(For Alistair)

[claravoyant]

Life in the tower hadn't been altogether unpleasant. She'd stayed mostly to herself but had been generally well-liked by the others, mostly because she hadn't caused any problems. Jowan had been the problem in the last little 'disagreement' she'd had with the rest of the Mages, quite honestly. She would always defend him, though, even in the end.

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[chantry_escapee]

Alistair had been watching another mage walk off, angry with him as usual, when he felt the tap on his shoulder. It made him spin, then it made him grin, and then it made him... bounce.

"Clara! Maker preserve, it's you! I thought I wasn't going to get to see you ever again! What're you doing here?"

[claravoyant]

The thing that Alistair may or may not remember about Clara is that she's very slightly off-kilter. This can sometimes leak into the way she talks about certain things.

"Oh, just here to drink some blood." She settles the staff back onto her shoulder and wrinkles her nose. The whole 'Clara speaking' thing is still relatively new even to her. The logic she followed with it, though, was that carrying the chalkboard would be rather silly in combat and altogether useless for the overall strategy of things. Everyone at the Circle had been deservedly suprised by it.

"I had a bit of a falling out with the Circle." ...hopefully Alistair doesn't misunderstand and think those two statements were at all related.

[chantry_escapee]

He blinked and tilted his head.

"Drink-- what?"

He looked around, as if the Circle mages might be closing in any second. Or perhaps the templars. It wasn't as if Alistair wanted to see either of them any time soon.

"What happened? Are you all right? What're you doing here?"

[claravoyant]

"You know what I mean." Because he'd done the very same thing.

"Jowan got himself into some trouble," she explained vaguely, as if he should of course know who Jowan was. Maybe word of the latest blood mage to come out of the tower would have gotten to Ostagar already, who knew.

She shrugged her shoulders. "They shouldn't be so hard on him. He can't help how he is, even if he wanted to. I suppose it's too late now, at any rate."

[chantry_escapee]

"I suppose this should be familiar, me not having the first idea what you're talking about," he mused, "but I can't say I missed that part of things. Who's Jowan? And you still haven't said what you're doing in a war camp, of all places. Shouldn't you be at the Tower?"

[claravoyant]

Fine, fine. At least Alistair knew he needed to direct her toward the conversation rather bluntly if he could help it.

"He is a friend from the tower, and a blood mage." Two different things, and Clara didn't fear blood magic as she was supposedly taught to. "And I am here because Duncan invoked the right of conscription."

[chantry_escapee]

"A blood--" and he just cut it off right there because this was Clara, and arguing with her on anything seemed largely pointless. He did sigh very very tiredly, though.

Also there was the other part of her answer that made his eyes go big.

"The right of-- you mean you're to be a Warden? You're one of the three we're putting through the Joining?"

[claravoyant]

"You shouldn't be worried," because she assumes that if it had been part of her fate to die very, very soon she might at least have some idea about it, "If it's dangerous." She only knows a few things about it.

"But yes." She picks a bit of elfroot from her pocket and takes a bite out of it distractedly, managing to glance back to Alistair eventually.

"You look better." A bit less thin, and not lyrium-addled. That was about the best one could hope for in a templar-to-be.

[chantry_escapee]

"Yes, well..." he straightened his back a little bit, "I'm a Warden. You know, a Warden. Like you're going to be."

Hopefully.

"I'm assisting Duncan with things for you three, in fact."

[claravoyant]

"He said as much." She glanced down to the bit of elfroot and furrowed her brows.

Something here felt very off, and she couldn't put her finger on it. It was an unsettling sort of feeling.

"In the forest, right?" She looked over to where Barabbas was ... well, frolicking. "Do you think he'd get jealous of another dog? I think he might."

[chantry_escapee]

He looked over at the dog and couldn't help the smile on his face.

"Hello, you big rascal!" he said in greeting to the dog. A moment later, he rubbed his chin.

"And it's not so much in the forest as out in the Wilds."

[claravoyant]

"There is a difference?" Both of them had trees.

She smirked, watching as Barabbas waddled himself over and pawed insistently at Alistair's feet. Pets, please.

It gave Clara what she assumed was a few minutes to observe Alistair. She had a great many questions for him, but they could wait for just a little while.

[chantry_escapee]

Alistair got down on one knee before starting to play with the dog, happy and playful as he hadn't been for... well, for years, really.

[claravoyant]

Well, that settled it - she'd at least have to take Barabbas with her if she ended up going anywhere with Alistair. She took another thoughtful chew of the elfroot and then cleared her throat quietly.

"Should we perhaps go find the other recruits?"

[chantry_escapee]

He looked up from his play with the dog and gave her a quick nod. Then he regained his footing, and the shreds of his dignity, before nodding to her a second time.

"Right, quite right. See if you can find Jory and Daveth, will you? We'll meet back up with Duncan near the fire."

[claravoyant]

So, she is pretty sure, he can tell them about how they need to collect blood.

She nodded, wandering off to do as much. They don't seem to be hard to find, and soon enough they're discussing exactly that with Duncan. The Wilds does at least seem as if it might be interesting, so she's eager enough to leave.

Besides, they probably should get back before it's too dark.

At some point wandering through the Wilds and wading through darkspawn and wolves, Clara thinks to ask something a bit silly. She'd been thinking about their earlier years, and that made for thinking about certain things.

"Were you allowed to have contact with women as a templar? Or men, I suppose." She hadn't had a chance to ask him this before, you see.