[ OPEN ] Days too full, nights too dark

[fleurdesel]

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.

Comments

[eolasemah]

Sina continues to smile as Adelaide comes in, though she notes the woman's weariness. "Better," she assures her, "I still get tired quickly, but I'm itching to get out of bed." She has multiple people forbidding her at present, except for quick jaunts just to keep her strength up.
"How are you?"

[fleurdesel]

"Short walks around the garden might help- especially now that we have more benches put in for when you tire." Not if, but when. Recovery is a slow road and magic can only manage so much. Adelaide sets the tray across Sina's lap and draws her own chair near, lifting the lid to reveal thick, crusted bread and warm stew. Hearty eating. "Well, all told. I've an assistant now and that gives me more time with my students and more time to rest."

[eolasemah]

Helping herself to a bit of the bread and stew, Sina nods enthusiastically to Adelaide's suggestion. "Korrin and Araceli took me out the other day," she says, glancing toward the door as though to make sure Nari's not listening, "seeing the garden again did wonders for my mood. And just feeling the fresh air... it's all the more maddening being back in here after." Not that she looks like she's going mad, smiling like she is, and even eating with renewed appetite.
"I'm glad," she says, in response to how Adelaide is, "you work yourself too hard. Rest is important."

[fleurdesel]

Adelaide tucks in on her own, soaking a torn strip of bread in the stew's broth. "If the weather continues to be so well we might see about moving you to a sunshade during the day rather than keeping you cooped up. Fresh air and sunlight is just as good for healing as rest and quiet."

She makes a mental note to requisition a tarp to set up such a thing. "I work myself as much as is needed. We've more apostates wandering in little by little the more the Inquisition does, finding mentors for all of them has taken time but it has eased the burden on the other enchanters that are teaching. I will try to visit more often, though, now that things have settled. This is...restful."

Sina expects little that she cannot offer; that in of itself? Is worth much.

[eolasemah]

"I would love that," Sina breathes. She still gets cold when she's out of bed for too long, but being able to feel the breeze and the sunlight will do wonders for her mood, if nothing else.
"I'm glad there are more mages filtering in," she continues, "it shows they're not afraid. It's proof to me as much as anyone else that there's nothing to fear from the Inquisition." Her smile is uncertain, and she glances toward the tent's entrance again, betraying that perhaps there is a little bit of residual fear for her still.

[fleurdesel]

"There will be growing pains much like there is with any organization, but...I think we are on the right path." Bumps and bruises are to be expected while they learn how to walk with one another but it is going as well as it possibly could, all things considered. She offers Sina a hand, smile gentle.

"When you are feeling up for it, perhaps you could sit and explain some of your magic to other students? I know the elven students are particularly curious about Dalish methods. That they feel comfortable enough to ask speaks well of them."

[eolasemah]

Sina allows Adelaide to take her hand, smiling fondly at her, though the request yields hesitance.
"...I could... I suppose it wouldn't hurt," she muses quietly, "...but only to the elves. Keeper magic isn't about individual spells, it's... sacred. It's as much about ritual and tradition as it is about magic." She purses her lips, thinking, before she speaks again. "I'm not a Keeper yet, so I could not teach them to anyone. It's not my right. But I can... explain to the city elves, since they are of the People and have gone without Keepers for so long."

[fleurdesel]

"Ah- I did not know that." Otherwise she wouldn't have suggested it- much as knowing such things might be to the benefit of human mages it isn't-

They have taken enough.

Adelaide clears her throat and nods. "Only the elves, then, and only if you are comfortable doing so. I thought it merely another school of magic; not that it had weight."

[eolasemah]

Sina nods, smiling pleasantly. She's not offended, and is on the contrary quite reassured by Adelaide's retraction of the request. It means she understands, not that Sina wouldn't expect it of her. Adelaide is one of the humans she's come to trust most.

"I will speak to them," she agrees, "and... perhaps encourage them to find clans, where they can be taught properly."

[fleurdesel]

"While I understand that is important...I do not know that it is safe. Clans have a limit on how many mages they have in one place, yes? It would be a great burden to ask of any- provided they wished to take in those not of the Dalish." Also: learning in the woods. What maddness would that be?

[eolasemah]

Sina nods in confirmation of the question, but her expression is still hopeful. "The restriction on mages is to prevent Templars from paying too much attention to us," she explains, "and... if their order is dissolved, we could practice freely again. But." She clears her throat lightly, pressing her hand against her chest. "My hope is that every elf has the chance to reclaim what is theirs. And perhaps to start their own clan, and learn the ways, and undertake the rituals. There are several former city elves in Clan Dahlasanor, and they are invaluable."

[fleurdesel]

This is a great deal of cultural commentary she truly has no room to speak on. She is not an elf, she has no real opinions about the elven struggle aside from ensuring her students are not harassed for their pointed ears; though that has not been an issue for some time now. "That must be a great triumph for the clan- to teach them the ways?"

[eolasemah]

Another nod follows. "More than that, it's for them, not for us. The People are strong as long as we are united and numerous. We cannot be wiped out completely as long as there are still those of us who know the ways." She smiles faintly.

[fleurdesel]

"We do not have much written on them in the Spire. Any elven mage taken in by the circles has no understanding of their heritage." Beyond that given to them by the human nobles of Orlais. "I know several of my students will be eager to learn."

[eolasemah]

"I know," Sina says, her tone going darker. "And this would have been my fate as well, had the Keeper not ensured our isolation." She furrows her brow and shakes her head lightly. "I... to think, if I had been discovered, Keeper Thalia would have been the only mage remaining. Our clan would die out, and so would its memories."

[fleurdesel]

"I do not think any of the elven children in my classes were of the Dalish- but I did have one mentor found late." Dragged to the Spire by templars.

[eolasemah]

"Late?" Sina repeats, but catches her meaning right away. She scowls, as though taking this as a personal offense. In a way, it is, though it isn't Adelaide's fault.
"It's no kinder to take them from their clans in the cities," she murmurs, "from one prison to another, as I've heard it said."

[fleurdesel]

"His magic had manifested and he'd been training with his Clan when he was caught. Wounded by stray apostates the templars were hunting, I think he said." Whether or not it is kind for those that live in the city, however. "Free meals and board, education, a safe place to learn to protect themselves from demons- compared to the alienages the Spire seemed like a palace to most. Depending upon the mentors and templars most were treated as equal rather than lesser. A mage is a mage, after all."

[eolasemah]

"...then he was taken from his Clan," Sina clarifies, not ready to leave that point yet. "And received meals and board and education and safety as determined by humans, never again to see his loved ones or enjoy the freedom of being Dalish." Tears have sprung to her eyes, though they don't spill. What if it had been her? Everyone in Clan Dahlasanor had known the risks when she and Nari made the journey to Skyhold, and the possibility of it was-- perhaps still is-- far too real. "It would have been kinder to kill him."

[fleurdesel]

"I was speaking of the benefits to elves that were from the alienages. There are rumors that are only rumors in name- most know them to be fact, of how noble Chevaliers drink and test their blades on the elves where they ought to be most safe. In the Spire they were spared a pointless death. I cannot speak to the loss my mentor endured. He did not speak of it and I knew better than to ask." It was a grief he'd carried about him at all times, for all that he'd been an exceptional mage. "...In truth I know enough to know it is not my place to speak about it. My experiences with elves are quite...different, it seems, even for a Circle mage."

[eolasemah]

Sina's resentment rapidly melts into sorrow, her breath catching at the comment about the Chevaliers. She shouldn't be surprised, but has never heard that particular detail. It's something she wouldn't have learned in the camp: it's specifically human knowledge, about other humans.

She lingers on the thought, and on the story of Adelaide's mentor, falling silent and gazing listlessly past Adelaide. To hear it spoken so is far more painful than simply being aware of it as a theoretical scenario.

[fleurdesel]

"...generally it is not discussed. In the Spire- there are no Chevaliers and it is rare when any of the alienage can afford to send for a healer." So rare as to never happen, as best as she can tell. "I only know of it because one of my peers had a scar that would ache come winter that came from such a night. They are safer in the Spire."

[eolasemah]

Safer. But not safe.

Putting a small patch over a gaping wound may stop the bleeding in that one area, but the rest will continue to flow unhindered. Sina has fallen silent, her eyes distant as she contemplates the reality presented to her by Adelaide. It is not one she has known much about, and now she does. And wishes she didn't.