Yay! I built a fire out in my little rock corner past the logging stand. Jailyn got me a dented pot. Not perfect, but hey, it also won't be missed. Flyssa turned out to be rather nice. She didn't care who you were as long as you had coin and kindness, so I got the spirits. Water is plentiful, and I have elfroot. Gonna make some potion. If I can.
I'm actually writing this one mid-day. I'm waiting for water to boil for one. I have the elfroot peeled and ready on a nice flat rock. (Eadras gave me a knife. Looks scary, but it works. I think Eadras wasn't always a pleasant old man. Speaks Spanglish/engtalian, as it were. Bet he's Antivan just like Cara. Maybe they're related?) I'm also waiting for the chill feeling to go away. Some Templars are hunting ram. They'll be done soon, and then I can get to work. I don't know how this will go, and I REALLY don't want those icy fellows to be anywhere near me when I try this.
I made another couple screw-ups last night at the tavern, by the by. Varric Tethras of the Glorious Chesthair caught me looking at him. He narrowed his eyes at me. I'm not sure, but for some reason he doesn't like me, I guess. No admiring the chest hair. Got it. Did you know he carries Bianca out and about when he's drinking, too? Flyssa makes him peace bond her. Yep, peace bonding is apparently a thing. Never knew it, but It makes sense.
Screw-up two: Flyssa couldn't recognize my accent, and I didn't recover well. She asked where I was from. I said I wasn't sure. She told me she couldn't place my accent, but she'd think about it for me. She glanced at Varric, too. Apparently guessing someone's hometown by their accent is a little bar trick he does for extra coin. Or drinks. And he's better the drunker he is.
Oh, the icy feeling is gone. I'm going to try this.
Continued:
That was EXTREMELY tiring. Feren came and found me in the snow. I was unconscious or asleep and the kettle was cool. The darling gathered everything up, including me, and delivered the lot back to Ethelathe. (Something tells me there should be an apostrophe or four in that name.) He even brought back the roots and cleared the firepit. When he was finished, they woke me up.
Did you know that flicking an elf's ear is REALLY painful if you do it right? It'll perk you RIGHT up. Better than coffee. Not.
Anyway, I looked at the roots, and they were dull. I've never been so excited to see dull roots. The kids didn't see a difference, but I did. And the "elfroot tea" was Shiny Glowy! Hey, maybe Sera could see that the InquisiButt glowed because she's more elfy-magey than she likes? The kids said it just looked like greenish tea.
Uh, I call them kids, but not Eadras. Everyone's calling him Hahren. They're calling me Chrissy. There's supposed to be an apostrophe somewhere in hahren, too, I think. I hate not knowing how to spell something. Yeah. I'm a grammar nazi. What of it? (Yet another colloquialism foreign to Thedas. No Hitler here. We've got Blights, Coryphyface, and Egghead.)
Well, we needed to test out the potion, right? So I get to be Leorah tomorrow. She needs a day off anyway. She promised she'd gather elfroot and anything else she found. My people promised to leave the "tea" alone. We'll see how it works tomorrow. I'm not testing this stuff on someone else. The salve made from the leaves works, though. Smear a bit on your skin and the cooling sinks in. Sort of like Ben-Gay, but less stinky. Elfroot smells good.
Lastly, we have a few more members of our little family, apparently. They don't want to move in, but there's apparently a great job switch going on tomorrow. Feren told me that Jailyn is going to be working as a maid in the Chantry, and someone named Mika is going to sew for her. Some other people whose names I didn't catch are swapping spots. A change is as good as a rest, and we're invisible and interchangeable. That's 11 total. I don't know who four of them are.
That's actually a bad thing, from a certain perspective. If I'm ever on good terms with the Nightingale, I'm going to have to clue her in. I wonder if that's how old Egg-head got his people in. What's one elf over another? It's worked for our little group so far. More than I thought, because I found out that Leorah and Jailyn have been sharing their jobs, swapping days. The elves they work with are catching on, but think it's funny, so aren't saying anything. Jailyn says that there's a few girls in the kitchen swapping in the sewing room now, too. I need to get names. They sound like my kind of people, but I can't check on them when they're not here if I haven't met them. That's weird. I wanted to write "claim" there. They're not mine in that way. We're all together.
And yes, I'm keeping track of names deliberately. I'll not harbor someone who wants to stop the inquisition, and if the Nightingale needs this info, I'm going to have it. They may be mine, but I won't deal with certain types of people. They'll be not-mine really damn fast.
I've been here almost two weeks. Doesn't look like more displaced are arriving, and I have been checking on occasion, so I think it's likely that it all happened at that one moment. It also doesn't look good for going home. Maybe I'll be able to leave when they seal the breach with the Templars or Mages.
Shit. Speaking of which, I need to ask everyone to keep a lookout for an influx of one or the other. I'll do it tomorrow.
I miss you, darling. Mommy loves you. Please don't forget me. I'll come home if I can.
