[ All jesting aside, she grows quiet, thinking about the possibilities. After close to two years in Kirkwall, she still feels like she knows more about where she wouldn't want to be than where she would. ]
If there is a city that smells better than Kirkwall, I wish to live there. Otherwise, I am unsure. [ Though now it's going to require further thought. ] Where would you live?
Nearly anywhere? 'Smells better'n Kirkwall' isn't that hard a bar to pass.
Free Marches wouldn't be so bad. I like it mostly--not all parts, obviously, but mostly. Dunno where I would live, though. I think I need to see more places before I work that out--like properly see, not just march by or camp outside of or anything like that.
Have you been to Wycome? I haven't, yet, but I hear it's good.
Loads of stuff. It's sort of like Antiva City, right, if Antiva City was in the Free Marches and not, y'know, Antiva. As in, there's loads of taverns and markets and parties and things, they have loads and loads of Antivan wine.... It's meant to be the freest of the Free Marches as well. That's what everyone says. I've always wanted to see it for myself.
Then we must go there. [ There's a moment of quiet, then the sound of pages flipping, and another pause, and then-- ] Brother Genitivi says they are famed for their fish markets. So we will have mackerel with our wine.
[ Where to begin? She recites a few facts, the first that come to mind. ]
Elves travel in wagons called aravel. Slaves are kept in Tevinter. Wild berries grow in the mountains near Emprise du Lion. Dwarves do not choose what they wish to do with themselves when they are grown.
Brother Genitivi has visited many places, and I am told he writes truthfully about them.
Who says he writes truthfully? 'Cause if he says it, then that's like a, wossit, self-prophecy thing. And you couldn't trust it.
[Hmmmm though.]
'Are-ave-val'. How's it spelt? Elves' words are never spelt the way you'd think they'd be spelt, right? I haven't seen any dwarves that look as if they're not doing what they want to be doing. Though I dunno what they'd look like if that was true, either.
[Or not. Matthias is now too busy frowning over the idea of born to do a job.]
And that's the worst way to decide on a life I've ever heard. If that's the way it works, it's crap. What's wrong with dwarves deciding what they want to do with themselves? Does the book say that?
I thought so, too. But when we have visited places, Brother Genitivi has been correct about them.
[ And then, clearly reading a page: ]
"What is a matter of choice for most human folk is dictated entirely by birth for dwarves. No one may become a smith who was not born to Smith Caste parents. A servant who marries a noblewoman will never be a noble himself, and although his daughters would be nobles, his sons would be servants, for daughters inherit the caste of their mother, while sons inherit the caste of their father."
I think the dwarves who do not wish to be part of their caste go to the surface.
[Matthias does take a moment to reflect on this, but only briefly, because it sounds like a crap deal. In some under-the-ground inn, he makes a brief survey of the dwarves that are around him, thinking of what that must be like.]
So if we were dwarves, you and I, we'd be casteless dwarves. 'Cause we'd not have stayed, we'd have gone off to see what we might make of the world.
[Matthias hears the smile--and of course he smiles as well.]
We would. But we're not dwarves, so we can doubly do as we like. It's nice to think of though, isn't it? That we'd be the same no matter what. Sort of makes that bit where we dreamed about the future seem--
[There's a little twinge in him, thinking of Derrica, Enchanter Leander. He fights it down.]
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[Obviously.]
Where would you live, if you could live anywhere, d'you think?
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[ All jesting aside, she grows quiet, thinking about the possibilities. After close to two years in Kirkwall, she still feels like she knows more about where she wouldn't want to be than where she would. ]
If there is a city that smells better than Kirkwall, I wish to live there. Otherwise, I am unsure. [ Though now it's going to require further thought. ] Where would you live?
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Free Marches wouldn't be so bad. I like it mostly--not all parts, obviously, but mostly. Dunno where I would live, though. I think I need to see more places before I work that out--like properly see, not just march by or camp outside of or anything like that.
Have you been to Wycome? I haven't, yet, but I hear it's good.
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[ At this point, it serves as a sort of reference for moments like these, when additional information is required. ]
I trust fish. If you try it, I will try a party.
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What's something else you've learned, reading?
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[ Where to begin? She recites a few facts, the first that come to mind. ]
Elves travel in wagons called aravel. Slaves are kept in Tevinter. Wild berries grow in the mountains near Emprise du Lion. Dwarves do not choose what they wish to do with themselves when they are grown.
Brother Genitivi has visited many places, and I am told he writes truthfully about them.
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[Hmmmm though.]
'Are-ave-val'. How's it spelt? Elves' words are never spelt the way you'd think they'd be spelt, right? I haven't seen any dwarves that look as if they're not doing what they want to be doing. Though I dunno what they'd look like if that was true, either.
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[ There's more flipping of pages. ]
A-R-A-V-E-L. And the dwarves are born to their jobs. You would still be a farmer. I... [ Hm. ] I would still murder. That is how it works.
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[Or not. Matthias is now too busy frowning over the idea of born to do a job.]
And that's the worst way to decide on a life I've ever heard. If that's the way it works, it's crap. What's wrong with dwarves deciding what they want to do with themselves? Does the book say that?
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[ And then, clearly reading a page: ]
"What is a matter of choice for most human folk is dictated entirely by birth for dwarves. No one may become a smith who was not born to Smith Caste parents. A servant who marries a noblewoman will never be a noble himself, and although his daughters would be nobles, his sons would be servants, for daughters inherit the caste of their mother, while sons inherit the caste of their father."
I think the dwarves who do not wish to be part of their caste go to the surface.
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[Matthias does take a moment to reflect on this, but only briefly, because it sounds like a crap deal. In some under-the-ground inn, he makes a brief survey of the dwarves that are around him, thinking of what that must be like.]
So if we were dwarves, you and I, we'd be casteless dwarves. 'Cause we'd not have stayed, we'd have gone off to see what we might make of the world.
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We would still be us.
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We would. But we're not dwarves, so we can doubly do as we like. It's nice to think of though, isn't it? That we'd be the same no matter what. Sort of makes that bit where we dreamed about the future seem--
[There's a little twinge in him, thinking of Derrica, Enchanter Leander. He fights it down.]
--well, true. For some at least.