It was after no small amount of thought that Aurora stood on the docks. There were many questions she had to ask herself and emotions she had to battle. Beside her stood Milly, a cloak thrown over her shoulders and a wide brimmed hat hiding the sunburst mark on her forehead. Unlike Aurora, Milly did not look out and into the horizon, but at the mage by her side, awaiting the next instruction. A pent up breath of air forced its passage through her nostrils as Aurora watched the ships come and go. There were many in the bay, but one in particular caught her attention. Pointing it out for Milly, Aurora spoke. "That one. That one's going to take you... Us, home."
The ship in question was entirely nondescript, ordinary in every sense in the word. A simple cargo ship that traded goods up and down along the coast. Aurora had worked out a deal with the captain. He would grant them passage in return for her work during their trip. She was not the poor stowaway she was when she first arrived, the crew would not take pity on her this time. She would have to earn their passage-- but she wasn't fragile as she once was. She was ready to work, and a momentary glance to the side revealed the crates she was to help load. They looked heavy, but her shoulders had long since grown accustomed to burdens. Nodding, she reached for Milly's hand and gave it a comforting squeeze, giving her a forced smile.
Antiva was their destination. Home. Aurora could not hope to keep Milly safe and hidden outside the Circle. Even though it had only been a few weeks since the Qunari incident, but already the Templars were asserting their control. She could feel their squeeze, and she feared it would not relent any time soon. Milly was not going to go to the Gallows. She would be a stranger there, completely and utterly alone and though she wouldn't realize it, Aurora would. Antiva's Circle was familiar, there were people there that knew Milly and could take care of her, better than she ever could. Rilien was right, Milly would be best off in a Circle, and the best Circle for her was Antiva's. It did not mean she wasn't nervous about the whole thing.
The ship lazily drifted into the harbor with both Aurora and Milly patiently awaiting its arrival. It steadily grew as it drew closer until finally they had to step out of the way of the gangplank. By then, the pair were joined by the other ship hands and once it was tied off, they began their work loading the cargo onto the boat. The Qunari may have damaged the city during their attack, but trade had recovered quickly and resumed within the weak. Aurora found the captain of the ship, worked out the final plans. She handed him a coin purse, full of the silvers she managed to save doing odd jobs around the city during her time there. It would buy his silence, and ensure that they reached their destination safely.
Aurora set about loading the cargo with the other ship hands quietly, avoiding any unnecessary conversations. They seemed to allow it, keeping their talk between themselves, and before long all the cargo on the docks was stowed away under deck. "You got an hour to finish any business before we shove off-- with or without you," The captain warned as he stepped off the ship. He headed toward Lowtown-- the Hanged Man for one last drink if Aurora had her guess. Nodding, Aurora sat down on the dock and let her feet dangle below, urging Milly to do the same.
"This is it," Aurora said, giving Milly's shoulder a protective rub. "In a month we'll be home again." Milly looked at her and nodded her acknowledgement. "It's as you say," She said simply.
"Do you plan to return?” a flat voice asked from behind them. It was in fact Rilien, bearing a smaller cargo crate of his own, which he handed off to the crewmen still on board, tucking the purse of sovereigns he received in return up one of his sleeves. He did not wear his money openly, because he knew exactly how simple it was for a good thief to take advantage—and how common it was for a bad thief to try. He knew the ship was headed for Antiva, and it was not difficult to divine Aurora’s intentions, given Milly’s presence, though he had to say he felt a small flicker of dull surprise at the fact that it would appear at least that she was actually taking his advice. He would have supposed her too emotionally attached to act on the logic in it. But then perhaps he was getting ahead of himself. Just because they were going to Antiva did not mean Millian was to be given to the Circle there. It would not shock him that Aurora had become tired of dealing with Kirkwall.
Still, he supposed he might as well ask, if perhaps only for Sparrow’s sake. It seemed like the kind of thing she would want to know, after all. "Have you adequate provisions for the journey?” He didn’t only mean food—likely, it had cost a substantial amount to get a ship captain to transport a Tranquil away from the city, particularly given the clues that provided to what Aurora was. It would be preferential that they actually made it to their final destination, rather than reaching the shores of their home only to starve on their way inland.
"Eventually," She answered. Aurora had told Lucien something to that effect, and despite all that happened between then and now, she still felt much the same. She still felt that she could do something there, that she could make a change in a city that needed it. But she couldn't do it as she was. Time was needed, to heal, to mend, and to make whole what was broken. The journey to Antiva was not for Milly's sake alone. Aurora needed it just as much, she needed time away to regroup and recollect herself. It was about time she took the long road home. Family would center her and give her strength. The next time she left them, it would not be by force, but by choice, and the tears would not be from sadness alone.
Aurora's eyes came back into focus as he spoke again. Leaning back on her arms, she looked up at Rilien. "Adequate enough," She answered, "We get off in Bastion." The importance of the destination may have seemed inconsequential to him as she never revealed where she lived before the Antivan Circle. She had told Lucien, but he was not the type to spread such information, and Rilien wasn't the type to ask. "From there, the DiMerenda Trading Company should help me get Milly into the city..." Should. She had asked the captain about the company, if he even knew about it, and from what she gathered her father's business was quite doing well for itself.
She wondered what he would say when he saw her again. What would she say? What would he think about Milly? It was the cause of the knot in her stomach. There was so much uncertainty, but it was not without its measure of excitement. It was closing in on eight years since the last time she'd seen her family, she wanted to see them again. She just wished it could've been under better circumstances.
Rilien nodded with a sense of thoughtfulness, though perhaps that was only because he always seemed so serious. He made a small movement on one of his arms, something akin to a shrugging motion, though the gesture itself would have looked odd on him, and hooked his fingers around the small satchel that fell from his sleeve. “If one could account for all the circumstances in which bribery was necessary, there would be fewer.” It would seem that this explained the fact that he was dropping the coinpurse into Aurora’s hand, or was at least as much an explanation as he was going to give. Glancing briefly sideways at Milly, he offered a nod to both.
“Bon voyage.” Rather ironic, maybe, from him. He could hear the approach of others, however, and had no desire to remain. Therefore, he didn’t, choosing instead to turn on his heel and depart. His business, after all, was done.
Her mouth moved to tell him it wasn't necessary, but summarily closed. Aurora could attempt to return the coinpurse, but the end result would be same. He was a lot like Amalia in that regard, he did nothing without a purpose and to try to reject a gift from either would only make her feel silly in the end. So instead her eyes fell to the collection of coins in her hands, jingling them for effect before stowing them away on her person. "I'll pay you back," She said adamantly. She owed him a lot more than a few coins, but at least the coins she could repay.
Lucien had made a bit more of a concerted effort to actually be present to see his friend off, and he arrived at about the same time as Amalia and Ithilian did. He’d been left temporarily once more in charge of the embrium, but he figured it would be good to come say a more proper farewell-for-now regardless. Bereft of most of his armor, he approached the other two with a small smile. “I know it is not undertaken for the nicest of reasons,” he admitted, glancing at Milly’s impassive expression with something unreadable in his expression, “But I must confess to a twinge of envy all the same. I understand that Antiva is simply lovely in the summertime.” It was more than that, of course; Aurora was making a journey back to her homeland, and given what they had told each other of such things, he knew it was not insignificant for her by any means.
“I am glad you get to go back, regardless.”
"I'd.. Be.. Caught in a lie if I said I wasn't intimidated," Aurora revealed. The anxiousness she felt was clear in her face, but it held a look of not excitement, but an emotion more subdued. She was looking forward to going back home, despite the circumstances. It was not to be an entirely joyous return, but it was a return. She found enough solace in that to keep her looking forward. Worrying, thinking about how things could've be different, and fretting on circumstances out of her hands would do nothing to help neither Milly nor her. Forcing a smile back to her face, Aurora nodded and thanked him. "But.. Me too," She said.
Amalia, who had thus far simply been scrutinizing the scene in her usual stoic fashion, seemed to find nothing wrong with the seaworthiness of the vessel from where she was standing, and so turned from it to Aurora instead. Her lips pursed slightly, her expression appearing troubled for a short moment before it smoothed back out. “Be wary,” was all she said, though perhaps even two words made everything else clear enough.
Looking back to Amalia, Aurora held her words for a moment before accepting them for what they were. "Of course," she replied. Not everything needed to be put to words for the meaning to be found, and she was grateful for what hid behind them.
"Don't be intimidated," Ithilian urged her, though quite gently. He was no mentor of hers as Amalia had been, nor did he have years of friendship with her to call upon. He spoke more from being the one in the current group who had already taken the opportunity to return to what had once been home, and learn from it. "Keep a clear head, and don't doubt yourself. You'll find the way forward." The clear head was easily the most difficult part, when dealing with anything that evoked powerful emotions, something he knew Aurora was going through with everything that had happened. But he'd found a way through it, and from what he'd seen of how much Aurora had grown, she would too.
"We'll be glad to have you back when you return."
“Hurry, hurry! C'mon, it's a shortcut—”
The insistent urgings came from the half-haphazardly dressed sprite dragging Ashton through winding alleyways and down questionable cobble-stone streets, all the while clutching onto the sleeve of his shirt as if he would simply wander away if she let go. Flighty as she was, she hadn't actually explained why he had to go with her this instant, but she still managed to convince him to follow along with her, and while they walked, she finally told him where they were headed and, more importantly, why. Spending time in the Alienage, and in the gardens specifically, she'd already heard what had befallen on Milly. She was familiar with Tranquility. Far more than she wished to admit. She supposed it was worse for Aurora, since she'd known Milly when she was wide-eyed with curiosity and teeming with enthusiasm. To have that all stripped away and not know what to do afterward. She couldn't imagine it. With her and Rilien, it was much different. True enough, it was difficult seeing him as anything other than who he was, for everything he had been was little more than tales he seldom shared.
As soon as they rounded the aforementioned bend, Sparrow relinquished her grip on his sleeve and spared Ashton having to replace his shirt altogether. Had she shown any signs of acknowledging her roughhousing and oblivious rudeness, she certainly did not show it, as she was already waving her arms in the air, trying to call over to the assembled group without shrieking across the docks. Not that that would have been all too surprising given that she had the subtlety of a bugling dragon flying overhead. She abandoned her gestures, leaving Ashton at the mouth of the alleyway, and broke into a brisk jog. Then an impatient sprint, as if they would hurry onto the ship and disappear before they had the chance to say goodbye. Each crisis, each tragedy, she'd learned, in mostly awful ways, revealed truer measures of a person's character. The parts one would normally hide away, because they were raw, ragged things. In Aurora, she saw hidden strength. Maturity, patience, and even if she felt lost, she recognized a sense of direction.
By the time she reached them, she inhaled sharply and held a hand against her chest to slow its thumping. No endurance, after all. She was all momentary bluster, with hardly any staying power. “G, good, you're... not gone... yet,” she breathed, puffing her chest out and planting her hands on her hips, “Can't leave.. without saying... goodbye.” Finally looking around her, Sparrow noted who was here, and who was absent. Everyone was here... except for Rilien, which was strange, wasn't it? He had given her all of the right information. The destination and the time, and a stern-eyed warning that if she were late, the captain would not wait and she'd miss her chance to say goodbye.
She straightened and hooked her thumb over her shoulder, indicating that she had another wily visitor to see her off. Without another word, Sparrow bustled towards her and cupped her face between her calloused hands, planting a kiss on her forehead. She pulled away and stooped to do the same to Milly, brushing strands of hair away from the starburst tattoo, before planting another whispery kiss—while it may have been just her way of saying farewell, it was one of the only things she could remember mothers doing to say that they would always be there. She stepped back from them and smiled unabashedly. They would do fine, the both of them. She'd never been good at comforting others, she simply expected things would pan out, as she did now.
“I'll tend the garden until you're back, yeah?”
"I, uh," Aurora stammered clearly not expecting a goodbye kiss. Her cheeks matched her hair for a moment before she gathered herself and nodded, a smile at her lips. "Thank you Sparrow." For both the garden, and the farewell. Looking over her shoulder, she watched as Nostariel's friend, the lanky archer she'd met in the Hanged Man followed behind Sparrow straightening his clothes that he'd almost gotten pulled out of.
Ashton took a moment to exchange nods with Ithilian before leaning on Sparrow, planting his elbow on the crook of her neck and cupping his head with the hand. "What she means to say, is that she'll miss you dearly," He said, flicking a lock of Sparrow's hair. "And between you and me," He said, hiding his lips from her, "I think you're a good influence on her." A playful smile fluttered across his lips as he suspiciously eyed Sparrow for a moment. "But I'm not only saying farewell for myself, though make no mistake, you'll be missed. If Nos was up and running, I'm sure she would've been here too. She'll miss you and I'm positive she's sorry she couldn't make it," he said, somewhat apologetically. "So don't forget about us, yeah?" He asked with a laugh. Like anyone could forget them.
Aurora nodded gently grateful for his message and agreed, "Of course not. Thank you-- both. And give Nostariel my best wishes." If she ever had doubts about returning, maybe lingering in Antiva, they were summarily dismissed and replaced with the desire to return one day. It was a journey she needed to take, one that was a long time in coming. Grabbing Milly gently by the arm, she drew the girl close to her side and bowed. "Thank you-- All of you. And Milly thanks you as well, I'm sure," She said, Milly nodding along. Just then, a whistle cried out from the ship behind them. The captain stood on the deck and beckoned them to hurry, they were about to set sail.
Nodding, Aurora couldn't shake the want for just little bit more time, just another minute or two to express just... Just how thankful she was. For their support, their belief, and their friendship. "Thank you all," She said, her eyes wavering, "For everything." She couldn't imagine trying to survive Kirkwall alone. She couldn't imagine life without them. She didn't want to think how life would've turned out if she didn't duck into the Hanged Man all those years ago. "I'll be back. Soon. I promise," She pledged. Taking Milly's hand into her own, Aurora stepped onto the boat as it floated away from the dock. She stood at the bow, waving until they faded from view and nothing but water surrounding them.
Aurora then leaned against the bow rubbing the spray from her eyes. "We're going home," She told Milly as she stared out across the sea. A moment of silence passed between them, before Milly spoke. "Are you?" She asked. Aurora looked at her before smiling, looking out back toward Kirkwall.
"No. I'm leaving it."
The ship in question was entirely nondescript, ordinary in every sense in the word. A simple cargo ship that traded goods up and down along the coast. Aurora had worked out a deal with the captain. He would grant them passage in return for her work during their trip. She was not the poor stowaway she was when she first arrived, the crew would not take pity on her this time. She would have to earn their passage-- but she wasn't fragile as she once was. She was ready to work, and a momentary glance to the side revealed the crates she was to help load. They looked heavy, but her shoulders had long since grown accustomed to burdens. Nodding, she reached for Milly's hand and gave it a comforting squeeze, giving her a forced smile.
Antiva was their destination. Home. Aurora could not hope to keep Milly safe and hidden outside the Circle. Even though it had only been a few weeks since the Qunari incident, but already the Templars were asserting their control. She could feel their squeeze, and she feared it would not relent any time soon. Milly was not going to go to the Gallows. She would be a stranger there, completely and utterly alone and though she wouldn't realize it, Aurora would. Antiva's Circle was familiar, there were people there that knew Milly and could take care of her, better than she ever could. Rilien was right, Milly would be best off in a Circle, and the best Circle for her was Antiva's. It did not mean she wasn't nervous about the whole thing.
The ship lazily drifted into the harbor with both Aurora and Milly patiently awaiting its arrival. It steadily grew as it drew closer until finally they had to step out of the way of the gangplank. By then, the pair were joined by the other ship hands and once it was tied off, they began their work loading the cargo onto the boat. The Qunari may have damaged the city during their attack, but trade had recovered quickly and resumed within the weak. Aurora found the captain of the ship, worked out the final plans. She handed him a coin purse, full of the silvers she managed to save doing odd jobs around the city during her time there. It would buy his silence, and ensure that they reached their destination safely.
Aurora set about loading the cargo with the other ship hands quietly, avoiding any unnecessary conversations. They seemed to allow it, keeping their talk between themselves, and before long all the cargo on the docks was stowed away under deck. "You got an hour to finish any business before we shove off-- with or without you," The captain warned as he stepped off the ship. He headed toward Lowtown-- the Hanged Man for one last drink if Aurora had her guess. Nodding, Aurora sat down on the dock and let her feet dangle below, urging Milly to do the same.
"This is it," Aurora said, giving Milly's shoulder a protective rub. "In a month we'll be home again." Milly looked at her and nodded her acknowledgement. "It's as you say," She said simply.
"Do you plan to return?” a flat voice asked from behind them. It was in fact Rilien, bearing a smaller cargo crate of his own, which he handed off to the crewmen still on board, tucking the purse of sovereigns he received in return up one of his sleeves. He did not wear his money openly, because he knew exactly how simple it was for a good thief to take advantage—and how common it was for a bad thief to try. He knew the ship was headed for Antiva, and it was not difficult to divine Aurora’s intentions, given Milly’s presence, though he had to say he felt a small flicker of dull surprise at the fact that it would appear at least that she was actually taking his advice. He would have supposed her too emotionally attached to act on the logic in it. But then perhaps he was getting ahead of himself. Just because they were going to Antiva did not mean Millian was to be given to the Circle there. It would not shock him that Aurora had become tired of dealing with Kirkwall.
Still, he supposed he might as well ask, if perhaps only for Sparrow’s sake. It seemed like the kind of thing she would want to know, after all. "Have you adequate provisions for the journey?” He didn’t only mean food—likely, it had cost a substantial amount to get a ship captain to transport a Tranquil away from the city, particularly given the clues that provided to what Aurora was. It would be preferential that they actually made it to their final destination, rather than reaching the shores of their home only to starve on their way inland.
"Eventually," She answered. Aurora had told Lucien something to that effect, and despite all that happened between then and now, she still felt much the same. She still felt that she could do something there, that she could make a change in a city that needed it. But she couldn't do it as she was. Time was needed, to heal, to mend, and to make whole what was broken. The journey to Antiva was not for Milly's sake alone. Aurora needed it just as much, she needed time away to regroup and recollect herself. It was about time she took the long road home. Family would center her and give her strength. The next time she left them, it would not be by force, but by choice, and the tears would not be from sadness alone.
Aurora's eyes came back into focus as he spoke again. Leaning back on her arms, she looked up at Rilien. "Adequate enough," She answered, "We get off in Bastion." The importance of the destination may have seemed inconsequential to him as she never revealed where she lived before the Antivan Circle. She had told Lucien, but he was not the type to spread such information, and Rilien wasn't the type to ask. "From there, the DiMerenda Trading Company should help me get Milly into the city..." Should. She had asked the captain about the company, if he even knew about it, and from what she gathered her father's business was quite doing well for itself.
She wondered what he would say when he saw her again. What would she say? What would he think about Milly? It was the cause of the knot in her stomach. There was so much uncertainty, but it was not without its measure of excitement. It was closing in on eight years since the last time she'd seen her family, she wanted to see them again. She just wished it could've been under better circumstances.
Rilien nodded with a sense of thoughtfulness, though perhaps that was only because he always seemed so serious. He made a small movement on one of his arms, something akin to a shrugging motion, though the gesture itself would have looked odd on him, and hooked his fingers around the small satchel that fell from his sleeve. “If one could account for all the circumstances in which bribery was necessary, there would be fewer.” It would seem that this explained the fact that he was dropping the coinpurse into Aurora’s hand, or was at least as much an explanation as he was going to give. Glancing briefly sideways at Milly, he offered a nod to both.
“Bon voyage.” Rather ironic, maybe, from him. He could hear the approach of others, however, and had no desire to remain. Therefore, he didn’t, choosing instead to turn on his heel and depart. His business, after all, was done.
Her mouth moved to tell him it wasn't necessary, but summarily closed. Aurora could attempt to return the coinpurse, but the end result would be same. He was a lot like Amalia in that regard, he did nothing without a purpose and to try to reject a gift from either would only make her feel silly in the end. So instead her eyes fell to the collection of coins in her hands, jingling them for effect before stowing them away on her person. "I'll pay you back," She said adamantly. She owed him a lot more than a few coins, but at least the coins she could repay.
Lucien had made a bit more of a concerted effort to actually be present to see his friend off, and he arrived at about the same time as Amalia and Ithilian did. He’d been left temporarily once more in charge of the embrium, but he figured it would be good to come say a more proper farewell-for-now regardless. Bereft of most of his armor, he approached the other two with a small smile. “I know it is not undertaken for the nicest of reasons,” he admitted, glancing at Milly’s impassive expression with something unreadable in his expression, “But I must confess to a twinge of envy all the same. I understand that Antiva is simply lovely in the summertime.” It was more than that, of course; Aurora was making a journey back to her homeland, and given what they had told each other of such things, he knew it was not insignificant for her by any means.
“I am glad you get to go back, regardless.”
"I'd.. Be.. Caught in a lie if I said I wasn't intimidated," Aurora revealed. The anxiousness she felt was clear in her face, but it held a look of not excitement, but an emotion more subdued. She was looking forward to going back home, despite the circumstances. It was not to be an entirely joyous return, but it was a return. She found enough solace in that to keep her looking forward. Worrying, thinking about how things could've be different, and fretting on circumstances out of her hands would do nothing to help neither Milly nor her. Forcing a smile back to her face, Aurora nodded and thanked him. "But.. Me too," She said.
Amalia, who had thus far simply been scrutinizing the scene in her usual stoic fashion, seemed to find nothing wrong with the seaworthiness of the vessel from where she was standing, and so turned from it to Aurora instead. Her lips pursed slightly, her expression appearing troubled for a short moment before it smoothed back out. “Be wary,” was all she said, though perhaps even two words made everything else clear enough.
Looking back to Amalia, Aurora held her words for a moment before accepting them for what they were. "Of course," she replied. Not everything needed to be put to words for the meaning to be found, and she was grateful for what hid behind them.
"Don't be intimidated," Ithilian urged her, though quite gently. He was no mentor of hers as Amalia had been, nor did he have years of friendship with her to call upon. He spoke more from being the one in the current group who had already taken the opportunity to return to what had once been home, and learn from it. "Keep a clear head, and don't doubt yourself. You'll find the way forward." The clear head was easily the most difficult part, when dealing with anything that evoked powerful emotions, something he knew Aurora was going through with everything that had happened. But he'd found a way through it, and from what he'd seen of how much Aurora had grown, she would too.
"We'll be glad to have you back when you return."
“Hurry, hurry! C'mon, it's a shortcut—”
The insistent urgings came from the half-haphazardly dressed sprite dragging Ashton through winding alleyways and down questionable cobble-stone streets, all the while clutching onto the sleeve of his shirt as if he would simply wander away if she let go. Flighty as she was, she hadn't actually explained why he had to go with her this instant, but she still managed to convince him to follow along with her, and while they walked, she finally told him where they were headed and, more importantly, why. Spending time in the Alienage, and in the gardens specifically, she'd already heard what had befallen on Milly. She was familiar with Tranquility. Far more than she wished to admit. She supposed it was worse for Aurora, since she'd known Milly when she was wide-eyed with curiosity and teeming with enthusiasm. To have that all stripped away and not know what to do afterward. She couldn't imagine it. With her and Rilien, it was much different. True enough, it was difficult seeing him as anything other than who he was, for everything he had been was little more than tales he seldom shared.
As soon as they rounded the aforementioned bend, Sparrow relinquished her grip on his sleeve and spared Ashton having to replace his shirt altogether. Had she shown any signs of acknowledging her roughhousing and oblivious rudeness, she certainly did not show it, as she was already waving her arms in the air, trying to call over to the assembled group without shrieking across the docks. Not that that would have been all too surprising given that she had the subtlety of a bugling dragon flying overhead. She abandoned her gestures, leaving Ashton at the mouth of the alleyway, and broke into a brisk jog. Then an impatient sprint, as if they would hurry onto the ship and disappear before they had the chance to say goodbye. Each crisis, each tragedy, she'd learned, in mostly awful ways, revealed truer measures of a person's character. The parts one would normally hide away, because they were raw, ragged things. In Aurora, she saw hidden strength. Maturity, patience, and even if she felt lost, she recognized a sense of direction.
By the time she reached them, she inhaled sharply and held a hand against her chest to slow its thumping. No endurance, after all. She was all momentary bluster, with hardly any staying power. “G, good, you're... not gone... yet,” she breathed, puffing her chest out and planting her hands on her hips, “Can't leave.. without saying... goodbye.” Finally looking around her, Sparrow noted who was here, and who was absent. Everyone was here... except for Rilien, which was strange, wasn't it? He had given her all of the right information. The destination and the time, and a stern-eyed warning that if she were late, the captain would not wait and she'd miss her chance to say goodbye.
She straightened and hooked her thumb over her shoulder, indicating that she had another wily visitor to see her off. Without another word, Sparrow bustled towards her and cupped her face between her calloused hands, planting a kiss on her forehead. She pulled away and stooped to do the same to Milly, brushing strands of hair away from the starburst tattoo, before planting another whispery kiss—while it may have been just her way of saying farewell, it was one of the only things she could remember mothers doing to say that they would always be there. She stepped back from them and smiled unabashedly. They would do fine, the both of them. She'd never been good at comforting others, she simply expected things would pan out, as she did now.
“I'll tend the garden until you're back, yeah?”
"I, uh," Aurora stammered clearly not expecting a goodbye kiss. Her cheeks matched her hair for a moment before she gathered herself and nodded, a smile at her lips. "Thank you Sparrow." For both the garden, and the farewell. Looking over her shoulder, she watched as Nostariel's friend, the lanky archer she'd met in the Hanged Man followed behind Sparrow straightening his clothes that he'd almost gotten pulled out of.
Ashton took a moment to exchange nods with Ithilian before leaning on Sparrow, planting his elbow on the crook of her neck and cupping his head with the hand. "What she means to say, is that she'll miss you dearly," He said, flicking a lock of Sparrow's hair. "And between you and me," He said, hiding his lips from her, "I think you're a good influence on her." A playful smile fluttered across his lips as he suspiciously eyed Sparrow for a moment. "But I'm not only saying farewell for myself, though make no mistake, you'll be missed. If Nos was up and running, I'm sure she would've been here too. She'll miss you and I'm positive she's sorry she couldn't make it," he said, somewhat apologetically. "So don't forget about us, yeah?" He asked with a laugh. Like anyone could forget them.
Aurora nodded gently grateful for his message and agreed, "Of course not. Thank you-- both. And give Nostariel my best wishes." If she ever had doubts about returning, maybe lingering in Antiva, they were summarily dismissed and replaced with the desire to return one day. It was a journey she needed to take, one that was a long time in coming. Grabbing Milly gently by the arm, she drew the girl close to her side and bowed. "Thank you-- All of you. And Milly thanks you as well, I'm sure," She said, Milly nodding along. Just then, a whistle cried out from the ship behind them. The captain stood on the deck and beckoned them to hurry, they were about to set sail.
Nodding, Aurora couldn't shake the want for just little bit more time, just another minute or two to express just... Just how thankful she was. For their support, their belief, and their friendship. "Thank you all," She said, her eyes wavering, "For everything." She couldn't imagine trying to survive Kirkwall alone. She couldn't imagine life without them. She didn't want to think how life would've turned out if she didn't duck into the Hanged Man all those years ago. "I'll be back. Soon. I promise," She pledged. Taking Milly's hand into her own, Aurora stepped onto the boat as it floated away from the dock. She stood at the bow, waving until they faded from view and nothing but water surrounding them.
Aurora then leaned against the bow rubbing the spray from her eyes. "We're going home," She told Milly as she stared out across the sea. A moment of silence passed between them, before Milly spoke. "Are you?" She asked. Aurora looked at her before smiling, looking out back toward Kirkwall.
"No. I'm leaving it."