I can rewrite this if you'd sooner something else.

[killedwithlove]

Returning from the strange place back to Skyhold had been a bit of a shock, but far less of one than the original trip the other way around.

What was more surprising to Cole was feeling an unfamiliar ripple and distress in the castle. He quickly made his way after it, blanking himself from people's notice to head deep into the Undercroft, past the smithy, into the very bowels of the mountain and keep itself.

Because it was unfamiliar to this place, but he was sure that he knew that distress.

Elizabeth.

Comments

[skjalf]

With no shortage of fascination, Elizabeth observes the nuggalope consume every last crumb of the tart from Cole's hand. She smiles, as she turns her glance back to him in time to see him try it for himself.

"Really?" Her lips twitch, an out-and-out grin threatening to brighten her smile further. "For me, I taste it everywhere in my mouth. I bear a great fondness for sweets for that reason."

It is apparent that what she'd said has been forgotten, and she allows the topic to slide. She should remember that he already knows her far better than most. Leaning her head back against the smooth timber of the barn's wall, she hums thoughtfully to herself.

"Have you ever tried aught else before, perchance?"

[killedwithlove]

Cole is still making strange faces about the flavour, much like an infant given food for the first time.

"It's everywhere but... in the back of my teeth." He pokes up at the hinge of his jaw, under his cheekbone. "I think I like it." He'll need to think about it some more.

"I don't need to eat, so I don't. I have eaten before. Rabbit or dog mostly. Road tack."

[skjalf]

Truthfully, this is a fascinating experience. Rather like watching her little sisters and brothers try new foods for the first time. Only Cole is an adult by comparison to them, and can better articulate things as he feels them. Watching him makes a smile come to her face and remain firmly planted there.

"It is light and sweet, yes? Flaky, but the fruit is also rich and sweet, in its own fashion." Elizabeth takes another bite of hers, and continues to smile. "I am gladdened by it."

He has eaten dog? She coughs once, but makes no attempt to comment to that. Instead, she takes yet another bite of her tart, and settles back into the wall of the barn until she is finished. Only then does she speak up.

"This land is like my own, yet not. Is it difficult to find one's place in it?"

[killedwithlove]

He glances at her with that cough and flicker that comes with it, aware of the emotions briefly coming up. "Yes. When you're hungry enough, you'll eat anything you can catch or pick."

He picks at the tart, sharing some with the Nugalope and trying more small pieces himself, letting them sit on his tongue rather than just swallowing them.

"I don't understand," he admits. "What do you mean, find your place?"

[skjalf]

That statement causes her to look at him sharply, with sudden understanding. That, she gets. Totally and completely. The months in Sanctuary within the abbey walls, cold and dark and penniless. They had all been destitute. She'd had to learn to cook while Anne Neville, the daughter of a lesser man never did.

"You are right. I have seen that, myself." She offers this freely, and reaches over to tentatively squeeze his arm. "I am glad that your circumstances have become better."

Quietly, she watches him, content to do so until he speaks to her again. She extends her free arm, gesturing as though to encompass the entire fortress and courtyard before them.

"In England, I was a princess. Then a bastard, and then I was taken from there. I have known clearly what my role and place was in both worlds I went to before this one. Yet here... I lack purpose. Everything is foreign to me. I have no family, and it frightens me. What am I to do here?"

Unless the Inquisition needs someone who can literally make it rain (and she's not even sure what an Inquisition is in this world), then she feels as though she is not of much use. To him, she might admit her fear. She trusts him.

[killedwithlove]

He meets her gaze and nods. He's starved. Or, Cole did, and Cole remembers everything that happened to Cole, even if he doesn't always have context for the memories.

"I don't need to eat, not like he did. That's good."

Cole struggles with her question. He remembers not knowing who or what he was, but it was different. He couldn't interact with anyone. He was a ghost. And after that, he knew what he was and what he had to do.

"I'm a spirit. It's my... I help people. That's what I do. You can do what you would like. You could help Josephine, maybe... she's our ambassador. She's very kind and she always says she needs help. Or you could help in the library. Or the kitchens, if you like cooking. There's lots of things can be done here.

"I don't know what a princess does."

[skjalf]

"Perhaps not, but it is a new experience. Each food is different, and worth at least one taste, do you not think?" She understands what he is; she's seen it, how he can become unseen with a mere thought. To her, he is as a child, in a way; new to the world, experiencing everything for the first time.

And she would encourage him to try everything he could, were he to ask her. For now, she smiles at him with a sense of fondness. She feels very much the older sister in his company.

There are many things she can do here. By and large, she is most suited to politics. The thought of learning how to navigate among the nobility of this kingdom, learning who is who, is a little daunting. In time, she will see it as a challenge. For now? She is simply a girl out of place.

"I was to be a Queen," she admits quietly. "I was taught music and dancing so as to be pleasing to a foreign king and be wed to him. I would bear him sons, and that.." That would be it. Her eyebrows draw together in consternation. "But like you, I am more, now."

She can tell he's done some growing. His unending curiosity makes her feel lighter, amidst so much uncertainty. "I rather enjoy your company, you know."

[killedwithlove]

"Um... I guess so." He hadn't thought about it much before. He knows different foods taste different, intellectually. People like different things and they smell different. But he hasn't actually taken that as far as them being different experiences to him.

He starts dipping his finger in the berries, lapping the syrup off the tip delicately. He apparently likes the berries best.

"Is that all a Queen does in your world? But there's lots of things need doing. Josephine says governing takes an army of people."

[skjalf]

She cannot help it: Elizabeth releases a soft giggle, and then shakes her head with a sheepish smile. This Josephine is a woman she must meet, surely.

"Any Queen who dares to go further is called the Bad Queen. My mother committed the unforgivable offenses of being common and deigning to offer counsel to her husband—which he often heeded. And she was hated by many or it."

Leaning back, she tips her face up to peek at the rays of the sun shining over one of the castle's turrets. "My father would agree with Josephine. He made the final decisions, of course, but many helped him make them. From his privy counsel, like those whom surely advise your Inquisitor to Parliament, which helped draft and implement laws."

Glancing at him again, she smiles. "And you have many here to help, yes? In your own way." As she has her own.

[killedwithlove]

"Lots of people advise Cadash. She says she doesn't know enough about the surface world to make good decisions, but I think she just isn't very interested in politics and talking and would rather leave it to Josephine and Leliana and Cullen."

He pulls his knees to his chest, hugging them there and resting his chin on top. Most of his face vanishes between hat and knees.

"Yes. Most of them aren't too difficult to help."