fadewalk | RP: Surana

Well, first things first, then. The place looked mostly empty, but Sigrun might as well poke around and see what she could find. She headed up the stairs and inside the slightly open great doors.

At the sight of the sheer size of the castle's great hall, she had to stop and whistle.

"If this is another one of those wacky Warden dreams," she said to herself, "it sure seems real." She rapped experimentally on the closest stone wall, and made a face as she nearly bruised her knuckles. "And that looks like the Inquisition heraldry, I thiink," she inspected the banners. "Sure close to what was on that letter the Commander got." Her voice bounced back at her from the wide empty hall, and she grimaced. "And now I'm talking to myself in a ghost castle that may or may not be a certain mountain stronghold thousands of miles away that I've never seen. Greeeaat. Maybe Nate's not the crazy one."

Moving further into the hall, she chose a door at random, the first one on her right, and made her way into a large rotunda. She stopped to admire the frescoes there and glance over the books on the table in the middle of the room.

"Fade shit, Fade shit, elves..." she muttered in a much quieter tone than before as she skimmed the titles. "Well that's not ominous at all."

Taking another path at random, she climbed the stairs upwards and found herself in what appeared to be a library.

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Neria closed the book and put it back in the shelf, not quite satisfied with the kind of material the Inquisition had on magic. Well... it's not like books of magic are easy to obtain, thanks to the Chantry. But still... I had a better library on magic business in my nightstand than they have in this whole place...

Downstairs, in the rotunda, she thought of listening someone muttering. Carefully walking to hide behind the nearest bookshelf, she waited for whoever was climbing the steps, a pit forming on her stomach when she saw Sigrun. Creators... is this the Sigrun I know or not?...

She left her hide, taking a deep breath.
"Sigrun, is that you?"

Admittedly, creepy ghost castle or no, something inside Sigrun gibbered gleefully at seeing so many books in one place. The Keep's library was impressive, particularly to Sigrun, who'd learned to read on one book alone, but this place...this was amazing.

She grinned widely, forgetting caution for a moment, and stepped forward to run her fingers over the spines of the books on the nearest shelves. She'd been on the road with the Commander for too long, if the sight of a library made her just want to sigh and melt and go around collecting all the terrible romances into a pile that she could take to a corner and curl up with.

At the sound of another voice, she whirled and crouched, one dagger out before she could think. Then she stopped, squinting at the elf who had appeared.

"Commander?" Sigrun straightened. "Thank the ancestors. I thought I was all alone in this place."

"Creators be praised!"

She covered her face with both hands for a moment, taking another deep breath before approaching the dwarf. "For a moment, I thought I would never see none of you again. Are you alone? Velanna and Nathaniel are here too?"

Neria was happy with a true familiar face.
On the other hand, now Sigrun was trapped there too.

Sigrun sheathed her dagger with a rasp of metal on metal. She shrugged.

"So far as I can tell, it's just you and me. Woke up this morning to find Nathaniel going on and on about how you'd vanished in the night, so I went to look for you, and then there was this weird pull thing, like I was falling, and then I was here. I don't think it affected anybody else, at least not yet." She scratched her head. "So where in Thedas are we, anyways? Is this supposed to be Skyhold? If you're here, and I'm here, it's definitely not a dream, so there goes that theory."

"Yes, this is not a dream indeed. And yes, we are in Skyhold, sort of. This is the Fade version of Skyhold, but not like in a dream, as we usually visit the Fade. We are physically inside the Fade. I'm really glad you're here, but now I'm also concerned... I still don't have the slightest clue on how to get out of this place."

Sigrun wrinkled up her nose.

"Right. I'm gonna pretend I understood any of that...Fade...magic...dreams and dreaming shit, and just nod along. Not sure why of all of us, you got the dwarf sucked in to whatever this place is. I'm about as useful as a pile of nug shit when it comes to any of this stuff." She peered up at Neria. "Glad you're okay, though, Commander."

"I'm glad you're okay too." she smiled, expression softening "Jäger, that old fur pile, is running around doing the Creators know what."

And Neria grabbed a leather covered book, presenting it to Sigrun.

"It seems like everyone receives a journal just like that when entering this place. Have you found yours?"

Sigrun made a hrm sound. "You know, I didn't even think to notice he was gone too, since he's always with you."

At the presentation of the book, she ohhed and reached for her belt, tugging a similar book loose.

"Tripped over this when I arrived outside. It seemed odd, to just leave it there, all lonely-like. I hadn't really looked at it too much, though."

"This journal is insane. I can read everything I have done since I arrived here, only I haven't done half of it. And it seems like I have met people which is not the people I know."

She scratched her head, sigh escaping her mouth.

"That's why I asked if you were you. There is this Alistair which fought the Blight with another Warden, not me, and was betrayed by her. And there was also this Cullen, which is probably the same Cullen I knew, only the Inquisitors of our realities are different, and he was also betrayed by her. Kind of seeing a pattern here..."

Sigrun nodded.

"Stinky people making stinky decisions in worlds that are not-quite-right. I think I get it. Maybe." She looked around suspiciously. "This place gives me the heebie-jeebies."

"Yes, I have this uneasy sensation too."

Another sigh.

"On the top of it, we must find a way out. The shattered Eluvian is a no go, though."

"Eluvian? Like - that weird mirror thing Morrigan had, ages ago, when you went off to find her?"

Sigrun put a hand to her forehead. "All this weird magic stuff is making my head hurt, Commander. Point me in the right direction so I can pummel stuff."

"Now that you mentioned it... I haven't seen a single demon, monster, darkspawn or whatever creature we have to fight. Which can be good or not."

Sigrun groaned.

"Don't tell me that, Neria, pleeeeaase. Now I really don't know what I'm supposed to do here. I can stand around and guard your back? Look menacing?"

She pulled her lips back from her teeth in an approximation of a snarl and drew herself up to her not-considerable full height, the effect being rather more adorable than intimidating (though her facial tattoos do lend her an aura of menace that would otherwise be missing).

Slumping back down to her normal posture after a few seconds, Sigrun shook her head. "That is, assuming any of these weird shifty people about are the sort you'd like me to guard your back from. If not, I dunno."

"Sorry, I'm trying to not look hopeless or grim but things... aren't helping."

She placed her hand over Sigrun's shoulder before sitting between the bookshelves, motioning for the dwarf to follow her, voice lowering.

"To keep your guard up is a good thing, but let's try not looking menacing and pretend we trust them, even if we're not quite that convinced of it ourselves yet. Everyone just want to go home, just like us and I'm fairly convinced we can find a way if we work together. Those journals can help us with this, I believe. This library may hold some answers, I don't know." Neria scratched her forehead before she smiled "We stick together and fight back to back if necessary, but I don't want you pretending I'm more important than you. We are in this together, we'll go back to our friends together and save the order from their tainted fate. How does that looks for you?"

Edited Date: 2015-08-05 04:37 am (UTC)

Sigrun followed, plunking herself down beside the Warden-Commander.

It was pretty easy to see what Sigrun thought of the admonition, as she'd never been good at disguising her emotions. And the only part she seemed to take fault with, judging by the way she screwed up her mouth, was the 'don't want you pretending I'm more important than you'. But she doesn't say anything about it.

"Right!" she said instead, cheerfully. "Stick together and be smart, but be nice about it. I can do that. I'm the chipper one, remember?"

"Yes, yes you certainly are." she smiled again "Now, we have work to do. It seems like the others me have been looking at the Eluvian with some interest and I want to see it with my own eyes. It's hard to destroy those things and maybe I can trace the magic used to transport us here. It's a long shot, but maybe to shatter a powerful Eluvian can shatter and mix all realities, but this still doesn't explain how we got here."

Sigrun reached up to scratch the short hair on the nape of her neck, looking thoughtful.

"Doesn't explain why us and nobody else, either. It's weird that just you and I got sucked here, along with all these other random people. You would think that there would be some sort of rhyme or reason to it. Maybe. I can never tell with magic."

"Maybe there is and we just can't see it yet. There are other mages here, I just need to make contact with them."

Neria stood up, making her way downstairs, back to the rotunda.

"We should also find food and water."

"Right. Food and water. I should've thought of that already. Can't do much on an empty stomach. Well...you can, but I wouldn't recommend it," Sigrun babbled as she followed Sigrun down the stairs.

"Anyways, you lead the way Commander, since you've been here longer, I guess."

"Me, on an empty stomach? Sigrun dear, have you ever seen how much I eat after shapeshifting into a bear?"

She grinned and then dropped her gaze to the journal, looking for something. "Right... the kitchen is just outside the great hall, to the right. And the Eluvian is past the Garden... hmmm battlements could be nice to check... ok, but first things first. Let's go to the kitchen."

Sigrun made a face.

"On second thought, maybe you should refrain from shapeshifting until we know for sure there's enough food to go around? Warden appetites being what they are, and there being at least two of us in addition to these other people. And I guess if we're going to be friendly with them, that probably means not hoarding the goods all to ourselves, huh? Which is a shame. You know how I like to stockpile food."

She grinned up at Neria, nearly but not-quite skipping along at her side. Her lighthearted tone aside, the hoarding comment was true. You never quite wiped the dirt from Dust Town off your shoes, and Sigrun had always had a penchant for nicking extra food from the kitchens to keep. Just in case.

"Oh, I do know how much you like stockpiling food. Mistress Woolsey never let me forget." she giggled "That aside, I don't intend to hoard everything. More like grabbing a little snack and inventorying everything else, just to keep track of it."

Back to the great hall, she moved to the outside doors, eyes observing the place carefully. "I wonder how desperate Velanna and Nate might be know. First I disappear, than you go look for me and vanishes too. Guess they're calling it a bad day."

"Snack and an inventory. Got it."

Sigrun snickered. "You should have seen Nate when it was just you vanished. I'm sure he's progressed to full-scale panic now."

The smile on her face flickered.

"I can imagine his face: As if things weren't bad enough with those rumors about Adamant and that insane Orlesian Commander, now the sane one vanishes right under our noses, trying to acomplish the impossible. Stop looking at me like that, woman, this is serious." she paced, impersonating Nathaniel as best as she could, trying not to laugh

Sigrun giggled.

"And Velanna in the background." Sigrun did her best approximation of the elf, rolling her eyes heavenwards and putting on a long-suffering expression. "'Will you stop bloody pacing, you daft shem.'"

Neria now erupted in laughter, open heartedly.
"We definitely must go back soon. Can't let Oghren be the senior Warden in Vigil's Keep forever, poor recruits."

Sigrun grimaced.

"Now there's a thought. Might as well stop calling us the Grey Wardens and start calling us the Ale Wardens. Drunk Wardens? Something." She shuddered. "Right, so we need to get back as soon as possible, then," she said with a smirk.

"Ale Wardens sounds unexpectedly good." she scratched her chin, thoughtful, shuddering afterwards "Please, don't tell Oghren that. Anyway, we might need a new name now the First Warden hates us."

She opened the door to the kitchen.

Sigrun giggled and made an x over her heart with a finger.

"Please. You're the Hero of Fereldan, Commander. You almost single-handedly stopped the last Blight. Darkspawn quiver in your wake! The First Warden can go shove it."

"I know the Warden Commanders are mostly free to do what they thing it's best for the place they're serving, but we still have an solid hierarchy. If the First Warden decides to expel us, the nobility will definetely oblige and carry his orders. No one like having Grey Wardens around, not the people with army and resources we can demand anytime, anywhere. They just like us when there's a freaking archdemon at their doorstep." there was a hint of sadness in her voice, as she shrugged.

Neria looked into cupboards and shelves, taking notes on her journal about the food and general kitchen ware. "Sigrun, dear, can you please take care of our little snack? Haven't eaten since I got here."

The look Sigrun gave Neria was...not quite worried, exactly, but close. She chewed on the inside of her lip for a moment, looking at a loss for words.

At the suggestion, however, she brightened. "Sure thing, Commander," she said, scampering off to poke around in the cupboards. She found a small basket and piled a few things into it - a loaf of bread, a few pears that didn't look too mealy, a block of cheese.

If there was any pilfering going on, any food tucked away in pockets and sleeves, Sigrun was too quick a pickpocket for it to be noticeable.

Some time passed until Neria had everything written down. She stared the door on the other side of the room and strode, openeing it. Down the stairs was the stable and Jäger, sleeping near a pile of hay.

"Oh, that old beast. Already sleeping."

Sigrun grabbed the basket of food and followed Neria, peering around her at Jager. She chuckled.

"Of course he is."

"It seems like it's a good place, though. He has this great ability to find the quiet spots."

Neria went downstairs, crossing the yard and sitting by Jägers side. The old mabari hound waved his tail briefly and went back to his snoring shortly after.

"Seems like no one have been here yet. Well, not that a horseless stable is worth much attention."

Sigrun looked about before coming to sit on Jager's other side. She patted the Mabari and hmmed thoughtfully.

"Seems like it might be a nice, peaceful place to spend time, normally. Bit odd to have all the scent of horse and no actual horses, though." She shuddered. "This place. Did I mention it was creepy?"

"Once or twice, yes." she observed

Neria placed some rocks in a circle and used hay to start a small campfire outside the stables, approaching her hands to the flames to warm them; the orange fire was pleasant, especially with the black and blue sky above them.

"I was the first person you encountered here, Sigrun?"

Sigrun grinned and nodded.

"Yeah, you and now Jager here." She patted the Mabari affectionately and then pulled the basket of food she had packed into her lap. She broke the loaf of bread in half between her hands and held out a portion to Neria.

"Thank you." she accepted the bread and took a bite, only now noticing how hungry she was "If this journal is to be trusted, this place is full of guests, including some people that seems to have come from another reality entirely and I'm not talking of some hypothetical world where, I don't know, nugs rules us all. They're so different from us I don't even know how to put it in words. This discarts it as a Theodosian problem."

Jäger whined, worried.

Sigrun doled out the rest of the food between the two of them, and then took her journal out from her belt again and thumbed through it as she bit into a pear.

"That is a good point," she said. "These others sound...I don't know, like nothing I've ever heard of."

"I knew Eluvians and the Ancient Elven Magic were powerful things, but not that powerful, not enough to complete disrupt the fabric of existance."

She took another bite of bread.

"Let's eat and go see this Eluvian. I wonder what shattered it."

Sigrun nodded, then spread her hands and offered up a shrug. The wrinkle of her nose and scrunched brows all combined to form a 'who the fuck knows' sort of expression, which Sigrun seemed to think sufficed to convey, once again, how befuddling she found the whole situation.

"It's impressive how you can translate the whole sittuation so well, Sigrun dear."

Neria laughed.

"Let's move."

(ooc: I suggest we finish this thread here and pass to the new one, including Dagna)

Sigrun grinned widely, giving a modest shrug.

"It's all gone tits over ass if you ask me," she said, through a quiet chuckle, as she prepared to follow Neria.

(OOC: Sounds perfect!)