OPEN

[mythalenaste]

WHO: Pel Ashara and YOU
WHAT: Beboppin' around Skyhold
WHEN: The middle of Wintermarch through the middle of Guardian.
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Catch-All. Will update.

OOC: Pel can be found in any of her usual places: the library, the garden, and the tavern. Or make up your own place to find her. PM me for a starter if you want one.

Comments

library; research

[arcaneadvisor]

Research is something she's often done alone though she's not averse to having a partner for it, and for the freedom afforded without an empress to argue with though, if forced to admit it, she does miss the rather more comfortable surroundings of her rooms in Orlais.

Nowhere in Skyhold is ever truly quiet but she's made do with less as she arrives, several volumes carefully stacked high in her arms that she sets down with great care. Pel is a Keeper, she will know the value of old things and so removing them to somewhere else is less of an issue than it would be for others.

"These are some of what I brought with me," she says instead of a proper greeting as she takes a seat and sets out parchment and inks, slinging a bag over the chair that holds two grimoires and plenty of candles should they be required. "There are more in my rooms but these should be a start, should they not?"

[mythalenaste]

Pel has three tomes spread out across the table, all banned by the Chantry. She nods, captivated by the sight of Morrigan's books, quickly fingering over the spines.

"I haven't even heard of these. The Chantry must have buried them deep."

[arcaneadvisor]

"The Chantry chooses to forget many things, such as the number of traditions that they added after the death of Andraste." Her usual dry humour is there in the arch of her brow, the way a smirk tugs on her lips for a moment before it turns to something softer. "Some have only a page or two that I would dare to call useful but when given the choice between taking them or allowing them to be lost in a Chantry archive?"

There's only one choice really and that's taking them.

"Genitivi is still the one favoured after all this time, I cannot say I cared much for him though his mind was far more open than many others."

[mythalenaste]

Pel pulls out one book out of her three and hands it to Morrigan. "Dorian found me this one, through one of his contacts in Tevinter. It's Pendictus, and he wrote the book about Veilfire runes. I've read it twice now, and taken notes. I want you to read it, too--you'll find things I didn't, no doubt."

[arcaneadvisor]

"I have yet to speak with him, perhaps thanking him for procuring this might be a start." Honestly, the list of people she'd like to seek out would put her behind with the work she needs to get done though it's strange to have someone from Tevinter actually working with them rather than against them.

Though she doesn't believe in judging everyone by the old tales, Denerim's alienage is hard to forget, a sort of depravity never expected in Ferelden, in the very capital.

"Thank you, I shall add it to the list. Perhaps there might be a few tomes on elven lore that Tevinter would have, everyone knows how much they learned from the elves and not just Veilfire. It may be that some of the places I have been are places they saw when time had not ravaged them so."

[mythalenaste]

"I guess Tevinter was the last which saw Elvhenan alive, so to speak. But for me, discerning Tevinter magic from elvhen is like...if somebody cut bits out of two different books, dumped all the bits in a box, and shook it all up. And then pieced them back together and wrote sequels."

[arcaneadvisor]

“It takes time to tell the difference, though being able to go direct to wherever I wish to go does make it easier, and having a rudimentary understanding of Tevene is a boon - once you pick out the words that came from the elves, you can start to understand it better though the original meaning might often have been mistranslated.” Ancient elven being what it is, and there are so few codexes because if Tevinter was one shining beacon to anything then it was arrogance, taking what they wished and leaving nothing behind. “Though almost all magic must have come from the elves, anything that we could ever consider ‘new’ would be what a hedge mage practices, and then we argue over what is instinctive and so on, or the practices some of us learn that the Chantry would see crushed so we keep as much hidden as possible.”

What happens after Skyhold, after the Inquisition, she can’t say. At least one new shapeshifter will be in the world through her teaching alone but when it’s such a hard discipline to master, more students might only learn a form or two, not enough for the Chantry to take note of.

[mythalenaste]

"Go direct to wherever you wish?" Pel finds it a strange turn of phrase. "I've never found a direct path in my life. And last I knew, ancient elves didn't build even crooked roads."

But it has become clearer that Morrigan has great knowledge--knowledge Pel needs--and, somehow, is willing to share it.

[arcaneadvisor]

“The ancient elves had no need of roads.” Merrill knows about eluvians, enough to have repaired one but no more than that, she’s never stepped through to venture into the Crossroads, only a tiny few have since they were discovered once again. It makes it easier and more difficult all at once to bring one to Skyhold. “That is not what I meant precisely though. You would have to go wherever your Keeper decided to take the clan, avoiding much human contact for the most part lest it come to violence between you and them. I might be a mage but I am human, that causes less alarm if I am seen. And there are advantages to being the advisor to Empress Celene, advantages few in this world will know of.”