faderift | [ OPEN ] Days too full, nights too dark

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[ OPEN ] Days too full, nights too dark

WHO: Adelaide & You
WHAT: Catch all for end of Guardian & Drakonis
WHEN: All of Drakonis
WHERE: EDL, Skyhold
NOTES: some prompts to follow, poke me via PM or plurk if you want a particular starter!

[ The Healing Tents ]

Even if nothing else seems to be certain- this much she knows she has right. Every scrape, every wound, every cough she mends with a faint murmur and twist of Compassion's power. Here things are simpler. There is an injury, she is to mend it. No questions of morality or trust beyond that which her patients put in her to see them made well. It's simpler. It's a relief, honestly, after the current mess. Here if nowhere else she can trust her judgement beyond a shadow of a doubt. Now and then the lantern outside showing she is taking patients is shuttered- feel free to come in and find her drinking tea with a cold compress to her forehead. Migraines, Oh joy.

[ The Library ]

For every answer there are at least ten to twenty more questions- though the further along she goes the more precise she might make them and the less dithering about archaic academic footnotes she has to endure. Still she hunches over texts with notes, ink staining her fingers, tea at her elbow long since gone cold as she sketches and notes what scraps of something coherent she can find in these rituals on spirits, the fade, and demons. Either deep in thought, scribbling furiously, or dozing in her chair she is easy to find in the far corner, candle melting down the hours.

[ The Garden ]

Lessons in the morning, sparring in the evening, meditations around midday or tea with whomever she finds that has been overworking themselves just as much as she has which will not do. Adelaide sits here cool and calm at dawn, sculptures of ice spinning through her fingers in forms and shapes that meld and melt and meld over and over- in the early day with her students going over magical theory or discussing with them one on one their fears about demons and fade dreams, in the evening with a rapier, practicing forms, or late at night when she is unable to sleep, staring at scorched earth grass is only just beginning to grow over.

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[ She's close- she knows she's close. Some of these are absurd, some horrifyingly risky but she thinks it might work. It might be enough to help Detlef and that? Is more than enough for her to set aside her tension from the last time she spoke with Varric and seek him out. He'd had every right to be upset, her own fears did not invalidate anything of his grief.

Perhaps he'd put it out of his mind as well.

When she's certain they are both free she seeks him out, coughing politely outside of his tent. ]

[Given the assortment of tent-mates adjacent to his, Varric hadn't expected anyone to bother with courtesy. Hearing a polite cough outside his tent is enough to give him pause and, after a moment of silence, he moves to the flap and tosses the fabric open.

Adelaide wasn't a face he'd expected to find but, considering how shitty everything else in the Emprise was? Well, it could be worse. He wasn't too put out to find a polite, pretty blonde seeking him out, even if she just wanted to chide him for blowing up at that templar.

Immediately, Varric tosses up both his hands in a gesture of surrender.]

No need to lay into me, I promise I won't be talking to that jackass in the near future--on the crystals or otherwise. No arguments, no jokes, just good old fashioned stony silence.

That is not why I am here, Varric- and...I would like to apologize for my own reaction that night. I was reminded uncomfortably of something that...

[ This is not precisely a conversation she wishes to have in the open, nor is it the whole of her reason for seeking him out. Lips twisted in a wry curve that could be a smile, she gestures deeper into his tent. ]

May I join you? I will elaborate but this requires some privacy.

[Varric's eyebrows shoot up, almost of their own accord, as she gestures into his tent. She wasn't here to yell at him, which was good, unfortunately his track record with 'private conversations' was pretty terrible. As badly as he wanted to make a joke about propriety, if she was here for anything as banal as flirting he wasn't about to shoot himself in the foot for a chuckle.]

Come on in. [Varric steps aside and holds back the tent flap for her. It's not a grand gesture but what could he do? It was a tent.]

Not sure how much privacy we can get out of canvas, but I'll try to think optimistically.

The canvas is a start.

[ As she slips inside there's a small twist of her fingers, a low, almost inarticulate murmur before the wind and sounds of snow and the camp beyond is sharply muffled, as though they were in a room of stone rather than a mere tent. The effect would work much for those attempting to listen in. There. Privacy. ]

It will not last more than an hour but- that ought to be enough.

[While Varric has about as much appreciation for the subtleties of magic as most Qunari do for Orlesian ballet, he knows enough to know that sudden sound dampening spells that last an hour? Well those only have a handful of good uses and...given their current location... He didn't like jumping to conclusions but it was a bit hard not to.]

Hey, now-- [Varric starts a little gently as he lets the flap close. His hands are back in that gesture of surrender, though the whole motion is a bit gentler than before.] I don't want you to think I'm not flattered, because that is definitely not the case, but the Emprise du Lion isn't exactly...doing it for me--

You know? Romantically.

[Even the Fallow Mire was a more appealing location for this sort of thing. Sure, it had the undead everywhere, but at least it wasn't covered in Red Lyrium.]

I'd be happy to lend an ear for conversation but...maybe not "private conversation"?

I-

What?

[ That, what? She stares at him for a long moment, trying to sort out why, exactly, he's jumped to that conclusion-

The flirting, she supposes, would lend to that- they're in his tent, she's just-

Adelaide's eyes go wide and her hands fly to her mouth to muffle the sudden bright peal of laughter. Something she's needed, desperately, since they've arrived in this terrible place. ]

I- Varric I do not mean to say that I would not, you are- that is not what I mean by private conversation.

[Her sudden, startled laughter was so bright and shocked that he didn't have it in him to be offended by it. He just lets out a heavy, relieved sigh and drops his arms to his sides.]

Thank the Maker--Not that I wouldn't, but between the snow and red lyrium, whatever mood there is out here? Not ideal for anything close to that.

[But now this was getting awkward and she had wanted to talk to him about something private.]

So, what couldn't wait for better walls?

Another time, another place. But I truly only wish to speak with you privately. To...explain myself for that night.

[ And ask for yet another favor, afterward. She clears her throat with a soft cough, reigning in her composure. It is no laughing matter, what she has to say. ]

I- that night, I was shaken. Uncomfortably reminded of what I heard in the voices of the Templars the night the White Spire fell.

[Well, he hadn't expected things to suddenly get this serious, but he couldn't fault her. He hadn't seen the White Spire but he'd heard plenty of stories.]

Yeah...you said as much. [He'd been livid, but he still recalled her explaining as she tried to keep him from ripping that templar a new one.] You doing alright? Remembering that sort of shit can really take it out of you.

I did spend half the night wondering if another Templar was about to take me by the throat but-

[ She shakes her head, arms crossed over her chest, holding herself against the memory. ]

I spoke with Norrington. Expressed my concerns. But my anxiety shouldn't have overruled your right to be frank with him. I apologize.

[Grim and haunting thoughts coupled with insomnia? Yeah, Varric understood that. She's apologizing and, well, he can only figure she only heard part of his conversation with the soapbox Templar. He offers a slightly embarrassed smile as he shrugs.]

Yeah--I wouldn't...commit to hard to that apology. I did tell the guy to go fuck himself. In...exactly those words.

Not sure I can be more frank than that.

[Much as he'd tried to rein it in, that wasn't really something he accomplished.]

You do have a way with words.

[ One of his many charming traits- well. More charming when it is not stirring her up in frightful memory. But it- it is what it is and some of the tension in her shoulders unwinds. ]

I suppose I might retract approximately half of the apology, if it makes you more comfortable.

I can deal with half of an apology.

[He was only about 50% sorry he went off on the guy, and the part he was sorry for was exacerbating her panic attack, so that really worked out nicely.]

So, was that it? Not that I'm complaining; I always like to get awkward apologies and rebuking out of the way as quickly as possible, but there's no scenario where that would have taken an hour.

Perhaps I meant for a private conversation after all.

[ A beat. ]

No, that is not it I- have been doing some research with the books you found for me. Some of it has come to be useful bu it requires items I cannot find readily. Some of them are obscure, some are dangerous, some? both.

Aaaah so you need someone who can import things. [Varric offers a sagely sort of nod at that.]

And here I'd hoped you'd just wanted me for my body, not my business acumen--cut me to the core, why don't you? [All in all he doesn't sound that put out by the situation, though.]

Alright, how obscure and dangerous are we talking?

[ As dry and wry as she could manage. ]

Varric you know I want you for your brain, not your body.

[ That delicious, dwarven mind and charisma, give it to her. She manages to hold a straight face for a moment before clearing her throat and returning to the task at hand. Flirting- still somethings she's learning. ]

An extract that can only be found in a dragon's liver, for one.

[Ad much as he loved dry flirting, and he did, that brought him up short. Metaphorically.]

Well, that's specific and hard to wrangle.

Not illegal, as far as I know, so you've got that going for you. Any particular type of dragon? [He sort of gestures with one hand as he cringes.] Fire breathing? Living? Dead, preferably?

Lightening, dead. I cannot imagine how one would go about collecting it from a live dragon.

[ The very idea is terrifying. ]

A variant on deep mushrooms that grow near veins of lyrium with a particular look to them; a flute made from the bone of a drakolisk, spirit essence, and veil quartz.

Veil...quartz?

[Varric stares for a moment and thinks on it. Deep mushroom varieties would require some digging (possibly literal) with the mining castes, and drasolisk flutes were a long-shot, but he had no idea where to get something like veil quartz.]

I'm guessing that's not just a fancy name for a weirdly colored gem?

I assume it's some manner of crystal that grows where the veil is thin- perhaps near where rifts have been closed? I cannot imagine anything thinner than open. The texts were a bit vague on that count.

Huh...well, I'll see what I can find.

[She'd said this was for the same task that the books had been. Given what she'd requested, and the silence spell currently surrounding his tent, it seemed obvious she was doing this in a rather unofficial capacity.

That's enough to give him pause and Varric is silent for a moment as he regards her.]

So, you need this all quickly and quietly, I'm guessing?

Quiet would be better than quick. This is...delicate research that is not entirely sanctioned due to it's nature. I would explain but I think we both would rather you have plausible deniability.

[ The less he knew, the safer he might be. ]

Nothing on the list will spoil once procured. If it takes time to see it done discreetly, then it takes time.

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[ OPEN ] Days too full, nights too dark

Emprise du Lion, for Varric Tethras ( Pre Anders Reveal )

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