𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒕

[aberratic]

OPEN POST

FOR TEXTS, TFLN, RANDOM SCENARIO, AND OTHER MEMERY.

OTA | AUS WELCOME | NSFW OKAY

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[wearyallalone]

There had been a hint of deja vu about having to walk back to Kirkwall.

This time is, without a doubt, more comfortable than the desperate stumble with Gela after they'd escaped the envy demons. He has intact boots, for one thing, along with warm clothes, a shield and a sword. A few coins, even, though he's rationed them to keep them fed. They've been sleeping rough, but both of them have done that before.

He had such a particular mix of good and bad luck, at the Cauldron. He can't help but feeling the good luck keenly, especially given what had happened to Teren. Vanya and Pamplemousse had been strafed by enemy fire, yes, but she got them out of the battle and to the ground in one piece. It's all too easy to picture the counterfactual, given the chaos and the way the griffons had been particularly targeted.

Still, for all that good luck got them out of the Cauldron, they had no access to the nearest eluvian, with enemy troops between them and that path back to Kirkwall. He might have chanced stealth alone, but not with a griffon to think of. And once she got them to the ground, Pamplemousse was clearly in no condition for further flying. He'd splinted her wing and bandaged his arm (a cut, bloody but not deep, from the same attack that hit Pamplemousse's wing). It was during this process that he discovered the fire they'd took had ripped open one of his saddlebags and he'd lost half of his supplies — sending crystal inclusive.

There had been nothing for it but to walk back. He mostly led Pamplemousse, unwilling to risk jostling her wing with his leg even if they stayed on the ground, so their pace was set by his walking speed. One or two farmers were bold enough to let Vanya ride in the cart with Pamplemousse padding behind, but most were afraid of a griffon spooking their horses. They're mainly restricted to the pace he can set himself.

But even a long walk has an end. He gets Pamplemousse settled in the eyrie, inevitably seeing a few of his comrades along the way. It's clear, and probably unsurprising, that they were given up for dead. He'll go out to the houseboat tomorrow, probably. He'll get a new sending crystal soon, too. But it's late, and that can wait until morning.

But one thing can't wait, actually. And someone he asks can confirm that Ness hasn't left her office that evening.

When he knocks, it's quiet, but it isn't hesitant.

[aberratic]

She almost doesn't hear the knock—might not have in truth, but for that it came in the middle of a sniffling pause for breath. The unexpected interruption startles a sob from her, but she doesn't allow herself the time to worry it's been heard.

How long has she been standing like this, weeping alone in the dark? How much work could she have been doing, instead of sitting paralyzed by missing someone she has only the barest claim to mourn in the first place?

"Just—sorry," she calls through the door, and then hears her own voice and winces, clearing her throat to dislodge the tear-thickness. "Just a moment, sorry."

It's a few moments before Ness opens the door. When she does, her eyes aren't on her caller at first, back over her shoulder to prestidigitate all the candles in the room lit at once. She's made an effort to mask what she'd been caught in the middle of, but the evidence is still all over her face: wet, glassy eyes, bulb of her nose red from sniffling and cheeks splotchy from being scrubbed of tears. Her voice scratches when she speaks.

"I apologize, I was—indisposed, what can I—"

She stops mid-sentence with hardly a sound, just a sharp gasp of air as she blinks up at Vanya, frozen in place.