In a moment of glorious surrender, you were broken for all the world to see...

[nadasharillen]

WHO:Nari and Sina Dahlasanor, Adelaide LeBlanc, Pel Ashara, and YOU!
WHAT: Visiting Sina in Recovery -- for whatever reason
WHEN: Beginning of Guardian, the first weeks after the Surprise Rift is closed.
WHERE: A private tent in the Skyhold garden
NOTES: Positive and negative reactions both welcome! If you're not sure what happened, check that sweet sweet 'Surprise Rift' link!



In the days following, Sina sleeps, the toll the active shard took on her thin, pale form evident in the hollows of her face; the way she'll wince and gasp, fingers grasping and twisting at the blankets. Sometimes she wakes in mumbling delirium, staring glassy-eyed at the wall. Rarely she'll open her eyes and actually see, lucid, but weak.

Always, her clansister is there. She looks like a fretful shadow of herself, wary. Her knives are sheathed but close by, lest anyone come to take issue with the small bed-ridden mage.

Wounded she might be, but she'd still opened a Rift in the heart of Skyhold.


[Adelaide.]

Nahariel is like a ghost that haunts her clansister's bedside. She talks little, sleeps less, and is only away for the briefest of reasons--one of which is to make sure Adelaide never runs out of tea when she's there. One day, as she sets down another cup, she suddenly and quietly speaks.

"I don't think I ever thanked you properly. Or your spirit."


[Pel.]

At some point during the next days Pel will look up to see the swarthy hunter often seen in Sina's company, with very little sound to accompany her appearance beside a polite throat-clear. She looks... tired.

"Pel?" She asks--mostly a formality.

"Sina was... mumbling in her sleep. She said your name once or twice, and..." she'll trail off, and run a hand through her hair with a sigh. Some of it sticks up afterwards--it doesn't look as if she's taking care of herself much.

"I know you fought not too long ago, and you were both hurt, but... would you come and see her? I think she'd like that."


[Everybody.]

[Bring flowers? Study her? Cry a bit? Be accusatory? Come on in!]

Comments

[colecomfort]

Most of the flowers grown at Skyhold are needed for medicinal purposes, or for potions or grenades. They may be beautiful, but they are not here for decoration. Few can be spared.

He went partway down the mountain for this. Past the most frigid parts, to where hardy plants were growing, despite the winter. Scrubby moss, and white flowers with thick, thorny stems.

Cole has arranged bits of tree moss in a bowl, decorated it with white blooms, and twigs made to look like trees. A miniature forest for someone who has been confined within stone walls for too long. He is there at Sina's side, kneeling down, placing it near where her head rests.

[mythalenaste]

"You ought to rest now. Would you like me to bring a book to read to you?"

[eolasemah]

Something stirs her. Perhaps it's the Fade itself, a place with which Sina has become quite familiar these past weeks, that shimmers and alerts her to Cole's presence.
Her eyes open and she sees him there, greeting the boy with a faint and weary yet nonetheless grateful smile.

[colecomfort]

Once the bowl is placed, he pulls his hands back to rest on his knees. Keeps on looking down at her with that steady, unblinking gaze.

"Pulled at the pain until it poured through you," he observes, sadly. "It didn't work."

[eolasemah]

Sina nods again, letting her eyes fall closed despite her wanting to talk to Pel. Something to alleviate the tediousness of constant pain will be so welcome.

[eolasemah]

Sina is drugged a bit, and thus comprehending Cole's words is a bit more difficult than it might normally be. Her eyes drift shut again, then open slowly. 'Serannas', she mouths absently. Perhaps this is a dream too.

[el_tybs]

There isn't much, but the basket at least has some bread, fruit, and some cheese for her to eat, or simply munch on through the day. It was the least he could do.

At being complimented on being 'thoughtful' Sam looks down and gives a slight hum in a way of saying 'thanks', peering at the plant at his feet before his gaze turned to Sina. "And how are you doing?" Looking at Nari now he raises his brows. Sina had not been the only one he came to see.

There had been a couple times that Nari had expressed her fears about her clansister, and he could only imagine what she was going through now that something had happened.

[colecomfort]

He reaches out to brush a thread of hair away from her forehead. Cold and warm at the same time.

"It's a half-dream," he explains. "I can't go back to the Fade."

He doesn't think about it much, but sometimes — only sometimes — he wonders what it's like to dream.

[eolasemah]

Sina nods weakly. She can, she answers in her mind; she's been in the Fade near constantly. It is a lonely place, but safe from the pain that shoots through her chest when the herbs wear off and she's fully awake.

[colecomfort]

He can't go with her, not really, but he can experience a shadow of the Fade through others' eyes. To the strands of dreams that cling after they wake.

In this moment, however, her dreams seem more defined by what they conceal.

"It's a way to escape. Fill up with fog, and the pain goes away."

It hurts just to look at that shard, as if it were stuck inside his own sternum. His hand falls away from her forehead. He doesn't know what to do.

"I wish Solas were here."

[eolasemah]

Sina's brow knits uncomfortably as she nods again. Her mouth opens long enough for her to wheeze in a sharp breath, and then she turns her head away with a wince. A few seconds go by as she waits for the pain to pass, then her head lolls back to face Cole again. 'Solas,' she mouths, questioning. She's heard his name before, but can't remember where, or why. She wonders why Cole would want him here.

[colecomfort]

By talking with her, he's keeping her here. If he left, she could slip away into the fog of her dreams...

...her dreams, where she'll be wandering. Not freely, perhaps, but in ways he can't.

"An elven mage. He was here, before the Herald died. He led us to Skyhold." Now, only the people who were around at that time remember him. Cole once took it for granted that Solas would come back on his own, in time. He's starting to have his doubts.

"He likes the Fade. I don't know where to find him in the waking world, but he'd always come back there." There's a small seed of hope in telling her. Just on the off-chance. "He's... taller than most elves. His shadow stretches longer. And he hasn't got any hair."

[eolasemah]

As she listens wearily, Sina's eyes shift in and out of focus. An elven mage. 'Like me', she mouths, to no one in particular. But he's tall, and bald. And wanders the Fade.
She finds that her eyes are closing, and she doesn't stop them. It takes so much effort to stay awake, to have a conversation, even if it's just one person talking to her. She's on the shore of that enormous ocean again, the one she nearly drowned in, but now sits safely on the beach. She looks across its vastness and sees nothing, no one. She is alone here, but that isn't a bad thing. On some level, she remains aware that Cole is nearby, and between his presence and the lapping of the waves she is able to find comfort.

Solas.

[nadasharillen]

"Sina, who are you talking--oh!"

She had heard the murmuring from outside the tent as she approached, hands full of newly washed cloth. It was the young man, the... spirit. From the fireside in the Fallow Mire camp those months ago. Nahariel had forgotten about him until now, even the outlandish floppy hat slipping into the recesses of her memory like a stone through a still pond.

What was his name?

It rose like a bubble, with the rest.

"Cole... yes?"

[nadasharillen]

When he looked back at Nahariel, after watching Sina for a moment, he found her with a mouth stuffed with bread. And an expression of guilt, like she'd been caught raiding the stores. The hunter had just enough composure left to finish chewing before trying to answer his question.

She opened her mouth to demure, but then closed it again, sighing instead. After all, it was Sam.

"Tired. It takes a surprising amount of energy to be scared all the time," she replied finally, picking idly at the soft remaining bread. "Glad that I don't have to worry and guess what might happen if the shard gets worse. Horrified because what actually happened was so much worse than I worried and guessed at. Scared it might happen again. Or that it scarred her inside some way that can't heal. Angry." She ran a hand through her hair, tugged on it a bit at the end. "Angry because the Inquisition was supposed to help us, and nobody here knows anything more than we do about the shards. We walked for weeks to get here, and nobody knows anything."

She flicked one of the pieces of bread she'd sullenly ripped loose. It dropped into her lap.

She ate it.

"I don't mean to... it's just..." She sighed again, offered the mage a tired smile. "Thank you for the food. And for letting me whine. I just hate feeling so powerless."

[el_tybs]

Despite the atmosphere Sam cannot help but smile when he catches Nahariel stuffing her face with food. He was glad to have thought of bringing it, and that she had taken it gladly. The smile drops though when the elf starts to pick at the bread and express all her concerns, namely that the Inquisition was not helping.

"Everyone needs to vent. I can only imagine the things the two of you are going through." A pause as he looks at Sina and then back to the huntress. "I'm sorry we don't have more answers. It's all new to us. Or at least us who are here. Apparently the elven mage, Solas, knew some things about the scar on the Herald's hand, which all your shards seem to be similar to. If he was here we'd have more answers I'm sure."

[nadasharillen]

"There's certainly enough shit to go around," she replied, crooked smile returning to her face.

And Korrin was right. Despite Nahariel's distrust of the other races, everyone who passed through the gates of Skyhold shouldered their part of the burden with little complaint. There was friction, sure, but what clan didn't fight sometimes. In the end, everyone still did what needed to be done to help the whole survive.

"Be well in Emprise, yeah? If we're still campaigning there when Sina's better, I'll come and join you all. Or, if not, then I'll be here to help celebrate your glorious victory and go out with the scouts the next." She rubbed her head. "...I still want to help."

aw shiiiiiiit here we go (i love you tho)

[nadasharillen]

When Korrin had offered help, she'd wept. Everyone had been so kind. This time, it stung. Even though the words were kind, the lady's face filled with what seemed like true concern, it still felt like a slap in the face. Shem nobility here to help? Was the Inquisition so magical?

"Is there anything you can do to help." the hunter repeated slowly, her green eyes glinting like agate. Nahariel kept her voice low as well, although her softness was decidedly cold. "Why do you care? What is an elf to you? What is she to you that she deserves the attention of such a fine lady? A lady's companion? A beloved pet?" Her eyes narrowed slightly.

"Do you keep us as servants, like the rest of your peers? Are you kind to them too? So wonderful, deigning to let us scrub the halls that once were ours." They flashed, dark as serpentstone with anger... and beneath the anger, a rending grief that was unmistakable to Vivienne's trained eyes.

"Yes, you can help. Give us back Halamshiral. Give us back the Dales. Free my people--all of them. And then leave us alone. Help. You and your people have done enough. I--"

It finally dawned on her than she was more than likely snarling vitriol at someone important to the organization she was trying to make herself useful to.

So that they'd help Sina.

Exactly what Vivienne had offered.

She didn't apologize. But she did deflate slightly, looking away and biting her lower lip.

[nadasharillen]

She perked up, forgetting the half eaten bread in her lap and looking at the mage with interest. "An elven mage? Who knew about the shards? Where did he go?"

[el_tybs]

"That's the thing, we don't know. Apparently he was the one that showed us to get her, to Skyhold, and after that he went somewhere. Hasn't come back."

[nadasharillen]

Someone who knew, out there somewhere. Maybe he had thought the death of the Herald had been the end of it? But if there was any chance...

"Are we... I mean, do you think Leliana is looking for him?"

Maybe she could volunteer.

[el_tybs]

"I'm sure she has scouts keeping an eye out for him." It more than likely that they were looking, but at the same time there was probably only so much they could do while trying to keep the Inquisition intact.

(i lu2 <3)

[madame_de_fer]

Well then.

This is not the first (nor likely the last) time that Vivienne has sat through an angry Dalish tantrum. Sometimes she does wonder if it's something they are taught at their mother's breast, or if the milk is simply laced with fury. The Iron Lady has very little patience or tolerance for such outbursts. She herself has found her whole life forced into a system with a history of abusing the occupants; she has chosen to rise above it and carve her own place in the world. It is a place of dignity and respect, hard won, and she doesn't care to have it tarnished by cries of oppression by a people who seem unwilling to improve their lot themselves.

But in all that rant, she merely watches, silently judging with an impassive expression to mask her inner thoughts. By the end, the little protector seems to have adequately chastised and deflated herself.

"My dear, I do hope you realize that outburst is hardly productive and does nothing to improve the poor state of your clanmate." Yes, she's scolding the elf with some cool disdain. For personal bad behavior, and not being an elf. She's not going to justify herself in regards to providing gainful employment to her servants either. They lead better lives in her home than roaming the countryside scrabbling for food and shelter.

Moving on to the pertinent issue at hand. "I presume the healers have been to see her. What have they to say of her condition? And does anyone know what happened?" Because knowledge of what caused this might hold the answers for a cure.

shows up ten years late with starbucks (i hope backdating is okay)

[arlathvhen]

There's a soft rapping on the tent door to announce Beleth, before she slips inside the tent. Beleth wishes she'd gotten in here earlier, but it feels like fifty things have been happening, and Beleth has been tugged around fifty different ways. But she's finally had some time to breath, and she used it to get some bread and cheese, and come to visit.

She pulls out the food, and a knife as she settles down, giving Nari a thin smile. "Hey. I thought you could use some food. Is Sina eating? She can have some too." And she starts slicing up the bread and the cheese. "...How has she been? Anyone bothering her?"

slides in later than late as per CR meme stufffs

[wontforgetyou]

It's nearly the middle of Guardian before Jamie is able to come back on supply run, and it's none too soon as far as he's concerned. The one thing he's wanted to do since the whole incident with the rift is to check up on Sina, and while in theory he could do so over the crystals, he doesn't know Nari and has had no idea who he'd even get in touch with to find out. He's had to satisfy himself with whatever news he can get second and third hand, and that's not nearly enough.

So at the moment he gets a chance to, he's at her tent, a couple of small packages wrapped in cloth in his hand. There's a couple of warring scents rising from them, vaguely herbal in nature, but apart from him bringing up a finger to rub at his nose, they don't seem to be bothering him all that much. Whether they'll bother anyone else, he's not sure, but then again, he's not even sure who all's in the tent right now apart from Sina - or even if she's awake, for that matter. He doesn't worry about that, however, instead lifting the flap and poking his head in to see who all's around.

"Hello?"