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“Shiny?”
“Mmm?”
“Wha’d you mean last night?”
Saviera opened her eyes and immediately shut them again. She groaned and pressed her face into Sera’s side.
“Ngh, what time is it?”
“Tenth bell rang a bit ago. But don’t worry about Lady Ruffles coming to look for you.”
Saviera removed her face and squinted up at her suspiciously. “What did you do?”
“I wedged that ugly chair between the stairs and the door. And left a note saying we were naked in here.”
“True enough.” Saviera yawned and resettled her head. “I’m staying here until the sun stops being so loud. What were we drinking? Remind me to never look at it again.”
“I’ll get the curtains.”
Sera started to get up but Saviera latched onto her middle. “Nooooo, don’t go you’re so warm.”
Sera pulled the closest blanket over the two of them. Saviera curled up with the blanket and her Sera-pillow and smiled with her eyes closed. Sera’s heart did the thing where it got very heavy and warm. It was a nice thing but not why she had woken up her hung-over girlfriend.
“Last night, you kept repeating my name and giggling.”
“I don’t giggle.” Saviera protested.
“Sure you don’t.” Sera rolled her eyes. “But you were making a giggling noise and repeating my name.”
“Were we..?"
“Nah, you puked off the balcony. Didn’t think you’d be up to any extra fun after that.”
“Right. Thanks. Why was I saying your name then?”
“That’s why I’m asking you, Shiny.”
“Why would- oh.” Saviera sat up and pulled the sheet over her head like a hood. “Sera, Serah Sera.”
“Yeah, like that.” Sera fished a water skin from under the bed and handed it to Saviera.
“And isn’t there an Orlesian word ‘sera’?”
“Yeah, I think.”
Saviera nodded and took a long drink from the skin.
“There is a- a slang word I guess, used by the Dalish clans. Or at least, mine and every Dalish clan mine has come in contact with. ‘Sera’ is a shortened version of ‘serannas’ which means ‘to thank’. ‘Sera’ is like, ‘thanks’ or ‘no problem’. I guess I thought that was really funny last night.”
Sera’s nose wrinkled a bit at the idea. Trust a Dalish to go and make her name elfy when it wasn’t. It was just a name, no reason for things to be so complicated.
“Sera, do you know anything about your parents?” Saviera asked quietly.
Sera shrugged. This is what she didn’t want. Shiny always did this; went looking for ways to make things more complicated. She liked her- a lot- so much that she didn’t really have anything else to judge it by and was trying to not think about words that started with ‘L' but she didn’t need things to be so complicated. Or elfy.
“One of my cousins- well, my aunt’s husband’s cousin’s husband but ‘cousin’ is shorter- is named Serranon and my clan has a Seranni, Seranna, and Seraniel. It’s a good name. Usually reserved for babies who nearly didn’t reach their first name-day.”
Saviera wiggled her hand out of her blanket cocoon and onto Sera’s. “I don’t know if there’s any connection with your name but I think it’s nice. Almost prophetic, you know? Because I’m so grateful you’re here.”
Sera snorted and shoved her over. “You’re a loony, Shiny.”
“And you’re a gift.” Saviera said into the mattress.
Cassandra eventually disassembled the door around noon and dragged Saviera off to some ‘important meeting’ of some sort. She also said something about the servants needing to clean sick off of the windows in the war room but Sera was sure she was exaggerating.
Despite Sera’s best efforts, Saviera’s translation kept coming back to her. It stuck in her head. The idea that maybe some elf in Denerim had looked at her and decided that everyone she ever met needed to say thanks for her existence was nice, in a weird way. But it was just a maybe.
What wasn’t a ‘maybe’ was that her Shiny thought the name fit. The heavy and warm feeling stuck around all day.