faderift | OPEN: Cloudreach Event

OPEN: Cloudreach Event

WHO: Anyone at Skyhold
WHAT: Cloudreach showers bring weird shit.
WHEN: Cloudreach 15 onward
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: For information about the illness, its effects, and its cure, please make sure to also read the OOC Post.

This high in the mountains, snowstorms are to be expected. But this one is large and lingering, hanging over the valley and the fortress for days. In Skyhold, with its eternal spring, the snow becomes rain before it hits the ground, leaving inhabitants and visitors to wade through puddles and mud in the courtyards. In the valley, snow and ice accumulate under cloud cover—and worse, when the clouds finally thin, a whole winter's accumulation of snow begins to melt in the sunlight.

Within a day, the ground is sodden and mucky enough to give the survivors of the Fallow Mire (or Ferelden in general) unpleasant flashbacks, and those who live in tents are issued additional hastily-constructed wooden pallets to raise their floors above the mud. It is worse outside the fortress: streams and rivers have overflowed their banks, rapids run twice as fast as normal, and flash flooding has made even road travel treacherous.

On Cloudreach 17 a mudslide buries the pass into Skyhold from the west, and on the 19th a sheet of snow loosened from a mountainside collapses into the shadowed passage from the east. An Inquisition supply caravan is caught in the latter, scattering wagons and goods across the hillside and leaving a dozen people and horses in need of rescue and medical care.

Healers may find themselves stretched thin, as in addition to the usual rash of blisters and sniffles that come from days of rain and flooding, an illness begins to sweep through Skyhold's ranks from around the 16th onward. It's marked first by climbing fever, then by flashes at the edges of vision—green light and jagged formations that aren't there, beings of light and shadow gathering around people or clustering in corners—and distant voices, coherent for brief moments if you're quiet and still and not trying too hard to listen.

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He has no idea what more of a spice has to do with anything, but before he can ask, he's being shown her wand. Anders leans forward, reaching out to trace a finger along the crack.

"I've never seen a wand used in Thedas except by you. I can't say no one has ever used it; the Circles have restricted magic lore and experimentation a great deal. But I don't know of any theories, even, when it comes to them. Staves, I know. I could slowly teach you how to work with a staff, and see if you can improvise with the assistance and guidance it gives? And then perhaps we can work with materials and see if we can figure out wands."

It will likely be very difficult. Making and enchanting staves is, after all. But it would be an interesting project to have going on the side. Sure, he's got a lot he does already. This, though, a chance of expanding the possibilities for what mages can do, would be good for the future.

Hermione has no idea how mages actually come to acquire their staves, though she'd always assumed that, like wands, they generally came from a shop run by someone considered to be a master in his or her field. It's part of why she'd agreed to work with Adelaide, really. She doesn't need much in the way of food or proper shelter considering her year of largely going without, but if she could pay a staff-maker to fix what basically amounts to her tiny staff, she'll feel much more comfortable wielding her magic for more than just basic spells.

"Back at home, the wand chooses the wizard, as they say. Every wand is a unique match to the person who wields it, and many people generally believe you can tell what sort of person a witch or wizard is based on their wand. Do staves work the same way here? Because it might be a bit difficult finding a match, in that case."

After all, how can a staff match up with a person who doesn't even get her magic from the Fade? It seems counter-intuitive, which is part of why Hermione hasn't actively gone out looking for a staff, despite the repeated suggestion of it.

"Unique match." He echoes that before answering her question, blinking. That's going to make it very hard indeed to reproduce wants if it turns out they're needed for her schools of magic. He doesn't know any spells that are attuned to people except phylacteries, and that's not just a horrific spell he doesn't want being used again, it's blood magic.

"I mean, no. They don't. Anyone can use any staff." He jerks a thumb toward his, resting in the corner of the tent. "If you pick mine up it will generally be as useful to you as any other. I did say generally, though. Staves can be attuned to various schools of magic and elements. If you're stronger in fire, you'd carry one that enhanced that, and so on. Mine's made to help me recover from heavy spellwork more quickly. I've been contemplating getting a backup one, lightning-attuned. But that's not the point right now. Feel free to pick it up and see if you like the feel of it."

She's a little surprised, though undeniably comforted, at the idea that any staff would work for just about any mage. That must mean they really do help to channel magic specifically from the Fade rather than from an individual, if that's the main source of magic here, and so can help her tap into that sort of thing. Unless, of course, the staff doesn't recognize her as a mage in the way it would Anders or Adelaide; then it would be about as useless to Hermione as a very large stick. A pretty stick, in most cases, but still just a stick.

Looking towards Anders' staff for a moment, she eventually murmurs, "Thank you, but I'd... rather not. At least not right now." She's usually much more ambitious than that and would welcome the opportunity to practice with such a thing, but as she looks back at Anders, she explains, "If I'm going to so much as touch something like that, I'd rather do it out of doors, preferably away from any people. Just in case. I'm used to a much smaller magical focus, so even if I might end up having trouble getting anything at all done with a staff, I'd prefer to make sure there's no chance of anyone accidentally getting hurt. Enough people distrust rifters and mages without an accident making things worse."

"That's a fair point." He considers the staff for a moment before shaking his head. "When this fever's passed? I'll have gotten some rest, you will as well, and there will be no greater danger that we're ignoring." Other than Corypheus, and wakened dragons, and rifts, but those things aren't going away.

"We'll go outside Skyhold and be prepared with potions just in case. Adelaide as well? There's little doubt that she'd be interested to see the results."

Hermione blinks, somewhat surprised by the offer. "Really? You'd go out and help me practice with your staff? I-... I'd been trying not to bite off more than I can chew, but...."

Actually, it makes sense that Anders wouldn't exactly warn against biting off more than she can chew, given his past. This likely isn't going to put her in that Seeker woman's good graces, but if Adelaide can agree to it, too....

"I'll be careful. I promise. Besides, it could well turn out that nothing at all will happen, but it doesn't hurt to prepare for the worst."

"This is Thedas. There's always more going on than can be completely handled, if one's eyes are open." There's always something wrong, always someone being hurt. "Getting better equipped for this world will pay off, whether you're here for some time or only a little. It doesn't hurt to prepare at all. But for now... Tea, and then it's back to working on this plague, I think."

No rest for the wicked, really.

The idea of actually having someone willing to help her with her practice rather than simply tell her she should practice gives Hermione a renewed sense of energy, and she smiles as she recalls the tea. The urge to hug Anders is strong - not for the the first time, really - but she resists it as she busies herself with readying the tea as she talks a mile a minute.

"I wish I'd studied more science at home. I was very focused on magic - which makes sense, really, given that I hadn't even known it existed until I learned I was a witch - but even after mostly immersing myself in the magical world, I still preferred the non-magical world for a lot of things, including healing. Oh, knitting some minor injuries was never a big deal, and there are some potions that can speed up the process immensely. But I haven't seen mention of most of those herbs and other ingredients here, so I wouldn't know how to begin with that. At least with science, well, that's universal, isn't it? The equipment readily available here wouldn't be the same as what would be available to a medical professional back home, but at least I'd be able to help when it came to more than just guesswork with old wives' tales and making sure the sick are comfortable."

He tries to follow, but it really is a lot to take in. At least she'd smiled.

"I don't know. Is science universal? You're the one that's been to two worlds." What sciences does she even mean? That of making a weapon? or a cart? Clearly she doesn't mean potions if she doesn't know where to begin with them. "You'd be the judge of parallels better than I."

Magic is a sort of science, of course, given that it isn't just a matter of blindly waving a wand around and making things happen. It's a matter of working with energy, of knowing the properties of certain herbs before putting them into a potion, of understanding ancient runes, of memorizing charms. Even so, magical science is very different from Muggle science, and she'd be more than happy to ramble on about that.

Instead, she tells him, "Well, the basic laws of physics still seem to hold true. Fire still gives off heat, and water can freeze into ice. The physiology of humans seems to run about parallel, too. You and I both have hands and eyes and teeth. I haven't exactly dissected anyone and have no desire to do so, but I'm going to assume our insides work about the same way. So if I understood more basic first aid from back home, it stands to reason that it would be useful here, especially since I wouldn't need to worry about whether or not I have a connection to the Fade before utilizing it."

He doesn't know what the basic laws of physics are, but considering she's calling them basic he'll assume that most people should know them. As Anders doesn't want to appear ignorant, he's not asking at the moment. Maybe later. After he's tried to figure out what fire, water, and ice have to do with hands, eyes, and teeth.

"First aid? You mean the basics that anyone can do? Apply a poultice, wrap a wound, that sort of thing? That's easy enough to teach if you want to learn, and safe as well. There's not a chance of it going wrong when you learn what to do with the different sorts of wounds, stab or burn or the other different ones."

He sets the jar of fire down very carefully before pulling out a pair of tea cups and setting them next to her. He's tired, but not too tired to not give a hand with this.

Hermione appreciates questions, both asking and answering them, and so she'd be the last person to judge if he chooses to interrupt her to ask her what she'd talking about. It will especially be helpful later on down the line when she's talking to other people, as she doesn't want to take for granted that certain topics aren't universal.

"I more or less can figure that much out," she replies, shifting to her knees to help him set everything he's brought her. "But I'd appreciate learning what sort of things work here. I just know how to keep a wound covered until the person can go and see a professional. But there's no use holding onto what I used to know if I'm not going to augment it with what can be helpful here."

"When the plague's passed, I can teach you the main uses of various herbs, their primary applications, and then permutations can go from there if you turn out to enjoy it or be good at it."

He pulls out the sugar and puts it between them, adding his before raising an eyebrow to ask if she'd like any.

"... you'd really teach me that?"

While Adelaide is certainly a competent enough teacher when it comes to magic, those classes tend to be more tailored towards native mages. For someone to offer to teach her something she can learn, and to teach it to her on a one-on-one basis... she's truly appreciative.

Moving forward to take a bit of sugar, Hermione decides that he probably doesn't understand the true value of what he'd just offered, at least inasmuch as it means to her. "I'd like that, Anders," she tells him quietly. "Maybe I wouldn't feel so out of my element if I could actually be useful."

"Of course."

Why wouldn't he? A willing student was a Maker-send. Someone familiar with herbs and their uses would ease the work on the healers during a crisis, as well as come at the plants with a new perspective.

He lifts his cup and blows on his tea, nodding.

"It feels good to be useful, to be helping out. Not only that, a great deal of magical knowledge has been lost or suppressed by the Chantry. Whatever they felt they didn't need, or they didn't want us to have knowledge of, was censored. Gotten rid of. You bring a fresh mind to what we have here, which means there's a chance for you to think of something that we haven't, simply because of how we've been taught things are done. The key word when teaching Circle mages is control - and it's not simply control over our abilities. It's control over us, what we think, how we do things."

She doesn't have that conditioning. He can help her, and she can help them.

Chuckling absently as she wraps her hands around her cup, Hermione shakes her head and tells him, "Don't place too much faith in me. I could simply end up being a terrible student who gets stuck on asking questions about minutiae without progressing too far." Unlikely, but far from impossible. Her inquisitiveness can work for or against her, after all.

"The Circles are gone now, aren't they? That means that it's not just the rifters that can think outside the box. It might be harder for those of you who grew up here, but surely there's already a new generation of mages learning how to make do without Chantry intervention."

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OPEN: Cloudreach Event

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