Galadriel (
laurenande) wrote in
faderift2019-04-29 10:07 pm
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Entry tags:
[Open] Come and Walk With Me
WHO: Galadriel and Solas, Merrill, and Fingon respectively.
WHAT: Two different trips outside Kirkwall to discuss a variety of totally unimportant things.
WHEN: Currentish.
WHERE: Various.
NOTES: None
WHAT: Two different trips outside Kirkwall to discuss a variety of totally unimportant things.
WHEN: Currentish.
WHERE: Various.
NOTES: None
For Merrill:
She had put off this conversation for some time, had dreaded it and evaded as was her gift. Merrill had trusted her and waited in silence and, for all her bright patience, Galadriel had offered her so little. It was a regret, sharp and bitter in the back of her throat and she disliked it.
When Merrill asked for her accompaniment, to travel alongside her outside the city, to the mountains, and Galadriel had agreed without question. Perhaps, she wondered, freedom from the oppressive nature of Kirkwall, of the walls and bars of men, would help her speak more readily. Perhaps, if Merrill's errand was not so terrible, they could speak and be at peace.
For Solas:
Her sleep comes easier now, freed from the longing and the worry that had long consumed her. She sleeps steadily and without fear, falling into it as though she were born to it, as though it had not been thrust upon her.
Her dreams, once haunted by the unfurling tapestry of her long years, mired and marred by memories of time immemorial, have calmed at last. There is a reprieve as the sounds of birds and the gentle flow of a glittering stream beckon her deep into the dreaming. Before long she finds herself standing in her garden, before her mirror, and the rustling of the mellyrn above her is a whispering welcome.
For Fingon/Open:
It has been some time since last Galadriel trained, at least by the reckoning of men. That she had done more than lift a staff twice in a year was a fairly short span by her reckoning, but still not terribly impressive. She travels to the training yard before dawn, early enough that the chill of night is on the air and it is cold, despite the spring having long broken over Kirkwall.
The yard is empty, as it should be at this hour, and she takes to stretching, staff in hand, as she warms up. She is slow, still, the weapon is too heavy, and the motions are old memories, but she knows them well enough. This was a sport, once, and she had desperately loved the game of it, the contest. It is more useful as a skill, here, and relearning is worth the effort.
Alt Fingon/Open:
She has always been fond of horses. They are graceful, if panicky things, and it would behoove her to remember riding again. She does it so infrequently here that she is not entirely certain the temperament of Thedas's horses. The rarer mounts elude her even more.
She visits the stables mid-morning, clad in plain brown pants and a plain shirt, tailored finely and of fine weave but without adornment. She has forgone her cloak, of late, but wears it today. The grey fabric falls back over her shoulders, tucked out of the way but ready to block cool breezes should she actually befriend a beast and take it out to ride.
no subject
Sometimes he greets her as she sleeps, and those nights rank highly in his mind, warming his heart and soothing the aches of centuries-old pain.
Walking out into the image in front of him, Solas steps along and waits, pausing, looking at her, before he moves closer. There's never a need to fear sneaking up on her - Galadriel always seems to know when he is close - and he comes to stand at her side, reaching to take her hand and leave a kiss on the knuckle; a familiar greeting now.
"Ma vhenan."
no subject
"My love," she greets and is uncertain what language she speaks here, but he should know them all with equal familiarity by now.
"Have you come to walk with me, to wander the Fade, or to enjoy the peace of my garden?"
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She speaks and they echo, soft against the curve of his spine and the warmth of his skin.
Words are meaningless, he thinks, when he feels her so deeply in his heart.
"Why can it not be both? We have a great deal of time here." His smile is soft, gentle, accepting the touch of her hand. "I will do what pleases you best."
no subject
"Come and look," she urges him and steps back toward the basin. It is not real, in the back of her mind she knows that. Solas has never seen her preform this spell while waking, he has never encountered the beaten basin she commissioned in these lands or viewed with far-sight the things it would show. In dreams, it is as effective as it ever was in Arda but, in dreams, it shows only what they know already.
"In its surface you can see many things, whatever it is you wish to, or whatever it wishes to show you."
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She is that strength, as false as she might prove to be in the end, a creation of his own madness.
It's easy to step to the basin all the same, to lean over and look, to imagine that he might see. In the Fade this is no more than a memory, an echo, but still they might share something. They might see something together that the world beyond the Veil couldn't ever hope to touch.
"And what do you think it might wish to show me today, my love?"
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The mountains it shows are in Thedas, the frostbacks, and while the scene has covered over in snow, and snow gently falls from the grey sky, the location is no mystery. It is Haven. The treeline is torn and ragged, the terrain is uneven with rocks and debris, the mountainside has a few great holes punched into it and a wide hollow trench carved along the length of it.
Galadriel stands on a hill looking out at it, speaking with a Qunari woman in Inquisition gear. What they say is lost, largely, to the sound of winter wind whipping through the bare mountain pass. It is a lonely place and some of that cold creeps its way into the world around them for that place and this place are not so different--memories and dreams are more alike than not, after all.
"When first I arrived, I thought I had taken a blow to the head. This world was so strange and that place so desolate."
no subject
He watches the memory unfold and recognises it almost immediately. He was at Haven himself after all, a witness to all that happened there. Perhaps he did not take note of Galadriel then, but... He notes her now, affection sure and set in his eyes.
“The mountains were cruel indeed,” Solas admits, looking down at the memory. “It is good that we were able to move as necessary. It would have been too dangerous otherwise - not with how Corypheus had been acting for so long.”
A sigh as he shakes his head.
“I hope you are happier now.”
no subject
It is true, though they arrived after the landslide, they were attacked by demons and set upon in the snow, it was not a terrible time that preceded the march to Skyhold. It was not grueling or terrible...merely strange and Thedas was a new land, remains a new land still. She looks at him but, as she does, the mirror before them shifts.
She had been told, upon scanning the mountains and the damage there, that a demon had led a charge, an army, and the destruction was that creature's fault. She had pictured an ancient evil then, one that does not walk in Thedas, but while she was wrong the memory has no trouble conjuring that image for them. Another snowy mountainside, another sieged city, and a great beast of flame, of fury, and of shadow moves through the smoke and snow.
She smiles at Solas and that image fades, choked by smoke until the mirror is turned dark. The sun through the trees is setting and the dappled golden light is red and orange and shifting.
"Thedas was new. I have learned to enjoy what it has given me. So, yes, I have found happiness in you, my love, and in the people I have come to know."
no subject
He has been awake for as much time as she has been in Thedas - perhaps a handful of years longer, if that - but he understands the nature of this world. It is a physical manifestation of his own hubris, a glaring slap in the face to all that he had hoped to accomplish. Finding his own happiness had been difficult for him; is it so strange for him to imagine that it might be equally as trying for someone else?
Ignoring the image is easy enough. It does not do to dwell on things that shall not come to pass here; that is a being from her world, foreign and distant to him. Here the demons are of the Fade, of Corypheus' ilk, and he knows that is something he cannot lose sight of. He cannot glance away from what is taking place here.
Slow, careful eyes turn back to the woman at his side.
"I am glad for that," he admits, voice soft. "I would not have you unhappy for a single moment."