makinglies | The Shadowfell

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faerun

The Shadowfell

Shadowfell

During the early, blue dawn of the morning, a hole opens in the Material Plane. The energy hums no differently than it had in the facility in Duplicity that had brought them here in the first place. This time, however, just before breaching the glowing white surface of light, a chill greets those who pass through. One, two, three, four shadows step through the light before it closes with barely a pop of energy beside the austere white marble of the recently recast temple.

Waiting on the other side of the gate is a land of barren monochrome. Plants like ash, rivers with the consistency of blood, and pools of thick, dripping ichor decorate a land of black and grey stone that connects to an equally grey sky. The life, like the color, seems gone from the land, and where there should have been unearthly silence, there were low murmurs and ominous creaks and noises that didn't quite make sense at the periphery of everything.

The landscape, at least, could not be called flat. Great, black mountains broke the dim, grey sky like blotches of ink on canvas. Even the group of armed visitors stood now upon a tall, but sloping hill marked with a single, gnarled tree. At the foot of the hill, ahead of the group, sat the hazy, black scar of what was once a city.

Spires of buildings stood as broken bones in the place Melvaunt had as its mirror, with the shattered docks even dipping into a charcoal ocean beyond it. Maléfell, once a town inhabited and infested in equal measure with ghosts, gasts, dopplegangers, and malice, now festers with a malevolent haze that visibly shrouds the city. At its edges, just outside the haze, is a pulsating mass. It's upon closer inspection that the mass gains definition: bodies. Undead. Skeletons. Ghosts haunting black ooze and rotted corpses that press at the Darkland's edges, daring to neither venture in nor go too far from their home.

Hundreds of the displaced mill about, gorging on more of the black ichor that fills the waterways into the city. Here they wait, trapped, the sounds of them muffled and nearly silent in the blanketing nothing of the Plane around them.

♥

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Amelia's kiss to his cheek is met with a more openly affectionate one to her lips, as if he's trying to fortify her until she returns. Maybe he is, not because he thinks she needs it but instead because he wants to give it to her.

Once she's taken the girls and slipped out, he turns back to the sofa and promptly lifts Chris's legs so he can plot back down and drape them over his lap. He briefly considered picking Chris up wholesale and interposing himself but this is less invasive considering where they were with each other yesterday. Even so, its taking all he has not to just blurt out what he and Amelia talked about, but he shouldn't without her present. Somehow Jon rolling his eyes or worse, being legitimately uncomfortable or disparaging about it, in reaction also would feel worse to him right now. Better to just get comfortable.

"Well, we're not to say we're from Mulmaster, I know that much." He was listening every time Chris talked about the Moonsea. "You say elves are tall, as a rule? And live a long time? Practically the opposite of what I'm used to, then. And for dwarves, are all the ones who live on the surface outcasts? Or can yours come and go from their mountain as they please? I would hope the latter as your world seems like a much kinder one."

He runs his fingers through his beard for a moment, thinking, as he places his other hand on Chris' leg and absently runs his thumb gently back and forth over the fabric under his touch. "Well, where would how we sound mark us as being from? Could we pass as being from wherever that is? Unless we just want to be open about having come from other worlds, but I would assume people will think we're insane if we said that. It would make it easier to explain any gaps in our common knowledge though."

Chris makes a small sound of surprise at having his legs lifted, but doesn't protest the rearrangement. If anything, he settles in where he's lying more. If Jon was going to stubbornly insist, Chris wasn't going to fight back too much.

"We can know Melvaunt was destroyed, it was about nine months ago, word around here has travelled. As for what you all sound like, you both sound as if you're nobility; the Sword Coast often has your sort of accent, so the nobles around here emulate it too...but don't say you're from the Sword Coast, they apparently had some Illithid shit happen recently, according to Astarion, and I don't know enough about it to sell the story."

What would work? Zehntil Keep was too insular. Phlan could work, or maybe Hulsburg, but what if someone asked about the politics or recent goings-on, or if one of them slipped and said something that didn't make sense?

"Just...just say you're third or fourth nobility from the Heartlands, traveled through Teshwave on the Moonsea. There, you picked up a local guide, and your travels have taken you north. The Heartlands is varied enough that any inconsistencies can be waved off, and that slight accent Amelia's got won't be pondered over too much. As for who and what you should know, the Varm, Vaeguld, and Veld of the Ride are nomadic barbarian groups that largely rule there, so far as anyone rules the land. Springmeadow, Whitbell, and Bastila are the only established towns on the Ride up until Ilinivur, where all you need to know for sure is that it's run by a council. The Head Speaker for it is named Elilah Soliell. The rest I'll tell you later, but as traveling nobility, no one would expect you to know everything about the area anyway. And...why you're dressed as you are is to dissuade bandits."

He shrugs lightly. "I don't know first thing about Planeswalkers and how they tend to introduce themselves, but I think announcing you're from a different plane from the top is unwise for a number of reasons."

Jon glances up to see Chris with his legs on Wolfe and there's some fleeting moment of envy before he sets it aside. Wolfe has been trapped away from them, having sex with dying people for weeks on end. He deserves that closeness. Not to mention he'd saved the Archivist from what could have been a nasty scratch or bite. Jon certainly hadn't acquitted himself half so well in the Shadowfell. If he were better fed, maybe he could-

No. He shouldn't be thinking like that anymore.

"I imagine we'll be in trouble if we're asking for the head of a council." The idea of just ringing round to the local MP is mad enough. Then again, with Chris being actual nobility, maybe he's done that sort of thing. Jon shakes his head slightly to himself as he starts scrubbing. "Is your man Gideon part of it, though?" If he's some powerful member of the city, it stands to reason he might have some political influence.

"I suppose the other thing is... is Jon a normal name? Or Wolfe? Amelia? You said your own name is unique in this world, but it's common in mine. I don't mind having a 'unique' name here, but if we're trying to be discreet for the moment and need to pick something else while we're in Bastila, it would be good to know now."

"Its easier to sell a lie if its half true. I'll just go with minor and unseated nobility for myself," he says with a shrug. He's had plenty of practice laying low and keeping his identity a secret. This will be easier than that, even. Mostly. "I don't particularly want to give up my name though."

Adalwolfe Hawke, as archaic as his first name is, remains as the last connection to his home. His magic will be gone soon, replace by another version; his own family and friends were either never his or can't be anymore as he's now someone else, depending on how you look at it. But the name still feels like him and he suddenly feels a bit defensive at the idea of leaving that behind. Its one thing to leave his world, another to leave himself behind entirely.

"It sounded to me like Gideon was the sort of person that we could tell our peculiar origins, though, yes? I mean you wouldn't have suggested him as an option still if he wouldn't believe us or would call the guard immediately or something." Wolfe looks at Chris' face, expression turning slightly less jovial and more concerned as a thought occurs to him. "...Providing we can convince him of who you are? How do you intend to play that?"

Chris shrugs again. He'd asked for city leadership before, but that had been a perk of his standing they couldn't rely on now. Regardless, it didn't seem too weird to him.

"Gideon is part of the council, yes. He's the head of magical affairs. I don't intend to call on him at the council's meeting place, though; I intend to ask for a meeting with him at the magic school. I won't pretend to be anyone but myself...and then, once we're up with him, I'll ask him to cast a Circle of Truth and won't resist. He won't have any choice but to know I'm telling the truth, no matter how wild."

And it would be wild. Gideon would ask questions, want to know finer details until he was satisfied it wasn't some sort of modified memory spell or something... but he'd listen. Chris was sure of that much.

"As for your names, you don't have to change them. Jon can still be short for something, just not Jonathan. Maybe Joavan? That's a common enough name around here. Wolfe, too, is fine so long as you leave off the full version. Amelia ought be fine as well."

He didn't know many Amelias, but not none. Besides, if they're from further away from here, who was going to question them that intensely anyway?

"I think, with exception to Gideon, we need only half-lie to get what we need in civil places. Most won't ask as long as we keep our heads down."

Jon makes a face at 'Joavan.' He refrains from asking how you would even get that nickname from it, though. He's known at least one 'Margaret' who went by 'Peggy.' If they don't need to hide their names, though, he's fine with that. He's not especially tied to 'Sims' as a surname, and as long as people call him 'Jon,' that's sufficient. Jonathan will have to be reserved for Chris for when he's in trouble. His mind jumps briefly to Elias, one of the only other people in his life who'd used his full name every so often. In a much different context, thank god.

"Right. Well, I'm happy to say I'm your scribe, or something. Saves me actually having to pretend I'm some sort of noble." And whatever manners or rules might come with it. "Kirkwall sounds more like a town here than London probably does, if we want to say we're from there, if anyone presses for specifics." Hopefully, they won't.

"And Amelia can be your bodyguard. Oh, Lord Hawke."

Jon calls him 'Lord' Hawke again and he only barely suppresses the grimace because he knows its sarcasm. "I think if I'm to be "Lord" anything it should be Lord Wolfe. Lord Hawke is still in Thedas."

Shifting a little, he tries to see both of the other men at once with only modest success. "And bodyguard could work. So could wife."

He almost doesn't say it, but the thought bubbles out of his mouth before he can think the better of it for the timing. It is horrific timing for a myriad of reasons but it makes him so boyish happy that currently he doesn't much care that Amelia's penchant for awful timing may be rubbing off on him.

He nods vaguely to Jon's suggestion of scribe. That would work too; no reason a scribe couldn't sound as prissy as his master. "Kirkwall's fine. Small enough to not warrant being on a map, recently founded, whatever makes most sense to whoever's asking."

He looks over at Wolfe, where his legs are still over the mage's lap, and he can tell there's something pleased with himself for his suggestion, but he assumes it's due to Wolfe's romantic nature. It would probably make Amelia blush, but that was fine, too.

"Sure. Might be better, even, people will be more likely to think her a noble as well and not suspect she might be a capable fighter and rogue. So long as everyone agrees, the details are whatever we like."

And hopefully, they could decide on them soon; it was barely noon, but he felt he could sleep for a few hours at least. Too much magic expended in one day after so long barely using even half, probably.

Jon's expression flickers momentarily to irritation. He doesn't want to have the same argument with Wolfe that blew everything up with Amelia, but it grates at him. This isn't a fight worth having, he reminds himself. He tells himself. He warns himself. There's no winning it and everyone's in a better state than they were yesterday. It would be kind to give them at least a day before he starts arguing.

There's also something oddly gleeful about the mage's suggestion of pretending to be married to Amelia. Jon knows he deserves some of that. So, he swallows down the part of himself that wants to snap that Lord Hawke is here and in Thedas, and carries on washing. The scrubbing is hard on his arms, but he's not giving up just yet.

"Couldn't you actually get married? I mean, you have that Ceremony spell thing, don't you?" His gaze shifts to Chris.

Wolfe runs his hands down his face. He was too casual in mentioning it, thats what it was, but Jon's comment at least gets them to the same place. Its a good thing he doesn't know what Jon is uncharitably thinking of him or that might derail the whole conversation.

"Yes, that's. That's what I was implying," Wolfe looks at Chris meaningfully. "Nothing is stopping any of us now, and Amelia and I were talking..."

He gestures as if that says it all, then considers that Chris is both very literal sometimes, and very tired now. "Those of us who want to marry each other should. We can talk about it after we've rested, but I wanted to put it out there for us all."

Oh…yes, he could cast that at any moment. Say the words he’d said to marry Sasha and Tim and make it official as any court record.

He’d very nearly forgotten with everything else that his stipulation of simply not being in Duplicity to do the deed was met.

His thoughts go to Wolfe and to Jon, who he’d thought he’d need to make wait longer until he sorted things with Ra’ah and Kallian…who now had no care or say over who Chris tied himself too. They weren’t his fiancés. They weren’t his anymore at all.

His thoughts go to Jacob, who he’d talked at length with about a domestic life. A grand ‘what if’ including running a gang and protecting a city and children. A ‘what if’ neither of them had likely thought actually possible.

And if he’d known it had been their only chance? If he’d known then what he did now…he’d have bound himself to all three of them much sooner. Seen Jon married to Martin too. He’d have encouraged a lot more that he’d discouraged in the name of waiting for a better, more deserving, location.

Wasn’t that always his problem? Planning and waiting and planning and waiting too long. Too late.

Chris moves slowly, but extracts himself enough to sit up again so he can look between his boys.

“Good. Then I don’t think you should wait. You’ve waited plenty by my counting…I can’t today any longer, but as soon else as you’d both like, I’d be more’n happy to see it done.”

"Certainly easier to maintain a lie when at least part of it's true," Jon agrees. His mind turns briefly over the idea of claiming to be Chris' husband, but given they're not claiming he has any sort of title, probably best to leave off of that. Especially if it's some sort of higher level magic, as would seem to be the case.

"Is there any sort of marriage certificate in-" No. Jon stops himself and frowns down at the shirt he's working on before letting it sink back into the suds and picking out a different piece to scrub. "Never mind. I suppose it wouldn't matter here unless... unless we'd have to file taxes?" Which, none of them would, given they've no actual city or state to call home. "Christ... that's an unexpected benefit. Nothing's assured except death now. And even that has exceptions."

"Jon I'm going to need you to listen with your heart for a moment instead of your head," Wolfe says with an incredulous chuckle. He turns his gaze to Chris just after. "And Chris, just to make sure, you know that desire is not limited to just Amelia and me, right? If we're going to do this for real, then I want us to be bound all at the same time. Unless I'm the only one?"

He glances between the two other men again, fairly certain he's not wrong, but Jon is being obtuse and Chris' phrasing makes it feel as if he's only considering officiating for Wolfe and Amelia, not taking vows himself. Wistfully and with a bit of humor, Wolfe laughs internally to himself at his not just having been obvious to begin with.

“There are certificates, they just aren’t needed if we aren’t in a town or dealing with property and inheritance.” He calls back to Jon. Nothing they’d have to deal with for a while, at least.

He’s half startled into looking back at Wolfe and his brows crease. “Well of course. I was just thinking on how I’m glad I have the chance to regret not marrying either of you sooner, but we were talking about you and Amelia, not me. I’ll marry my mage and my archivist as soon as you say and at least a day apart…or a day we know for certain we’re doing nothing else cause the magic’s powerful.”

He says it with zero gravitas or concern for the fact it probably deserved a bit more seriousness than he had in him right now, but he was earnest.

“I think, for me, I’d also like a proper ribbon for hand fasting, but it’s not a requirement.”

The door starts to open as Chris starts his answer to Wolfe and through it come bounding the dogs, each with a duck in her mouth. Rather than going directly to their master, they make their way to Jon as if to say 'Look, something good for you!' Amelia misses their beeline to the Archivist as she's distracted by the cleric talking about handfasting.

"Planning your wedding already? And here I thought we were waiting to have this conversation." She looks over at Wolfe with a bright grin and then winks at Chris. "Is that traditional here? I'd like to incorporate whatever parts of the culture and tradition of our new home that we can." A beat, and her grin only widens as she zeroes in on the mage again. "I need to make sure my First Husband is properly dressed, at the very least, even if he's made it a habit to go around without pants lately."

Two forms of teasing at once? Yes, it's absolutely necessary.

She chuckles but allows that comment to stand before calling over to the girls. "Patience, Cookie, those go to Wolfe, not Jon." She shakes her head as she moves toward them to encourage them to leave the poor man alone, still laughing under her breath. "They're proud that they caught something after I told them off the binxes they found. I didn't think they'd want to share with you to prove they'd managed, though."

Jon just blinks at Wolfe before the man's more explicit. That- Well, then. That's been put out there. He doesn't have much of a chance to respond before Chris does, and then there are dogs and dead waterfowl being waved in his face. Down on his knees, the Archivist doesn't fall over, but he does jerk his wet hands up and twist around to try to ward the dogs away.

"Get those things out of my face!" He shouldn't yell at the dogs, but Patience, at least, seems to understand she's made a mistake as she's backing off even before Amelia's command. Cookie seems to gather from his tone and her ears fold back as she scampers over to Wolfe, instead. Patience follows after given Jon what he can only assume is an 'apologetic' look. He just frowns at her before grasping the wash basin and pulling himself back around to it. Better to finish this quickly so he can be off the floor. Being at eye-level with whatever is in the dogs' mouths is highly unpleasant.

Jon lets the others talk as he remains beneath his own little storm cloud. He'll warm back up to the conversation once he's had a chance to settle his frayed nerves. Probably.

"Of course its a requirement," Wolfe counters even as he's wrestling Cookie's exuberance and the flush that creeps up his neck from Amelia's words. He's been caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar, though she doesn't seem angry in the slightest that he brought it up without her here.

Raising his head, Wolfe looks over at Amelia with a sheepish smile, brimming with affection. "I'm sorry, Love. It just slipped out."

He's too caught up in the middle of all of this to even scold Jon for snapping at his girls.

"'First Husband?' You have plans on a second already?" He throws back to her easily and with a small smile. "Rings are more the tradition these days, but it's an old Moonsea tradition; it always appealed to me. You tie the knots together and undo them over the years, then when the knots are all out, you and your partner reflect on your time together, your love, and tie more knots as desired. I thought it a more...active role in expressing your love to someone. Saying 'I choose to be here and continue to choose' rather than a given." He shrugs.

"I'll not fault the idea of the rings, though; they certainly hold up better to time and element."

Jon sounds in a sour mood, but from his place still on the couch, Chris ensures a gentle feeling of something like a warm palm on the back of Jon's neck reaches him. He might not be able to clean with magic anymore, but he can still do that.

Wolfe receives the cleric's upturned brow. "You were meant to keep a secret and failed both in keeping it and initially telling it? You must be flustered, love."

"Jon, please. They didn't mean any harm." Amelia gives the man a firm look and then makes her way to the couch to give each of the girls a few ear scratches. It wasn't the best thing for them to do, but it seems obvious to her that they were trying to make certain Jon knew the next meal would be more to his liking. The snapping was entirely unnecessary.

"It's all right, Wolfe. I was only teasing. If the timing was right, then there's no harm at all in asking after it." She smiles down at her mage and presses a kiss to his forehead. The couch is plenty occupied for now, so she steps around the back so she can drape her arms around Wolfe's shoulders as she leans over it. It's comfortable enough a position and has the added bonus of not allowing her to fall asleep just yet. "The plan was to speak after we'd all rested, either later today or tomorrow," she offers to Chris. "There's no trouble for speaking on it sooner, especially when I caught him off guard by asking him earlier." Her lips pull into a half-smirk as she tries, and fails just a little, to keep her smugness about getting the 'yes' from Wolfe out of her expression.

"I like the idea of handfasting and working out the knots together over time. It's romantic and deeply intimate to share such thoughts with the person you love. Rings I can also understand," she did steal one for Wolfe last Tumenalia, after all, "but I'm not attached to the idea. I can take it or leave it.

"As for my First Husband..." She chuckles and kisses Wolfe's crown. "It's a joke from long ago in Duplicity. For now, Wolfe will be my one and only husband. You and I need time before we'd decide on anything like that with one another." The cleric gets a meaningful look and a soft smile. "It's not as if there's any rush. Wolfe and I already discussed waiting until after we're all written into the Weave."

Amelia suggesting marriage with Chris, even in a far flung future, has Jon's head turning sharply. He'd ignored the chiding, but that's a surprise, especially when he can feel something at the back of his neck. The soft words from Chris tell him it's the cleric's magic, but it's still unexpected. Less so than Amelia's potential proposal, of course.

The handfasting is a nice thought. Martin would have loved it.

But he's putting those thoughts away in a box and storing them deep within the festering recesses of his mind.

"We were discussing marriage as a cover for us," Jon says, still watching Amelia and Chris for a moment before making himself return to his chore. Amelia's already finished hers, which means he's dawdling. "For when we go into town. You and Wolfe can be minor nobility from the Heartlands, I'd be your scribe, and Chris would be our local guide, hired out of Teshwave. Then it turned into something you could actually do... if you didn't want to wait. Chris just needs to get his magic back tonight.

"Waiting to do it might be more sensible, though, given we don't know what's going to happen with the two of us." Jon gestures briefly between himself and Wolfe with a dripping hand. "And if you want a ribbon"--his eyes are on Chris--"or, er... s-several ribbons, then we'll need to purchase those. I don't suppose there's anything technically stopping us, just..." not wanting to condemn Chris to being married to two people who might lose everything about themselves at any point in (presumably) near future. "Just what makes sense."

"Yes I'm flustered; this is something I've wanted for a long time," he says with a bit of that flush still coloring the back of his neck. He's not embarrassed at the wanting of it, just his eagerness. He kisses Amelia's arm as she brings them down around his shoulders, his hands coming up on reflex to rest at her elbows. "I don't see why we can't do a ring and handfasting both. We're of a myriad of cultures ourselves so I don't see why there should be a limit to what we decide to do."

There's something behind his declaration, though. The bronto in the room that Jon refers to in a vague sort of way, causing Wolfe to glance at him. "But we did talk about waiting."

They should probably have an open conversation about that with all four of them, but after some sleep and some food. If there's anything Wolfe learned in Duplicity, it was open communication ultimately was helpful, no matter how painful in the moment. And if he's learned anything since coming here, he needs to put that into practice more often. But there's still a time and a place for things like this.

"We can talk more tomorrow. Honestly, I'm so famished I likely to stop making sense any minute and just eat the ducks whole," he jokes lightly, making a hand motion at the girls. Obediently, they each drop their bounty and sit. Wolfe should get up and see to dinner, but with both his loves this near its hard to make himself, even with the rumbling in his belly.

"Quite a bit of time, I'd say as well." Chris says it maybe a moment too quickly and he feels poorly for it, but he presses on. "We're not settled on what we are or what we want to be. I...while marriage at this point for any of us isn't likely to mean anything but sentimental value and the magical benefits that come with the spell, I think I'd like to reserve it for the relationships I know...warrant it."

Even as the last couple words come out, they don't sound any better, and he sighs and rubs a hand down his face. He loves her; she's one of his best friends of his life, but he's nowhere near ready to claim such a tie as marriage or even romantic partners. They share a partner and fool around for fun, but anything beyond that...not when they're hardly 24 hours past having to put boundaries between each other. There's no soft way to say that.

Besides, with Jon and Wolfe both mentioning waiting, it's injecting anxiety into his already tired head. What they're saying makes sense, in a way...but his mind flashes to Jacob and his chest tightens.

It was fine. Whatever they wanted for whatever reasons they choose...the difference between now and before is that he could actually bring his all against anyone trying to take any of them from him, even death. Lord or not, he was a powerful Cleric; there was little he couldn't make bow to him as needed.

He stands from the couch and scrapes together his energy. Lunch. He needed to help make lunch; that was something he could do. He moves to the dogs and gives each a pet as he scoops up the fowl. "Good girls. I'll save bits for you." Then, to their humans he adds, "You two work out what cover you'd like, and we can work around it. I think that would be the wisest idea to keep from too many conflicting ideas. I'll start working on these, so I'll hear if I need to chime in.

Wolfe's right that they need to wait to have more in-depth conversations about all this, and Amelia can tell from how her stomach clenches twice over. First when Jon mentions that they don't have to wait, then again when Chris so bluntly reminds her of the boundary they set last night. It only shows in her face as a small frown, but her mind starts to race with too many thoughts.

She does want it and sooner would be better, but she was the one who said they'd wait. Did she even realize they could do this as soon as Chris had the spell prepared? For all her need to plan, did she stop for one second to think about what her heart might want rather than listening to her head when making plans? Waiting ensures they're all written into the Weave and safe, something she needs desperately for the entire family. Waiting means they can make a true affair out of it, even if it's only the four of them here in this temple with their pets to support them. But do they need that? Did she need that in Duplicity when she literally bloodied her knuckles and ruined a dress to get into a shop and steal the ring Wolfe now wears around his neck? Does she need it now when the only thing between them and having what they want for each other is themselves?

Chris, of course, is right about where things stand for them and his desire to use the spell only for the most serious of his relationships is fair. She shouldn't have made it sound like it was something she was thinking of for them. It's not, at least not yet, because she has no idea what she wants with him. She doesn't know what she can even offer him when she's such a fucking mess who can't even accept being told she's enough by their patron god. Dreams, even if it were something for them, tying themselves together with magic? What a mistake that would be for them both.

Her arms curl the slightest bit tighter around Wolfe in a hug before she moves to set herself down next to him. The cleric may be running from them - she can see it because she'd do the same if she could - but they should all choose the cover story they're going with together.

"I'm fine playing a minor noble. Convincing others I'm something I'm not is easy for me, given my line of work." She huffs a breath and leans further into her partner. Little Thunder tries to settle with her, but the rogue encourages her to follow Chris with a small nod of her head and a ruffle of her chest feathers. "If you tell me what city we're from and what the region we're supposedly from is like, I can keep my commentary vague and true enough that most people will be none the wiser." She hums thoughtfully. "I don't know if I have the proper clothes, though. What we have from here is very plain for even minor nobility and my own is obviously a fighter's garb."

Jon watches Chris retreat with slightly raised brows. He still doesn't fully understand what the relationship is between the rogue and cleric, and given it appears to be #complicated at the moment, he's not especially inclined to stick his nose into it. The Archivist is getting fear of loss and uncertainty off of both of them before he refocuses on trying to push other voices and feelings out of his head. There's curiosity, to be sure, but he'll leave mediation to Wolfe, if it's needed. The mage is close to both of them, more likely to be impartial... in so much as Wolfe is even capable of that with people he cares about.

"We thought we could say we're from Kirkwall, a small settlement in the middle of the Heartlands. It's a generic enough sounding name." Jon frowns down at the washing, feeling his arms beginning to ache with the effort along with his knees for just being down on the marble floor for this long. Maybe he should ask for Chris to bring him a pillow? No. That's silly. "If we really don't want anyone to know who we are, we could use wholly made up family names. Lord and Lady Sommerset from Kirkwall?"

"I wouldn't remember Sommerset is supposed to be me, but the idea is a good one. We could use Amell? That's my mother's family. Or... Royer?" he says with a grin and a squeeze to Amelia's waist where he'd wrapped his arm the moment she'd come to sit beside him. He can tell she's letting worries run behind her eyes, but its less intense than before, and not overpowering in the moment. Chris, too, is unsettled, but its easy to see why, and Wolfe makes the conscious decision to let it go unaddressed for the moment. Tomorrow. They'll talk about it first thing tomorrow, when they're all more level.

Why is waiting so damned difficult?

He's never really thought about why, probably because he's more than capable of it if the reason for the waiting is obvious or tactical, and he's not so emotionally involved, but the things that involve his loved ones... He wants to make things better now, wants to give them what they want now, and waiting seems like he might not get the chance.

Maybe its hard because if he doesn't, he'll have lost something. Like Jon having lost his chance with Martin, or Chris with Jacob. Amelia with Alois or Yennefer.

Or himself with Anders.

That thought stings as it always does and Wolfe rests his head against Amelia's shoulder. One evening isn't going to change anything. They're safe in this temple, they're all more than capable of defending themselves, and no one ever knows they're here besides their Queen and her servant. There is no danger here.

So why does he still feel like he has to be ready to fight for everything - everyone - he has?

"As for the clothes, we were by bandits when we first arrived. I like that better than us wearing rough clothes for the road. It would explain our lack of other supplies, if anyone happens to look at us more closely than a glance."

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