* LAMBS BECOME LIONS ;

Nat laughs again at that – the lake was admittedly funny, even though the roguish dwarf lacked the ability to swim herself and wouldn’t have fared any better. Until very recently, they’d never seen the sun, or so much water in one place, or anything but rock and dirt and dust. 

To call this shit ‘weird’ would be an understatement. 

“Ha. Well, I’ll put it like this: the sky ain’t a fraction as bad as everyone says. Hasn’t crushed us yet, and honestly? I think I like it. It’s… pretty. Better than Orzammar, anyway. That place was a fuckin’... ugh.”

She’d rather not think about it. It’s not that there’s nothing left for her there – fuck, if she thinks too hard, she’ll start to miss Rica again. But there’s nothing left for her in Orzammar besides Rica. 

Frustrated, the dwarf readjusts her position on the ground. She should probably shut up, but something in them itches to keep talking, curious to see if Mei will understand. 

        mei chuckles along with nat; there's no denying it was a funny moment, likely even funnier from the outside looking on. the mage thinks of the dropping sensation in her stomach the moment she lost her balance and knew for sure she was going into the glassy waters. she didn't even mind getting choked by her own robes for a moment if it meant she got to avoid drowning.

       “the sky itself never falls, it's the stuff that falls from it you have to worry about,” mei jokes. it's been years since she felt the rain on her skin or caught a snowflake in her cupped hands. part of her is looking forward to it. “usually it's just water, though. so nothing inherently dangerous...” 

        mei tilts her head, watching the dwarf's expression change as they think on something. she can't help noting that natia doesn't seem to hold very much love for where she came from. maybe they have that in common.

       “no, i know exactly what you mean. we weren't really allowed out of the tower at all as apprentices.” and almost the moment she finished her harrowing, mei was thrown into the dungeons on suspicions of blood magic. “it's been ten years since i properly felt the sun on my face, or grass under my feet...”

She stared down at the corpse at her feet, taking in the sight of its twisted features before looking up at Mei's words. "Huh?" She blinked, taking a moment to process what the other mage had said.

"Oh. Of course." She flashed her a dazzling smile, ignoring the disgust and distaste in her gut. "I was just thinking about what we could possibly need all this darkspawn blood for."

　　𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐲, though she still kept her distance. poisons were far more her speed, but she could recognize certain herbs well enough. a few even grew in the little dirt and grass patches that interrupted all of denerim's cobblestone, if you could keep them safe from being trampled over.

        eyeing the other elf thoughtfully, mei flicked the little ball of sticky elfroot residue into the fire, then quickly plucked the last few leaves from the stem and dropped them into the bowl. then shrugging, she discarded the stem into the fire as well and took up her chosen makeshift pestle—an especially smooth rock that fit her palm just right that she'd found outside of lothering and done her best to scrub clean in a brook.

       “then it might be just what you need.” and after a pause: “i'll keep an eye out for the herbs. just in case.” mei only knew enough about poisons to recognize which herbs could be used to brew them. actually mixing anything more potent than a health poultice was something she'd been meant to learn if she'd gotten to be a teen under her own mother's care.

        palming the stone in her right hand, mei started crushing and crushing the leaves in her bowl. “i think i know what you mean. in the tower, the apprentices slept in dormitories together. i got very used to the sound of other people sleeping. moving around. snoring. babbling, sometimes...” 

Cole smiled when they'd finished, almost cheerful at the thanks. She didn't need to thank him—Cole was happy to do it regardless—but it felt nice to hear.

"We were happy to help."

Or, well, he was. He couldn't tell if Cassandra was genuinely happy about the manual labor or just begrudgingly helping out of respect for Mei and the dead. Even still, she did help, and that meant something.

        and she dragged the back of her arm across her forehead as she turned to answer cole's question: “what, this?” she gestured to the mound of freshly turned earth where the grave now sat; from their deaths perhaps new life would spring some day.

as apathetic as mirwen was feeling, she supposed there was no harm in drinking the offered tea. she truly did feel as though she was growing more and more ill by the hour. she wished, more than anything, that tamlen could have been with them. that she could at least somehow know that he was still somewhat alright — that he wasn’t suffering alone. but he was lost, as far as she knew. and even if he was elsewhere, it was too late for him to join them on their quest to ostagar. 

“ a part of me doesn’t want to make it to ostagar, ” mirwen confessed softly. she took a sip of the drink, making a slight face as she swallowed it down. she’d never been the biggest fan of the tatse of elfroot — but she didn’t like feeling so weak and rotten. she’d never been apart from her clan. “ sorry that was… ” the elf sighed, looking at her new companion. “ i'm sure you've had enough of my moping. how are you holding up? ”

        mei's brows drew together with a note of concern as she turned to mirwen with a sympathetic look. she knew the dalish elf's conscription had happened quite differently from her own, and she felt a bit awkward knowing so much about what must've been very difficult. not wanting to make the other elf feel too much in the spotlight, mei turned her gaze back to the fire.

       “i'm really sorry about your clanmate,” she said gently. “i'm sorry we couldn't find him.” she tried to imagine being in mirwen's shoes, the missing person being her own brother, and she nearly teared up at the anxiety it filled her with. of course, she had no idea where taren was now anyway, but something about the idea of knowing he was missing would be worse. “me? i'm fine. i spent the last ten years cooped up in the same tower and now i'm feeling the wind on my face.”