IC Inbox

[eolasemah]

For letters, personal conversations, PSLs, and pipe bombs.

Comments

[sending crystal]

[arlathvhen]

...Sina, how tall can you make trees grow?

Out of curiosity.

[eolasemah]

Um... not terribly tall at the moment, but I think I could make decent progress on one over time. Why?

action

[mythalenaste]

She finds Sina in the garden after finally submitting her report to Leliana. She hasn't spoken much. In fact, for the last month, Pel has all but disappeared. She hasn't told Sina a word about Dirthamen, and it's time to own up to it.

She sits by Sina and touches shoulders. She looks tired. Her eyes are glassy.

"How are you feeling, these days?"

[eolasemah]

Sina had had about a week to be up and about again before the illness took her, and after a seemingly endless period of fevers and visual hallucinations, she is finally on the mend once again. Weary, pale and now so thin she verges on skeletal, she is sitting on a bench and watching the evening pass, listening to the birds and smelling the blossoms around her.
Despite the warming of the weather after all the dreadful rains, she has a shawl pulled around herself for warmth. The shard casts an eerie green glow over the darkening garden, the only part of her body that has not decreased in vitality of late.

She smiles, however, when she feels Pel's shoulder against hers. She looks down to take a breath, then lifts her head to meet Pel's eyes, immediately noticing how tired she looks, but figures she might as well answer the question first. "All right," she decides. She can't give up on getting better, not when she was so close to being almost back to normal before she got sick again.

Sending crystal after ritual 1

[justice_is_blond]

Thank you, Sina. It didn't work, but you tried to help, and that matters.

[eolasemah]

Please, if there's anything else I can do... I'll try to do it right this time. Just say the word.

Sending Crystal

[gatheringstorm]

[Tired and all sorts of dazed, but hey, she promised she would update Sina.]

The Fade sucks and everything hurts. But we made it out of there.

[eolasemah]

You were in the Fade.

[Somehow she doesn't question this, but has no idea why.]

What happened? Are you all right?

gardens

[mythalenaste]

[Pel approaches with a napkin wrapped around a bundle. She sits by Sina and unwraps the bundle, showing two hot rolls.]

Fresh from the kitchen. There's a new mission coming up. I want to talk to you about it.

[eolasemah]

[Sina is reclining with her back against a pillar, surrounded by seed packets that she's been sorting. Although she's in better health lately, she still gets tired much more quickly than she ever did before the shard.

When Pel approaches, she offers a smile and raises her head, taking a roll with a smile of thanks.] Oh?

a gift + a note;

[foxsays]

[Waiting for Sina after her return from the Cadash Thaig is a small gift from Araceli from the Western Approach, a little later than promised.]

I meant to give you this in person but this time it was you departing and not I! Gifts from the Approach - I needed a little time to rest after my exertions there and catching up on my studies again in Skyhold, I hope you will find a use for these.

[Wrapped carefully within green silk are several quillback spines (from a quillback killed by Araceli), a glass fox found by chance, varghest scales (from several also killed like the quillback) and a few very small pieces of serpentstone of various sizes. And in a pot next to it all sits a very small and sad looking amrita vein with another note.]

I'm bad with plants, sorry!

Re: a gift + a note;

[eolasemah]

[Sina cries happily, and plants the amrita vein as quickly as she can, nurturing it as carefully as she would an infant. She keeps the scales in a little box of treasures, the fox by her pillow for when she wants to think of friends, and the quills become her favorites.]

sending crystal; backdated to rivain

[foxsays]

Hola from Rivain Sina! [It's a far happier sounding Araceli on the sending crystal, waves lapping in the background as she speaks.] I'm tagging along with Ellana today, we're going to visit a Rivaini clan, is there anything you would like to ask them? A message you might like to send along?

[eolasemah]

Araceli! You sound so happy!
[Hearing the waves in the background, Sina can only assume all is well. She's not the biggest fan of beaches, but understands that they're quite important to her friend.
And... ah, Ellana. Sina pauses for a moment, a bit thrown off.]

Um... just tell them Clan Dahlasanor sends tidings, and that Beleth of Clan Ashara and I have hopes of improving communication between clans.

..and...

[Shyly,] ...please tell Ellana I say hello.

Crystal

[justice_is_blond]

Sina, I was wondering if you had a moment to discuss something.

[eolasemah]

[The voice on the other end is a bit muzzy and groggy, as though she's been napping.]

Mm? Anders? What is it?

harvestmere 4th

[serannas]

Sina, tell me honestly: are you all right?

[ Ellana means more than just physically. A Dalish clan hurt her, and Sina's devotion to the People runs deep. This has to be a great blow. ]

[eolasemah]

[It is a great blow. Ellana will hear a shuddering intake of breath before Sina's end goes dead, as it seems she has deactivated the crystal.]

sending crystal;

[dalishious]

Sina.

[eolasemah]

...Merrick?

action

[mythalenaste]

Pel finds Sina in the garden and sits beside her with a soft smile, offering her a cup of soup that steams in the chill autumn air. Beef broth and barley, hearty and hot on a windy, overcast day.

[eolasemah]

Sina spends a lot of time on her own lately, sitting quietly in the garden and gazing into the middle distance when she isn't working. She doesn't flinch away when Pel sits beside her, but instead ever so slightly leans against her, shoulder to shoulder. She takes the cup with a mouthed 'serannas', and spends the first few moments just staring down into it. She's lost weight she can't afford to lose, but at least she's beginning to come around. If nothing else, she's a sensible person, and sensible people don't starve themselves to death.

crystal;

[foxsays]

Sina! I hope you are well, forgive me, work has swallowed me somewhat. [Work, bathe, maybe sleep, repeat.]

I have come into possession of some herbs. For cooking. I do no want them to die. Any advice you might give me would be invaluable and rewarded.

[eolasemah]

Of course! What kind are they? Can I see them?

crystal;

[foxsays]

[First off, Araceli wants to be wrong, she truly, deeply, sincerely wants to be wrong. But she goes by her gut for some things before she steps back to examine them and the sickening lurch when she patrolled, the rumours? That she knows how much Sina loves nature, that she poured so much of her time and energy into the gardens in Skyhold? She doesn't feel wrong in picking up the sending crystal.]

Sina? Are you free to talk? [As much as she wants to demand, she isn't stupid. She's too well practiced even if people don't know that part of her life and the last thing she needs is Sina perhaps on the defensive if she picks up anything odd in her friend's voice so it's just what might be expected: a slightly harried friend asking after another but then Araceli has a job that eats up much of her time, why wouldn't she sound a little off at this time of the day at this stage of the week?]

[eolasemah]

[Sina has only just left the infirmary, and as such is a little hoarse when she answers.] Yes, lethallan, what is it?
[She doesn't sound suspicious. The wave of collective confusion hasn't reached her yet.]

[mythalenaste]

Sina?

[eolasemah]

[Wearily,]

The garden?

[Package]

[sunshinethroughgrey]

[A large basket is delivered to Sina's rooms, that has a number of berry tarts in it, along with a beautifully knitted forest green and brown blanket, along with hat and gloves. The note inside is simple, written on good paper.]

Thank you for the trees.

- B Hawke-Darton

The Chantry forest/garden

[wheretheferngrows]

Fern's never seen anything quite like the Chantry garden before in her young life, which is possibly why she spends a lazy morning curled up on a patch of grass dappled by sunlight and shade, alternating between dozing in the last of summer's warmth and simply daydreaming. The garden is such a peaceful escape from the activity of the Inquisition's headquarters in the Gallows, and so green.

Without many prying eyes around her, she feels safe enough to uncomfortably peel her glove off of her left hand and frown at the anchor mark in her palm.

[eolasemah]

It's about half an hour into Fern's visit when a second elf appears, walking near-silently between the trees with a basket. Approaching a berry bush, Sina inspects each one before she plucks it and drops it in, every so often sneaking one into her mouth with a pleasant smile. These berries are important for a lot of reasons, but they're also just nice to eat.
She's moving around the side of the bush when she looks up and catches sight of Fern, at whom she gives a shy smile of greeting. The girl has no vallaslin, and city elves can be cagey about the Dalish. No need to instigate anything.

the Chantry forest - a week or so before the voyage

[wheretheferngrows]

Fern has found ways to keep herself busy since the senior Grey Warden rejected her appeal to join their ranks, but some days are harder than others. This is one of the harder days--not helped by the fact that Rooster, on his morning walk, felt compelled to stop in the middle of a bloody downpour and would not be budged until Fern got her boots muddy to chase away a nearby nug.

(Yes, a nug. On the list of things Rooster is not afraid of: a Templar in full plate armour. What he is scared of: errant leaves, and small nugs. Glad we got this squared away.)

The rain has at least passed the city by when Fern finally returns to Kirkwall, but the thought of going back to the Gallows just fills her up with more misery. The last thing she wants right now is to bump into one of the many do-gooders in her life who have decided that their new mission in life is to treat her like a child in need of coddling. Instead she finds herself wandering thoughtfully into the Chantry forest again, arms folded over her chest to ward off the chill.

[eolasemah]

There's an oilskin tarp set up in the center of the forest, under which sits Sina, a heavy blanket over her shoulders and another beneath her to protect from the wet grass. She's humming quietly, bent over a flat stone, on which she appears to be drawing with a thin brush. A little pot of something ink-like sits beside her.

crystal, maybe a day after the test

[motherfucking_ghost]

...Hi. It's uh. It's Church.

So where do we go from here? Is that guy still knocked out? Do we do...more tests? Cuz I'm willing if you need. He literally only did one thing, that's not really conclusive of anything. We gotta try more, right?

[eolasemah]

[The reply is halting and breathy, the sound of someone trying not to cry.]

I don't know.

[A pause.]

...I don't know.

letter; at some point

[alankazam]

[ it's delivered by an inquisition scout, who hangs about an awkward moment, before lingering to read it aloud. the words are unsigned, unaddressed, but a long black feather is tucked between the battered pages. ]

My grandmother wasn't born with us.

She saw pictures in water, found shapes in the skeletons of mountain birds. A white owl dropped from the sky once, dead before her feet, and that was when she knew to leave the place she’d grown.

I've never liked owls; they kill without thinking. They wait, and they fall. They were Made for endings, and nothing really ends.

This is the great secret: The one that nestles in the name of loss. Everything that goes comes back again as something different, something new. Cities once burned rebuild. Prophets live and die, and live and die again. A broken tree feeds others, a song in a deep places repeats.

An owl fell before me yesterday. She crashed through the ceiling glass, down into life, and lay still. Masks crowded. A child screamed. It cut my palms to hold her, but she didn't kill me. Her breath was shallow in her chest.

I took her with me. She'd broken a wing, but she lifted in my grasp. Talons dug. Bones mended. No one saw.

I didn’t expect to be away so long. Time slips from my hands in red hours — I think we’re doing good work here, but it’s full of endings, and I don’t know how to say when we’ve thought of them enough.

Nothing really ends. I’ll meet you again; I hope it’s soon.

[ enclosed is a rough sketch of a landscape, hazy and indistinct; grown with the telltale strangeness of dreams. ]

a visit to Sina's bedside, when she is still lucid

[wheretheferngrows]

Fern comes to sit with Sina often, in between the time she devotes to practicing magic with Nell Voss, or working through her letters with Gwenaelle, or tending to Rooster, or any number of her other duties for the Inquisition. She doesn't have much downtime these days, but what little she has, she feels compelled--for some reason--to spend sitting next to Sina's bed. Sometimes she practices her reading assignments in the intervening quiet; at other times, she mends her worn socks and shirts brought with her from Ansburg.

Today, however, she just sits in despondent silence, gazing out the nearby window with slightly wet eyes. It's not fair. None of this is bloody fair.

[eolasemah]

It's a while before Sina wakes, and it's as she usually does, her little body suddenly convulsing with the effort it takes to cough. The spell is long and unpleasant, but does end eventually, and Sina lies back as though spent from a marathon, only now noticing Fern with her. She smiles faintly, even apologetically, trying to catch her breath.

An afternoon visit to Sina, on a good patch?

[writteninblood]

Sorrel decided to make a show of it.

He closed the door behind him, slow, stealthy, and just as carefully pulled back the curtains. The afternoon sunlight, which fell on this side of the Gallows in the afternoon, could stream in and make little star-fields with the dust motes.

"I have a surprise for you," He tells her, quiet, as if it were a great secret to be imparted in this intelligence, and then-- shows her his gift. It's gold, pure silk, flying with all the flash of a great bird spreading its wings as he shakes it up and spreads it over Sina's sickbed in one fluid motion. It settles across her legs like liquid riches, and the sunlight shines on it like true gold, "A queen of the Dales must have a mantle of gold."

This, clearly a joke-- and yet, not so teasing when compared to the reality.

"...It's no magical forest, of course, but I do my humble best."

OK TIME FOR THIS ONE

[eolasemah]

For the past night and morning Sina has been relatively all right, with a decrease in coughing and the ability to get food down, which means she's at least somewhat well-rested when she awakens to the sound of footsteps.
Turning her head toward Sorrel's voice, Sina's eyes go wide at the sudden wash of gold, and it takes her a moment to realize what's just happened before a smile crosses her face.
"What's this?" she asks, her voice a bit stronger than usual, but still hoarse, as she moves her hands over the fabric, "it's so soft."

yooo what up let me just crash your inbox before she DIES.

[wickedchase]

More than he ever cares to express, Twisted Fate feels many a great guilt for several things. Before the Inquisition certainly, and even since joining it. This is just one of many.

He didn't have the opportunity to say good-bye to Nerva. He can, hopefully, here.

In Sina's window, an owl has flown in and taken perch. Its head tilts, watching, as if to determine her well-being.

But it doesn't matter. There's no taking back anything.

The owl glides down to her floor, and shifts into Twisted Fate.

"Lethallan."

[eolasemah]

Sina is drowsing, but her eyelids flutter open when she hears a voice. Looking up at the man above her, she's confused for a moment or two, drifting in between sleep and consciousness, but ultimately the hat gives him away.
"Tobrevas," she whispers, the corners of her mouth curling into a smile.

A Letter and a Package

[madame_de_fer]

[By way of a pretty Orlesian maid, a small package and a sealed letter are delivered to Kirkwall to be put directly into Sina's hands. The maid also brings with her a bouquet of greenhouse lilies, kept fresh by some method of Circle enchantment.

Within the package are small, but simple treats: dried exotic fruits, sugared nuts, chocolate, one very sturdy brandy. That last is to help ease the pain when it becomes unbearable.

However, tucked away with the utmost care are two less expected care package items: a silver hairbrush and a silk ribbon embroidered with daisies.]



My dear Sina,

I would ask if you were well, but I know full well you are not. It grieves me greatly to think that soon you shall leave us. Thedas shall be a darker place that day, though left richer for your presence.

I have suffered many losses through the years, my beloved Bastien the most recently. But I think yours shall be the hardest. You do not know the peace and happiness you brought me the day I tended your hair for you. It brought to memory younger days with a cherished friend, as I now cherish you. Though you too leave us behind, go in the knowledge that I shall always remember you and that moment.

Though I know not the traditions of your people, I have arranged for your name to be sung in remembrance at the Chantry of Montsimmard for the next century. I pray this does not offend.

Be at peace, my dear Sina.

All My Love,
Vivienne