An unquenchable flame

[worldtosave]

This island-city was beyond strange, a mix of new and old, familiar things and things she never would have dreamed of. But after her time as Inquisitor, Lannistia had long past the point of letting weird things stop her. What was one more? Except she couldn't seem to find any of her friends or, really, anyone familiar at all just yet, but she took some comfort in the fact it was a big place.

She was also taking some comfort in what the city called a 'park' the only place of heavy vegetation on the island. It wasn't quite a forest, but there were plenty of trees and they offered a peace she couldn't find in the busy streets. Here, in some secluded grove, she could finally collect her thoughts.

She needed a plan. She could make nice with locals until she was blue in the face and it wouldn't change her fortunes much, she needed an In. She'd grown oo used to Josephine and Leliana getting her everywhere and everything she needed.

Her heart panged as her thoughts went to her advisers and the one she missed the most. What she wouldn't give to see his pretty smile and feel his arms encompass her. Nothing ever felt like it could be wrong when she was pressed to her Commander's chest. But she couldn't afford to stray on thoughts of her missing lover, not just yet.

She sank down into the roots of a large tree, her head pressed back against the bark and her golden eyes shut to the sun filtering down. Just a moment of rest and then she'd bust some heads together.

Comments

[worldtosave]

"...what? No, I was in Skyhold, I thought you were with...something isn't right here."

Her concern morphed into confusion and she hesitated a moment before reaching for his left hand. He was with the Inquisition. She hadn't heard anything and it wasn't like her advisers wouldn't have known nor would have kept the arrival of her twin a secret, it was something else. Something surely impossible. Nimble fingers peeled his glove from his left hand and held it palm-up. The mark glowed it's sickly green and only seemed to pulse brighter as she brought her own left palm up to rest next to his. Identical marks on nearly identical hands.

[smolelf]

Gianni's eyebrows almost fall off of his forehead in his surprise. "How is that possible?"

He knows Lannistia wasn't with him at the Conclave. It had taken ages of convincing the Keeper to send him instead, wanting to protect his sister in case of the worst - which in this case, did actually happen - but also wanting to see further afield than the same several cities in the Free Marches where the clan stopped each season. She'd been so angry when he left, but that anger was for him putting himself in the position she saw as dangerous. He knew she wanted to protect him, but he wanted the same and in the end he'd won out.

He looks her in the face, searching for an answer. For all his accumulated knowledge, this is beyond his depth. Maybe a mage has a better idea and so he looks to his sister expectantly.

[worldtosave]

She shook her head. She knew he was hoping for an answer, she could feel it, but she didn't have one to give.

"No magic I know could do something like this." She thought over everything that came to mind, the argument with Keeper Istimaethoriel among her thoughts. What if the Keeper had made a different call? She'd seemed on the cusp of either decision, so much so Lannisitia was hardly sure of the answer herself. What if she'd made a different call? But she hadn't, so what did the what if's matter?

Maybe, somehow, someway, they produced what was happening right now.

With a small smile to try and ease any tension her twin might be feeling, she stole her brother's glove away to slide onto her own hand and settled back beside him with their shoulders touching. "Tell me what you remember of the inquisition."

[smolelf]

She doesn't have an answer for him and it makes him uncomfortable to have that unknown. But it's a familiar feeling too, like the moment Solas had grabbed his hand and raised it to that first rift. Equal parts awe and bewilderment. And in this case, perhaps it's better. If she's been through half of what he has, it will be good to be able to share it.

"Well, they thought I was the reason the Conclave exploded to start, but Cassandra came around. Or, well, she believed in me the most quickly. Cullen warmed up quickly too, but I think it was more to have someone else in the war room who was male. Leliana and Josephine just love to tease him." Gianni smirks at the memory, a frivolous thing to start with but one that would easily gauge just how similar Lannistia's experience had been. If the people were the same, with the same relationships.

[worldtosave]

She listens to a tale matching hers and it only furthers her confusion but also causes a burst of laughter and a grin. "They do like to tease him. After the Winter Palace, they kept teasing him about the amount of attention he'd received, he nearly dreaded the war table meetings."

She'd had to smooth some ruffled feathers after a couple of meetings before he could go back to work with some semblance of ease. Leliana and Josephine were delights, but they knew how to find the most vulnerable part of a person and hit it.

"Not that Dorian and Varric help, they're just as bad about teasing him." She smiled fondly but then leaned a bit more into his shoulder. "I wrote to you about them all, but I imagine you don't remember if you were too busy writing to me instead. Every time I'd sit to write something for you, I'd think of that night the Keeper made her decision and how different things could have been, how maybe I could have been with the Clan instead, mourning your death instead. Perhaps it was far more complicated than we thought."

[smolelf]

"Well considering what was in some of those letters I don't blame him." He fans himself with his hand to show just how steamy he means, then settles in again against her, looking out across the park and into the city beyond.

"I remember sending word to the clan as soon as I was able, from Haven. The last thing I wanted was for you to mourn. I suppose you did the same thing?" He puts an arm around her shoulders. "I guess it's nice to know that whichever of us went, we came out alright."

He was glad it was him, though, as he remembers it. Even thinking his twin sister could be gone for a few days was too much. He might have made his way to Haven himself to make whoever was responsible pay. Thankfully, it didn't turn out that way. Corypheus would have swept the floor with him without the mark.

Gianni's quiet for a long moment, thinking, then one ear twitches as it does when he has a particularly inquisitive thought. "I wonder what went differently with the Inquisition with you in charge instead of me."