Exchanging Pleasantries

[Anceladar Firareth]

It was really surprising to the elf how much attention they brought in their scuffle to clean up the trash, refugees had crowded around and Anceladar was pretty sure their identity as Grey Wardens was widely known by now and was also surprised at how little attention the authority in Lothering paid them, which was nothing at all. It seemed the most this town had to offer in terms of peacekeeping were the occasional templar in the Chantry- who hadn't deigned to move or intervene during the scuffle or after it- and the ex-thug trash they'd just creamed. Nobody barred his path as he left the scene with a wounded and whimpering human being dragged by the back of his armor behind him, in fact the mass of people seemed to unconsciously part for him, either not wanting to piss him off and risk his wrath, or honestly not paying him any mind at all, which suited Ance just fine.

His unwilling companion was leaving a small blood trail across the ground from a slashed tendon in the thigh and a cripple sword arm, he'd never be able to lift a sword again, and that was the least of his concerns...or at least his immediate concerns. Ance took him behind a house a good distance from the Chantry, by the river, out of sight of any potential wanderers and the space would afford some good sound protection from the man's screams. The elf threw his captive across the small space into a rank pile of wet filth before unsheathing his knife and leaping upon the poor man, straddling his chest and touching the knife to his throat.

"Listen up and listen well. You're going to answer my questions and you're going to answer them truthfully. If I even suspect you're lying to me, I'll kill you. If you cry for help or otherwise make any sudden movements, I'll kill you. If you take to long to answer I'll suspect you're making up a story, and guess what? I'll kill you, clear?" Ance spat venom like a snake with the deathly growl of a bereskarn. The human could only gulp in response, Ance's knife was literally too close for any other action. Ance likely wouldn't kill the man, but he could be very convincing.

There was movement behind him, footsteps. Ance put a finger to his lips in a "shush" motion, before standing rapidly and throwing his knife at where the movement was. The knife landed with a 'thud!' into an old oak branch held by a scantily-clad witch with the luck of the Dread Wolf himself! "Well, if that's how you treat your allies Ser Elf, I can't wait to see how you treat your enemies? Mind if I watch?" She said, seemingly nonplussed at her near-death experience, calmly walking up to her companion and looking amused at their captive.

"Sorry, don't like being snuck up on. What little luck you did have just ran out. This is Morrigan, a Witch of the Wilds, I'm sure I don't need to retell the stories. She's going to be a little extra insurance to keep you from lying, before I kill you, she'll get her chance. Sounds fun, no?" Ance politely retrieved his knife from Morrigan's wand and twirled it in his palm.

"Shit, what do you want to know?"

"Everything. Who hired you?"

"Nobody! We didn't-" Ance's boot connected with the man's ribs causing his to gasp.

"Remember I said I'd kill you? I'll be nice and let this one slide, because I'm really a nice guy. You just caught me in a bad mood. Who. Hired. You?" He asked again, but it took a second for him to reply, recovering from the boot kick. "You're taking too long Shem!" He said, reaching down and pressing his thumb to the man's open wound in his thigh.

"Nobody, I swear! Loghain has a bounty, that's it! That's it!

"When was this bounty placed?"

"What?"

"When was this bounty placed? Before or after the battle at Ostagar? Seems bloody convenient you're here so soon after the massacre, and it's clear you had no part in the fighting. Was the bounty up before we, allegedly, betrayed the king?"

"I-I....I d-dunno!"

[Morrigan]

Morrigan smiled widely. Apparently the Elf had practice! She was impressed, and amused. She watched intently as Anceladar interrogated the terrified man. She looked at the injured man and let loose with a hearty laugh.

"I'd suggest listening very closely to this elf, ser," Morrigan said, there was not an ounce of sympathy to her voice. She took several steps closer to him."You don't want me to get involved. Perhaps we should try another question?" She took over Anceladar's position and stood with a fistful of the man's shirt in her hand, and her staff in his face with a faint dark glow about the end.

"When did you hear of the bounty?" she said through her teeth. She was not angry, nor did she really care if the Wardens collectively got the answers they wanted, but this was fun.

The man looked at her with horror in his eyes. "I don't know, a few days ago?" His voice was shaky and very very strained.

"Good, now enlighten me," she said, switching her spell for a fire one. She was turning this into a game, seeing which would invoke a better response from the man in question."Is there anything else you think we might need to know?"

The man could do nothing but sputter at this point. Morrigan had a sneaking suspicion that he was far too flustered to recall a coherent answer. She dropped the man, who she had been holding up by the scruff of his shirt, and stepped back to allow her comrade to continue.

[Celyn Caderyn]

He is a curious person by nature, and the interesting elf dragging a human… well that grabbed it. He found himself walking away from the large group…

He wandered through Lothering wondering in the general direction that he saw the dark haired elf go. It wasn’t too hard to figure it out. As the dragged human left marks, and blood on the road. The blood led the way into an area a little ways away from the Chantry. After Celyn turned the corner of the Chantry wall the noise stopped. Aysu glided down to Celyn’s shoulder and perched there.

He continued on back into the town only to realize It became harder to figure out where they went with the refugees walking around and people fighting over things. The noise level had increased. The throng of people going place to place didn’t care much for the small elf walking around, shoving him out of the way. A few of the more aggressive humans made punches to move him out of the way. He walked through the group of people to stumble upon a small elven family with the little girl crying. They asked for help, he stopped and paused did he even have any money on him? He reached into one of his pouches and pulled out all that was left. He sighed it wasn’t much himself he only had one sovereign and 50 silvers. He handed the Sovereign to the family.

“Here...” and left looking for the elf. He was almost ready to give up and sat down on an abandoned tree stump when he saw one of the women from the large group go somewhere. He figured he would follow her, as there maybe the chance that she could lead him to the other. He turned to hear and see the female interrogate the whimpering human.

“he is about to shit himself” Celyn said to himself mentally, as he watched the woman the dark haired elf call Morrigan drop the human. He had the look of interest on his face, wondering what would make the man crack and ‘spill the beans’ so to speak.

[Anceladar Firareth]

"Is there anything else you think we might need to know?"


Ance crossed his arms and stood imposingly over the man. "Will you let me go if I tell you?"

Ance smirked, "That depends on if your info is any good. You tried to kill us, so by all fairness I should reciprocate, Creators know my companions would've seen you as nothing more than a stain on the ground to feed the soul of the earth, the fact you're alive now shows you've got more chances with me, so spill it."

The shem shuddered and straightened up a little, taking a breath to regain his composure. The elf made a mental note of this, if he got to relaxed or too confident he might try to weasel his way out or provide false information. "I don't know nothing concrete, alright? Just rumors and such."

"Do go on before we die of old age" Ance said threateningly, making the man jump a little before continuing.

"Well, nobody who's entered the Brecilian Forest has come back"

"Not news, shems wouldn't survive that forest on the best of days"

"No, but it's worse, they're not coming back because of guards posted at nearby cities, it's not that they're dying, they're being kicked out" Ance scratched his chin, that was odd, the shems getting their gander up over the forest. Nothing to go on, yet.

"Next?"

"I hear Orzammar has recently closed its gates, nobody knows why and nobody can get any information"

Ance just grunted, this could be problematic...they needed the dwarves, this needed looking into. Otherwise he just waited for the man to continue.

"A-and, there's whisperings of trouble at Redcliff. That's all I know, I swear, stories range from a revolt to demons, there's nothing else, please don't kill me!"

He sighed, the Dalish knew he wouldn't get any more out of the human, he could see the signs. Well, he got more than he expected to be honest. He flicked his head, letting the man hobble to a standing position and limp away, as he walked out of the alley and into the open Ance turned to him again. "You never saw any Grey Wardens, your group died from an unfortunate ambush. Got it?" The man made no motion that he'd heard other than to increase his limping pace.

Ance thought it would be time to head back to their group, so as he made his way out of the alleyway himself he was surprised to find a small-ish elf boy eavesdropping, no face tattoos of the Dalish. "Looking for something? I don't do charity, elvhen'alas" He said, using the Dalish word for Dirt Elves.

[Celyn Caderyn]

Celyn listened to the human and the information that came from the ones mouth. He was interested in the Brecilian forest information. People weren’t coming back out, getting kicked out. Who was kicking them out? Not to mention why? Those who are missing why where they missing? Something inside him stirred he needed to find out, he couldn’t tell if the stirring was the spirit of kindness or a blurry memory from his childhood.

The elf that Celyn could guess was Dalish turned and let the human go. Celyn watched the man limp away impressed that the elf had let him go. He thought for sure he was going to kill the human. He was impressed by what he saw in the other elf. He also dare he say slightly attractive… until he opened his mouth. He mentally sighed did he really look that grungy? Bah what does he know?

“Ar Abelas, I did not know I needed a bath Ma serannas, for pointing it out.” He bite out the last part with a dose of sarcasm. Celyn blinked, he hadn’t said a word in elven for a very long time, now it rolled of his tongue. He would look back at it later and figure it out. He had been reprimanded as a child in the Tower for not speaking the common tongue.

“I do not need charity I only wished to sate my curiosity it has been sated. But now I feel more even curious… What will you do?” the red head tilted his head to the side, almost waiting for an answer expecting none. From his shoulder Aysu looked at the other two curious, her sharp eyes watched them.

[Anceladar Firareth]

“Ar Abelas, I did not know I needed a bath Ma serannas, for pointing it out. I do not need charity I only wished to sate my curiosity it has been sated. But now I feel more even curious… What will you do?”

Anceladar rocked back on his heels as if he'd been physically slapped. This he had not expected, true elvish being spoken by a flat-ear. Well, not so much spoken as being thrown up, expelled forcefully to make a semblance of sense. It was as if someone started speaking in broken common tongue with a heavy accent, but it was elvish nonetheless, and no shems knew elvish enough to teach it. There was Dalish blood somewhere in this one, but time amongst humans had diluted it.

"Na inan, na vhenan, are they human, or Dalish?" He asked, mostly to himself, but partly to see if this elf understood not only what he said, but what he meant. There was a difference between knowing the words and discerning the meaning behind them that defined reciting the language or speaking it.

"I will be traveling to the Dalish camp in the Brecilian Forest. Follow, and learn about your heritage, or not. The choice is yours, I care not" Which was far from the truth, anyone he could save from human oppression was a victory, but that was a decision each elf had to make for themselves, the strength to pursue this path, to reclaim what was taken from them, had to come from within. If Ance helped in anyway, they would never truly be elvish, not in his eyes at least, so he pretended to not care, to force the kid to make his own choice.

(Ance said "Your eyes, your heart, are they human or Dalish?")

[Morrigan]

Morrigan stood back and viewed the situation that they now found themselves in. Anceladar had unwittingly stumbled upon another Dalish Elf. She was amused greatly by their exchange and simply stood back to watch as they sputtered words she could not understand.

Anceladar went ahead to invite this Elf on their quest, and while she did not care, she was surprised only slightly at the fact that he did not confer with her. Though she supposed she really should not have been surprised, the Elven man seemed to have little to no regard for humans, whether or not their upbringing was similar to his. She sensed that he also did not trust people who held the power of magic, and respected him for it. He was right to think this, too much power at the fingertips of the wrong person could result in the death of Thedas. The Blight only proved that fact.

"I'd suggest following us, Elf, as it promises to be an interesting experience, to say the very least."

The Elf that had been hiding had no facial tattoos to speak of, but was unmistakably Dalish. She assumed that he'd been captured by the Templars at a young age, as was the unfortunate fate of so many Dalish Mages. The idea of it almost saddened her, and surely would have were she not of the mind that the Mages allowed themselves to be coralled like cattle in a tower that the Chantry watched over as though they were hideous, dangerous monsters. Many times had Flemeth and Morrigan respectively been sought out by the Templars, and not once did they succeed in capturing them.

[Celyn Caderyn]

"Na inan, na vhenan, are they human, or Dalish?"

Celyn understood the words the other elf spoke, they were words spoken to him as a child but instead of asking are they human or are they Dalish, it told him his heart and his eyes are dalish. He was too young to understand what it meant. But the man who told him that was like his father, but he knew it wasn’t his father. Now he got the gist of it, unsure but whenever he thought of his childhood… the thoughts made him confused entirely.

What he knew and what he barely remembered were always at odds in his head. The circle told him and ‘corrected’ his bad behavior as a child. All because he could barely speak the common tongue, he had acted different than the other children as well. What he knew when he was young he was told and taught it was wrong by the circle. The things he was taught as a child told him the circle was wrong. He was always so confused as a child, and how he was treated didn’t help. It made him unsure of himself, even now. It irritated him to no end that he himself couldn’t decide who he was.

"I'd suggest following us, Elf, as it promises to be an interesting experience, to say the very least."

The woman’s voice broke him out of his thoughts. It brought him back to the present and he was irritated to say the least. He grumbled under his breath about assholes and cur’s. He looked the other elf straight in the face, the confusion was obvious in Celyn’s eyes. But he answered his question none the less.

“I know what my heart and eyes are. I will go with you”