Will I always have a choice? Several of us have to work at once to close any rifts that are found, I can’t avoid that prospect forever. [It would be selfish to always leave it up to others if they’re all placed at risk; selfishness isn’t a vice for her, but only when it comes to following her heart and to living life to the fullest. All of them at that meeting proved they were in the same boat, so to speak, and so if she needs to she’ll still say yes. Jamie seems unscathed and she’s heard no bad reports so maybe it’s just a magical thing like Korrin says.] We think of our bodies as parts - the heart and the head and the gut all arguing, Sina was upset not long before this, more upset than I have ever seen her. Can magic and emotion react from each other? I know that people can die of a broken heart, losing all will to go on, it could be something like that only whatever grief or anger or conflict she felt.

[It was a Dalish thing, Araceli wanted to pry but bit her tongue, trying to put it together anyway from the scraps she knows but what she felt? Araceli’s seen the aftermath of her own tempers, the strength she doesn’t think she has most days, the ferocity when she fights, the exhaustion when it’s over and she’s done, left alone with the consequences.]

I know, sirena, I know. [Her arms open, wanting to be held, not wanting to feel small but to feel safe, as if the whole world could be just this tent and those in it, nothing and no one else to trouble them.]