“ is that your blood? ”- @worthyhearts, merrill!
It is, he thinks, a little dazed.
But he does not know this unfamiliar elf. Her accent is familiar enough, but he’s too far removed to recall exactly which of the gods her vallaslin venerates. Her hands, which press against him to support his dizziness, are like delicate icicles: long and slender, but frigid cold.
His letting knife slips from his fingers and drops to the ground. The red templars he’d only heard of before now lay dead, scattered about. Weren’t they supposed to have disappeared with the death of Corypheus? He wasn’t meant to be here, necessarily, but his only lead, at the moment, is a man last seen in Redcliffe before things went wrong. Why is it that things so often go wrong?
All his thoughts are dull in his mind. He’s aware he lost blood, and perhaps pushed himself a little hard.
“Largely. I… don’t think those things bleed much.”
His voice is rough and worse for wear when he speaks, and it’s then he catches one of her hands to press away, and notices a familiar scarring pattern to her palm. The palm is more painful but easier to direct – it’s a choice for those who learned out of desperation. Recognition flickers over his expression. There are a number of reasons Rosal could be identified as such a mage, too. This one is safe, apparently.
Rosal drops her hand, wordless, gives her a silent nod. He doesn’t even thank her. He scoops up his staff and letting knife and presses away from the red templars’ remains – it’s beginning to give him a headache.
Merrill watches the stranger’s knife fall to the ground, fits it together with his blood, and she knows.
She feels an immediate kinship with the other elf, though there is also learned apprehension. It isn’t the blood magic’s fault, of course, but she’s seen too many cruel or desperate people abuse the tool in Kirkwall. Once she’s fairly certain he won’t tip over, she puts a bit of space between them, staff in hand. As a precaution.
“They’re sort of pretty, aren’t they?” she says, momentarily lost in gazing at the red carnage scattered about. “The crystals remind me of glowing rubies, sprouting out of them like flowers. Oh, I’m babbling, sorry. I always do that. I’m Merrill. Can I ask your name?”