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WHO: Cole & Several (includes OPEN THREAD for Rifters)
WHAT: Compassion returns to Skyhold.
WHEN: Early-Mid Haring
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Cole works best with individualized threads rather than completely open ones. Please don't be afraid to contact me (Plurk or PM) if you'd like to set something up! Prompts will be posted in comments.

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For a while after he found Sam again, he only watched. Sitting on a nearby table, his legs dangling off the edge. The room was hot, the clanging of the hammer rhythmic and loud, almost piercing. None of it bothered him.

It was only after a long stretch, at a point where Sam was about to rest, that Cole spoke.

"It doesn't want to bend, not even when the fire makes it soft. It wants to be cold, hard, immovable." He tilted his head from one side to the other. "It's not at all like magic."

The weight of the hammer and the sound of the metal were comforting for how they helped drown things out, both physically and mentally. Hearing about the council considering Harrowings... with having to focus on the work in his hand it was easier to organize his thoughts. Practicing his magic would have done the same, but he needed some space from magic at the moment.

When the piece is finally finished is when Sam decides to call it a day, dipping the metal into the trough of water to set it. He's barely set it down after it's done when he starts at the voice, turning around quickly to see whom else was in the armory with him.

Curious stare, large hat, unusual clothing- "Spirit," he addresses him, blinking in surprise. After a moment of registering what he's said, Sam give a small smile. "No, it's not. Quite the opposite." It's why he enjoyed this work, similar but completely different to magic.

He gave a curious look at the direct address of Spirit, but made no comment.

"You like being both," he observed, swinging his feet a little more. "The hammer, and the ringing."

The hammer, heavy and forceful. The ringing, the sound that resonated through the room when two vital components met. Might and magic.

Well he's not exactly sure what to call him really. Was he still 'Compassion' with the way he was? He means no offense, just... not exactly sure.

He's not quite sure what ringing was supposed to be, but he can figure that he was referring to something physical and something not tangible. "They do say opposites attract." Leaning against the table, he tilts his head, raising a brow a bit. "Did you just get back from the Mire?"

"It hasn't been long." More than a day, less than a week. Dividing days into separate things took some thinking.

And he didn't know...? Oh. Had he not said his name? Most of the time, he told people, just because it was something they expected to hear. Sam had understood rather quickly. Perhaps that was why he forgot.

"And it's Cole," he said, responding to the unspoken question. "You should call me Cole."

Right, mind reading. Still kind of getting used to that on this side of the Veil.

"Cole?" That was much easier to refer to. "That's a nice name. Did you pick it yourself?"

"The name belonged to the shape. I chose him. I couldn't save him." It's a story he'd told to a few, but not everybody he spoke to knew it.

"He was a mage. Dying in a Circle dungeon."

To say that hearing that was disturbing was an understatement. To Cole the horror of that comment was probably as clear in his mind as it was on his face. A mage left in a dungeon to die?

"Why?"

"They forgot."

Simple as that. He had been put down there for a reason. He was responsible for death, even if it hadn't been his magic that did it. But he was a mage, so he went to the Circle. And he was nothing to them.

So they forgot.

"Things were... bad. In the Spire."

They forgot?

That was just cruel, one more thing to add to the long list of how Mages could and were mistreated in some Circles.

"The Spire. You mean the White Spire?" The one that LeBlanc and the children had come from?

Cole kicked his dangling feet.

"It's where I came from. Before the templars. Before Therinfal." Before the Inquisition.

The way Cole dangled and kicked his legs might have been amusing at any other time, but it goes unnoticed now as Sam just stares at the spirit.

Cole hadn't said 'yes', but that was an obvious confirmation. "And no one saw you there?"

"Some people did. Usually they forgot. People don't remember me, most of the time." It was a bit sad, but he'd come to terms with it.

"People forge- Why is that, Cole?" People just... forgot about him? Had there been something about the White Spire that did that?

"It's what happens. When they don't see me, I'm not real. I used to think that was just the way it was... but I think they want to forget. It's better to let them."

Sam hadn't heard of anything like that, at least not about a Compassion spirit. Then again Cole wasn't a normal spirit. Perhaps something he could ask Adelaide what she knew as well. Or if she had known about Cole while at the Spire.

"And you don't... mind that?" Being forgotten? Did something like that matter to a spirit or was that simply a thing that affected beings on this side of the veil.

"It doesn't matter if they remember me. It matters that I help." It's nothing he hasn't said before, but that makes it no less true.

He supposed that was the most important thing for Cole, to help. Leaning the back of his thighs against the edge of the table, Sam tilts his head a bit. "Is that why you found me? About help?"

He has to think about that one for a second. Even knowing more about what he is, Cole doesn't always know why he's being drawn to someone.

"I heard the music in the metal. I came to watch, and listen."

His feet kick again, a tic, almost like the mechanism in a clock.

"You've seen the Charger again."

"I see him everyday," is his immediate response, a smile curling his lips, but it doesn't quite reach his eyes. The smile drops a bit though as Sam gives a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck after watching Cole for a few moments.

"Which particular time are you referring to? Back in the Mire or you talking about here in Skyhold now?"

"I mean you've seen him again." Just as he'd said. In the Mire, at Skyhold. All of it.

"You know about the parts that don't fit."

It isn't all that surprising that Cole brings that up. Question was did he know about it, or had Krem said something to him?

"I do." He doesn't specify when or where since it hardly mattered, and Cole probably knew about those details already. "He's very troubled by it, too, though I'm not sure if because of... the 'fit' or because I know."

"You understand, but it was too new. Too soon to trust." This might not be anything Sam hadn't thought of himself. But maybe hearing it out loud would help.

"Are you reading my thoughts or is this coming from Krem?" It helped... to a point. Too soon to trust. Krem had trusted him enough to tell him about all of that, but... he didn't trust him enough now that he knew? Or had he not trusted him at all on this particular matter and he had been told just out of necessity?

Sam gives a sigh and rubs his brows tiredly. The same questions over and over, swimming around in his head and not being able to find out the answer.

"The doubts tangle together. It's hard to tell." Really, the thoughts came from both of them.

There was reassurance to be found in all this, though. "It isn't the questions. It's that you care enough to ask."

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[Closed] Sam - Smithing

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