CLOSED: a prayer that will be answered

[byblow]

WHO: Adelaide, Alistair, Anders, Hercules, Kaisa, Lena, Sabine, Teren, Velanna
WHAT: Some safety precautions
WHEN: Solace 1-7
WHERE: The Deep Roads beneath the Western Approach
NOTES: OOC post.

Comments

[byblow]

That is a good point, [ Alistair says, sounding very briefly thoughtful, with a considering pause and everything. But the pause ends with a decisive, ] No.

[unbrokenoath]

[ She gives a frustrated sigh, one hand on her hip, the other gesturing around them. ]

Alistair, look how close we already are. When will we get this opportunity again, before it wakes up? And what happens then? How much chaos will it cause before another Warden has to die to kill it? Or--Whatever you and the King did last time, I guess. If it's repeatable.

[ She says, not knowing that she is possibly suggesting that Morrigan should have like three eldritch horror children. ]

[byblow]

[ Alistair has years of experience looking dumb—shh, don't say he's had his whole life to perfect that, the sentence isn't over—and uncomprehending in the face of questions about the last Archdemon, but he can't help a sharp exhale of a laugh in response to that. Or in response to Kaisa's overall everything.

Anyway. He holds up a finger, not to point but to count. ]

We'd never actually reach it. Why do you think no one has before? Fighting through the horde would take, I don't know... a demon army. For example.

[unbrokenoath]

[ Kaisa brushes off the laugh, figuring that either whatever it was cost them dearly enough that it couldn't be repeated, or--maybe they just didn't know? Maybe it was an accident, and that's why they never divulged the information? It doesn't matter, not when no one else has been able to get Jonas or Alistair to cough up the information, and it's not relevant here.

So instead, she squares her shoulders, chin up, and hands balled into fists. ]

None of them have ever been me.

[ Admittedly, Kaisa has up until this point managed to accomplish most things just out of having already decided it was going to be so. Bullheadedness can get you surprisingly far. ]

[byblow]

That's certainly true, [ Alistair says, in that way that sidles very near to not being a compliment without actually crossing the line into insult. ] So you fight through thousands of darkspawn, you break into the prison they haven't managed to breach yet, you look the old god in the face, and then--?

[unbrokenoath]

I invite him to tea and politely discuss the possibility of not having a Blight over crumpets.

[ She sighs, shaking her head. ]

It's not ideal, I know, but life isn't ideal. My ideal way to take down an arch demon would involve jumping on it from a bridge that it was flying under, and then killing it in the air, and all the darkspawn nearby are killed in the resulting blast--

But I mean, I'll take trying to behead it while it's sleeping.

[byblow]

[ She gets a genuine smile, which is saying something at the moment, at crumpets and another at her fantasy action sequence. It's not the most ridiculous thing he's ever heard. Sort of like what Riordan tried, as he heard it told. ]

The taint isn't what makes their souls indestructible, [ he says. He knows things. He knows this particular thing because he has a ten-year-old son with an untainted old god chilling in his body. ] So maybe instead of one of us it would go to one of them.

[ Them = the non-Wardens. Alistair likes at least one of them too much to risk that. ]

And if it did die, for argument's sake, there would suddenly be thousands of darkspawn with nothing encouraging them to stay down here.

[unbrokenoath]

[ Well, that gets Kaisa's attention. She turns to glance over at some of the others of their group milling around, her brows furrowing at the grim option she never considered. She's never heard of the archdemons soul hopping to anything that wasn't tainted, but this wasn't an archdemon, and it wasn't tainted. The idea of it hitching a ride with a Warden? Well, that was the risk that they took. But the others were doing them all a favor, being down here. They never asked for that.

Her lips press into a thin line as Alistair continues on, her gaze turning to the ground in contemplation. ]

We could teach them arts and crafts instead.

[ But the joke carries a defeated tone in it that says that Alistair has won the debate that wasn't really a debate. ]

...I just don't like feeling...like I could be doing something to save people. And not doing it. I became a Warden so I could do that.

[ It's not an argument either, really. Just a frustrated afternote, grumbled as she slides a hand through her hair. Okay, punching archdemons in the face is off the schedule, for now. ]