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Sera’s heard it all before. 10 years of: what kind of a person do you have to be to have such a dirty little creature as a soul? “Not even a right one,” they’d say. “Abnormal.” Blah, blah, blah. She’s used to it, but she thought Haven would be better.
At least its some mild stares – some not so mild – and confused mutters, and not the disgusted glares and open scoffs of Val Royeaux. Oh, she does not miss Val Royeaux.
Marbles leaps onto the stump Sera had been leaning against, thumping the back of her head with her tail. “Get ‘em out’a your head. Stop brooding,” she says.
“Not brooding,” Sera mumbles, tossing some rocks against the brick wall of the Chantry. They’re hidden away by one side of the building; most people don’t come ‘round here. Nothing but some small trees, piles of wood, and more snow.
Marbles scoffs and stretches out on the stump, grabbing some leaves off the ground and crunching them in her little paws.
Sera likes that about her; little hands that are good for taking things, sneaky just like her own. She doesn’t remember much from when they had been young, but she does remember Marbles shifting around to whatever form she could possibly think of, all the time. Any kind, any size. When they got a little older, she really liked birds and rodents; flying was freeing, and being small made it easier to hide, then pop out in a bigger form to startle a passing person’s daemon for a laugh. She had only been a raccoon a few times; Sera remembers one time Marbles had looked up with her little beady, masked covered eyes, blinking at her other half’s blonde hair. Her grey-brown fur then turned a dusty blonde as well, just for a moment, but Marbles had laughed and quickly turned into a pigeon. That was the only time she had ever looked like that.
So Sera had been quite surprised when, on the day they had rejected Lady Emmald’s estate and walked away, Marbles had turned into the yellow raccoon again and stayed that way. They’d been about 15, on the late side for settling. (“Don’t you think it’s about time you grow up?” she’d been asked a lot by the time she was 14.)
When asked why a raccoon, and why like that, Marbles had said, “It’s just the way we are, I guess.” And Sera’s not one to question the way of daemons. Not that she minded, she liked it fine; didn’t even think something could be weird about it until people started giving them looks.
Sera has never cared what people thought of them, but hearing the same shit over and over still gets under her skin.
She throws a few more pebbles against the wall, until she’s interrupted by an annoyed grunt from Marbles behind her. She looks over her shoulder and sees a barn owl perched on the tree’s branches, cocking her head around to look down at her. Sera doesn’t like how silent owls are.
“Let’s not throw rocks at the Chantry, hm? A little respect, please.” The owl’s voice is clipped, with the same lilting accent as her person, and even more polite. Sera rolls her eyes, looking around to see if the spymaster was nearby. Yeah, there she was, off quite a way’s across from them, talking to someone or other. Sera has to suppress a shudder. She’d heard rumors about how far the spymaster and her daemon could travel from each other, but hadn’t thought they’d be true. She thought only mages could do that, and even that was rare.
Marbles bristles, sitting upright on the stump to look up at the owl. “Oi. Not botherin' anyone over here, yeah? Why're you here spyin’ on us?”
The barn owl – Emerentienne, that was her name, one of those complicated ones; Eme for short, she’d heard the ambassador’s shiny gold hummingbird call her – tilts her head to one side, then the other, blinking her surprisingly friendly looking eyes at Marbles, but saying nothing. The raccoon chatters irritably, hopping over to the tree and scurrying up the trunk to reach the branches. She hisses and snarls, trying to shoo her away. Eme looks unimpressed, reaching over to tap Marbles on the head with her beak. “None of that now, thank you.” She flutters up to a higher branch.
Marbles growls, taking a snap at Eme’s tail. She does this a few more times, grazing a few feathers and almost tugging one out, until the owl hoos a quiet hiss and cuffs Marbles on the head with a wing.
“Knock it off, Marbs,” Sera says, ignoring the offended little noise Marbles makes. As funny as it is, harassing the spymaster’s daemon is probably a good way to get in some real trouble, and she doesn’t want to get kicked out when they’ve barely been here a week. Marbles snorts, reluctantly climbing down from the tree and leaning against it.
Sera throws another pebble. She enjoys the little clunk it makes, then rears back to throw another. As soon as it leaves her hand, Eme swoops in and snatches it in midair with a talon. Sera blinks and she and Marbles utter a “Wha?” in unison. Eme nods once, then flies over their heads, and when Sera looks over her shoulder she sees Eme drop the rock, and Leliana catches it.
Sera just barely manages to keep from crying out in fear at the spymaster’s sudden appearance, but her shock is reflected in the way Marbles jerks up with a hiss.
“Is everything alright?” Leliana asks as Eme lands on her shoulder.
Sera blows a hard huff through her nose. “Yeah, all’s fine. Whatever.”
Leliana looks her over. “What are you doing back here?”
“Just messin’ around. Wanna be alone.”
“Hm.” Leliana tosses the rock aside. Marbles scurries over and looks for it in the snow. She mostly succeeds in rustling up the snow instead. Eme looks down at her in that head tilting way she does, studying her, then leans over to say something to Leliana that Sera can’t hear. Leliana’s eyes flick down to Marbles, for a moment, before returning to Eme. But the moment was just a beat long enough for the fur of Marble’s hackles to raise – and frankly, Sera feels the rush of indignation just as strongly.
“What?” they both bark at the pair. Sera continues, “You got something to say, say it.”
Leliana ignores their gruff tones, waiting for Marbles’s little growls to lesson, then clears her throat. “Are you… adjusting well here, Sera?”
Sera pauses, arm raised mid throw of another rock. She hadn’t expected that. She gives Leliana a hard stare, regarding her carefully. Aside from a greeting when she’d first arrived, the two of them hadn’t spoken at all; Sera doesn’t quite know what to make of her yet, aside from being rather creepy. Eme, however, ruffles her feathers and gives one of her wings a stretch. Perfectly calm and not all that creepy. (Well, aside from the overall, general creepiness owls tended to have, even the cuter ones like barn owls. Not really her fault, she guesses.)
“You hear things, huh?” she says.
“Not everything,” Leliana shrugs. “But things, yes.”
“Uh huh. Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing I can’t handle. We’re big girls, thanks.” Sera turns back to the wall, but instead of looking for rocks to throw, she just picks up a stick to drag around in the snow. The rocks were getting boring anyway.
“Well, if it ever gets out of hand, don’t be afraid to seek us out. The Inquisition is no place for such behavior. We will handle it.”
“Aww, all those pretty words, for us?” Marbles says, a little sarcastically, but only because she wanted to hide that they actually were quite touched. None of the advisors had given her more than a passing glance since she’d been here; the last one she’d expected to offer her kindness was the scary one. She doesn’t quite know what to make of it.
“I, for one, don’t understand why everyone’s making such a fuss,” Sera hears Eme say behind her. “Whatever could be wrong with such a lovely coat?”
Leliana mumbles something to her daemon, but neither Sera or Marbles hear it, as they both freeze, their dual shock passing between their bond. Lovely? No one had ever called Marbles lovely before. No one had ever spoken about her with such… joy in their voice.
Leliana hums, looking down to study Marbles, the raccoon still glued to her spot. “Indeed,” she says warmly, then looks up to meet Sera’s eyes. “If I may?” Sera doesn’t know what she’s asking, but she nods anyway. Leliana takes a step back, then slowly kneels down to get a better look at Marbles. She keeps her arms held politely behind her back, reassuring them that she was merely looking and not touching. Not that Sera even for a second thought she would, but she appreciates the gesture. Marbles takes one step back as well, but ever the bold little creature, she stands her grounds.
“I must admit, I’ve found you fascinating since you arrived,” Leliana says. Sera can’t tell if she’s talking to her or Marbles; probably both. “I’ve never seen a coloration like this before, it’s quite beautiful. How unique.” She gives Marbles a genuine smile, then looks to Sera. “You must be proud, I’m sure.” Eme makes an agreeing little cooing noise.
Strange emotions swirl around Sera’s insides, heartbeat pounding in her ears, and all she can do is stare intently back at Leliana. Marbles swallows thickly, tail sweeping through the snow.
Leliana, for her part, looks a little embarrassed; rather uncharacteristic for the usually stoic spymaster, or at least as far as Sera knew of her. “Ah, forgive me,” she says, sitting up straighter and making to stand. “I suppose it is rather rude to stare. Getting me into trouble again, this one.” She jostles Eme on her shoulder. The owl nips at her cowl.
Sera realizes Leliana had taken her silence as discomfort. “N-no,” she chokes out hurriedly. “I… I am. Proud. Of her – us.”
Leliana holds her gaze for a moment, then gives her an easy nod and steps away. As she walks, Eme turns her head all the way around in that weird owl way. “Goodbye!” she says to Marbles cheerfully. Leliana coaxes her onto her fingers, then sends her off, like she does with her ravens.
After a long moment of laying in the snow, Marbles lets out a slow breath. “Hey,” she says, nodding her head in the direction Eme had flown. “Should I uh… should I say sorry for takin’ a snap at her earlier?”
Sera scrubs a hand over her face. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess. Probably.” She keeps her hand up, rubbing at her eyes and trying to make sense of the emotions that were still roiling in the pit of her stomach and making her ears hot, her head hurt, until she feels an uncomfortable tug on their bond. She grunts, looking up to find Marbles waddling herself a little too far away, towards where Leliana had headed, scanning the skies for the owl. “Ow,” Sera says, standing and rushing over to the raccoon, scooping her up and holding her under her little arms. “I didn’t mean now, ya daft tit!”
“Well how was I supposed t’know that?” Marbles tries to wriggle out of her grasp. “Thought you’d follow me. I can’t read your mind!”
“You’re me!”
“That’s not how it works, stupid.”
“You-” Sera’s cut off from yelling at her own daemon by a tiny rock bouncing off of Marbles’s head. They look up to see Eme hovering over them. She gives them a friendly trill, then flies off. Sera follows her path and watches the owl fly over to Leliana’s tent to land on her person’s arm. Leliana had already been looking in their direction, but she turns away with what might be a cheeky look, Sera can’t really tell from here.
“Hm,” Marbles shrugs, “I think we’re all good, yeah?”