From Soldier to Servant (Attn: Bella)

[Cat]

Tristram

He’d actually meant that he felt like they were being treated like children, but he said nothing, finally picking up the brush once again and setting about scrubbing at the floor, imagining that it was the face of the Asha’man who had set the task. That certainly made him feel far cheerier, and made him put effort into it. If only he could literally scrub the man’s mouth out with soap! Now wouldn’t that be fun?

The thought of doing more chores wasn’t a particularly pleasant one, and so Tristram chose not to think about it. He rubbed at his forehead, brushing away a trickle of sweat only to replace it with soapsuds, before he glanced back at the Novice. He snorted.

“Perhaps I should take a page at of my son’s book and suddenly become violently ill whenever I have to do something I don’t want to. I’m fairly sure I can convincingly become allergic to soap.”

[Bella]

When he mentioned his son, that made Andra lift her head and peer at him again. It wasn't a surprise that he was a bit older. She seemed to be discovering that the Novices came in young, but the Soldiers seemed to be mostly more adult, like herself. It was something of a relief to spend time working with them, since she could not feel the disparate ages so pointedly.

However, not many of them spoke of having children... She imagined some of them must, but it simply hadn't occurred to her. She peered at him for a few moments.

"They would probably just take you to a Yellow to be Delved and Healed of it," she pointed out with a faint smile. "It's harder to get away with those sorts of things here." She looked back to the brush and began again. "I hope it isn't too rude of me to ask, but if you have a family, how did you end up here?"

[Cat]

Tristram

“Well, then I’d turn out to be allergic to both Delving and Healing, and, my, wouldn’t they be stuck,” he replied, sitting back on his heels and forgetting about the brush once more, a grin on his face. Likely the reason he’d already got so much of the floor done was probably because he had had no one to talk to up until now. He was never one to shun his duties, but when the duties consisted of something as unimportant and humiliating as chores-? Well, Tristram was willing to make an exception to the rule just this once.

He tried not to think too much of his son when he was here. Sometimes he wondered if he had done the wrong by coming to the Tower; if he should not have, in fact, stayed behind, but he was doing this for son, for them. The House was still struggling, would continue to struggle, but his learning to channel could and would change that. People were often far more willing to pay attention to those who could wield the One Power. More influence would mean more power, and more power would mean a better inheritance, a better life for his son. It was the only thing he could think of to change the way things were going.

Of course, he’d never admit that he hated being back at home, where the absence of his two children and their mother haunted every room and hall to the point where it had become unbearable for him. He felt them in the silence, in the absence of their laughter. It hadn’t improved in three years. It had only gotten worse.

He pushed the thoughts aside and let himself smile. “But...” and he paused, shrugging his shoulders. “Would you believe me if I said I came here for my family?”

[Bella]

His response yet again surprised her. The floor was going to take a while at this rate... She stopped scrubbing and lifted her head to look at him, her dark eyes narrowing slightly with curiosity.

Why would anyone come here for family, she wondered. Then again, she supposed she could imagine any number of reasons or stories coming out of a group of citizens as diverse as this one. Andra hadn't met everyone, but she wondered if there was a single nationality not represented among the crowd.

"I can believe many things," she said thoughtfully, "although that does just make me more curious."

[Cat]

Tristram

Tristram returned her gaze, smiling ever so slightly, before he picked up the brush and started scrubbing at the floor once more. He didn’t even know if he was actually doing anything, or whether he was simply moving the dirt around and around and around. To be honest, he didn’t really care. So long as it looked like he had done something, he was fine with that. Maybe he could even show his blisters as proof! He was fairly certain that he had gained a few since starting if he was to go by the way his hands stung.

After a moment, he sat back on his heels and smiled again. He had no intention of telling her anything more. She didn’t need to know the whys and the hows for why he was here.

“It’s good that you can believe a lot of things,” he said, “because that really is, I’m afraid, the reason why. There’s not really much more to it. Certainly nothing exciting or interesting. You?”

[Bella]

She listened and heard the words, but in looking up at him through her dark lashes--still scrubbing as she was--her sense of people told her that this wasn't the whole truth. There was more to it, she was mostly sure. Her sense of things wasn't perfect. That much had been proven not just strongly but fatally.

That thought made her drop her eyes again and put a little too much vigor into her chore.

How much did she want to tell him in return? She didn't press him on his because she understood what it was to want to keep some things to yourself. "You might say it was family that brought me here as well," she said thoughtfully and without looking up. "For me, it was the loss of some of them that landed me in my position in the Tower."

Andra didn't say anything more on the matter at that moment, but one had to talk about it sometime, right? It was a simple answer to a simple question.

[Cat]

Tristram

Tristram froze, staring back her, the words almost hitting him, slamming him back. They were a little too close to his own, to the ones he could have said. It was loss that had brought him here, after all. Oh, not straightaway, but gradually. He was fairly certain he’d been content with his life, would have been happy to continue with it as it was, before the Creator had decided to take most of his family away from him. That had changed everything.

Hearing those words aloud, even on the lips of someone else, even meaning someone else, was hard. How he was he supposed to respond? I know exactly how you feel…? Same reason for me, too…? But he wasn’t quite ready to admit it yet, not to someone he had just met.

Realising that he hadn’t moved, he forced himself back into action, scrubbing somewhat more forcefully at the floor than he needed to. He paused and looked back up.

“I’m sorry for your loss. You don’t have to say anything more.”

[Bella]

If there had been any debate within her mind about how much to say of her past, he answered the debate rather resoundingly. It was clear that he had no desire to hear more and so she would not speak more. Andraste was not the type to force such information into unwilling ears, after all.

"Thank you," she said earnestly, and then let the topic drop.

Perhaps she had pushed too far as it was and so she simply returned to her task, focusing on the tiled floor as she scrubbed the intricate details and made sure each line was clean. Idly, she wondered how much such tiles would have sold or bartered for back when she was a merchant; in her before life. To imagine all their halls lined with them...

In fact, now that she thought about it--since she wanted to back off the topic of conversation--her mind thoroughly reeled at how much it must have cost to create this place. It was huge, for one, and everything within was of fine and beautiful quality. It was elegantly and exquisitely appointed from every corner to another.

It reminded her of the house she grew up in, but far...far...far bigger.

[Cat]

Tristram

From her reaction, from the way she went back to scrubbing without saying anything more, told him that he’d been a little too blunt. A part of him didn’t care. He really didn’t want to speak about it, or, at least, inevitably have to trade the expected stories. That happened to you? Yeah, me too! What are the chances! It wasn’t happening, but he couldn’t exactly just let them fall into silence. If they were going to have to do chores together in the future, he wanted it to be, if not exactly pleasant, at least bearable, and that meant not having to work in silence whilst being acutely aware of the other person’s presence. He didn’t want to be known, either, as the anti-social Soldier, the one who was a complete outcast and didn’t care about anyone else, even if there was some truth in it.

Sometimes you had to do what you had to do, even if you didn’t want to.

Tristram stared at his brush for several more moments, and then let out a sigh, too quiet for her to hear, and sat back on his heels once more. At this rate, it would take all day and night to get the floor clean.

“I just…” He rubbed at the back of his neck, stopped talking and then started again. “I don’t want you to feel like you have to tell me something that’s difficult for you if you don’t want to just because I asked.”

[Bella]

"It's fine," she replied quickly. Perhaps a little too quickly. Realizing that, she sighed and glanced up. "Really. It's not like it's fun to talk about anyways." And that was the truth. She didn't want to hide what had happened, since it was not shameful for her, but it was painful and that didn't mean she wanted to talk about it with all and everyone too.

She rolled her shoulders slightly, still scrubbing. "I guess it's just not an easy topic to flow off of."

Even admitting it didn't make it any easier to know what to talk about instead. "Well. I suppose there's some history that's less painful. I grew up in Kandor." She hadn't said that already, had she? "We are a family of merchants, and do well at it. It's in the blood."