this chaos, this calamity, this garden once was perfect

[apostasia]

WHO: Martel & Adelaide
WHAT: Martel has been confronted with new truths about his history and what happened in his homeland after his apparent death; he handles them super well.
WHEN: The night following Sabine's rift incident.
WHERE: Emprise du Lion.
NOTES: I'll update this with specific warnings when they become relevant. In the mean time - Martel discovered some documents from Matherion at the rift.

No one else had recognised the papers for what they were; there's no reason they ought. They're translations from Tamul into Elene - two languages no one in Thedas, bar Martel, reads in the first place. He'd claimed them for himself, quietly slipping both within his armor for later, and had spent hours poring over them in his tent after dark, nearly tossing The Cyrga Affair into the fire at more than one point.

And that had been before he'd read Itagne's well-written and well-researched response text.

It's as quiet as it ever is when he stalks across the camp to find Adelaide, his hands empty, his fingers flexing. She has seen a shade of this mood before, but it was - different, then. More focused. He'd been threatening; now, when he finds her, it seems as if all of that focus is all that keeps him from unraveling entirely, jagged where he is so often sharp, thrumming with the effort of holding his composure.

"I must speak with you."

His tone brooks no argument, but there is a hint of something else; not an order.

A plea.

Comments

[apostasia]

No, he supposes, that is quite true.

So he tidies his face with her kerchief; smoothes back his hair into some semblance of order. Drinks his tea and attempts to impose on her as little as possible, after as much as he's done already. It's probably not always this difficult to do the decent thing. Probably it's a lot simpler, if you're in the habit of it.

Eventually, he sets the cup aside.

"Thank you," he says, a moment later. "For hearing the whole." It isn't anything like a full accounting of his sins, but the gory details - they aren't the point. "I will - excuse myself."

[fleurdesel]

"Do." No murmur of when he would be welcome again, no request for time. He knew her well enough to understand she'll not only want the space- but need it to work through the myriad of emotions this...whole ordeal has stirred up.

Better to have the space to process and choose how it is they would be on her own without the imposition of his shadow.

Nor does she say he's never welcome back- that also does not need to be said. If that is how this was to end she'd have thrown him out earlier instead of giving him the time to compose himself.