faderift | (no subject)

WHO: Felix and OPEN
WHAT: A couple of prompts for people who wanted to interact with Felix.
WHEN: The days after the funeral
WHERE: Throughout Skyhold
NOTES: Mentions of death or dying, otherwise it should be okay. Also, please remember the general public doesn't know he has the Blight, they just know that he's dying 'of an illness.'

[Personal Quarters]

Felix spends most of his time in the quarters assigned to him. Some days he finds it hard to walk around much, as the dizziness gets to him. Healers are welcome, as are servants and friends. He keeps the place very clean, worried that somehow the treatments will stop working. He knows the Inquisition is taking a risk having him here and he does everything he can to stop the possibility of spreading the Blight. That includes staying tidy and burning sheets after a fever.

It also means cutting his own hair. The problem is that he has issues holding his arms up for that long. They start to tire and he gives up making the cuts straight or even. He's not trying to make a fashion statement, after all.

[Library]

When he is out of his room, he spends most of his time in the library. Obviously, part of that is that Dorian is there. Being around his friend feels like the way he wants to spend his last days. He had thought going home and trying to help the cause of the Inquisition would have been important, but this feels more right personally.

When Dorian isn't around, he spends his time reading. He enjoys learning about Southern history and can also be seen pouring over any new mathematical theories. It makes him realize how much he misses going to university.

[Garden]

Sometimes he's told he needs to 'get fresh air' and that prompts him to go out and sit at the garden. It's still so lovely to see what a well placed hot spring can do even in the middle of a frozen mountain. The air is still thin and frigid, nothing like what he might have back home, but there's something wonderful about the peace that one can find surrounded by the right amount of trees.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Not me personally," Felix replied. "I'm afraid my views of allowing people control of their own lives is rather radical by Tevinter terms."

Ariadne smiled, just slightly. "Well, than," she said. "If it's all the same to you, I think I'll judge you based on your views, instead of the views of your people as a whole."

She owed everyone that. Just as she hoped they would return the favor.

...not that most people did.

He returns the smile. "It's the least I could ask," he replied. "Though that is probably the benefit of you not being from Thedas."

Then, after a moment, "Did you have any questions? About Thedas, I mean."

"Only a million," Ariadne admitted. She'd been holding back as much as possible. Back home, she was often chided for her curiosity. The last thing she needed to do right now was earn enmity from the natives.

But if he'd offered...

"I still don't understand how I'm here."

Felix frowned a bit. "I wish I had the answer to that one. The magic that caused the Breach and pulled you here is still mostly unknown."

It was what she'd been hearing all along. And while Ariadne was disappointed that she couldn't get more out of Felix, well, that was hardly his fault.

He was telling the truth.

"I guess it's too much to ask for a way back, huh?" she said.

"I'd imagine they're working on that." He frowns deeply. "This can't be easy for you. For what it's worth, I'm very sorry."

Ariadne smiled. "Thank you," she said.

It was a small thing, expressing sympathy. And yet, as far as she could remember, Felix was the first person who'd been kind enough to do so.

There was power in words.

Felix offers her a small smile, meant as a comfort. Then he focuses on something else. "You said you had hundreds of questions. Anything in particular that I might be able to answer?"

"Well, I'm not sure," she admitted. "I suppose it depends on you, really. I mean...what is it you do here in this..." She gestured around, as if to encompass all of Skyhold. "...place?"

"Right now, the Inquisition is working to uncover what Corypheus is doing and find a way to stop him." A pause. "Corypheus is an ancient evil from my homeland. The worse we have to offer, sadly."

"Corypheus," she repeated, trying to commit the term to memory. "And what makes it evil?"

He takes a breath. "He's a magister from history." Then, after a moment. "Maigsters are mage leaders from Tevinter. The story goes that ages ago, a group of them used a blood sacrifice of hundreds of slaves and tried to enter the Fade. They wanted to go to the Golden City, to the seat of the Maker. Many say that the result was the Blight." Tevinter had other stories, but now it seemed more real than before.

"The Blight is a corruption of the Old Gods, it turns them into archdemons who them attack us with armies of creatures called darkspawn. Corypheus is a darkspawn, albeit a much more intelligent one than others." The ones that had killed his mother and sickened him had been mindless drones.

It was a terrible story. And one that was all-too-familiar. The Red Dragon had once been a simple ruler, a leader of his own kingdom. Before something set him off and sent him on his rampage of conquest.

He'd left more bodies in his wake than any evil the realm had ever known.

And he wasn't finished yet.

Ariadne could more than relate. And the smile she gave Felix was sympathetic, but not pitying. There was little worse than pity.

But still...

"Why would someone want to go into the Fade? I mean, why would they want to go to the...Maker?"

Edited 2015-12-18 02:45 (UTC)

"To prove that they could?" Felix offers after a moment. Then, more thoughtfully, "Is it so odd to think that men would like to speak to their creator? A bit like speaking to an absentee father, only one who made the world." Not that he really wanted to defend those magisters of old, if they had indeed caused the Blight.

She considered the question a moment. "Where I come from, the gods provide avatars in our realm to talk to us, I guess. I think they prefer that to allowing us into the Sacred Realm."

As if mortal could pollute it.

Ariadne shrugged. "I don't see anything wrong with it, though. I think it's important to be connected to the divine."

"That would mean that your makers haven't abandoned you. I'm not sure if that's reassuring or not," Felix said thoughtfully. Knowing there was something out there would be good, but then what would happen if those deities were temperamental or easy to displease?

"Abandoned us? No." She frowned. "Although, it can feel that way, sometimes."

With the war and the pain and the suffering...

Her eyes flashed up to him again. "Is that how you feel about yours?"

"The Chantry teaches us that is the case. The Maker has left us until we prove ourselves worthy of His return."

A line formed between her eyes as she scowled, trying to parse that out. "How can you prove yourself worthy if He's not here to see you doing it?"

"That's a good question, isn't it? And one the Chant tries to answer. I'm afraid I'm not a Chantry brother, or else I'd try to explain more of it to you." Then, after a moment. "Here, the Chantry is matriarchal, so you might want to seek out one of the mothers if you have more questions about the theology. In Tevinter, be follow the Chant a little differently."