Beleth Lavellan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
arlathvhen) wrote2015-11-16 08:10 pm
arlathvhen) wrote2015-11-16 08:10 pm
Entry tags:
Letters from home
A series of letters written to Sorrelean Ashara, from his sister (and possibly others),
as she works within the Inquisition.
(Specific for the game Fade Rift)
Beleth > Sorrel
How are you doing, Sorrel? I hope that things are going well for you, now that you're the only apprentice left. I hope the Keeper isn't going too hard on you. If she is, you could threaten to come here with us. I don't think I'd mind--although the Keeper might have a heart attack. Maybe you can be traded for Ellana? I think it'd take a druffalo to drag her away from making doe eyes at all the human men, but I could arrange it.
I miss having you around. Whenever someone says something to me, I keep expecting to hear you sass them with some dumb sarcastic comment, and I find that none come! What am I going to do without your sarcastic commentary? I might have to start up some myself.
And there's plenty to be had. Skyhold is...well, it's incredible, for one. They say it was built on the site of an old elven ruin, and I can believe it. None of it looks elven, because of course the shemlen tore it all down and rebuilt. But it feels elven, if that makes sense. Not the buildings, but the earth itself. That doesn't make sense, does it? You'd understand if you were here, you were always good with all that smart stuff.
The Inquisition itself? Well, it's alright. I've never seen so many different people in one place. Even when I went to the villages to trade, it was get in, get hostile stares while I bartered, and get out, with eyes on my back. Here, living among all these humans--and not just humans! There are qunari here, Sorrel! And dwarves as well. I've signed up with the scouting division of the Inquisition, as has Cyril and Merrick, and we all report to the Lead Scout, who's a dwarf.
So far, we haven't been doing a lot of scouting, though. We've been mostly cleaning. This Skyhold is a mess, completely abandoned for centuries. I've made myself useful getting into places a lot of people can't, doing climbing and stuff like that. I feel like a squirrel, climbing up buildings to perch on the roof. I keep forgetting to shout when I'm jumping down, I've startled several people, almost got gored on a qunari, and had an elf pull a dagger on me. Luckily, I was so out of sorts that I tried to tell him I was cleaning the tree, and the man took my idiotic lie as a sign that I was harmless enough.
A good thing too, because it turns out that he wasn't just any old jumpy elf. He's Zevran Araini--The one who helped the Hero of Ferleden. And he hasn't lost any of his abilities, either. I found that out when Merrick decided it was a grand idea to try to start shit with him, and Zevran ground his face in the mud. Unfortunately, that just escalated things, and I had to intervene before he got himself killed trying to kill Zevran. I thank each and every Creator that Cyril managed to help. What a mess. Trust Merrick to challenge someone who fought the archdemon.
We're not the most dysfunctional people here, at least. This whole place is a powder keg, Sorrel. The Templars and the mages have staked out their sides of the hold, like angry children, and glare whenever one side crosses the other. But with no leader, there's no Keeper around to bend their ears and make them behave. The whole thing is going to explode some day, and I'm on my toes for the day that happens, and I have to pack up and throw all the clan over my shoulder and book it.
But not everything is bad. I've made a few friends here. There's a qunari named Korrin, and I think you'd really like her. She's very friendly, and funny. She's a mercenary mage, and I helped her fight a bear. You hear all these bad things about qunari, but she's nothing like what the humans say. And there's this human named Krem. He's pretty interesting, too. And really strong...? He has this maul the size of my torso that he swings around like it's nothing. Watching him train, by himself or with others, is absolutely fascinating.
Don't look at the letter like that. I know you, Sorrel. Stop it!
Here, to help get your mind off the subject: I dropped a bird's nest on another guy. It was an accident, I swear, but the guy shrugged it off pretty well. I guess not all humans are as quick to start getting their hackles up about humans as I thought.
Gavin's here, for the record. He managed to survive Haven--not surprising, really. If anyone can survive something like that, it's him.
I miss you so much, Sorrel. You, and the entire clan. I hope that we finish this soon, and we can go home. I hope that everyone comes home with me when it's time.
I worry about that.
My thoughts are always with you, Sorrel.
Your sister,
Beleth
Sorrel > Beleth
Things have been pretty quiet here. The out-of-season Halla finally dropped her fawns-- that's right, two, turns out it was twins after all. Even if it's the wrong time of year for it, that means good luck, right? We've been moving again, so you'll probably have to send your next letter through Wycome if you want it to arrive. Let the others know, alright? And for Creator's sake, get them to at least dictate a message to you, everyone's hungry to know how you're all doing. I read your letter for the clan, at the evening meal, and it almost left Revas dead, choking on his food for laughter. You wanderers are sunlight through the clouds, and we're all proud of you, even if sometimes we show it poorly.
(Mother wants to know more about Krem. You know how she gets. She's standing over me to make sure I write thi [There is an inkspatter here, as if he had been writing and someone had jostled him, spoiling the place where the end of his sentence might have gone.]
I'm not surprised to hear about Gavin. He's got Fen'Harel's own luck, I'd swear, both the good and bad. But I'm glad he's alright, the damned rogue. Losing even one you would be like losing a part of myself, I don't think I'd know what to do if we ever really lost him. Stay safe, Gavin, and all of you. You especially, Beleth, for my sake?
Skyhold sounds amazing! I can hardly imagine what it must be like, even with your description. Do they trade fairly with you, there? Are they treating everyone right? Please look out for Pel and Ellana, if you can. It doesn't feel right, Dalish mages in the middle of all those ex-Circle renegades and the crazy Templars. If that place ever does explode, don't let anyone forget who our real family is.
[There are a few pages between that page of the letter and the next, sketches of a pair of young, gangly-legged Halla on the first page, and a rough still-life of a lumpy pair of tubers and a thick bundle of fresh elfroot. The second page of sketches is entirely taken up by a portrait of a smirking elf with a notch in one ear, bearing Falon'din's vallaslin. This last has a note Lassehl told me to send this picture of her, or she'd set my bedroll on fire. She seems to think the inquisition lacks artists? I was too afraid of her not to obey. Please don't show anyone.
The letter continues on the next page:]
Right now, we're so far from the nearest village that you can climb a tree and see the wild forest go on forever like there's no one else alive except for us. I know it isn't true, and that by the end of the week we'll have come to the next village so that I can send this letter to you. I wish I could send it sooner. I'm not even done writing it, and already I'm eager to read your reply. I miss you.
But I'm glad you seem to be making friends, at least. The only thing worse would be thinking you were surrounded by enemies and getting lonely over there. Tell your mercenary friends they can't have you, though. But also, say 'hello' to them, for me?
Maybe one day, we can meetI'm sorry that we can't meet properly, so I guess asking for stories about all the Inquisition adventures is going to have to be enough, at least until you get back and can tell them in person.Give everyone my love. And especially Merrick and Cyril, since you'll be working with them, and I'm counting on them to keep you from doing something stupid and flashy and getting yourself killed. I miss you. I miss you all. The camp is so quiet without you. Everything feels smaller.
Be safe, be well.
All my love,
Sorrelean (somehow the First) of Clan Ashara
PS: Next letter, talk about the food. Everything is travel-bread and venison stew at least until spring, unless we find fishing. I could use something to daydream about, at least.
Re: Sorrel > Beleth
Make sure to read this part away from mother, alright? Promise?
I'm pretty sure she'd have a fit if she ever did meet him. He's from Tevinter--one of the lowerclass peopele, though, not some magister with slaves and more jewelry hanging off one ear than the entire clan has put together. There's one of those here, though, because apparently the Inquisition has a bingo card it needs to fill out. Luckily, he keeps mostly to the library, which is odd, because he's surrounded by chantry books that call him a godless heathen.
But back to Krem, he's a good sort. Mercenary for a group that hired in, and everyone from the clan likes him--Except Merrick, but Merrick just kind of tolerates him, which is as close as he's going to get, probably. We got pretty tense about some stuff and Krem got us all together and passed around a pipe filled with--elfroot, and something else, I think. Merrick only let me have one pull of it. But it was pretty relaxing.
Things getting tense were my fault. I kind of--Well, here's the message.
[ The next page would be the message that she put up on the bulletin board, complete with a few doodles and messages that she hadn't bothered to tear away or cross off. ]
Fine mess, that was, but I don't regret it. The stupid questions completely stopped overnight. Most of the others got mad at me for telling the shems how it is, though, but they can fuck off, honestly, I'm not here to bat my eyelashes at the humans and fuck any that will hold still long enough. Ellana isn't speaking to me, but I'm not mourning the loss. Cy and Gavin at least bothered to apologize to me.
Pel thought the whole thing was quite funny, and Merrick got worried that I was going to get in trouble, but then he let me cool down with him when I got worked up about the whole thing. I was fit to be tied, Sorrel. If one more human tells me to stop being offended by offensive questions, I'm going to start screaming so loud you'll hear it over by Wycome. Wish you'd been there to snark at them.
Glad to hear about the halla, though! Twins, that bodes well. Unless they're twins like us, then that just bodes annoying the entire clan. Keep an eye on them! You never know.
That sounds beautiful, though. I wish I could do the same, climb a tree and see nothing but wilderness. It makes my heart ache for the forests of home. Here, not only are there humans everywhere, but there's destruction everywhere. We just came from the Hinterlands, and I did plenty of tree climbing, but everywhere you look, you saw signs of war. Burned houses and dead just lying there in the open. How can the humans call us savages when they treat each other like this?
I wish I were with you, far away from this ugliness, back in the trees and among nature. I envy that feeling of peace.
I'll pass on all your good wishes and hellos, though. Maybe some day you can come here? I want to introduce you to Korrin, I think the two of you would get along. I'd say you can also meet Zevran, but to be honest, I'd be afraid that you couldn't resist his charms like I can, and then you'd be unfit for marriage.
Not all is bad here, if you want me to talk about the food, for the food is certainly great. There's all manner of meats here, smoked and stewed and anything else they can get their hands on. Lots of desserts, too, and they let you have more than one! I used some of the money I've been getting paid with to buy little fancy cakes and I think I'm addicted. I've gained weight since I've been here, starting to look a little less like an underfed ragamuffin.
My favorite part is the bread, they're always cooking bread, almost around the clock to feed all these people, so it's always warm and soft. I kind of set up a little area for myself above the kitchens, so I can tell when they're cooking bread, and I've gotten pretty good at timing things so that I can nick a loaf when they're not looking. If swiping a loaf isn't possible, I just grab a basket and promise to go pass out food to the troops and they give me like eighty loafs.
Which I can't eat all of, so I actually do pass them out.
Aside from overdosing on bread, I promise I'll stay safe and absolutely limit my flashiness. You stay safe, too, Sorrel. I didn't come here to try to save the world, just to lose my world.
Hugs and kisses,
Scout (doesn't that sound official?) Beleth Ashara
Super backdated to october bc i suck hardcore
It's odd, there have been some happenings that are beyond comprehension in Skyhold, that you won't believe when I tell you. And yet, it doesn't seem quite as important to me as some of the other happenings. I suppose that it's because I am, ultimately, a selfish woman, who is more concerned with the things that happen within my own small world than the changes effecting the world at large.
Let me begin with one of my first real jobs given to me by the Inquisition. I was assigned, with a group, to search for the Herald's body in the wreckage of Haven. As you can imagine, it was both an incredibly important, and very unpleasant task. I discovered no bodies, only snow, snow, and more snow. However, there was one very alarming discovery--A Fade rift opened, right where we were. As I'm sure you can imagine, we were all quite alarmed, by the demons, and whatnot. Well, the whatnot turned out to be...people! People fell out of the rift, Sorrel.
Of course, I'm sure you're thinking 'people-shaped DEMONS' because that's what I thought. But demons do not come out of the Fade looking human, and the bodies they had were not possessed--We were right there, we knew there were no bodies there. It was all very strange, but we took them all up to Skyhold with us. I suppose it's better to bring back something than nothing at all. I have no idea what is to be done with them, but it's not for a scout to decide.
I'm not really sure what to think about them at all, honestly. They all...seemed nice enough? If they aren't demons, I'm not sure what they could be.
Other than that, the Herald's body was recovered by a different crew (I don't know how, I'm positive we searched every inch of that blasted area), and the funeral was held. It was a monumentally boring affair, with all their weird human Chantry customs, including a woman speaking at length about the Maker, and then they set the Herald on fire. As humans are wont to do.
Don't tell the Keeper, but I sang the Herald into Uthenera. I know she's not of the People, but I thought to myself, that she had saved the world several times, and gave her life to protect her people. If we can't honor someone like that, who can we honor? So I paid her honor for the Dalish. A few Dalish that noticed were a little skeptical, but it's not like I had done it so that a great deal of people noticed.
There were celebrations afterward. I wasn't...terribly fond of them. There were a lot of tensions and ill tempers, and alcohol. As soon as the humans started yelling, I got out of there, but not before stopping Gavin from getting his idiot face punched in. I...kind of regret not staying longer, because there was more humans being stupid, and a few of the clan got yelled at. And also, ah...Well, I'd gone to the stable, and it turned out that Krem had a friend there.
I don't want to talk about Krem any more, if that's alright, Sorrel.
The funeral was, needless to say, absolutely terrible. I went to stay with Gavin after that. He made me feel a little bit better.
I hope things improve soon.
All my love,
Beleth
November-December
Well, we are starting to set the world to rights, and I suppose it only makes sense that we start in the worst, most Creators-forsaken part of the world the Inquisition could find. I want to feel excited about the whole affair, helping close rifts, saving innocents, doing the important Inquisition things that I'd come so far to do. But mostly, I just feel cold, and wet.
We're in the Fallow Mire, and it is the most abysmal place on earth. The sun rarely shines, it's always cold, and worse, it seems to be constantly drizzling. It is indeed a mire, and everything is damp, constantly. I've forgotten what it feels like to be dry, or warm, for that matter. I should mention here that there was a plague in these lands recently. Well, you know how our clan is about plagues--It brought back some bad memories. Worse, I think, if that's possible, is that all the Fade rifts in the area have allowed demons to pass from the fade into here, and naturally, they started possessing anything they could find. The mountains of dead were a tantalizing target, so now there are shambling dead everywhere. Particularly in the water.
We finally got around to burning corpses so the demons couldn't possess them, and guess who had to take care of the ashes? Guess who, Sorrel? If you guessed it was your favorite sister in the whole world, then you are correct. Please give yourself a cookie. I'll wait. After you've eaten the cookie, guess who was helping me? It was Krem's...friend. I am beginning to believe in the Maker, Sorrel, if just because I can't believe my lot in life is so utterly wretched without a higher power that hates elves. Or at least me.
It would be easier if the people living here decided to move, but they are humans, and therefore, unpleasantly stubborn and inordinately idiotic. If everything weren't so damnably wet, I would vote to light this entire place on fire and let it burn to the ground. It would be an improvement, I think, and make it a little warmer, to boot.
Not everything is completely wretched and terrible, though. I was tasked with tracking down a man who had important information, and you won't believe who I got assigned to work with. Alistair Theirin! The Alistair, the Alistair who helped the Hero of Ferelden. Meeting all these important people is both amazing and mortifying, because I managed to be an idiot in front of him, and fell in the mud at least once. In my defense, the entire Mire is nothing but mud.
He didn't act famous, though. He's funny, and sarcastic. He reminds me of you, if you were a big human warrior and not a dinky little elf mage. ;)
Speaking of famous people who don't act like it, another amazing thing happened to me. I was talking to Zevran, and--I guess he was impressed by the way that I almost but not quite managed to keep Merrick from being an idiot, and he wants to train me. Train me. Me. Not as an assassin, but as a spy, I think. Working with my ability to sweet talk people, I guess? I'm not sure I'll be much good at it, but maybe I'll be able to fake it well enough that he won't realize what a total idiot I am and drop me like a hot potato.
I'm excited, Sorrel. Maybe coming here wasn't so bad after all.
Your Favorite Twin,
Beleth