faderift | I'm headed straight for the castle

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I'm headed straight for the castle

WHO: Lara Croft and Open
WHAT: Lara has made the journey from the Emprise to Skyhold and is looking to get more acquainted with all this Thedas Inquisition Rift Fade stuff.
WHEN: Late Guardian, after the dragon mission
WHERE: Skyhold, Various
NOTES: None, though spoilers for Rise of the Tomb Raider are possible if that's a thing you're trying to avoid

So this was definitely real then.

Lara had allowed herself a small measure of denial, but it had been weeks, with the cold sinking in her bones; with the strange mark on her palm glowing and tingling unpleasantly. She'd met elves, and dwarves, and qunari. She'd fought a dragon and had a piece of it's skin, a shimmering shade of blue she could barely describe let dream up herself, hanging from her belt.

She'd really traveled across unknown time and space through something called the Fade to this world called Thedas.

It was terrifying, and as she'd come realize the truth of it there had been a few moments of panic. Of a fear stronger than any she'd felt even on Yamatai. A fear for herself, for Jonah, for her world, left with Trinity still operating. Still capable of great evil, and with her gone....

But this was real. And falling apart would get her nowhere.

With Leliana's map and her offer echoing in the back of her mind, Lara set out for mysterious Skyhold.

She wasn't quite sure what she expected - another village, perhaps - but the great, towering castle was certainly more than that and despite everything, her heart skipped, excitement and wonder swelling in her chest as she moved down the bridge.

It was terrifying; but it was also amazing.

Walking through the entrance, her head tipped back, mouth parting on a little gasp of wonder. She couldn't stop herself from drifting toward the nearest wall, fingers running over the stone curiously.

~.~

The castle was even bigger on the inside, she discovered, with so many people.... It was dizzying, but in a good way. It was hard to get swept up in darker thoughts and worries when there was so much to see and learn.

She lingered at the bulletin board, smiling at the familiarity of it even if so much of what was actually posted went over her head. Though she did note the message about rifters, rubbing at her gloved hand absently as she read the details of looked like a support group of sorts.

Turning, she called to someone passing, "Excuse me. Sorry, but can you tell me where the-" She glanced at the note again, "Herald's Rest is?"

~.~

She wanted to see Leliana again. She was one of the people she'd met first after coming through the rift, and she'd certainly seemed to know a great deal about what was going on. And while she'd been - difficult, to read, she had also been kind. And Lara didn't know anyone else at Skyhold.

Talking to Leliana would be as comforting as it was practical.

Though it took some questioning and some searching to finally find the right tower. And then there was the library, stacks upon stacks... She stopped at the top of the stairs, mouth agape, eyes widening.

It a sight as thrilling for her as that of the dragon.

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Lara relaxed slightly, appreciating how Leliana backed off and lifted the pressure. She could understand how it could be important, and in her place, Lara would have asked too, but she just - she couldn't. Not yet.

"No," she shook her head. "No, it's alright. It's not like I have anyone expecting me here, after all."

Humor, if slightly sad.

"And... I do have a question. I met a woman, when I arrived, and she mentioned that you might be recruiting scouts?"

"In my experience, people expecting you does not necessarily make a good deal of difference." Zevran, Alistair, a good number of people seemed to wait on her, seemed to wait for Leliana, and yet she never came. Never appeared. There was only the Nightingale, truly.

She does not, however, allow sadness into her tone. She does not know Lara well enough for that, and there is no guarantee she would even if Lara did know her better.

That last past, though, does make her brows raise ever so slightly. "Oh? What woman was that? Scout Harding?"

Her brow twitched slightly at the statement, but she returned Leliana's favor by not pushing.

"She said her name was Morrigan," she replied after a beat. She pulled on the glove Leliana had given her, mouth slanting wryly. "I might have asked her if she was one your scouts."

"Morrigan?"

A shade too much incredulity, perhaps, and then Lara admits she asked if she was a scout, and Leliana is leaning her mouth against the back of her hand to keep from laughing. Or, well, to keep from smiling a little too much, before she schools her expression back into something a little more dignified.

"You asked Morrigan if she was a scout?" The amusement is still there. "I wish I had been there to see it. I can't imagine she'd find anything so distasteful as working with me." Her tone speaks to more than her words do, perhaps, for all the quiet. She and Morrigan have never been friends. At best they have a truce enabled by ten years of not speaking. A wonder, what a decade of being able to ignore someone's existence can do. (Amazing what Morrigan becoming kinder, and Leliana become more bruatal could do.)

"She could tell you a good deal about elven history, although whether or not she is inclined to share it is another matter."

Edited 2016-03-04 12:15 (UTC)

"She didn't try as hard to stifle her laughter, if that tells you anything," Lara said, her own mouth shifting lightly. Part humor, part sheepishness. "But she was actually quite praising. She said your network is unrivaled, and that you expect only the best."

She nodded her head gently.

"And she did mention the elves, she actually gave me the same warning you did, about taking what I might hear and read with a grain of salt."

"She rarely does," Leliana admits, though she leaves aside that Morrigan also does little to stifle her scorn. The humour in Lara's expression suggests that, perhaps, she has not been subjected to Morrigan's sharpness just yet. Although, Leliana's brow furrows, and she leans back ever so slightly, as if to scrutinise Lara with a little more distance for improved perspective. "Morrigan said that?"
That was something to consider. "It's true, nevertheless." But Morrigan said it.

The witch wants something, probably. More like her to speak a compliment indirectly (though still insincerely, Leliana suspects) and let it filter through other means. Leliana has enough ears throughout Skyhold. She was always cunning - perhaps so long at the Winter Palace has only sharpened her.

And a breath of laughter, Leliana shaking her head. "And we agree on something. The wonders never cease." After a moment, she does continue, "She is impressive. Also better taken with a grain of salt, but... there are few so dedicated to history as it truly happened as she." Unapologetic, but a little wry, Leliana continues. "At any rate, I gather that you know more of my position here than I shared in the Emprise."

"A little," Lara admitted. "You're a spymaster."

M, to her agents' James Bond. Only hers had access to magical wonders, rather than technological ones.

"But if it makes you feel better, I still don't know what specifically you were doing in the Emprise. That secret's still yours."

"Spymaster," she nods, agreeing. " But also bard and Left Hand of the Divine. It is my duty to have eyes and ears across Thedas, that we might prepare for all that is to come. Although," and she offers a slight tilt of her head, "The arrival of Rifters such as yourself has made me consider reassessing just what is the means of operation for my network, now."

Leliana does smile at that, still cryptic, and offers no explanation. "I would hope so, or I would have to seriously reconsider my chosen vocation."

"Even if someone had told me, I doubt I'd understand it, not entirely." She smiled. "Not yet anyway."

There was a pause, then, Lara taking a breath as she gathered her thoughts.

"I'm not looking for charity. I didn't ask to be here, and I hope to go home as soon as possible, but in the meantime if I can help... I would like to." Her eyes flicked to the side, glancing at the papers and scrolls waiting on Leliana's desk. "I don't know everything that's happening here, all the pieces and how they fit together, but I understand right and wrong. And this Corypheus, the things I saw in the Emprise... those are definitely wrong."

Ah, and perhaps now they get to the heart of it. Leliana waits patiently, watching the young woman carefully as Lara weighs up her words and speaks.

There is a long moment of silent assessment before she speaks. "I appreciate your candour, and I think there is a place for rifters - indeed, for anyone - in the Inquisition who wishes to stand against Corypheus. You strike me as an intelligent woman, Lara, and capable. We are ever in need of both qualities, and I believe that there is potential for rifters to approach things perhaps more objectively than those of us who have lived our whole lives here."

More carefully, she continues. "Did your interest lie in becoming a scout?"

She had been leading to it, had been thinking over it since Morrigan had mentioned it in the courtyard, but even so, it was clear that she wasn't taking it lightly. There was another long moment as she considered.

"...I need to do something." However many wonderous things there might be to see and learn, if she attempted to sit and wait, she would go stir crazy. She needed be useful. For herself as much as anyone else. "And this-" an idle hand toward her bow, "is what I can offer here, for better or worse."

She took no pride in her ability to kill effectively, but she couldn't deny it either.

"Not only that," Leliana corrects. "A bow is a fine weapon, and I would not advise that any remain ill-prepared to wield a weapon in these times, but your mind - that thirst for learning I saw downstairs, that will serve you just as well, if not better."

She remains seated, tempting as it is to stand and gesture and get carried away, those are the habits of a girl who has been buried for close to a decade.

"I believe you would make a fine scout," she continues, "If that is what you wish. Using your bow will more than likely be necessary, but your intelligence will see you excel."

Stop, part of her reminds herself. Wait. "However, there are roles dedicated more to research, as well." The choice should be Lara's own, not dictated by Leliana's more opportunistic tendencies.

"I won't deny that I'm curious about everything, and that it didn't take some degree of force to walk away from the books downstairs," a twitch of a smile, "but I also can't pretend that I understand more than I do."

She let out a breath, leaning her arms on her knees, gauntlets clinking softly against the chain-mail hanging around her thighs.

"I'll offer whatever I can, and I do want to be part of figuring out how this all works, how I can go home - I expect to some degree I'll even have to be. But I know nothing about magic, how it works. There's only so much I'll be able to do."

There was a part of her that was that was a little afraid to admit it. Knowing had always been a strength of hers. Something she'd always been able to rely on. Even if she hadn't immediately had the answer, she knew where and how to look... It felt like Yamatai, that same sort of helpless in the face of the impossible. And she'd just started to come with terms with that. Had just started to get some, small hold on it....

"Having something more, might be beneficial."

She wasn't ashamed of her coping mechanisms.

"I am no mage," Leliana replies, very quietly. "And in truth, I knew sinfully little of this world before the Fifth Blight. I was as blinkered by my privilege as a rifter might be. Do not write yourself off so quickly."

And yet, she well understood Lara's hesitance. A quiet of contemplation follows, before Leliana is ready to answer. Lara is unproven, technically, but certainly the skills she claims to have hold potential. When Lara says that something more might be beneficial, though, her mind goes so fast to Marjolaine - she who owned Leliana, sculpted her. She who Leliana had so idolised.

She will never be the same as Marjolaine. She will be respected and obeyed, but not worshipped. She would not own people in such a way.

"I understand," she says, very softly. "I can grant you such missions, but do not believe yourself bound to it. I would not wish that upon any soul."

Lara knew nothing about Leliana's past, other than the few new names Morrigan had offered in the courtyard, but she sensed that the offer - how it was worded - was of importance. And she appreciated that.

For both of them.

"Thank you." A small nod. "And you have my word that if at any time something feels - inappropriate, for me, I will say so."

"Good. I will hold you to that." Leliana pauses, and is about to speak further when a scout ascends the stairs. "I fear duty calls, Lara. Perhaps we can arrange for a review of your skills a little later?"

The scout has not drawn closer, remains respectfully distant, and Leliana has not yet looked directly too him, but keeps her focus trained on Lara. "My time is little, but do not hesitate to call upon me."

She looked back at the sound of footsteps on the stairs, eyes ranging quickly over the newcomer before turning back as Leliana spoke.

"No," she shook her head, corners of her mouth turning up in a polite smile. "That's alright. I think I have enough to get started with."

There was a whole library just below them.

She pushed out of her chair and started to step back.

"Thank you again."

Her nod is slight, but approving nonetheless. Lara knows where to find her, now, and she already has some basics to grant her insight as to where she might like to dig deeper. Leliana cannot immediately offer her more than that, and even if she did, she doubts Lara would need it.

"You're welcome. Another time," she says, in lieu of farewell, before turning her attention to the scout.

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I'm headed straight for the castle

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