abraxaslogs | WELCOME TO SOLVUNN!

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WELCOME TO SOLVUNN!

WELCOME TO SOLVUNN!

Welcome to Solvunn! Bright suns and merriest of welcomes to you! The portal opens in a vast field on the western side of town surrounded by cattle, with a distant view of the bustling marketplace. The first impression of the settlement is one of idylic, country charm. There are no looming structures or crowded streets. Instead, there are cozier houses on wide streets and community buildings made of stone and wood. A gentle breeze rolls across the field and the sun is high in the sky.

There's not as much magic here as in other locations, but it's there. No one will be stopped from entering Solvunn, though suspicion will be cast upon new arrivals. Citizens will be friendly and welcoming, but curious about their new visitors. It isn't often that they welcome new folks- especially not so many at once!

With tensions between the other communities, Solvunn will not be keen on ratting out those who fled Thorne, but with the knowledge that sanctuary will not be given for free. Everyone does their part, whatever that part may be.

Asking questions will result in being told to find Rowan March, one of the council members, somewhere in the marketplace.

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Estinien nods his head, knowing from experience how much losing a person in a farming community could multiply the load on those left behind. Normally, he was much less of a 'helpful' person than Himeka. He didn't always see a tragedy and assume it was his place to do something about it. Yet, in this situation... because of the way Solvunn is, and what they've left behind...

He does want to help. It's because they have already earned his aid with their kindness, but also because he sees something of himself in this place. Coming from a prison, where he can been almost certain he would die, only to stumble upon a farm raising such familiar animals...

He remembers Himeka talking about fate. If he were to take anything as a sign from Halone, he guesses it would be something like this.

"I know enough to take on some of the load as early as tomorrow," he says. He's still starved and exhausted, but he's never been one to spend much time recovering, either. "They need only tell me their routine."

She's unsurprised that Estinien would be eager to get started, nor that he would feel a connection to this sort of place. She hadn't asked for his thoughts on it nor had she been aware of exactly what kind of farm they had, but once she saw the sheep she couldn't help but spare a number of knowing glances his way in addition to a handful of cheeky grins.

It does feel a little perfect, doesn't it? Perfectly imperfect.

"Considering it will likely be a few weeks before his arm fully heals, I'm sure they will be glad for it."

Despite being a healer, Himeka isn't the sort to admonish him from wanting to get right into things. They are both eager to stretch their legs both physically and metaphorically.

"I'll be up as well, though I'd like to go back into town tomorrow and see what I can do to earn some coin."

She had managed to get them a few things to eat in the interim before she eventually found Maeve, but knowing that their hospitality won't last forever, they should start gathering some currency and supplies to eventually set out to do...whatever it is they're going to do. It's just nice to have the luxury to do that.

There's a lot that Estinien can handle when it comes to hardship, but as it turns out, complete lack of agency over his fate is not one of them. The helplessness of being imprisoned had hurt him more than any other part of it, and fear of having it happen again will stick with him far longer than this accumulated frailness. It doesn't help that, in the end, he wasn't the one to surpass their condition. They had to be saved from the outside by individuals with yet unknown goals.

He shakes his head a little, trying to dispense of the thought. He hates the idea that, despite being free, none of it was by his own merits. He escaped because he was set free and that's it. Nothing more.

It's the kind of thing that could easily set off another burst of restless anxiety, but he's trying not to do that right now. He wants some peace, if only for a night. He wants to feel as if things might work out, despite all the things he can already imagine going wrong. Can't he worry about something as simple as earning coin, instead?

He can't stop it from making him frown, though, too many worries lurking around each corner. As her hand passes over his shoulder in her efforts to heal his bruising, he reaches up to grasp it with his own. For the moment, he is silent.

The silence isn't something that concerns her at that moment, not when it begins. A bit of quiet to fall between them is how most of their interactions go and feeling that she's successfully dragged him out of the deepest trenches in his mind, she's happy to concentrate on the rest of her spell.

This, at least, she can finally do. She can finally be useful again. Beyond being the Warrior of Light or anything greater, she can finally do something for the people she cares about. And that feels the greatest gift of all--well, that second only to their freedom.

Heavy though her thoughts have been of late, she sees their escape as nothing but a boon, no matter who orchestrated it.

So when Estinien takes her hand, she pauses instantly, blinking and a little confused. But it dawns on her that a few words do not do it all justice. That no matter his fears and no matter her hopes--they're here, right now, in all the impossibility of it.

The magic beneath her palms dies down as she twists her hand a little to more securely squeeze his back in return. She leans forward then, resting her forehead on the back of his shoulder and placing her free hand on his upper arm.

"We made it. That's what matters, isn't it?"

He nods hesitantly, knowing that he should be grateful for that much, no matter how it happened. That Relena was safe after he feared the worst, that all who wanted to managed to escape. They didn't have to pick and choose who to escape with. As of now, they are all free - or at least as free as they can be, when kidnapped away from their homes.

He feels her touch against his back and arm, and relaxes into it. He's already feeling better - it wasn't the most severe injury, and her magic has already gotten it to a more comfortable state.

"Though blind luck or otherwise," he says. "And now, we survive long enough to see what comes next."

There's more he wants to do, beyond wiling his days away here. But to do that, they'll need to be healthy, and they'll need a place they can return to.

She gives a light huff at that and lifts her head. Though she can't see his face, she can imagine the expression that comes along with a comment like that.

"In my experience, both are good enough." And most of her life since she left the Sea has been charted by blind luck or knowing the right people. This time, it may have been both.

"But if there is something we are good at, you and I...it is surviving against impossible odds, wouldn't you agree?"

"I would."

As she lifts her head, he shifts, turning his shoulder that he's facing her more properly. As such, their clasped hands can sink down to rest at his side. His tail wags at its end, curling in closer to her. As his eyes meet hers, they are thoughtful and searching.

He's survived many times more than he should have, and this is just another instance of it. The difference here is that it's something he had struggled for, and something he had sought without complication. It's very difficult, wanting to be alive. Accepting his death would have been much less exhausting.

"Unless you have any objections... I think I would like to carry on from where I left off in the bath."

If there is one thing she is thankful for in all this mess, it has been nice being able to reconnect with him. They haven't gotten to nearly as much as she would have liked since he made his reappearance and joined the Scions, fraught with threats to face and young Elezen to comfort as it were. But it had been very easy to sink back into that comradery, something she had also found strangely easy when they first met, being the odd pair that they made.

(It does make her think back on their trip to Dravania in times like this, knowing that Relena is not far away and getting her own bit of well-deserved rest. Though the circumstances at the time had been dire, the whole experience had been...healing for her in so many ways, their unlikely diplomatic envoy. She often thinks on it fondly, even the rough patches.)

"I think that sounds like a great idea. So much so I have it in my mind to copy you, if you don't mind."

The way that she unceremoniously flops down onto the hay and blanket says that it really doesn't matter if he minds or not--she's doing it. Unfortunately the action does shoot a little hay out of the side of her very carefully wrapped "mattress".

A beat passes.

"Oops."

Estinien snorts softly, shaking his head. If it were him he probably would have just rolled up in a blanket without even contemplating a mattress, so he can't complain. He leans over to collect one of the additional blankets, spreading it over the two of them as he lays down at her side, with a bit more grace.

He feels closer to her than he ever expected he would, if only because back home she certainly didn't need him around. He was happy to lend his lance to her cause, and she was happy to see him again, but ultimately... he didn't think he was at the center of her story anymore. Here, everything feels increasingly strange and disconnected that world.

In some ways, they only have each other, when it comes to the worries of Hydaelyn. He swore from the day they reunited here that he would protect her, and maybe now he'll actually have the chance to live up to that promise.

After a moment of gazing at her, he nods his head to one of the floating orbs of light.

"You can shut those off, can't you?"

She purses her lips slightly as she inspects to see if she's pushed out too much hay and ends up trying to just stuff it back underneath the blanket. No harm, no foul.

When she turns her attention back to Estinien, catching him watching her, she tilts her head to the side as she accepts the blanket and flops back down (almost undoing her work again).

To his question she, of course, says with little intonation--

"No, afraid not."

And blinks innocently.

"Hm."

Estinien stares back her, somehow not convinced. With his own flat expression, he pushes his hand into her face.

"You best send them outside, then."

It didn't work. She didn't believe it would and he can probably feel her smiling behind his hand, because she just keeps talking despite the muffled sound.

"But then they'd get cold!"

As if little balls of light have such a need.

Raising one hand up, she wiggles her fingers and the balls all silently float towards her, orbiting her hand to wait their next command.

Estinien snorts, withdrawing his hand after a gentle, additional push. Once her eyes are uncovered, she'll see that he's smiling a little, his gaze flickering over to watch her trick.

"I've not seen you do that before," he says, his tail wagging slightly at the end, outside the cover of the blanket.

Her smile only widens at seeing his, glad to have finally pulled him out of the gloom.

"You took so long in the bath, I had time to come up with a few tricks."

She reaches out with both hands and cups all the balls of light between them. Then she squeezes them together as if crushing them, but when she opens her hands, she tosses a myriad of little twinkling lights towards the roof. A small splash of "stars" float above them.

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WELCOME TO SOLVUNN!

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