[IC/OOC] Contact

[mactears]

sending crystal | letters and notes | in-person visits
To contact Loghain IC: Leave a response to this entry, specifying the means of contact (e.g., sending crystal, letters, in person visit). To contact me OOC: Discord: middlemarching#9936 Plurk: ragweed NB:  I work 9-5pm EST Mon-Fri, have additional volunteer obligations, and write fiction in my free time.

Comments

[mactears]

[No, she doesn't look like a woman well accustomed to wielding a weapon of any kind--though that's presumptuous of him, he decides after a moment's consideration.]

It can be rattling, fighting the demons that pour from the rifts, [he admits.]

[ipseite]

I certainly found tumbling from one a - a singular experience.

( One she singularly hopes never to repeat, for a start - she has no urgent desire to get near a rift, as things stand. )

It's the first time in many years, ( a moment later, ) that I've not had a contingent of guardsmen at my back always. I suspect our superiors here have thought better of sending me to any such thing since my disastrous entrance into the field at the temple Solasan.

[mactears]

It's the first time in many years that I've not had a contingent of guardsmen at my back always.

[That confirms for him a private suspicion he's nursed for some time, though he is careful not to voice the thought. That she's chosen to reveal this much to him is a gesture of trust, intentional or otherwise; he'll respect it.]

I suspect our superiors here have thought better of sending me to any such thing since my disastrous entrance into the field at the temple Solasan.

Forgive me for enquiring, [he begins after a pause,] but it seems to me that a lady in your current predicament could benefit from some practical experience handling a weapon of some kind.

[ipseite]

I've thought that self-same thing, ( she admits, wry. ) Magic was taught to me for that reason, but I have seen...

( But she knows Marius's motives to have been more complicated than that. )

I fear I have so rarely applied it in such a way, practically, it is of less significance than we might have hoped.

[mactears]

[He would not have taken her to be a mage, at first glance, but then, his exposure to mages is largely limited to those of the Circle. And the witch, of course. He makes a mental note to enquire after her, as well, at a later date.

He takes a sip from his tea, then sets the mug down, reaches into one of the leather sheathes on his hip, and withdraws a simple-looking dagger. He inspects the blade once, then resheathes it, unfastens the scabbard from his leg, and offers it to her, leather-clad blade first.] Something for you to begin with, [he offers her. He's not sure why he does it; something of Anora in her bearing, perhaps.]

[ipseite]

If this is an illicit attempt to pay me for my generosity--

( in a tone of slight warning, but she accepts the scabbard - turning it in her hands with enough familiarity that she must have handled weapons in the past, for all that she never did so with an eye to using them. She knows well enough their maintenance, when there were few enough hands that hers had been obliged to put themselves to new tasks.

That she isn't intimidated by a weapon in her hands is a good beginning. )

[mactears]

[He holds up a hand placatingly.] It is no such thing, [he assures her, with a look in his eyes that shows he means it. He marks her familiarity with the weapon, at least in how to hold it; it doesn't look like an alien thing to her, though given what else she's shared with him so far, this isn't surprising.]

I suspect it will be too large a weapon for your hand, [he admits, considering it, then motions for her to unsheathe it.] You might test the weight of it now, at least. It won't do you any good to learn to wield it if it is too heavy.

[ipseite]

( She handles it carefully when she removes it from the scabbard - in her hand it's apparent he may well be correct, not clumsy but a little strained. )

I have a smaller dagger, ( after a moment, looking up from it. ) It is a frivolous-looking thing, but deceptive. My husband set upon it enchantments - its blade never dulls.

( And it is wickedly sharp. If Marius had been reluctant to give her the tools by which to free herself of him, he'd been equally reluctant to leave her utterly helpless in his absence. )

[mactears]

[He makes a sound that might be approving.] Better to have your enemies under-estimate you, rather than the reverse, [he says, his head giving the smallest of nods.

Loghain looks to the dagger he'd placed in her hands.] If you would prefer to keep it, you may. I've no shortage of weapons at my disposal. [A pause.] Forgive me if I overstep, madame, but if you would like some instruction in how to better use this, I'll gladly make time.

[ipseite]

I would be most indebted to you if you would, Warden.

( She sheathes the blade, and makes no immediate move to return it to him. Her own is on her person - always on her person, Marius long insisted, a habit she has not felt it necessary or prudent to break - and she turns very slightly from him, adjusts her bodice, produces it.

It is, as she says, a nonsense-looking thing to a professional: Lamorre lettering etched on the blade, the hilt elaborately set with sapphire and amethyst jewels that flatter her well...but that blade has bite, and even a glance would have told him so without her assurance that it never dulls. )

A bride gift, ( she says, so carefully removing from her voice any trace of bitterness that she removes any hint of warmth, too. )

[mactears]

[He marks well the chill absence of warmth in her voice when she mentions her husband; this isn't the first time he's noted it, but it is certainly the first time he's truly suspected that not all was well between Petrana and her husband at the time she came through the rift into Thedas.

Loghain knows the shape of an unhappy marriage, but knows better still than to remark upon it. Instead, he examines the ornate dagger that Petrana presents to him and gives it his complete attention; the blade's mean curve is substantial, and the hilt, though largely decorative, well suited to her hand.

He looks up from it to consider the young woman before him, and offers,] I'm honoured to instruct you, madame. I'm at your disposal, whenever you have time.