OPEN: Like the High Tide Takes the Sand.

[keeperofmagi]

WHO: Nerva and OPEN
WHAT: After swearing an oath to Cassandra, Nerva has foresaken her title as Templar, and sworn to serve the Inquisition only.
WHEN: Over the next couple weeks so that whoever is wherever can still come bother her.
WHERE: Either Emprise, directly after her oath, or in Skyhold after they return
NOTES:The Oath, also warning for Nerva and her Opinions....

There is something uncharacteristically quiet about Nerva, these days. A solemn silence where the passion should be, a held tongue instead of the lash. After returning from Nevarra, after trudging through the snow of the Emprise, she retreated further and further into herself.

That didn't mean the passion was gone. Rather it was turned inward - almost self-flagellating in its intensity, ripping through everything she believed, and the things she thought she believed, until her soul was left at it's most raw, most pure state.

She needed a purpose. She needed a path.

And so she made one.

Any doubts she had, she did not voice. Any doubts she had, were gone, after she made her oath.

She did not have room in her heart for doubt. She did not have room in her heart for the wretchedness that had been there, for months. No. She only had room for commitment, for the cause. And if she could not fully live one, she would live the other.

If she could no longer be Templar in word and deed, then she would be no Templar at all.

She would turn herself into a sword for the Right Hand.

Over the next few weeks, her downtime was used to carefully and painstakingly remove all symbols of the Templar Order from her armour, her clothing, her weapons. Everything she had owned, had come from the templars, and she had no funds with which to simply replace them, so she worked. Mostly on her own, removed from others. She had no desire to make a big display. Her faith - her purpose - was her own, no one else's. There would be no announcement.

Just the careful and purposeful continuation of Duty.

Comments

[gatheringstorm]

The past few weeks in the Emprise have taken a toll on her armor and now that she's in Skyhold once more, Korrin has the opportunity to see it properly mended. There's only so much that can be done at camp, give the lack of resources, material and expertise to be found elsewhere. So as soon as possible, the Vashoth woman will make her way to the Undercroft for repairs. Harritt will grumble, but he's also the only person Korrin will trust with it, so she'll endure that without complaint.

Waiting for him finish, she glances around the area and spots Nerva. The woman is far from her list of favorite people, and doubtless knows it thanks from their headbutting at mage council meetings. She would be content with mutual ignoring, but Nerva's activities catch her eye. The bracers themselves aren't anything unusual, but the fact that she's working on removing Templar symbols from them definitely is. Their lack over other parts of Nerva's armor are then noted, with an increasingly curious gaze. Finally, she can't hold back and comes over to watch her work.

"You don't care for Templar symbols any more?" Her tone isn't passionate or hostile as it sometimes is in the council vault; at the moment, it's purely one of curiosity. Her gaze and arched eyebrow echo that as well.

[keeperofmagi]

Despite the dispassionate tone of Korrin's question, Nerva still bristles - as if being caught doing something she knows she shouldn't, and having to answer for it.

Only this time, she is doing what she knows she must.

She raises her eyes - her expression hard, defensive, and her hands still at their work.

"I wear the symbols of my station," She said, tensely. "I will not wear the Templar colours falsely."

[gatheringstorm]

The bristling--well, fine. She's put up with worse; Korrin can't exactly blame Nerva for a reaction she could well have had were she the one approached. That said, the Vashoth mage is not actually spoiling for a fight this time, and so keeps her tone even.

"You...left the Order, then? Completely?" Jumping to conclusions is a bad habit of hers anyway, but that's certainly what it sounds like. Her eyebrows raise, surprise visible on her face. Of all the things she might have expected from Nerva, that...is not it. At all.

[keeperofmagi]

She drew a breath in through her nose, and let it out, but the bristles were slowly lowering - mostly because Korrin kept an even tone.

"There was no order to leave," She said finally. "I refuse to be Templar in name and not in deed. I don't believe in worthless titles."

[gatheringstorm]

There are a lot of questions running through Korrin mind just then, but Nerva isn't the sort of person she'd unload them on for several reasons. Still, though, the Templar -former Templar, that would take some getting used to- is bristling less, so she'll linger enough to ask one or two more. The unexpected situation demands it, and they can always return to silence afterward.

"But you're remaining; you'll just be an Inquisition soldier, then?"

[keeperofmagi]

"I have sworn myself to the Right hand, and the Inquisition," She answered, her eyes falling back to her work, though she doesn't yet resume it - just stares down at the half-erased Sword of Mercy.

"I will be what the Inquisition requires me to be."

[gatheringstorm]

Her gaze lingering on the sword as well, Korrin finally nods with the faintest of smiles on her lips. "Good for you. I mean that." No mockery to be seen or heard, not from the Vashoth mage who's always seen more value in the Inquisition at large than the Templar Order, new or old. "Cassandra is a strong woman, someone interested in the greater good and not just her own glory. As far as people to follow go, you could do far worse."