therookery | crystal.

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ 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.

Is there a reason I should mind your company?

( the eyebrow raise is almost audible. )

I'm just making sure you weren't only looking for natives.

[ After all it means he's not entirely across all the potential political difficulties they might encounter. Also: ]

What happened last time?

I'd prefer no one who's going to draw much attention, but I seem to have a satisfactory group now.

Dalish elves shot my mother in the throat.

Oh.

[ Quietly. That's actually a horrific answer. ]

I'm so sorry. I'll do whatever I can to keep you safe, I promise.

( so did she, she almost says, which is awful.

it is easier. )

It will be roughly a week, perhaps a little more. Nothing exciting ought to happen, and no attention needs to be drawn. You must be able to comport yourself appropriately within the High Quarter of Halamshiral, which means respectfully towards its occupants, and preferably with as little interaction as possible. If you've not suitable gauntlets of your own to make the anchor-shard less noteworthy, they can and will be provided.

I can cover it, that won't be a problem. In my world I'm an explorer. This sort of thing isn't unusual for me.

[ He's actually delighted about it. ]

Erm, just one more question. How exactly do you feel about dragons?

I feel like people who have just heard me say 'behave respectfully in the High Quarter and do not draw attention to themselves' wouldn't be nearly so fucking stupid as to ask me how I feel about dragons.

So there's no need to answer that question that I'm sure I didn't hear you ask, because obviously, there is no circumstance in which a dragon is going to be relevant to this situation.

Is there.

Edited 2018-07-01 10:40 (UTC)

[ Cagily. ]

What if they're nice, respectful dragons, capable of keeping their heads down?

Your services will not be required.

[ Damn. ]

Oh, come on, she's only a hatchling. She can help us keep watch, she'll fly no further than I tell her to, and she won't get in the way. I'll stay with her all the time.

You'll stay with her, ( agreeably, ) in Kirkwall, where whatever you do with your beast isn't my problem.

[ Well, that's that then. ]

All right. I'm sorry, then. I hope your trip is a success, regardless.

Thank you.

Good luck.

( she manages not to say presumably without a dragon they'll need less of it, but it's a near thing. the small victories of gwenaëlle refraining have to be noted when they happen, because so often they do not happen. )

Perhaps all the bandits will be busy in the north, raiding supply trains.

Well, I think that's unlikely, but you might better direct that sarcasm at someone who isn't willing to help.

[ He's not the one turning her down here, okay!! ]

I can't just take off for a week and leave her, I'm responsible for her. We could both do with getting out of Kirkwall, and we could both help you. It's up to you if that's not what you want.

( mildly incredulously, ) Because there is no possible reason for me to have made a joke on that subject except to be rude to you.

( like, say, because she's still anxious about traveling, stressed, and this once inclined to make an effort to lighten the mood after so firmly declining his aid. )

Andraste forgive me for failing to realise the center of the universe has no sense of humor.

[ Relaxing a little. ]

It probably does. I'm more of an outlying meterorite. Don't get many jokes out there.

I really am sorry. Is there a reason why the Dalish targeted you before?

Because they were worthless opportunistic murderers in want of being put down.

( —so much for the lighter mood. )

Any say I'd feel differently in your shoes.

Do you absolutely need to go back?

It'll be a brief visit. The last, I expect.

( a pause, then: )

Everyone involved in that is dead, but I'm inclined to take precautions. We might not be in the grip of a convenient civil war, but out of the way parts of Orlais...

( dalish aren't the only opportunists out there. )

The Dalish might not be the only ones who don't need an excuse.

[ She's not wrong. It would be far better to travel with a group. ]

Look, if you change your mind, my offer will stand. It's all right if you don't, just. In case you do.

You mean well.

( that's as kind as she's prepared to be, on that matter. it doesn't seem worth it to explicitly lay out the problem; the fact he doesn't already understand it is half the problem, in itself makes him unsuitable. )

I really do. I don't want you to get hurt.

[ He hasn't known her before now, but if she did get hurt, he knows he'd feel the weight of not having been there. It isn't an easy choice.

Iessa still has to win. He can't leave her alone in a place so hostile to her kind as this. ]

Or the rest of your family. I hope they'll be safe.

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