LET NO SOUL HUNGER FOR JUSTICE: SONG FOR THE SOUL

[fleurdesel]

WHO: Anders, Bethany, Nathaniel, Leliana, Kallian, Sina, Beleth
WHAT: The First Ritual
WHEN: 1st of Bloomingtide (May 1st)
WHERE: half an hour outside Skyhold
NOTES: plotting thread.

The clearing is not all that far from Skyhold- only half an hour's ride. They don't anticipate anything going wrong in this particular ritual but familiarity with the location and a fear that something might go wrong in the future is more than enough to give it a solid once over before they begin. On it's own the ritual is absurd- but there'd been notes enough to make it seem, if not entirely credible, worth a shot. After all it will work or it will not.

Won't it?

Comments

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Mmmhmm. As a good little sister, I don't want to hear about any of those, thank you very much.

[She grinned as she said it though, giving Anders a gentle elbow. Then she solemnly crossed her fingers.]

Whatever happens, though ... at least we know that Marian isn't around to say, 'I told you so.'

[justice_is_blond]

[He grins back.]

Somewhere, far away, her ear just twitched and she said it anyway. Carver probably whirled around to glare at her, too.

[justice_is_blond]

[He likes stupid jokes, but it's an interesting conversation, at least.]

They've the old gods. I know their names, but I don't recall which was for what.

[And as five of the seven are dead, calling on them wouldn't really... do anything.]

I doubt Razikale or Lusacan would be the type to care. Adelaide's likely right.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

[Now that pulls a laugh out of her.]

I can see Carver's face now, 'You don't know everything, sister!' Without even asking what she's talking about.

[justice_is_blond]

And then they broke into argument, as Donnic stood nearby, praying that anyone would hear him and grant him mercy. Maker knows how he's managing back there with Aveline gone.

[justice_is_blond]

They're entirely frightening and barbaric. Some shut down for the sake of survival, close out anything that doesn't fit into their picture of what they can live through. Others struggle the whole time.

I was part of the second group. I didn't speak the language, so I couldn't obey perfectly right from the start. I became a target for Templar annoyance then, and their frustration after I escaped for the first time. As if harrowing wasn't enough.

[He pauses, tilting his head. The circles are broken, and he's an apostate. Why not talk about it?]

Harrowing is something we're not supposed to talk about. I don't care. They haul you out of bed in the middle of the night and send you into the Fade to fight a demon they've lured and trapped. The demon can only get free if you die, you can only get free if it does. If you're too slow, the Templars will kill you anyway. Did I mention that we're half-trained at best for this?

They threw me into that the night they brought me back, and I was counted lucky as they could instead have killed me or made me Tranquil. The only reason I got Harrowed was because I had already shown a gift for healing beyond the average. The only reason my punishment for the next escape was pain and chores rather than death was because my healing was much beyond average. I was constantly injured, constantly in fear, and I was still lucky. Unlike so many others, I was never sexually abused. And my Circle was better by far than Kirkwall's.

[He stops, giving that time to sink in.]

Those who seek power and enjoy beating people had the perfect job. An entire population taught to fear themselves, hate themselves, and to never lash back.

[arlathvhen]

It would certainly be neat, if it turns out that people could use magic like this. Maybe without even being a mage...? I think--It'd certainly make being a bard a more interesting experience.

[ Neat, she says. But she smiles at Leliana nevertheless, looking a little less nervous than before. Leliana seemed to have a handle on everything around her, and if she wasn't worried, Beleth was doubtful she ought to be. ]

Of course. Anders--Um. In Antiva. There was this flesh golem, and I stayed behind with others to help fight it. The thing spat acid, and it hit my hands, and I, um. I kind of freaked out. But Anders had gone ahead, and when he heard me screaming, he came back to heal my hands. He almost died--he could have. But, hardly knowing me, he came back.

For that kind of debt, I can play a song.

[ She did that for Alistair, too! She liked that song better, though. ]

[arlathvhen]

They're all for the same thing: Being terrible. And blood magic, probably.

[ She isn't feeling very religiously tolerant. ]

I suppose we could just use the Creators' proper names, like Andraste. But then we'd have to list them all off. But...who knows if they'd be much help, either.

[ Because SOMEONE had to seal them all away. ]

[sunshinethroughgrey]

I have a feeling he's doing it with a lot of - 'And you two can just sit there in your corners thinking about the horrible things you've said to one another, and how does it feel.' Father used to do that to us, all the time.

[She grinned, just imagining Marian and Carver sulking in their opposite corners.]

I hope Aveline taught him that trick.

[fightingale]

That is how it is meant to be when you work as part of a team. Do not think of it as debts owed or paid - you protect one another because it should come as naturally as your hands defending your face or your ribs.

( She frowns very slightly. ) When I was a bard, you worked with other bards but you did not ever trust them, not truly. I hope that... when you and Araceli work together, it is a dynamic of trust and solidarity. Not waiting for the knife to turn against you. Working with all members of the Inquisition, ideally, but with you both as my students... I do not wish to breed malice between you.

( A shade off topic, and her gaze shifts back to Beleth. ) I am glad he healed your hands.

( Her feelings on the man are mixed and dubious at best, but even so. He did seem to genuinely care about healing people. )

[justice_is_blond]

Probably.

[It's Tevinter's big flaw, for all that he admires the fact that mages are free. It's not really free if they have to be enslaved to blood magic to make it very far.]

Perhaps we should think of them as... concepts, rather than beings. We're singing to anything that might look our way and assist, despite how unlikely it is they'll actually care.

[justice_is_blond]

It was probably a five-week program, intensively focused on giving them Looks, the way she tried and failed to teach me to use a sword. ...At least he was likely a better student, and appreciated any incentives she may have offered. I'm still fairly certain she's disappointed I didn't stab myself.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Well, he was always better at calming her down than we ever were. Probably because she liked his smile better than ours.

[She bumped him slightly.] Aveline never would have wanted you dead.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

[Bethany closed her eyes and focused - making sure that she controlled her magic inward so Adelaide would not in fact, dispel any trace magic from her.]

[justice_is_blond]

[The amusement fades, and he looks at her with a heavier expression.]

You weren't there, after I blew up the Chantry. She did. Marian asked for input; Fenris, Aveline, and Sebastian wanted me dead. Varric was too tired to vote, and Merrill and Isabela voted for life. I'll never know why Hawke didn't go with the majority.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

...Because I was there. [Bethany said quietly, her hands folding in front of her.] I don't know if you saw me - you were lost in your own world then. But I came up behind the group, and she saw me and ...

[She sighed, folding her arms over her chest.] Marian wanted you to atone for all those deaths, Anders. You know, and I know, that she was never going to let you die when you had to make amends. That's not the person Marian was, even in her most sarcastic times.

[justice_is_blond]

[He'd missed her arrival, clearly. But he'd been a mess around then. It's not surprising.]

And yet she asked for a vote.

[It still hurts when it shouldn't, when he has no right to be hurt by it. She hadn't cared enough one way or the other to make the call herself. He hadn't mattered enough for her full fury or her outright compassion.]

But we were speaking of Aveline, who definitely wanted me dead.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

[She looked back at him. before she put her hand over his.]

Well, I don't. And Nate doesn't. I don't honestly think Aveline wanted you dead - but I think she wanted you imprisoned for your crimes.

[eolasemah]

[Sina listens with a growing despair, her young face ashen and anguished the more she hears. This is only confirming what she already suspected: the Circles are every bit as bad as the Keeper made them out to be, and she should count her lucky stars every day for having never been discovered.]

...there was talk about Harrowings here, [she says, her voice low and sick-sounding,] for those of us who never had one. The Dalish, older apostates. We refused.

[She looks down and away, considering.] ...I was taught to defend myself against spirits. Not to kill them. They are their own beings, undeserving of our intervention unless they try to cross the veil. [She purses her lips, then looks to Anders again.]

You are very courageous. We are lucky to have your help and your voice, even after all that's been done to you.

[justice_is_blond]

[He pales when he hears that there'd been talk of them. Cruel, barbaric rites that should never be brought back, and mages who were free wanted them here? They're so controlled by fear even now, because that's all a return to the Harrowings were - an ineffective response to fear.]

I'm glad you all refused. They do nothing, nothing at all except perpetuate suffering. And we should only bother ourselves with the spirits trying to force their way over, or the ones who will work with us through the Fade.

[But the other, the other isn't as easy to respond to, and he bends his head, humbled and touched. He doesn't feel courageous. He feels like he's reacting and on edge more often than not. Sometimes, though, it's not about the reality of what someone feels. It's about what they need to hear to keep a movement growing.]

I...

[He doesn't deserve the praise. But he wants to encourage the mages to keep standing, to keep working toward freedom.]

What I can do, what help I can give, I will. The struggle is still continuing, and there's much work to be done. I want our freedom to last.

[justice_is_blond]

[He doesn't agree, but there's truly no point in arguing it with Bethany. He doesn't even want to argue with her - he likes her. Anders nods, looking down at their hands.]

I do know I've plenty of people here who don't want me dead. And I'm glad of that.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

[She can see that edge to him fade a little, and she smiled because of it. He really did not like to fight with her about such things, and she respected it.]

I'm gad for you as well.

[arlathvhen]

[ She stares down at her hands, as if they needed examined under the scrutiny of Anders' healing. She knows that Leliana is right, and Beleth had been as quick to leap to the defense of her teammates, as well. But people saving her, it...felt different. It's hard to think of herself as worthy of risking life and limb for. But Leliana doesn't need her issues, so she just nods. ]

So am I. But I understand, Sister Nightingale. I want to work alongside Araceli, as well, and I believe she feels the same. I think that it would be far more preferential than trying to fight against here.

[ Pause. ]

Partly because she'd win.

[fightingale]

Good.

( Although she is curious about what might be going unsaid, about opinions Beleth might hold that conflict or are a little more complex when matched up with Leliana's own.

Leliana exhales a breath that might almost sound like a laugh. )

In some fights, yes. In others you would find yourself with the advantage.

[eolasemah]

[To his assertions on Harrowings, Sina nods seriously.]

The Dalish have many reasons to avoid them, between our... well, how we're often treated by those devoted to the Chantry, mages or not. [Of course, for those who are...]

I would not fear it, necessarily. I would be angered if any harm came to my people, and I... [She glances self-consciously down at her shard.] ...more than anything, I fear what might happen outside the Fade.