Out flew the web and floated wide-

[arcaneadvisor]

WHO: Morrigan, Bruce, Kain, Jehan, Ciri, Sabine, Velanna
WHAT: A stroll in Serault; the Venatori want to repair an eluvian so they've entrenched themselves but Serault has reached out to Morrigan to 'invite her to visit'. She enlists the best team ever to come check this out
WHEN: Mid-Firstfall, we're handwaving time a bit
WHERE: Serault
NOTES: ooc plotting post.

Comments

[arcaneadvisor]

The last time Morrigan ventured to Serault, she flew for the most part. Simple enough to appear as she wished, as had come to be expected of the arcane advisor of Celene's court, though at least this time she's not in all the trappings of that life. There's something to be said for slipping back into old habits though because a part of her did miss getting to travel like this even if she barely knows most of the company she's assembled.

Well, perhaps she might do something to change that while they have the time to do so before whatever awaits them in Serault proper.

"I am glad to see the war has not spread so far. Yet." Always yet, and perhaps Morrigan doesn't care greatly for Orlais but she did accomplish something very great in Serault. "Have you visited before?"

[ichaer]

"It's a nice change of pace compared to how the rest of Orlais has fared in similar places." Ciri mutters, a touch tiredly perhaps compared to her usual chipper tone of voice.

"My friends and I used to dare one another to travel into these woods but I never actually did travel here." She would say it was not our of fear but perhaps there had been some fear involved. The sort of unreasonable fear that is born from stories that are passed around campfires in the dead of the night to scare those around you. "I never found myself sent this way on missions for the Wardens either."

But now that she is here there is curiosity about it and once more, she cannot help glancing around to gaze at the dark woods that surround their party.

[arcaneadvisor]

"I saw the Exalted Plains some months past. When I made my way from the capital to Skyhold the weather demanded more of my attention in truth and I had managed to avoid Dirthavaren. To see it now..." To see it now there's something like regret in Morrigan's voice, quiet but present, maybe from knowing the history and poring over the ruins there. That it sees more bloodshed now is hardly a comforting notion.

It's the comment about Ciri's friends that draws her attention; Morrigan had none (supposes she does now but you get to your late thirties and it seems odd to just finally have your very first friends) but prowling about wild places was what she'd been born to do. "I cannot imagine much drawing Wardens this way. Tis always possible that Darkspawn might ford the Marshes yet such places have a way of choking out many creatures without wits. The Korcari Wilds likely did the same to the stragglers from the Blight." Or so she hopes, she hasn't really made a point of going back to poke about there. "I wonder though, what would bring the young out into a place like this, rife with bandits and pirates, or strange heretical beliefs in Andraste."

Strange heretical beliefs about Andraste that don't involve dragons and loons beseeching you to despoil urns of supposedly sacred ashes with blood. Because they believe Andraste is a high dragon. As one does apparently. Why anyone was surprised Haven ended the way it did if they knew a scrap of the history is utterly beyond her.

[ichaer]

Ciri glances over to Morrigan as she speaks, listening intently and with interest. She has not traveled much until she joined up with the Inquisition but she can agree with her words. It was hard to see what has happened in these times but mostly it was harder to see what has come upon the people who are now left with little or nothing.

"I never thought I would be so grateful to marshes," she murmurs with slight amusement. There was no joy in fighting the darkspawn since them on the surface always meant trouble or having to watch someone die in pain as the taint swam in their blood. Her wondering thought is answer with a thoughtful hum before she moves a hand to rub at her neck and shrugs her shoulders.

"Because even the young make up those bandit numbers but not all saw worth in coming all the way here. We, mistakenly, never saw much worth in glass."

[arcaneadvisor]

At least the only stinging swarm to be found will be if Morrigan herself chooses to change her shape. And then she'll be on their side. (You know, unless Jehan maybe needs a nip or a few dozen because Gwenaelle might crack the ghost a smile at that.)

"Tis a comfort, is it not? That for all they might taint that there are some places where the world itself might simply say no more to them. I have been only once into the Deep Roads but one would hope many more might fall into all that lava present." They're smarter in numbers but there are wild animals she's met with more raw cunning during a lean winter than a genlock could rub together.

"Glass is hardly the easiest thing to make off with." But she's thinking more of a golden mirror stolen, then shattered by Flemeth to be swallowed by the mud of the Wilds before she pushes the thought away. The other part is more interesting than Serault's words. "Is that what led you to the Wardens?"

[ichaer]

At least there is some positives to this trip into the creepy forest.

"Any time that I don't have that weird itch in the back of my head is a comfort." It is said with a slight chuckle as Ciri leans back in her saddle, gaze cast upwards to the canopy over them and frowning slightly. She has only been into the Deep Roads once herself and, if possible, she would never go back down there again but if her life did not end in battle on the surface then it would in battle on those roads.

Shaking her head, her gaze returns to Morrigan and she gives a small smile. "In a manner of speaking. I had two choices, the Wardens at least offered me a small chance of survival if one could call it that."

sorry i've been super sick and i couldn't get tags to happen

[arcaneadvisor]

"I cannot say I have felt it. But there is something pervasiveness about them. And the stench." Even if you don't wear very much, it still manages to work itself into every single fibre of what you do wear. Or perhaps she imagined that. It wasn't as if any of them talked too much about that part of their journey really.

Ah yes, the Wardens and what comes to them, that and the part about duty that she remembers from treaties that her accused of being some sort of thief once. "Survival has meaning, and here you are. Alive, living a life that is still yours. What would you call it, if not that?"

no worries! i've been grossly slow because of the holidays

[ichaer]

Leaning back in the saddle, Ciri hums lightly and breathes out a long sigh of sorts. It was hard to put her thoughts into words most of the time and that was especially true concerning her feelings about the Wardens or rather what her life as a Warden meant now. What it meant for the future.

"It's usually all quite well and good, terrible dreams aside. Until recently I was more or less left on my own but that all quite literally went up in flames along with Weisshaupt." She frowns, shaking her head.

"Now there is some magister darkspawn from the dawn of time capable of rooting around in our heads apparently. Needless to say, I've had better years."

[arcaneadvisor]

Ah, the dreams. Never close enough to the main camp to be woken often by them but still aware of them. More now than ten years ago.

"Though the dreams are not the same, I understand nightmares. I am still woken by my son's from time to time." How similar Kieran's nightmares are to a Warden's is something Alistair might know better, but not something she could share even if she knows in her heart that that's where it comes from. At least riding means she can look ahead rather than to Ciri. "At least there was something salvaged from Weisshaupt. Of things thought lost to this world, griffons returning are far more welcome than magisters. Perhaps this time they shall be better appreciated though from my own work..."

She trails off with a sigh because it is a truth universally acknowledged that the citizens of Thedas are resoundingly shit at good choices or anything resembling sound judgement.