Room 322, Tuesday Morning

[not_every_mage]

Anders didn't get much mail, so he was surprised to find something waiting for him in the dorm mailboxes. What was even stranger was that the envelope, seal and stamps all looked like those used in Ferelden.

He tore the letter open with shaking hands. True, Templars weren't in the habit of sending notes to runaway mages -- they were more the type to show up unannounced -- but he supposed there was a first time for everything. And the fact anyone knew where he was posed some level of risk.

It was a puzzle, then, that the letter seemed to be nothing more than a common enough piece of junk mail touting some worthless potion as a "miracle cure" for flatulence, pimples, back pain or the common cold. Anders was about to throw it out when he realized the runes bordering the parchment were not simple decoration at all. Instead, they were an obscure Elven alphabet that Circle apprentices used to smuggle messages between themselves.

Decoded, they read A - Am back in the Circle. Portal dropped me by gate as if no time had passed. Thanks for the vacation. Hope to do it again soon. - K

So that was that. The Circle might not be anyone's idea of a happy home to come back to, but Anders was simply glad Karl wasn't being tortured or worse. He didn't want to think about how his friend had bribed, begged or threatened to get the message out so quickly; he was just glad he'd done it at all.

He reread the letter a few more times as he sat on his bed, trying to work out if there was any safe way to answer it.

[OOC: Cracked door, open post!]

Comments

[not_every_mage]

"Thank you," Anders said, and reached to squeeze Nathan's hand. "I doubt we'll write often, but being able to write at all will help."

He'd know Karl was safe, be able to tell him when Barry got a portal running. It was fantastic.

Sheepishly, he added, "I should probably mention Anders is just a nickname to start with. But if anybody remembers my real name, the Templars do."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Really?" Nathan wouldn't have ever guessed that. Not that it was a bad thing at all. It was just something he wouldn't have pinpointed as being a nickname. "It's a good nickname. I like it."

And that was the truth. "Did you take the nickname to make it easier to hide from the Templars?"

[not_every_mage]

"Partially," Anders said, pleased by Nathan's reaction. "But I picked it up before that. My family's from a country called the Anderfels, and when I came to the Circle that was the first thing people remembered about me. After a while I started calling myself the same thing everyone else did."

It had seemed like a good idea at the time: New place, new life, new name. And then there was another factor --

"I like it too."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"It's good. It suits you. It's not common but it's not completely out of the ordinary either," Nathan said since he'd thought about it some. "It's unique but not in overly strange ways."

It was a good name.

"I never had a nickname. I guess some people called me Nate every so often but it's not something I'd probably go by all the time. I called myself Ivan once since my name is fairly well known back home. Unfortunately."

[not_every_mage]

"You don't look like a Nate," Anders decided. "Nates are shorter."

He made that up right then, yes. But he still couldn't imagine shortening Nathan's name.

"And Ivan ... actually, I've never met an Ivan. It sounds dashing."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"It comes from a book that I know..." he started before trailing off, hesitating slightly because he'd nearly taken Gabriel's head off after telling him about this book before. He didn't think it would be like that with Anders though which was why he was actually sharing it.

"It comes from a book I know called One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn. When I needed a name, I took it from that book. It was the only thing I could think of."

[not_every_mage]

Anders shook his head. "I don't know it. What's he like in the book?"

He was a little surprised Nathan had taken a name from a book, but it barely showed.

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

Nathan shrugged and looked down at the floor. He clasped and then unclasped his hands a few times. He was glad there wasn't any immediate launch to anger like there had been with Gabriel.

"He survives," he finally said, quieter than before. And that was all he had. A simple answer for a question that probably deserved more.

[not_every_mage]

It was a simple answer, but that simplicity -- and the delay before Nathan could give it -- said a lot.

Anders took another long moment to come up with a reply. "Sometimes that makes someone a hero."

[OOC:Sorry. Random baking project interruption.]

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"I didn't read it," Nathan said because he figured Anders might be wondering. "There was a woman who -- the Council sent me to her after they took me away from my grandmother and she liked Russian literature. She read it to me a few times."

In between his times in his cage, of course. Lovely time that was.

[Not a worry! I'm all over the place tonight.]

[not_every_mage]

"I wasn't going to ask," Anders said easily,though he wouldn't deny having been curious. "You must have liked it, though, if you remembered enough to want his name."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"I don't know if I liked it or if it was just the only thing I was exposed to," Nathan said because he'd definitely thought about it. "Maybe I'd like some -- some romance novel if she'd read that to me. Can you imagine?"

[not_every_mage]

Anders laughed. "If your romance novels are like ours, you would have ended up calling yourself something like Ser Orwyll De Dragonhart," he said. "Which might have gotten some funny looks."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"That sounds...almost painful to say," Nathan joked, snickering. "Like I'm about to have a sneeze and that name comes out instead."

W

[not_every_mage]

Which meant of course that Anders had to laugh and attempt to sneeze Orwyll
De Dragonhart. He rubbed his nose after.

"Ow. A name like that would murder your sinuses."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Don't do that again," Nathan laughed, reaching over and patting Anders' back playfully. Like he was unhelpfully aiding a choking victim or something. "You're going to give yourself a bloody nose and a messy shirt if you do that."

[not_every_mage]

"And I don't know how to get bloodstains out," Anders said with a little hiccup of a giggle, arching his back into the touch. "You're so good to worry about me."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"And I would be of absolutely no help in getting bloodstains out," Nathan stated, turning the patting into some softer stroking now. "I barely manage to get the mud and dirt out of my clothes right now."

[not_every_mage]

"I know how to fix that," Anders informed him helpfully. "Don't lie on the ground without a blanket."

Not that he'd minded the lack of a blanket so much on Saturday, but anyhow.

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Blankets aren't as comfortable as what I'm used to," Nathan groused but not all that seriously. "And I've found that I can't just walk into a store here and find sheepskins. They look at me strange."

[not_every_mage]

"So what do they do with the outsides of the sheep if you can't buy it as sheepskins?" Anders wondered, also not too seriously. "Does it all go to leather and wool?"

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"...I'm honestly not sure," Nathan said, scratching the back of his head with his free hand. "My grandmother gave me sheepskins when I was younger and we discovered my body's reaction to being inside versus outside. I never actually asked where she got them. And then Gabriel got them for me out of the blue a few months after that."

[not_every_mage]

"You could talk to Celia," Anders mused, shifting a bit closer to Nathan. "Part of her magic is making things. I'm sure she could change blankets to sheepskins if she wanted."

He twisted his own ponytail. "Could you sleep inside when you were younger, then? I've never asked."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Celia?" That name was very familiar but he knew it wasn't the same person. Still, it brought back memories. "Maybe I'll see if I can talk to her."

He watched Anders moving closer before saying anything else. "I could. The whole sleeping outside thing actually came to light after what happened to my back. I was recovering and sleeping inside and just got so sick. My grandmother told me why after that."

[not_every_mage]

"She works in the magic shop Monday or Tuesday, I think," Anders informed him, on the point of Celia. He rested a hand lightly on Nathan's back. "And that sounds like it must have made the whole experience of healing that much more fun."

Nathan's luck was the worst.