crystal.

[elegiaque]

FORM: Crystal!
SENDER: Gwenaëlle Baudin.
RECIPIENT: Anyone with a crystal.
WHAT: Summary of content.
WHEN: Currentish.
WHERE: She's in Halamshiral; wherever you all are.
NOTES: Optional side quest. Also I know the difference between Kirkwall and Halamshiral and didn't edit her misspeaking a day later. You don't know.

This is Gwenaëlle Baudin. I need to make a brief trip from Halamshiral to an estate in the Dales, and given what happened the last time I took that road—

( understandably tersely, for those who do know what it was that happened, )

—I would prefer to do it with several able warriors. I've some other contacts I can reach out to closer to hand if no one is available, but I'm not in a great rush to do it, so if anyone is bored of the unrest in Kirkwall and would like to make a bit of coin on the side while touring some different, exciting unrest in what I assume will be remembered as the last days of Orlais before it was overrun by Corypheus, do be in touch.

Do not bother responding if you can't bring yourself to refrain from embarrassing the Inquisition in the High Quarter.

Comments

[elegiaque]

Well, common sense being apparently a fucking misnomer, one can only assume it is in fact exclusive to the realm of particular sophisticates.

( what a charming young lady she is. )

[shri]

[ Devi, is that you? ]

Pity then, that it doesn't come with most titles.

[ Lakshmi stop throwing shade at nobles wheN YOU ARE ONE. ]

[elegiaque]

I wasn't aware particular sophistication did, either.

( you have come to the wrong place for stop throwing shade. )

[shri]

[ That gets her to laugh, quite earnestly in fact. ]

The only ones I know to be the opposite, I can count on one hand.

[rathercommon]

What happened last time?

[elegiaque]

Dalish elves shot my mother in the throat.

[rathercommon]

[ A beat. ]

Oh.

[ Um. ]

When...was that?

[galvanising]

Are mages disqualified? I'm not sure how embarrassing those of us who aren't Marisol or Magisters are in Hightown these days.

[esquive]

[These days - or in very recent ones - there's enough and varied kinds of trouble that might wait on a road into the Dales that he very nearly asks her to specify. But it's not really important, so instead:]

Easily done. Would there be a horse for me or am I meant to bring one with me?

[Details of a more practical kind.]

[sorcerised]

[ What's this, a quest offering a chance to get out of Kirkwall? Let him just jump all over that, thanks. ]

I'll go.

[ Pause. ]

Providing you don't mind the company of rifters, at a time like this.

[inagutterson]

Do I roll myself out of a carpet to do that? Or do I drop a cape? My books are unclear and disagree on what I'm meant to do, how do I educate myself?

[Remember the day him and Gunnar delivered a bear pelt? Also he kind of misses being able to rifle through Thranduil's stuff as easily, he'd have the attire for this.]

[elegiaque]

A horse can be provided for you from Halamshiral if you've not got one, certainly. What was your name?

[elegiaque]

Most people are fuckwits. How much money they have has very little to do with it beyond how long some fuckwits astonishingly manage to survive in the world.

What was your name?

[elegiaque]

A year and a half ago. It was an eventful few months. I'd prefer no one die this time, if at all possible.

[elegiaque]

Given the Magisters and adjacent types at our disposal, I'm prepared to say that they are right out. You'll do, though.

( you know, if she wants. )

[elegiaque]

Is there a reason I should mind your company?


( the eyebrow raise is almost audible. )

[elegiaque]

If you can somehow find a way to do both, I will buy you anything you like from Halamshiral before I leave.

[galvanising]

Seems fair. How many days, and what's the pay?

[elegiaque]

I expect it to take a week or a little more.

( the sum she names is enough that if it were her money she were spending, it'd almost sound like she's getting ripped off. )

[rathercommon]

Have you been doing all right? Since then?

[galvanising]

[ Nell isn't about to risk tipping her off to that fact, so she waits a bit before responding, like she has to think about it. ]

I can do that. What are you going to the Dales for?

[elegiaque]

( magalie's ruined face leaning against her shoulder, you should be with us—not real, not real, not real— )

As well as any of us, I'm sure.

( good days, bad days, days ancient elvhen spirits try to curl dead hands around her wrists and tell her she belongs there—

what's to do but carry on? )

[elegiaque]

Tying off the last of my lord's loose ends. Nothing very exciting; overseeing what needs to be removed to Kirkwall from both properties. The steward has been making arrangements for the staff that need to be finalized.

( taking one last look at it all, taking what's hers, and not seriously considering burning it down. )

[rathercommon]

[ A slight hesitation - ]

That sounds like a no.

[elegiaque]

Nothing the contents of the townhouse's wine cellar can't fix.

( girl please )