crystal.

[indocile]

FORM: Sending crystal!
SENDER: Margaux
RECIPIENT: Everyone
WHAT: An observation
WHEN: Current
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Warnings TBA if necessary.

( the voice that comes through the crystals is young, light, high lilting orlesian; educated, but after the fact, someone whose speech is influenced by time spent around the upper-classes rather than someone who is identifiably one of them. the tone is thoughtful; )

There are an awful lot of Dalish, aren't there?

( like, any. )

Are they all one clan?

( gosh, they can probably hear this. )

Comments

to action.

[indocile]

You'll know my hands for the tattoos.

( it becomes apparent her hands may not be her most immediately distinguishing feature; she's not more than 4'11, slender, and while half of her hair is swept back in a high ponytail, much of it falls loose to her waist, lilac waves. her cheekbones are high and her complexion dark -

but sure, people are looking at her hands when she walks in. )

Hello, Pel?

[mythalenaste]

[Pel is comfortably parked at a table, writing in a book. In contrast with Margaux, she has grey hair in two plain and disheveled braids, as if she slept in them last night and hasn't redone them. Her clothing is of solid but inexpensive make, and she's clearly wearing some manner of corset underneath. In front of her are two steaming cups.

At her name, she looks up, and perhaps she can be forgiven if she stares for a heartbeat. The Winter Palace had been work and masks and fans, so she has never seen such a creature as this before. Even the highest of the high ladies she has known haven't had such a striking appearance.

Her gaze falls to the wayside as she realizes she is staring, and her hand leaves the pen to smooth over her disheveled hair, as she is suddenly conscious that she woke up with it like this. What a beautiful woman. She feels shamefully shabby by comparison.]

Yes, Margaux.

[She has barely had time to register that this lady is an elf. She isn't entirely sure what to make of it, either. Some noble's pet? A glamorous courtesan? It probably isn't her business at all.]

[indocile]

( the clothing doesn't make anything obvious; sturdy leather trousers and vest, soft from wearing, a dark blouse, boots - those are the most visible expense, of better make than most elves wandering into skyhold can afford. she wears no jewelry, no cosmetics; is nevertheless lovely when she brightens and joins pel. )

Thank you for the tea. I've still the road, it's welcome -

( shaking her hair illustratively as she sits. )

[mythalenaste]

[It's not the clothing. It's only a little bit the unusual hair color. It's the smoothness of skin and the quality of grooming, the sort Benevenuta and Vivienne always had, though they lacked the unusual hair color that gives Margaux the edge. Pel's fingers don't catch on the wool broadcloth of her coat anymore, as many oils and creams as she has been given for stretch marks, but she remembers when they did. She sees that hair as it moves and wonders if she dyes it, and what it would take to make it that color.

It's when Margaux speaks and moves and thanks her like a person that Pel manages to snap out of it. Her smile flashes briefly, as it almost always does, but it remains in her eyes even when it has left her mouth.]

You're welcome. What's brought you to Skyhold?

[indocile]

( the question makes her smile skew wry, tattooed hands curling around her cup; she is so much younger than benevenuta or vivienne and it shows in the girlishness of her mannerisms, how she glances back up at pel from beneath her lashes, measuring.

it isn't hard to imagine people willing to give those eyes all manner of things. )

I want to be a part of the Inquisition. Only see what happened when they came to Halamshiral - I was there. Not in the fighting and all, but - we left for Val Royeaux again only after. Would the Marquise -

( how she savors that address of her hero )

- have achieved so much? Well, ouais, but maybe not so fast, not all at once. It is good for her, for us to do more - to make it hard to take away.

Also I have an arrest issued there.

( teasip. )

[mythalenaste]

[That makes the rose-colored glasses shatter. And when the smile reaches Pel's mouth, it stays this time. She raises her tea.]

Congratulations. I hope it was for something fun. [Sip.] I was at Halamshiral as well, though I was part of the fighting. You know you can't see vallaslin from behind a mask, so it was pretty easy to pass for a servant.

[indocile]

I forged a nobleman's signature and borrowed - ( "without asking, because he'd say no, which is stealing" ) - his seal to persuade a merchant ship from Antiva to take a family as passengers.

( not much fun, really, but she's not sorry. only that it will make directly operating there's hard. )

Shems don't look close. Mostly they cannot tell one from another. If the shipping manifest hadn't turned up, for instance--

( she spreads her hands, invites conspiracy. elves gotta do. )

[mythalenaste]

That's amazing. [Like something out of one of Varric's better novels.] Did the family make it?

[indocile]

They've a contact - they will disappear there.

( she's very proud of herself. )

A little messy only, so I think a good time to be in the mountains, no?

[mythalenaste]

That deserves at least an extra cup of tea. And anything you'd ask of me, ever, except for the baby. I've a feeling if you call in a favor, it'll be worth it.

[indocile]

I know a lot of people, from traveling. It's good-- you always know the right someone, somewhere.

Then you can do lots of things. Like this!

[mythalenaste]

That's it exactly. So you know what it is I do for the Inquisition, I'm an arcane researcher. I also do a lot of practical work--spinning, knitting, camping. Magic and wool, basically. And writing, I guess. And a bit of sword work. Be with the Inquisition long enough and you'll have picked up a great many things.

[indocile]

I hope so. I'd like this, to know more things - I am a dancer, I know a little to fight. To pick pockets. I went to university a very little.

( her nose wrinkles - a complicated memory. )

Siuona said there's many mages to your - former - clan?

[mythalenaste]

[Pel would love to go to a university. She doubts she would be welcome.]

Former clan, yes. [Yep, she's a former Asharan. She is a very stoic person, but her brow smooths out almost preternaturally when she speaks of it.] I was very little when my magic manifested. Dalish can't have too many mages in one clan, so my parents gave me to Clan Ashara. My mother's cousin was there, so I had someone, at least. I was older when Beleth's brother and Ellana came into their magic. The Keeper decided to keep us all, I'm not sure why, but she got one with me and wound up with just the one in the end, so I suppose it doesn't matter much.

[indocile]

( margaux certainly wasn't. it was a brief and unpleasant experience marred by all that pel might imagine, and probably a few other things she hasn't thought of - )


Mages in the alienage always go to the Circles.

( a little frown; )

Always went to the Circles.

[mythalenaste]

One reason we keep our number in each clan pretty small. Mages lead clans--Keepers and their apprentices. We didn't want Templars coming in and taking them all. But. Turns out we've grown up as free mages in a world where suddenly all mages find themselves free and not all of them know what to do with it. It's been busy.

[indocile]

It worries me a little, that they - it is a very big world, outside of a tower. They haven't learned anything to live in it.

( whatever, the shem mages can fend for themselves, they've got plenty of people on their side, but her own people - she worries. are they warm enough? do they have food? who will beat up people who are rude to them. )

[mythalenaste]

[That flash of a smile again. She knows, mostly, what Margaux means by that.]

That's what they have us for. Not even as mages, but as regular folk living regular lives.

[indocile]

I hope it holds.

( maybe mages that know how to live in the world will better learn not to set it on fire? margaux thinks that seems reasonable. elf mages don't frighten her quite so much - or she wouldn't be sipping her tea so easy by pel - but magic is unsettling, still, and the idea of all of those piss ignorant circle mages flapping about the world is

a bit troubling, even besides her very real concern for the elves among them. )

All of it, you know. The end of the war now in Orlais is good, but maybe it's another thing, starting.

[mythalenaste]

[A little nod. She sips her tea.]

You had questions about the Dalish. I was Keeper's First, before I left the clan. There's hardly any question I can't answer.

[indocile]

No.

( it's not said in hostility - almost kindly. )

I did, but they are answered now.

( pel is ok, and she'll take sabine's word that merrill is too, but at this point she's inclined to think the rest of them can either make themselves useful or fuck off back to the woods, and there's no question she has left about the dalish that isn't 'are they going to make themselves useful'.

oh, they have to believe they're special, that one had said, because no one else does.

it is very difficult for her not to curl her lip, remembering, but she folds her hands around her teacup and makes herself smile, instead. she isn't angry with pel. )

[mythalenaste]

[Pel should be offended. Instead, she's sort of elated, realizing Margaux likes her for her company, not for the novelty of her savagery. She smiles.]

Good. It's all very simple anyway. Simple lives, lots of pretentiousness. I went to the alienage in Val Royeaux, I don't think it's fundamentally different. Except for the pretentiousness.

[indocile]

Mmmm.

I think -

( how to put it. )

I don't think you understand, ( finally, ) what it is, the Dalish, to us in the city.

( it's what she's noticed most; even pel, the dalish all speak to her like she's a shem. like she has a shem's notions. it's not an observation she'd make to any of the others, but she thinks perhaps this elf is -

she saw margaux listen to her, so maybe she will listen to margaux, too. )

But it is good to understand it isn't true.

[mythalenaste]

[Pel peers; yes, to her, all city-dwellers are city-dwellers, although alienages are very different from the rest of a city. Civilization versus wilderness. Her brow furrows.]

What's not true?

[indocile]

You aren't different.

( it's so soft. )

Not "the last true elves", not special. Not coming to save us.

( not coming to save us.

how many have died waiting? )

My mama used to say, one day all of us, we will all be Dalish. They will come and take us away to better lives. We will be free, like the Dalish.

( her laugh is unsteady - she had been so bright-eyed and so bold only moments ago, telling of her exploits, and now she is just a little girl holding a teacup too large for her hands. )

Your hero tells you he is tired and he doesn't like your tone. It's all right -

It is all right. We will save ourselves. I believe that.

( but for just a few moments, watching tattooed faces walk through skyhold -

for just a few moments, she'd thought they might not be alone when they do it. )