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]

( there's no sound of someone counting to ten in their head, so there's no particular sound on the other end of the crystal during the pause. there's just a pause. )

Yes, that would be one of the things on which I would expect you to bite your tongue.

[shri]

[ And so very graciously. ]

Of course, my lady. Consider it no more than proof of my experience in keeping my words to myself.

[elegiaque]

No 'my lady', either. Mademoiselle, if we're standing on ceremony.

( which is fine. she's fine with standing on ceremony. mademoiselle baudin is a perfectly acceptable thing to be called, and so is her name, even if it's still—

there's an awkwardness about the way she rejects that; unaccustomed to doing so. )

The estate will be reverting to the crown in the near future, I've no title.

[shri]

As you wish, Mademoiselle. I like to have my manners straight before I go giving them.

[ More French. Where oh where was Lafayette? Even Galahad might do a sight better. ( No, come to think of it, the man couldn't keep his tongue in his head even if it killed him. Which it did, as it turned out. )

But, relief to that - she has no particular want to go scraping to a dressed up little Lordling, even if the pay was good. ]

I am here for my skill with blades. Is there anything else you might require I can assure you of?

[ It's not scraped in false humility. Just stated plain and simple. ]

[elegiaque]

That's the important part. Is your anchor-shard in one of your hands?

( most of them are, but it's not as if the significant exception to the rule wasn't memorable enough to ask. )

[shri]

It is.

[elegiaque]

I'll supply suitable gloves. I'd prefer that this excursion is as unremarkable as possible.

( it will be remarked upon, probably, but there's no sense not taking precautions where precautions can be taken, and frankly, what she can supply is going to be better than what a newly arrived rifter can afford or acquire from the outpost. )

[shri]

[ Here we go. ]

Would you prefer me to find something suitable to wear as well?

[elegiaque]

If you require better armor than you've been given, you can be outfitted appropriately once you arrive in Halamshiral out of the supplies for liveried guardsmen.

I'm assuming you don't already have gloves suitable for travel and combat out of the Gallows coffers, but correct me if I'm wrong.

[shri]

It would be from my personal funds to find something to my taste. Which I am glad to spend since it seems... hiding this anchor is important enough to warrant it.

[ She ought to just rip a would be employer off but - it felt wrong. never mind her own irritation at having to hide it.

But that should feel normal, shouldn't it? Her teeth clench, unclench, she carries on. ]

But if no more than a gauntlet would suffice, I suspect what the Gallows provides ought to do for the time being.

[elegiaque]

It's not a matter of urgency, it's a matter of convenience. You won't pass for a native if you speak to anyone, but you don't need to draw so much attention anyone's going to talk to you, either.

[shri]

I will take from the Gallows, once I arrive you can dress me in your livery if that's what you deem required to... blend in.

[ Erg. She'd rather work out how to wear the armour she preferred but - it would require sorting out the chain and silk for it. Not what this woman needs.

Oh, the things we do for some extra coin. ] If that seems a fair enough plan?

[elegiaque]

If you've got armor you're satisfied with, you don't need more in a prettier colour. ( a verbal shrug. )

[shri]

As you say then. [ a shrug in reply. ] Apart from covering my hand and discretion - is there anything else you need?

[elegiaque]

Assuming common sense isn't too much to ask,

( which she does not, with as little faith as she tends to be prepared to express in the inquisition. )

[shri]

[ She heaves a deep breath, clearly exaggerated. ] I can try it, I suppose.

[elegiaque]

( the laugh is sparse, tired, but not as bitter as it might have been. so there's that. )

Just so as you can say you have.

[shri]

How cosmopolitan of me.

[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.

[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?

[shri]

Maharani Lakshmi Bai.

[ a pause, taking a small amount of mercy of foreigners who stumble over the name and titles. ]

Lakshmi or Rani will do.

[elegiaque]

( gwenaëlle clothilde decima vauquelin de vauquelin turned baudin

has never taken mercy on anyone in that regard. she repeats, )

Maharani Lakshmi Bai, ( just to be sure she has the right of it, before settling on, ) Lakshmi, if you prefer.

I prefer Gwenaëlle. ( it's a tricky one, but she does not supply anything easier to pronounce. )