[context -- part one, part two]
Immediately after returning from Cyre, Jasmine sprints to the rail station, her heart dead-set on finding Arishtava and setting the record straight. After hearing that Ari knows about her history as the Grandmaster of Cyre and the outright atrocities she'd committed at Vathirond -- cruelly and mercilessly slaughtering civilians and soldiers alike -- she feels she has no choice but to visit in person and demand a second chance.
She spots Aliza and Ciara d'Orien chilling off-duty there before their upcoming reassignment to Thaliost and, still covered in dust and grime from her last adventure, demands a teleportation circle spell to take her straight to Fairhaven. The twins ask for a payment of 2500 galifars, which Jasmine can't afford. Aliza offers to waive the fee in exchange for a favour -- later revealed to be a proper resurrection for Eliza ir'Darcassan. Once this is settled, the twins channel their joint Siberys mark to open a portal to Fairhaven Station, and Jasmine steps through without hesitating for even a moment.
When she emerges from the portal, she takes a moment to brace herself against the dizzying rush sensory overload, before looking around and finding herself on an unfamiliar lightning rail platform. She's suddenly punched by the realisation that she has no idea where Ari lives. She starts frantically running around the station and calling their name. No one responds to the crazy lady in dirty armour, until a concerned woman walks up to her and attempts to help. Jasmine gives her a general description of Ari, and the woman -- introducing herself as Aurora d'Vadalis -- doesn't seem to recognise her. Still, she mentions both the University of Wynarn and a small Adaran neighbourhood near the docks as possible places to search.
With that, Jasmine makes a mad dash out of the station in the vague direction of the docks, pausing briefly to use a cleansing stone and look like less of a mess. After wandering in circles like the absolute madwoman she is, she finally finds the neighbourhood she was looking for, judging by the occasional colourful tapestry or stained-glass window. She runs into a pair of half-elf sailors returning home from the docks and immediately stops them, asking for Ari's address. While they appear to personally know her, they question why this armoured woman is asking for directions to her home, and shoo her away.
Desperate as ever, she continues to wander in circles around the neighbourhood, until a specific piece of art in a window catches her eye. She recognises the style of the painting and, steeling herself, strides up to knock on the door. It's answered by a middle-aged man with a very familiar tiredness behind his bright hazel eyes -- presumably Ari's father. She immediately asks if Arishtava lives here, and he says they do, but they've been feeling rather ill lately. Still, he lets her in and tells her to have a seat in the cluttered living room, overflowing with books and half-finished paintings on every wall.
While Jasmine waits, she hears snippets of a one sided Riedran conversation from behind a nearby door. "Ari? Your friend is here to see you-- very tall, brown hair and blue eyes, fancy armour... what do you mean?? So she followed you all the way here?? I can tell her you're still sick. Don't worry, I won't allow her to hurt either of us, okay? I'll tell her to--" The man's voice cuts off, giving way to the very familiar sounds of panicked and strangled breathing, just like when Ari has one of her nightmares.
She strides up to the door and responds in pained Riedran. "I am not here to hurt either of you- Ari?? Is she alright??"
A voice in her head -- very distinctively Ari's, but much angrier than usual, responds. "Will you just fuck off?? I said I wanted to be alone, and here you are, stalking me all the way to my dad's house--"
Jasmine's heart breaks. "I know. I know, but you would not listen to me. I thought, maybe, that the fact that you still responded at night at all meant something-" She pauses, and takes a shaky breath before continuing on in a slightly more composed manner. "If you truly never wish to see me again, then I understand. I will leave. However... if any part of you still cares for me, please, talk to me."
Ari's anger only crescendoes at this, to the point where the voice in Jasmine's head practically screams. "What more is there to listen to?? Jasmine Glayder is fucking dead, isn't she--?? Dad, please let me go, I am fine--"
Jasmine considers her next words carefully. "...I may have chosen my words poorly. No. Unfortunately, Jasmine Glayder is not dead. She- I- have killed people. Yes. Some who did not deserve it. I am not a good person. I know this. But I have been trying. To call... to call Vathirond a mistake would be a horrible understatement, but- Ari, I thought I was going to die. I thought that my friends were going to die. I panicked. I... It was never my intention..." Her facade is completely gone, but damn it she's trying to pretend it isn't.
A longer pause, almost a full minute, follows. "Fine. But I'm not having this conversation in front of my father. He's.... terrified would be an understatement..." Ari's breathing gets more strained, and her telepathy becomes glitchy and rough.
"...my apologies, sir, I promise you, I have no intention of harming either you or your child--" Jasmine then remembers that she's in full equipment, and awkwardly undoes the belt attached to her scabbard, and sets the sheathed blade aside.
The side door swings open slowly, hesitantly. Ari, more well-rested than Jasmine has ever seen her, steps out -- if it wasn't for the sheer terror on her face, she would look like a normal person. "...he's not okay, sorry. Keep your voice down. Anyways. Is that really the kind of excuse you would give the parents and partners of the innocent people you killed? You were just nervous? It was a casual little slip of the tongue??"
Jasmine is taken aback by how accusatory her tone has become. "No. No, I- that is not at all what I said, but there is no excuse that I would give to them."
"So why'd you kill them?"
"It was a war, Ari... I did what I thought I must at the time. I was wrong." She refuses to meet their eyes as she continues.
"...Glayder, do you think I don't know how war works? Do you think I haven't seen the terrible things people excuse with it??" Ari is too afraid to look directly at Jasmine. "I thought-- no, we thought you were better than this. We thought you felt... safe. And to hear that you're as terrible as the kinds of monsters we've spent our lives running from..." She bites her lip to hold back another round of choked, strangled sobs. "Please. I just need to know... did I fall in love with a complete lie? Before you, I barely even felt real, and now I have no idea what to believe anymore."
For the second time in the past ten minutes, Jasmine's heart breaks. "....I do not condone what I did. Even remotely, Ari-- the only lies I ever told you were that I was fine, even while half dead."
"...this is fucking stupid... all this time, and I barely even knew you." Ari's no longer able to fight back the tears. The sound is as choked and scratchy as it's ever been.
Jasmine instinctively reaches up to offer healing, but freezes, and just lets her hand hang between them. "...you did know me... you do know me."
"No. No, I never did. If I had, I wouldn't have needed to read about you in history books and war reports to find out the truth."
"...can you blame me for not wanting... this. I thought I had been given a chance to start over... to be a... a fucking painter or something, where I didn't have to add to the list of faces I see every damn night. Yes, I did some horrible things, but I've already lost everything! More than once! When will that fucking penance be paid?!" Jasmine hasn't actually raised her voice, but her tone is uncharacteristically emotional, frustrated and helpless, and the tears have left her eyes to stream down her face.
Ari finally looks directly at her. Her face is frozen in a strange, conflicted expression, as if there's a war brewing between the two halves of her mind and she's stuck in the crossfire. The tears get much worse, and she doesn't move, not even to breathe. "...what was it you said that one night? Something about sunflowers growing towards each other if they can't see the sun?"
"...yes?" Jasmine glances down at the intertwined rose and sunflower tattoo on her hand. Ari does the same, and she notices their forearm is covered in shallow scratches -- as if they had physically tried to claw it out of their skin.
Against her better judgement, Ari continues. "...I hate you for what you've done. How could I not? The way the books all tried to justify it... hell, the way you tried to brush it all under the rug..." She pauses, organising her thoughts. "I'm fucking scared of what people like you have done to me, but despite this... you've made me feel safer than anyone ever has. You've made me remember what it's like to not be stuck in a waking nightmare in my own head. I... unfortunately, I can't let go of you that easily."
"I don't like those books anymore than you do, and... I won't argue that I made every attempt to forget what happened in Vathirond, but I know that I never can... and I'm sorry that I've made you scared of me." Jasmine makes one more attempt to offer her hand, and this time, Ari physically forces herself not to flinch away.
"No... no, I'm sorry for ignoring you, and not hearing you out, and calling you a liar-- I need you, you stupid fucking murderer."
Jasmine lightly brushes her hand over Ari's forearm, healing each cut incredibly quickly, but with the same tingle as usual. She doesn't otherwise respond for about a minute, then pulls a slightly crumpled letter from her pocket, continuing in broken Riedran.
"Thank you, for dragging me out of the pit I allowed myself to languish in, unclean and drowning in spirits. Thank you, for giving me a reason to look beyond how I might fall in the most glorified way possible, a goal aside from martyrdom, for reminding me unintentionally that I, under no uncertain terms, must make it back to you alive. Thank you for saving my life, Arishtava." She looks up from the paper. "...in other words... I need you, too, Ari. I love you.
"...your pronunciation is shit." Despite the tears, Ari lets out an audible laugh. The sound is no easier on the ears than it ever is, but unlike before, she doesn't cut it off the moment it escapes, and just falls forwards into a coughing fit turned extremely tight hug.
"By the Host, you're adorable." Jasmine returns the hug, lightly enough to not actually hurt the still-terrified kalashtar.
"Anyways. How long do you plan on staying here? Weren't you supposed to be in Salvation??"
"I should be back tonight or tomorrow." Jasmine's tone suddenly sounds regretful.
"Did-- no way. Orien teleportation is really fucking expensive. You did not. You absolute dumbass." The silence that follows is telling, and Ari audibly sighs, tightening the hug. "...I can't let you leave without at least showing you around the city, though, so uh, want to go look at pretty buildings and make out?"
"I would like nothing more."
Ari opens the door to a bedroom, that's just as chaotically decorated as the rest of the house. There's a full on bulletin board above the desk, with red string running between scraps of paper with coded messages scrawled on them, and what looks like a music stand and instrument case in the corner. Her father sits at said desk, calmly reading an old book from one of the many shelves in here. Ari has a quick and silent telepathic conversation with him, after which he seems to relax slightly more.
Jasmine apologises for the intrusion and introduces herself. Ari's father accepts her apology, mentioning that some of the things his child had told him about her were "terrifying, to say the least", but that he would trust Ari's judgement on the matter. He heads off to cook dinner, leaving Ari and Jasmine alone once more.
The moment the door closes, Ari stumbles through an awkward telepathic apology. "....hi. Sorry for the chaos we really weren't expecting guests today-- so anyways what did you want to--" She's cut off by a sudden kiss from Jasmine, which she returns after a few moments hesitation.
"...I missed you, Ari."
"Unfortunately, I missed you too."
Jasmine brushes their hair back and just stares for a few seconds, her expression uncharacteristically... normal, devoid of its usual emotionlessness. "As much as I would love to stay here and 'make out,' you did promise, and I quote, 'pretty buildings."
Ari stares back for a few moments too long. "...right. Oh boy, where do I take you first... so the art museum by the university is absolutely gorgeous, I used to spend way too much of my time there as a kid-- but there's also this one street in Nealford with these really fancy houses and my friends and I would get yelled at for stealing flowers from their gardens, and--"
Jasmine responds with a wink, of all things. "I say we save Nealford for when the sun starts to set, and they will not notice any flowers missing in the lighting."
Ari blushes slightly and lets out another audible laugh -- this one's still grotesque and terrible to listen to, but she sounds like she's in marginally less pain than before. "That's not gonna work, dumbass. They call Fairhaven the City of Lights for a reason."
"Then I suppose we will just have to be stealthy, hm?" She slides her arm around Ari's waist, and the mage dimension doors the two of them out in style, for a pleasant evening of exploring the city and making up.