Delivery to the Dalish Who: Viara Tremaine, Thren Canondais; members of the crew of the Northern Star (notably Sevalyn, a trusted crew member), three freed elven slaves (one man, Dremmen; one woman, Aeona; one child, Ceco) -- all NPCs. Where: Aboard The Northern Star, on the way to the Brecelian Forest to drop off the freed slaves When: 20 Molioris, 9:45 Dragon, evening; then, 23 Molioris, afternoon. Summary: The recent trip to Denerim has reunited a family, and they wish to be brought to the Dalish as soon as possible. Viara arranges the fateful trip, and asks Thren if he wishes to accompany her inland. Rating: PG
20 Molioris, evening
Only being able to purchase two slaves had put Viara in a foul mood. It had all gone...so very badly. Maybe she’d overplayed her “evil slaver persona” -- but the slaves that had been gathered had attacked her, and she’d had to rush to make the buy while the price had climbed ever upwards. Her contact had informed her that he would have to think long and hard about future associations, and that had made a stone drop deep into the pit of her stomach.
For years, she’d carefully crafted a cover that she despised. While the braver and more foolhardy side of Viara’s personality wanted her to take her boat and attack all slavers in the world head on, fill them full of arrows and slice their bodies from stem to stern, it simply was not practical. While she could raid as many ships as she dared out on the high seas, she was always careful about trying to conceal her identity, lest word get back to the slavery rings that the annoying pirate ship terrorizing their trade routes contained the same Captain as the one who made purchases in back alleys. She was able to save far more people over the long term by filling the slavers’ pockets with coin, at least temporarily. The Captain tried to tell herself that she raided the coffers of the ships she took and made back her invested money with interest, but each and every time she passed money into the hands of these scum, it made her want to spit on the oily smiles that appeared as they took her gold and handed over souls to her keeping. It felt like a demon’s arrangement; something good-intentioned that would eventually backfire. However, she knew no other way to be, no other thing to do. How could she stop? After seeing so many grateful smiles appear, how could she continue on in her life without doing a thing that resonated deeply with her character? A selfish, greedy, imperious, back-handed pirate she was, but Viara was also a woman who valued freedom more deeply than any other ideal or virtue. Only in having it taken away would a person realize its worth, that she was certain of.
However, now was not the time for ranting, raving, or fuming. The sun had dipped below the horizon in Denerim, and it was time for the two she’d bought -- a mother and child, a young girl of about 13 -- to make their own decisions about their lives. She slipped down into the hold where the two would be kept, opening the door.
There was a man in there with them. Viara recognized him immediately as the quiet-yet-passionate young man that she’d saved about a month and a half ago, also in Denerim, who had decided to stay on with the crew. He had brilliant amber eyes, a striking elven color that she’d never seen in a human or a dwarf. They played off of brownish-blonde hair. He was very handsome, but had had a coldness to his demeanor that Viara had never found attractive. She preferred her men vital, for their blood to be hot. He was embracing the woman, who was practically wilting against him, weeping into his shoulder. She was blonde, sleek as most elves were, but pale and obviously malnourished. The child was sleeping on one of the hammocks.
Somewhere between shocked, irritable, and pleased, Viara managed only to clear her throat. They both lifted their heads, and the man immediately advanced forward. She tried to remember his name, pull it from her head. Dremmen? Yes, that was it.
“Captain.” His voice was low, partially due to tone and partially due to it being a pitched whisper, in deference to the child. “This...” His voice caught; his eyes shone with tears he wouldn’t shed. “This is my sister, Aeona. I don’t...” Dremmen shook his head, obviously trying to clear it, his voice in a rush. “I don’t know how this came to be, it must be the Maker’s will. I was... I was imprisoned, many long years, for...they said I killed a man that I did not; Aeona was barely a woman then. I never saw them, and look, Captain, I have a niece...” He looked over at the sleeping girl, and Viara’s heart swelled out of the bitter mood that had once encased it. She touched Dremmen lightly on the arm and nodded. Aeona came forward, looking apt to fall over at any time.
“Captain...” She faltered, then cleared her voice. “Dremmen has told us of the situation. We need...my girl is sick, no medicine has been able to help her. I have spent everything. I hear there are healers, among...among the Dalish.” Aeona spoke the word with some fear, and Viara understood. Hushed tones about the Dalish and rumors of their lives, both good and bad, swirled through the alienage often. “I was trying to leave with her when we were caught. I have... I have nothing, Captain, no money, but if you could take us there... Maker, there might just be time.” Her eyes were wide, a soft brown, and Viara’s heart wrenched for the woman. She gestured for them both to sit, asking the most practical question. Viara mentally refused to be openly emotional about their situation, not now. Later, in her room, she would heave in a breath. Tell Thren everything. Then Alerrin.
“All three of you, then?” Viara spoke neutrally, and Dremmen and Aeona nodded. She gave Dremmen a long look and then nodded; the Captain part of her would miss his able hands aboard, but family... well, it was more important, wasn’t it? She could only imagine how the man must feel, after so many years...
“Right. We can make for the Dalish immediately.” She touched Aeona lightly on the forearm, thinking of the doctor on board, Sylara. “I have a woman with me, her name is Sylara. She is old, and not Dalish, but she does some things with herbs I have never really seen before. I will send her down to tend to your girl. What is wrong with her?” Viara tilted her head, and Aeona choked back a sob.
“Everything she eats, it just...she cannot hold it down. It comes right back. I am lucky if I get her to swallow two thimbles of water a day. She cannot eat, she cannot drink, and she is so tired all of the time...” Viara looked at the exhausted young mousy-haired girl who was managing to doze. She looked bony-thin, and the Captain remembered thinking the same when she first saw her.
“Alright. I will tell the doctor. Dremmen, you may sleep in here with your family if you wish. We’ll be leaving in an hour though, and I need you on deck.” Her voice was firm, but it was not an order. Dremmen merely nodded once, squeezed his sister’s shoulder, and stood to go. Aeona went on shaky legs to sit on the floor next to her child, and Viara let out a breath, standing. She should get Sylara down here immediately.
“Make yourself comfortable. I’ll send Syl.”
The Captain went, fleet-of-foot, and found her resident doctor finishing up her dinner. With a quick word from the Captain, the old battleaxe of a woman was off to tend to the girl. It would take about three days to get the Dalish, and Vi hoped that whatever medicine she could provide would at least keep the little girl stable.
Viara took a moment to touch eyes with Thren, who was still in the kitchen at the time, and gesture that she’d be upstairs.
Sails were set. Off to the Brecelian Forest.
~*~
23 Molioris, afternoon
There was an alcove, a small inward tick of water that made a secluded bay right to the North of the Brecelian Forest. It was Viara’s preferred place of berth, and it was there that she set her anchor as close as she dared to the shore. The child’s condition had remained steady throughout three days, but a mild squall they’d hit the day prior had set the seas to rocking, and Viara didn’t know how a child who ate nothing could vomit so much. There was some kind of evil in her stomach, something that Sylara had never seen. Even Bob had taken to the cause, cooking special broths for the child. Incredulously, they contained a heavy dwarven spice that the Master Chef insisted cured anything in the stomach by “burning it out.”
Viara had thought he was mad, but after drinking it, the girl had opened her eyes and remained alert for a couple of hours. She also hadn’t vomited it up right away. Bob had continued to make it, and it seemed to be the only concoction the girl could keep down even for a short period of time, even though she complained of the pain in her throat from swallowing it. Once they’d docked, Bob had given a packet of the spice to Aeona, the girl’s mother, and told her to be sure the girl swallowed “every last sodding bit.”
The family was being put into a dingy along with a dark-haired elven pirate by the name of Sevalyn, one of the more trusted and well-liked members of Viara’s crew, a slip of a raven-haired beauty roundabout the age of nineteen. They were waiting on the Captain, as well as Thren.
Viara turned to him slowly on the deck; they were packed and ready, but she just..needed to check a final time. One of her fingers brushed on his hip as she spoke quietly.
“You’re sure you want to come?”
Thren glanced over at the sick girl, then back at the small captain. He nodded once as a soft smile twitched at the touch. “I’m sure- I don’t know what I can do for her, but it might be better to have someone who can shoot fireballs from his nostrils, then to have me knitting and waiting for you to come back..” Denerim had been full of rumors, each worse than the last- and with his own personal experience in youth, the forest was no where to travel with a sick child. It wasn’t much of a place to travel with a battalion.
Vi lifted one corner of her mouth. It was a somber trip, delivering a sick child, but they were doing their best to keep the ordeal light. For her part, Viara figured that Thren might simply worry if he didn’t come along, about her, or about the child or both together. The thought of Thren shooting fireballs out of anywhere was discomfiting - it was one thing to see him move a chair or lift a pillow; it was another thing entirely to think of him conjuring flame. She’s accepted his apostate status academically, but not in a real sense, and she knew it. Vi blew some hair out of her eyes and then finally nodded. “Right. It’s just a few hours journey to the nearest clan. I know one that comes close to the edge of the forest this time of year. It’ll be better than going deep in.” Seva was coming too, and it was also that woman’s first trip delivering some freed slaves, but she had insisted.
“Hopefully, we’ll be back before it’s full night.”
Thren didn’t need much by way of explanation. He was obstinately going to accompany them, in that mindset where he undoubtedly knew his role in things. While he’d hang back, hardly spending much time with the elves that they were accompanying, he knew that he should still be there. Even if it meant being a shadow rather than companion. He was still wary with the latest acquisitions and every offer to help the child had died on his lips before he’d gotten the courage to approach the slight mother.
He couldn’t shake the fear that he’d only remind them of their ordeal, despite the reassurances from Darrian that a smiling human would be more of a balm than a fidgeting one. Thren heard the advice over and over, and now, looking at the waif of a child he felt guilty. Her people could help her better than he was capable of, but it didn’t mean he didn’t want to try and soothe the girl’s pain.
“However long it takes, Vi.” He muttered distractedly. “A day or three. Let’s just... take it as carefully as we can.” He understood that Viara and her crew still had ports to meet, but the child was enough of a reason to delay setting sail. Undoubtedly his affection for Kinai was coloring everything about the moment, making it impossible to remain neutral.
He pressed his lips and looked over at Sev, trying to joke as he wandered over to the small boat. “Aww, your mother letting you come out and play today?”
Thren looked preoccupied, his eyes lingering on the sick girl. She hadn’t asked him about his ability to heal; she didn’t know anything about magic or whether or not the girl had some kind of ailement, affliction, internal injury... Her mother had said nothing of the latter, but she also was aware that if the girl had eaten something bad, it should have passed fairly quickly and not lingered for days such as this. She nodded and made final preparations, moving swiftly over towards Alerrin and speaking with his quietly. It was the same set of orders as ever -- to wait the agreed-upon period of time, and if he had not heard from Viara, he was to assume command and sail to Denerim, the closest city, and wait to hear. She trusted Alerrin with her life; that meant trusting him with the ship.
Seva, for her part, murmured something soft to the girl once she was secure in the dingy, straightening up to her full 5’1” height and then craning her neck dramatically up at Thren as he spoke, whistling low between her teeth at the jibe about her age. Taking it in stride, the young woman grinned, all pirate. “Maker’s balls, the giant is coming too? You’ll sink us, we’re going to need a bigger boat.” The girl, Ceco, awake from all the jostling, giggled timidly, as though she wasn’t sure whether or not she was allowed to find the blasphemy funny.
Thren took it in stride, genuinely having enjoyed Sev’s company in the past (almost as much as he rued her curiosity and knowing glances). “Oh, I’m a security measure,” He continued, feeling Ceco’s giggle soothe him like some sort of balm over his concern. “In case you tip over, you need someone who can touch the bottom.” He turned his head to look at the small girl and shook his head, not really sure how to interact with her. If it were Kinai, he’d shamelessly tickle or pull at her hair- but this was a stranger, and someone who he had no right to interact with.
Sev scoffed a little and flippantly tossed the mane of her dark hair towards Thren, though her eyes were all smiles. “If we flip over, I’m blaming you.” She poked Thren at the base of the sternum, and then tipped her head to motion him to the rear of the dingy. “You’re steering. Let’s get this one ashore.” Ceco had hazel eyes that were tinged yellow, and they were currently staring at Thren with a mixture of fear and curiosity -- he was a large man, and shem, and her mother had told her not to be around them. However, everyone around seemed to think he was alright, and she sort of licked her cracked lips with a dry tongue. “Hi.” Her throat was raw from all of the strain of spices and vomiting.
Viara supervised the attaching of the dingy to the side of the boat, and the girl’s mother climbed in, and then her uncle. It was a big load - six people in the dingy - but given that most of them were light of weight, Vi was confident the craft would hold. She herself only stepped in from the railing of the Northern Star once the boat was finally being lowered, alighting on the bow with a nod to everyone. “Let’s go.” The dingy started to lower in jerks, but after a couple of minutes would reach the water below.
The weak voice caught him by surprise. Thren regarded her tenderly, face softening from anxiety to a more muted friendly concern. “Hey there,” He winced inwardly at the cracked lips and the girl’s pallor. He wondered if he had anything in his pack to give her, and lightly dug through before he needed to help with their descent. The best he had was a tea leaf and he extended it carefully, “Go on and chew on this.” It required little effort on the girl’s exerted and pained throat, and hopefully it would encourage her mouth to water. “It’s just tea,” He glanced at the girl’s mother while twirling the leaf between his fingers. “Have you ever been to the Forest, Ceco?”
Aeona, Ceco’s mother, was trying not to look at Thren distrustfully. It was exceedingly difficult, given her upbringing in the alienage and what she’d been told about shem, especially the big men. However, this one seemed...well, he wasn’t trying to kill or rape anyone, it was a good start. She looked at the leaf when Thren twirled it and her lips pulled into a quick frown before she let out a breath. It did look like tea, and she nodded, gesturing to Ceco that it was alright. “Go on, maybe it will make your throat feel better.” Ceco shook her head a few degrees at Thren when he asked the question, quiet voice scratchy as she reached out to take the leaf. “Never been anywhere.”
Viara and Seva were quietly rowing at the front of the boat - whatever conversation was going on behind them were enough to distract the family through the task of getting ashore. It was going to be a rough, slow day of navigating through trees, and Vi had an anxiety traipsing across the muscles of her arms. There had been rumors in Denerim that she hadn’t liked the color of; hearing about Grey Wardens being around, and Conlan of all people being one of them, simply made her twitchy. Viara had never been around Darkspawn and had never intended to be in her life. Maybe her famous luck would hold for the day, but there was no sense in not helping it along, trying to make things as fast as possible. They’d be ashore within ten minutes.
The moment Aeona passed her judgement, Thren smiled at her. He could handle her distrust, he could handle the brother at her side casting dark glances his way- but he wanted to help the child. “Never been anywhere?” Thren asked, “Well, don’t tell anyone, but ‘anywhere’ is overrated.” He passed the leaf to her impossibly tiny fingers. “You’re heading to an amazing place.” It was scary of course, but also had its own intrinsic magic- and at Ceco’s age, Thren hoped that she’d be able to see it like he had. “It’s unlike anything. You’ll never see another forest like it either... so many different greens and sounds. When you go to sleep tonight, you won’t believe all the things that you’ve never gotten to hear living in the city. Crickets, frogs- it’s beautiful.” Thinking about it made him wistful, all the things he missed during his extended stays in Redcliffe, things he missed while being on the Star.
Ceco twirled the leaf a little bit, twirling it in front of her eyes while Thren spoke of green places. She’d seen green, in the large tree at the center of the alienage, and played with the leaves when they turned different colors and fell to the ground. She didn’t know what a frog sounded like, though she had heard bugs like crickets. Eventually she popped the leaf into her mouth and let it moisten before she started to chew - it had a fibrous and slightly bitter flavor, but wasn’t awful. She nodded towards Thren, speaking around the roughage in her mouth. “It sounds nice. But if it’s noisy I can’t sleep.” It was the most talking the girl had done in awhile, and fatigue invested her limbs, but she was genuinely interested.
Once the boat reached the shore, it dug hard into the packed sand, which was mixed with dirt from nearby trees, and rocks. Viara hopped out and motioned for everyone else to do the same, blowing some hair out of her eyes. “Thren, can you help pull the boat up? We need to stow it in a bush, there’s one over there I like to use.” She pointed at some shrub or another, that was nearby and very thick to prevent the dingy from being stolen. Seva, without being told, moved forward on light feet to scan the immediate area and the edge of the forest, and Viara inwardly approved. As one, all three members of the elven family looked at the tall trees; Aeona made a sound in her throat of mingled fear and wonder. “You’re...sure you know where to go?”
Viara nodded, doing her best to be both brisk and reassuring. “Aye. I’ve gone this way many times. I’ll get you there, I promise.”
“It’s not noisy like the city,” He reassured with a crinkled nose. “I promise.” When Viara asked for his help he nodded, watching carefully while Aeona and the child clambered out of the boat- ready to aide them if they needed it, “You’ll sleep soundly, if not the first night, then you will the second. Like anything, it takes some getting used to. But when I was little I’d just try and pick apart the different sounds- try to figure which ones I knew and didn’t- and then picked which ones I liked the best.” He smiled before he moved to push the dingy to the aforementioned shrub. It would have been easier to move with the aide of magic, and as his boots shifted once awkwardly in the sand he toyed with the idea- but Aeona’s fear of the treeline was reason enough to muddle through. “Maybe you’ll even get to see a halla,” He said once he rejoined the girl. “I never got to, but the Dalish keep them. Someday maybe you can tell me about them,” He glanced over at Viara, ready to follow her lead. Thren babbled inanely with Ceco, but he was completely at the captain’s command. The Forest had it’s own terrors, and Thren wanted to tell her what he could about the good. There was no reason for the girl to fear everything- especially when there was really beauty that could be completely missed.
Viara watched Thren from beneath lowered lashes. He was very good with children - it seemed not to matter whether or not it was Kinai, he had a patience that the seemed to respond to. For such a tall man, it was very sweet. It was not the time to get emotional, however, and Viara chased away the thought as soon as it pulled her mouth into a little smile. “Thank you.” She nodded towards Thren. Normally, she didn’t thank her crew, but Thren was not a normal member and she still didn’t feel comfortable ordering him around. Not...entirely, anyway. Ceco, for her part, was craning up her neck a little bit. “A halla? I want to see one.” Aeona put a hand on her daughter’s head, a mother’s instinct. “You will.” Dremmen, the quiet man, had moved up towards Seva, and Viara heard a warbling sound come from the woods. “Sev says it’s clear. Let’s move out. We’re going to head basically straight southwest...sort of like heading towards the sun as it goes down.” She explained to Ceco and Aeona, who nodded. “I want you two in the middle with me. Seva will be in the front, and Thren will be in the back. Alright?” She explained briskly, but not unkindly, and then started to move their motley crew forward.
Thren sifted through his pack, coming out with a compass which he offered to Ceco. While the group ahead deliberated, he pointed out the needle, the printed ‘SW’. “You hang onto this, okay?” He inclines his head, “You can navigate as long as you like.” Once his bag was shouldered, he took his place in the back of the group.
Viara resisted the urge to brush Thren’s hand as he moved to the back, instead letting out a breath and whistling for Seva. The dark-haired girl re-appeared, the white blaze of a large scar across her collarbone appearing somehow brighter in the light of the afternoon. She relayed the direction to the girl, who nodded and dashed back off through the trees to chop out the best possible path, and the ragged caravan moved forward. Two pirates, an apostate, and a ragged, exhausted elven family with a sick girl. What could possibly go wrong?