Sun in eyes! I forgot how bright Dorian's room is. I warmed the room for him as I left. I took the long way down, and stopped in the kitchen after I got dressed and snagged a change of clothes to go. Cook was setting everything up, and I asked her if she could arrange for someone to take up Dorian's tray. I had to make some last minute arrangements. She handed me a bag, full to the brim with travel fare. I'm going to be gone 2 days, max! We're not going to eat this much, I was sure. But I thanked her. Worst case, I'd have leftovers.
I'd figured that four or five people without animals and wounded would travel far faster than all of us had getting here. We could easily get there in a day. Foolish me had planned to walk. Well, apparently that wasn't the case. Andrew and Gunther, Garalen and Elias, Dorian, and two soldiers came up to my desk as I was filling out last minute paperwork for Josie. "We're ready to go, Chrissy," said Garalen. I said I had to run this up to Josie, and Gara grabbed it and handed it to a messenger wandering by. "Take this to Lady Montilyet, please."
I shrugged, grabbed my packet of paperwork I wanted to take with me, and turned to go up the stairs. Dorian put his arm around me and steered me toward the kitchens. "There's nothing to worry about, Dove. We got you a pleasant, easygoing mare. Consider it Life in Thedas lessons. You must be able to ride." They had horses waiting outside the stables for us.
Garalen stuffed my things in the saddlebags. "We figured you had some idea that we'd be walking. No way, honey."
"I have absolutely no experience with riding horses, and I'm sure a long journey is not the time to learn. I could walk."
"You could. But you won't. It'll take us half a day, or less, on horseback, or all day walking. We're riding." She gave me a quick rundown of how to handle a horse. I'd heard most of it, but I've never put it into practice. It always sounded like way too many things at once. Grip with your knees, hold the reins firmly but not too firmly, sit but don't slouch, sway but don't rock, rein guided or mouth guided, don't pull to hard, make sure you pull hard enough. And getting in the saddle and getting the stirrups the right length and all that. It took me three tries to get on the surprisingly patient mare. At least she was nice. My companions were nice enough to hide their sniggers.
"I'm going to get even with you all. You just wait. I'm going to have blisters on my ass and you will all pay." Gunther got my stirrups set up for me.
Elias came up next to me. "You'll be fine. And it wasn't my idea. I'd like to point that out, in case I get in less trouble." Little shit was laughing at me. "At least it's not a halla or a hart, right?"
"One of those might work better. This thing's like straddling a redwood."
"A what?" Elias was confused, but Andrew guffawed.
"A tree with a large trunk. I feel like I'm doing the splits, and I should know, because I can do the splits."
Gunther chimed in with a smile. "Tell me more about your flexibility, my lady!" And waggled his brows. Must be a Templar thing. Andrew does it too. Ugh.
After a few false starts, we got the mare going in the correct direction instead of circles. It gave Josie a chance to come down and say goodbye. (I'd said goodbye to Daniel, Laura, the Tweedles, and most of Ethelathe in the dining room already. I forgot to mention it.) Josie covered her mouth as she watched me trying to get my mount to go straight. It's so nice to be the center of attention with everyone calling out advice. Not. Dorian had given up and was chortling so hard he was in danger of falling off his far more spirited mount.
"Keep laughing, Altus. I know where you sleep." I was teasing, and he knew it.
I managed to get control of Frisky. Yes, the rocking horse's name was Frisky. We headed out. Garalen was right, riding horseback eats up the miles. I was also right, and my backside was going numb. There was a lot of pleasant banter and friendly talk for the trip, too. The banter did not make up for the backside.
We stopped for lunch, and I got laughed at some more. Apparently I was waddling spraddle-legged, and didn't even realize it. Garalen took pity on me, and reached into her pack. She still had elfroot poultice. "Garalen, do you know how much of this stuff we have left? I dropped this thread. Do I need to make more?"
Dorian interrupted. "There will be no talk of work. This is a serious endeavor that doesn't permit the mundane minutia of work."
"Mundane minutia? Really? And why can't I talk work?"
"Because we don't want you trying to take notes while swaying dangerously in the saddle, and then complaining about your penmanship. That's why."
I rolled my eyes at him. "We're not riding right now."
"We'll talk later," Garalen kindly interjected.
I went behind a boulder and attended my rear. Then we ate, and I clambered inelegantly back onto Frisky. We could see the fire by midafternoon. We stopped a bit away and set up camp. I'd been right about two days. But only because we used horses. It would have taken travelling until dark without, I suppose. Maybe. This way it was a fun jaunt, not a hard slog.
Dorian kept getting distracted by the fire. "Is that thing whispering? Singing? Something?"
"Yep," Andrew agreed cheerfully. "That's why we're here. She," and he pointed his finger at me, "needs to add more names to the list."
"I didn't know it would sing their names, actually. I just gave it memories. I didn't find out it sung names until Zathras told me. Apparently some of the new elves have been coming here before going up to Skyhold. A part of the journey, it's been said. I'm assured it's not a pilgrimage."
"Then they're lying to you. Or themselves," one of the soldiers, Harold, attested. "They want to see that it says elven names and human names the same way. Proof. I've made this trip a couple times. You'll see what I mean when we get closer."
That made me curious, so I spraddled my way up there. The memory of fire doesn't burn actual things, except the memory of wood, I suppose. There were little trinkets tossed into the middle. At least two rings, a stuffed nug, a few wooden carvings, withered flowers. I reached in and plucked out the stuffed nug, giving it a cuddle. They KNEW that it was just the memory of fire, and they still gasped when I did it. It was warm, but not exactly hot.
No time like the present, I suppose. I put the nug back and went back to my saddlebags, pulling out my list. I knew I'd have to do it the way I did before. I wouldn't be able to just slide the names in. I'd have to add my memory of the name being told to me, along with the mental image I had as I looked at the picture. The other option was to find the faces in my memories and add the memory of hearing the name there. I wasn't sure which one would work better.
Dorian was staring at the fire. "Did this include blood magic of some kind?"
"Nope. I don't do blood. The only thing added to the wood was hair and tears. The wood didn't break skin as I gathered it. Not that I would have cared at the time."
"Did you plan the spell?"
"Uh, not exactly? I did what felt right. I know what I did and I can reproduce it."
Elias came up on the other side of Dorian. "Our Chrissy runs on instinct. She does these fabulous bits of magic and then acts like they're nothing because they're not huge fireballs or freezing things to shatter. She can't do anything offensive like that at all. But I'll protect her if she can keep doing these sorts of things. A shattered enemy wouldn't be here two weeks later. Reminds me of the magic in tales. Is there magic like this in the Imperium, Altus Pavus?"
"Most of it is old, I'll admit, but some things like this are created. I've not seen such instinctive skill, though. It could be refined, of course, but her instincts are better than many trained mages practiced efforts."
"I'm standing right here. I'd prefer not to be talked about as if I wasn't present."
"Did you hear something?" Of course Garalen had to chime in. "Perhaps it was the wind." I pushed her.
"Not funny."
"The wind is particularly strong today."
The boys were both twitching their lips, trying not to laugh at us. "Begone, the lot of you. I need to work."
"May I watch?"
"Of course, but don't interfere. Don't stick your SELF in this. I don't know what it would do. And please stay back."
"I would never!"
"I know."
I had to get into the right mindframe, so I opened my SELF and listened to the song of the fire. It was definitely a song. Almost everything is a song if you listen hard enough. As the song slid through me, I could feel the grief I'd felt before. I let it pull me into that mindstate again. Tears coursing my cheeks, because I'd just lost them again, I reached into the flame and pulled the string of memories to me. I looked at each dear face, and whispered each name that was missing. It wasn't what I'd expected to have to do at all, but it was what needed to be done.
The purple flames just sitting on the bare earth felt wrong. I FELT about for some sort of solution. There was silver, but that would be plundered. There was also obsidian. That would do. I needed to make a cradle for the fire. I'm not sure exactly what I did, actually. I wanted the obsidian below me to come up and form a bowl underneath the fire. I wanted it REALLY BAD, so bad that I PUSHED a significant portion of the dust I could find at that goal. And then I TWISTED, and black oozed and steamed up through the permafrost. It formed itself into a shallow pool under the flames. I scoured it with glowy dust as it solidified. Polished stone beneath the purple flames. I knew, just knew, that if what I had wanted had been much larger, I'd not have been able to do it. For the first time, I think I felt a hard limit. Maybe because it was dealing with the earth.
I heard a "Whoah, I got you, Chrissy." I was extremely dizzy, and I'm not sure who said it. "We'll get her tucked into bed. She'll do her breathing tomorrow and she'll be fine." That one was Garalen. Something soft wiped my face. "This isn't normal." Probably Dorian. Any other conversation went over my head. I was so tired. The world spun and spun. "We know you're tired, Ethelathun. Sleep now."
I didn't wake until well after dark. Elias and Dorian are in a tent with me. They're cuddled up together. I'd never realized that Elias might be interested in Dorian. He does his fair share of leering at the ladies. Maybe he's just the kind that won't limit his choices because of dangly bits or lack thereof? I'm going to finish this up, and get some food. I'm starved. I'm still tired, too. I ache, both in body and in spirit. I think I pulled that magic muscle Dorian cringes about. Therefore after I eat, I'm going to snuggle down in my fur and sleep.