[OPEN] Be Careful Lest Your Sins Find You Out

[lifeofendurance]

WHO: Aleron Darton and Anyone in the Gallows
WHAT: Someone remembers the Seeker from days gone by. Not happy days.
WHEN: Early Justinian (backdated)
WHERE: Gallows
NOTES: None yet. Al is still a stick-in-the-mud. Although maybe no more than 4-5 tag ins so I don't leave folks hanging? Still open for any previous Kirkwall/Starkhaven mages who want to wtf at him.



It was bound to happen sooner or later.

Ever since receiving the news that the Inquisition was going to set up base in Kirkwall, Aleron has had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that his time in the city prior was going to rear its ugly head. He, of course, doesn't feel he was in any way wrong in his actions. But then making people uncomfortable is part and parcel of being a Seeker. He's used to it, in fact. And thus, the sudden outburst behind his head is not much of a surprise.

"You! What are you doing here?! How could you? How could you have brought us here and left us with that madwoman?"

The source: a woman with a thick Starkhaven accent, face red with rage and barrelling at Aleron as if to tackle him to the ground with her slight frame.

She stops short of tackling him. Barely.

Having his boots spit on? That does prove something of a surprise. And the slap she delivers across his face immediately thereafter.

Comments

[justice_is_blond]

He hears of it later. A mage being tackled, pinned painfully, and flung after her only crime was a slap and a spit. This. This is why Templars and Seekers are problems still. She'd not attacked with magic, she'd not actually threatened him, but she'd been treated as if she was a criminal and he's furious. A little of it's faded by the time he's found Aleron, but not all.

"I want to hear your side of what happened." His voice is cold, anger etched on his face, arms crossed. "I want to hear why a victim was assaulted after slapping someone who could have easily taken it, why yet again the power imbalance of the past was enforced."

Sometimes he wonders if there ever will be any true allies from the Chantry side, or if they're all biding their time and playing nice-ish until they can once more subjugate and abuse.

[lifeofendurance]

Ah another visitor. Anders is not the first, and he's unlikely to be the last. Aleron is just as maddeningly emotionless about this visit as he's been about the others. If anything, he's becoming exhausted with the distinct lack of emotional control in the Inquisition. But only just.

However, Anders is just as likely to walk away as unsatisfied as Wren did. As will any number of others. Because he doesn't have a "side". As far as he's concerned, the slap was more than justified and he's quite willing to let the matter drop. Hell, he's just as willing to let the population of Kirkwall line up and take their shots at him, because he deserves it. He won't be defending himself now or ever. He will give facts.

"A previous mage of the Kirkwall Circle slapped me with good cause. A Templar intervened. Bethany then intervened and took her away for tea and rest." He's not divulging names, he's not divulging particulars, and he is wondering why everyone feels the need to insert themselves into a matter he considers concluded. "I've no intentions of pursuing any further action for the altercation. She has suffered enough."

Matter is settled and Aleron calmly goes about reordering his research notes that were pushed about while Wren was here having her hissy fit.

[justice_is_blond]

"...You think I'm upset at the mage? The one who I've heard any number of things about? While I'm quite certain that the tale of how she was beaten is an exaggeration brought about by rumor, reliable sources say that someone who had good cause as you say, was attacked by the very Templar who has attacked people before. I'd also like to hear more about the cause she had, because that's been subjected to a half-dozen rumors as well."

Word flies. It always has, but especially here in the Gallows. It's the only tradition of this place that Anders welcomes, just as he doesn't welcome Aleron's implications that the mage might deserve more punishment than she'd already gotten. The mess is another indication of why he's only all right with very specific, personally known, Seekers and Templars. These people cannot be allowed to have authority over mages again, ever.

[lifeofendurance]

"She was not beaten," Aleron confirms. "A Templar standing nearby intervened and restrained her for a totality of one minute, until it was clear she did not intend any further physical altercations." He's not bringing up that it is Cade, because Harimann is problem. An epic problem. A problem that he and Malcolm wanted settled a year ago and they were prevented from doing by pleas of mercy. It's starting to seem a rather grand mistake.

If Aleron were a man given to emotional reactions, he would sigh. Heavily. As it is, he remains calm and unmoved by the entire discussion. He's rather exasperated by this rampant excess of emotional exhibitionism, but does not intend to let everyone's tempers rule the day. As it stands, Rhona did strike him first and without immediate provocation. If people poke and prod too hard at the matter, trouble might come down on her head for picking a fight and that is assuredly the last thing he wants to see come to this woman.

"As to her reasons, I am to blame for her having been placed in Kirkwall's Circle under Meredith's care."

[justice_is_blond]

"Is restrained the proper word, or a mild way of describing it?"

The woman was a victim of the Kirkwall Circle. Slapping someone for the horrors that they went through, someone who was admitting they were responsible, is a perfectly normal response. Especially when there are so many yelling about how mages need to be controlled because otherwise they'd just attack people. She'd simply slapped, not used magic. Anders would absolutely defend her and her right to do that.

"And are you saying that you're one of the Seekers who came to Kirkwall, saw what was going on... and walked away?"

[lifeofendurance]

"I am one of those Seekers, yes." Arguing that he didn't just look in and shrug isn't his nature. He knows he did his job. Aleron also knows all too well that there was more afoot than their investigation turned over and it had disastrous consequences. He lives with that guilt on a daily basis, now compounded from being back in the city and seeing the backlash. Fact remains, he didn't dig deep enough and will not be making excuses for it.

What he does provide is a clue to what happened. "She recognized me in passing." Which is not to say he recognized her. He was here strictly to ensure the Templars were in-line with the transfer and to investigate. Getting to know the individuals being moved was not his concern at that time.

[justice_is_blond]

Aleron may not give him a verbal answer to the first question, but that's an answer in and of itself. Force was used, and more than was 'appropriate.' No little surprise when Harriman is involved. The real surprise is that this man who has married a mage and the mage did nothing to help someone Cade was hurting.

...Then again. If Aleron considered Kirkwall not his problem initially, maybe it's no wonder that he didn't stop Cade. Maybe there's no fixing the system that caused this situation in the first place, abuses compounded on abuses.

The frustration fades, replaced by a mix of despair and resignation. "So you let Meredith continue to slaughter innocents, paid no need to Templars making them Tranquil for their own personal reasons, walked away from the abuse, and today you let Cade harm a mage who was upset you'd abandoned them before. Where does it end?"

And when does anyone other than him step up and acknowledge that they helped add to the mess? Cade, Cullen, Aleron, no one can be bothered to disrupt the Chantry's narrative that Kirkwall's mess was the act of one lone mad mage.

[lifeofendurance]

Still calm, still emotionless, although Aleron can feel his frustration rising. Not with Anders, per se, but the rampant distortion of facts and truth. He begins to wonder if anyone is capable of being rational or reasonable.

He will not take that budding irritation out on Anders, however. "Is that your understanding of the situation?"

More importantly, is he even going to be open to the truth, or just act out of emotion just like Rhona, just like Cade, just like Wren?

[justice_is_blond]

"Is that..." Maker. There are times he wonders if Bethany married this man just to have stability, as that's about all the man seems good for - steadily plodding along no matter anything else, determinedly set in his rut.

"Clearly you feel something else was going on. Why don't you explain your take on the situations?" Maybe that will open the door in the wall this conversation has been.

[lifeofendurance]

"I will, but fix it firmly in your mind now that I do not expect, or want forgiveness. I do not deserve it and I will not accept it. I've already been accused once today of pandering for it when providing facts to someone who demanded them. However, I am a believer in the truth. I see no benefit in shying away from it."

Aleron holds a hand out to a chair as an invitation for Anders to sit because this could take a long while and there's no point in leaving him discomfited physically.

"Are you aware of the fire that decimated the Circle of Magi in Starkhaven in 9:31 Dragon?" A strange start, perhaps, but Aleron prefers to handle facts in an orderly fashion.

[justice_is_blond]

He takes a seat, keeping his face still. The only forgiveness he could offer is not forgiveness that would be asked for, truly - that of standing aside and letting Anders bear the blame for what happened alone. Maybe if Aleron is interested in the truth they can get there. That remains to be seen, though.

"Vaguely. I was aware of many Starkhaven mages being brought to Kirkwall, and assisted a few of them in escaping both with and without Hawke when it became clear that they were the newest targets of the Kirkwall Templars. What of it?"

[lifeofendurance]

Had this been ten or even two years ago, Aleron would have reacted to an admission of smuggling mages far differently. But this is now the Divine is dead, and the majority of his brethren spearheaded a crusade to annul every mage in Thedas as an apostate. Whatever ill-formed opinions that he's quite certain Anders has of him, he's always concerned himself more with truth and integrity than wresting for more power. He is here because they are wrong and it grieves him what his Order has been reduced to.

No reaction, just simple calm, and an explanation. Coldly given which possibly indicates he doesn't care, which couldn't be further from the truth.

"Rhona was in the number of those mages transferred. At the time, two Seekers were dispatched to oversee the process and ensure that no Templars took advantage of the situation. I was one of them." Some few attempted escape, the Templars present shuttled them back into the fold. There was some blood magic involved but that matter settled. Irrelevant to this discussion. As is his Seeker brother's opinion that the whole lot should be culled as a precaution against the one. "Following the conclusion of the transfer, we were to investigate claims that Knight-Commander Meredith was excessive in her treatment of her charges."