1.
Footsteps on the stairs cause us to pause our somewhat controversial conversation in confusion. Rarely do any of the multitude of Dryden relatives bother coming all the way up here from the courtyard.
Levi, the patriarch himself, appears in the doorway. His hand is poised to knock before he realises we are already paused and waiting his intrusion. In his other hand I spy some parchment.
"It's a letter for you, Esme." Levi states as he carefully navigates the room. The mass of work benches and large sets ups of glass and liquids makes the room hazardous to any unfamiliar with the layout.
My eyebrows betray my surprise by rising up my forehead. "A reply from the Grey Wardens already then? I was not expecting one for a week or two yet." I comment with interest.
Levi shrugs but hands me the letter. The Familiar seal of the Wardens is pressed into normal coloured wax. Avernus has shuffled closer – no doubt to read over my shoulder, nosy old sod – while Levi shifts uneasily in front of me.
I scan the spiky cursive script quickly. "The Commander is coming." I announce to the room. Levi grins a little excitedly. "He is interested by our research and is hoping to begin giving the new Joining juice to new recruits straight away." I tell Avernus, "and yes Levi, he is still interested in renovating the place to use as a future Warden base."
Avernus harrumphs smugly and returns to his work content that his brilliance will soon be recognised – never mind that I had contributed as much effort and time into the new formula too. Levi expresses his delight in stuttered sentences; since finding out that it was his ancestor's actions that directly led to the banning of Wardens in Ferelden he has wanted to gift Soldiers Peak back to the Ferelden Wardens.
"They sent this message ahead of themselves. They should be here within a fortnight." I further inform Levi.
"I'll send a couple of my cousin's out to greet them. We should get the top floor dormitory cleaned up for them." He ponders. "Lana was going to start at the bottom, but the top floor dormitory is in better condition"
I nod. "I will come down and help. I need a break from the bull-head." I groan.
Levi nearly smiles until Avernus growls at us in displeasure. With relief we leave his sanctuary. The twice centennial ought to leave more often too; I am convinced that his brain is rotting staying up in that one room.
"Do not forget to bring more food in, Levi." I state to distract myself from the view of 'The Bridge' which connects Avernus' tower to the rest of the Keep.
He actually chuckles. "I know. They eat like starving wolves." He sighs. "I'm glad this place is going back to the Wardens. I just hope things go better for Duncan than they did Sofia." Levi admits quietly.
We pass into the Keep. This floor doesn't seem to have had much of a use that we can tell. For the moment we have just gone through the whole Keep and taken all the damaged items out.
"Duncan doesn't have a claim to the throne." I reply dryly.
Levi doesn't particularly appreciate my observation if his droll expression is anything to go by. One day I will find someone who can giggle with me.
In companionable silence we descend another two floors into the smallest dormitory. Above us is the Commanders area; a bedroom and study, which while in good condition is full of dust because the amount of fragile paperwork makes cleaning slow progress. Below this floor is a smaller dormitory with a private sitting area and latrine. We estimate that about six queen sized bed can be fitted – though we found the remains of high quality double bunks – so we believe that this dormitory was meant for the most senior Wardens under the Commander.
"This place is not cursed, Levi, no matter how haunted it still feels." I try to reassure my new friend. "Besides did you not say that the current King was his friend's son? Do you really think the Commander would do something like that?"
Already done inspecting the room Levi sighs. "No".
I smile. "Then stop fretting," I scold with humour, "I have never encountered such a worrier outside of concerned mothers!"
Levi blushes violently but smiles still. "Sorry Esme."
"You'll give me a complex, and then where will we be? It will be chaos, Levi, and all your fault." I further jest.
"Alright I surrender!" He exclaims with a short laugh. "No more worrying… for today at least." He amends with forced gravity.
I bask in our shared humour as we descend further down the Keep to begin spreading the news of our impending guests.
#*#*
"Dirk's boy just came back! They've met up!" Levi excitedly blurts.
Thankfully for the occupants of the room I had heard his pattering footsteps and paused my runic work, otherwise this particular rune set would have literally blown up in our faces.
"Oh! Maker sorry Esme!" Levi gasps.
I wave him off with a small smile. "I heard you coming. And do not worry I will finish up here and then head up to Avernus; he is using lightening again so I would not go up there today if I were you."
He blanches. "Right. I'll go now."
I watch with faint amusement as Levi dashes away with the speed and sprightliness of a man twenty years younger. Levi is such a contradiction sometimes. Usually serious and unwilling to laugh, timid but quite fierce if you touch upon the right subjects, and while he looks fairly haggard he still has so much energy.
Turning back to my informal class of five youngsters from the Dryden clan I shrug but smile. I get five exasperated eye-rolls back.
"I know I have said this a few times already, but it bears repeating; the smallest mistake can monumentally ruin your work." I bend to continue the array. "I have had decades of experience and am quite skilled with ruins, but my teachers would make me start again until I was beyond our Adept level in runic script and engraving." I firmly state.
"Yes Healer." The five chorus.
I hold back a laugh, just. I am far too used to being screamed at or have everything I do questioned. This respect is amusing. I enjoy it, do not get me wrong, but it is sadly foreign and refreshing.
"As I was saying, in rune sets the runes need to be linked together so that the runes react together instead of all at once but separately. Not linking the runes together tends to cause bad explosions."
That certain caught their attention.
"The most basic link is merely a line connected around the runes, like so." I demonstrate on the left hand set. They lean in as it begins to glow red. "However once we demonstrated our understanding and skill at engraving we were taught much a more complex way of linking. Instead of a plain line we would link using yet more runes." On the right hand set I begin to carefully carve tiny runes around the two larger ones. "It is tiring as you might imagine. There is much concentration involved."
Finishing the fairly simply conditional runes I sit back and watch the children's faces as this rune set lights up blue. Then the colour fades in and out of strength. Then the speed picks up until it looks like a flashing light. Finally the shade changes into a lighter sky blue from the original royal blue.
Pride and contentment washes over me as they whisper and gape in fascination. I might just have a few converts. What a shame none of them have magic and are therefore unable to learn the Gypsy way of rune-smithing.
"The Gypsy do not use Lyrium in our runes as it is not a resource easily available to us, nor in the quantities needed. We did find a way around this by using our own magic to charge the runes." I explain. "In conjunction with another rune we can have the set become self-charging by having it draw on ambient magic, though it does need to be charged once to activate."
Their attention has waned a little now that they have realised they will not be able to copy what I am showing them. I do not mind too much in truth.
"Obviously the more complex the rune the more magic needs to be used so the longer the set will take to charge." The oldest child snorts, unappreciative of my 'humorous' observation. "Using blood in runic work will cut out a lot of the charge time and will generally make the runes more powerful, but it falls under the Blood Magic Acts and so is forbidden." I conclude swiftly.
While the Gypsy have no problems in general with blood magic we do not have so many people that the use of unwilling participants is allowed. Our leaders punish us if we break this law. Even using non-gypsy is frowned upon.
"Mages are sensitive to any magic, be it a fellow mage, a glyph or even 'wild' magic and so they can also sense the runes and even feel them recharging on ambient magic." I continue to lecture. "I am not sure if Templars can. I must remember to ask around. It could be an interesting little project."
I pretend to not see the five eye-rolls. Maybe next week I shall move onto something they could actually participate in.
"So that is it for today-" The youngest two waste no time in running for the door. "- ungrateful whelps." I mutter to myself without any real feeling.
The other three leave amidst laughter.
"Such is the life of a teacher." I sigh to myself.