without pursuit, the more he naturally turns with an optimistic gaze toward their eventual destination. He has another contact in Rivain, and he has high hopes that he will be able to rebuild his fortunes there with time and effort.

Tatiana is polite but quiet, on the whole. She is younger than her husband, probably mid-30s or so. Most of her attention on the road is devoted to her children, though she has some sidelong looks to spare for Vanya, as if trying to work out some sort of puzzle. She won't avoid conversation, but is the least likely of the four to initiate.

Over time, Sergej's dominant trait of "being a 14-year-old boy" resurfaces in the form of grumbing and picking at his younger sister occasionally. He also sometimes tries to subtly find out how many battles the Riftwatch agents have been in, what sort of fighting they do (if any) and generally what they've seen of the wider world. He clearly wants to know, but doesn't want to seem enthusiastic about it, gross.

Lenka, 12, is a little moody too, but it mainly manifests as oscillating between chat and shyly staying near her parents. One of her personal affects is a small wooden recorder, and if there's any enthusiasm for music on the road, she can be coaxed easily into playing a bit.

They are perfectly charming people, and Vanya is notably more quiet even than his fairly taciturn baseline around all four of them. If he were with them alone, it seems possible he might take them all the way to their ship without saying a word.

Comments

the journey out.

[elegiaque]

For Gwenaëlle, the most striking aspect of all of this is that Vanya Orlov — a man she mostly knows for his ability to avoid interacting with other people as if to develop any form of relationship with someone might cause him to violently expire on the spot, and what friendship she's managed to forge with him frankly only reinforcing this view — is, supposedly, the connection to these people. Through him, their access to Riftwatch and to its aid.

Through him?

She resolves to study the children's faces for any resemblance, just in case, but on the road when they have exhausted the entertainments of 'nothing' and 'riding interminably',

“How is it that we came to hear of the Baumers, then?” addressed casually, across the entire group.

[wearyallalone]

For a moment, Vanya wonders if staying silent will lead the group to treat the question as rhetorical, perhaps suggesting various possibilities as if no one present had any way to know. It is only a fleeting moment, though. The fact he'd had to approach Commander Flint directly rather put paid to the idea of pretending he didn't know either.

(He had, perhaps, hoped no one would care enough to ask.)

"Mistress Baumer and I know someone in common," he says, after the barest pause. "That individual is not available to assist, but I owe him a considerable debt and he is a member of her family. She felt bold enough — or desperate enough, I suppose — to rely on that obligation to at least ask for my assistance. She directed her raven to the Inquisition, and someone there routed it to me in Kirkwall." Another brief pause, and then: "Her husband has hinted at his gratitude for the organization as a whole if he establishes his business properly in Rivain, though obviously that will depend on how well he does there."

[elegiaque]

That individual he says, as if it isn't an unnaturally avoidant way to refer to a person that instantly raises a half dozen more questions.

Because that's all very well and interesting about Baumer, but,

"Why isn't that individual available?"

[wearyallalone]

Vanya's expression doesn't majorly change, but the length of the pause suggests he might be waiting to see if they get conveniently attacked by brigands or the ground opens up to swallow him before he answers.

Since neither of those things happen, he eventually says, "Her brother saved my life, years ago. He and I were once very close. But neither she nor I have had any contact with him since he defected to Tevinter in 9.44." A much briefer pause, before he added, "If she were still in contact with him, she would not have needed to take such a risk as writing a letter to me, so I am inclined to believe her when she says she's not." Because he can see how that would be the next question.

[elegiaque]

Not for the first time on this journey, Gwenaëlle imagines the faces of Tatiana Baumer's children and she wonders at the definition of very close, exactly. Maybe she should have paid more attention to the scuttlebutt about Orlov when he'd first arrived from the Inquisition, but it had been so hard to tell if the cloud he'd arrived under had been significant or just sort of what happens when he walks, due to his face and demeanour.

The defection, though. It's a sobering thing.

“Assuming good faith on her part,” she allows, instead of outright agreeing with him. It makes sense from the perspective that Tatiana Baumer has no intention of defecting, herself, to Tevinter; there are about a hundred reasons she can think of offhand why a Mistress Baumer in contact with her brother and willing to throw in with him might reach out to Vanya, now, and in this way.

The decision's already been made how to proceed, so it doesn't really matter whether she personally believes her or not. It isn't even, really, that she doesn't; only that it all seems less cut and dried, knowing all involved less well.

[wearyallalone]

"Yes, that's so. A trap is always possible but it seems ... labyrinthine, for that. You could make up less complicated lies." Then again, he supposes he might be a victim of his own distaste for unnecessary complication. Not everyone preferred the simplest approach to a given problem.

Still, he glances over at Gwenaëlle. "I admit that I have mixed feelings about tying up Riftwatch's personnel for my own sense of obligation, but I'm not ungrateful to have three extra sets of eyes to evaluate the Baumers when we get there." A concession that he's aware he's not objective in this, and it might handicap his judgment to some degree. (He hadn't asked Flint to give him any manpower, initially.)

the journey back.

[luaithre]

It had been a convenient excuse, that they should all choose to ride on horses for this excursion and that they might possibly require a cart, for Marcus to bring along his technically retired mount. Among the group, Kevin is the larger animal, a big grey-mottled work horse with a peaceful demeanor who is no stranger to long rides or pulling along passengers should it have been required of him.

As it happens, securing a few spare mounts was a convenient enough investment that Marcus could keep his own to himself, and take up a position towards the back of the group—most of the time. He has not, thus far, been given to chatter, keeping his own company with the exception of logistical input. Watching the road, and listening to the notes hummed through the girl's wooden recorder.

Today, Sergej's subtle attempts at story-gathering found a hook in him, and the boy is riding more alongside.

"She was a fire-breather," Marcus is explaining, opting between the two dragon encounters he's experienced in his life for the one that they'd experienced victory over. "And so we had to engage with her within the cave system outside her lair, or else she'd have too greater advantage. The task was to ground her, first."

He speaks quietly, but on the open road, it's easy enough to pick up words.

[wearyallalone]

Since Tatiana had opted to ride with Lenka in the small, one-horse cart, Sergej was allowed one of the horses they'd acquired. It's clear, even though he hasn't hit his full growth yet, that Sergej is going to be tall sooner than later, and he keeps up with the group ably. (Admittedly, they're not traveling very fast, now that it's clear they aren't being pursued.)

Marcus's story has well and truly caught Sergej's interest, enough so that he's given up on trying to appear nonchalant about it. "How do you ground a dragon?" he asks, the natural next question. "If she breathed fire, she could burn off ropes," he adds, as if to reject his own first thought preemptively.

Vanya has drifted, slightly, toward the rear and thus toward the story. He chances a covert glance at Sergej, trusting the boy's attention is well and truly on Marcus. It's an evaluating look, though not a critical one.

[luaithre]

"That's true," Marcus says.

His attention lifts a little, marking Vanya's relative proximity without comment. His noticing of the former Templar, that their conversation will be over heard, doesn't shift it anyway. It's a story about a dragon, after all. An apolitical kind of enemy.

"One of our rifters, Ellie, wielded a weapon that could fire enchanted projectiles," he explains, all the while. "Like a crossbow." Not at all like a crossbow, but he's not about to try to explain Poppell's contraption. "She fired for the dragon's shoulder with a paralysing enchantment, disabling one of its wings. I took the other by casting magic, knocking it out of the air with rock and stone."

Maybe not purely apolitical. Magic, after all, can do wonderful things. But Nevarra is well aware.

[wearyallalone]

"Oh, I see." The boy doesn't seem unsettled by talk of magic, at least in this setting. Then again, Nevarra does indeed have a complicated relationship with its mages in a different way than many of its neighbors. Whether due to culture or temperament, he continues talking to Marcus without evident concern. "I bet the dragon was surprised," he offers. "Didn't expect that. Was it a very large dragon?"

Vanya, seeing Marcus notice him and not commenting, stays close but doesn't interrupt. Sergej's evident interest was certainly an improvement on his more sullen moods, and Vanya lingers out of interest rather than concern.