faderift | she rules her life like a fine skylark

Bruce certainly notices the way Morrigan grimaces at the question from her son, but he knows better than to bring it up - and its not like he doesn't understand where she comes from. There were probably better things to shift into besides a dracolisk.

He watches for a moment as Kieran happily lets the dracolisk content itself with... nuzzling his hair, turning back to Morrigan after that and shakes his head at the question. "No, its quite alright. Besides, I think it likes the company." And almost as if to prove that true, the dracolisk begins to try and nibble on Kieran's hair just as Bruce feared, prompting the man to quickly scurry over to make it stop doing that. No trying to eat the hair of the very nice boy giving you pats, dracolisk.

Edited 2016-09-07 15:06 (UTC)

Sorry Bruce but that is a face not even a mother could love. Who bred the first dracolisk and thought yes, on this day I have made a good thing for this world?

Morrigan does have to laugh at the sight before her although she'll need to wash slobber out of her son's hair unless she can somehow rope Alistair into it. Maybe. If she just glares enough at the sending crystal then surely he'll appear, then she can point the way and off they'll go. Wishful thinking, like no wheedling about bedtime.

"Am I to understand it belongs to you?" Morrigan asks, happy to observe since Kieran is willing to let Bruce safely extract his hair and retreat to a safe petting distance to dole out optimal chin scratchings, awwwyissss do you like that dracolisk, look at that no doubt terrifying visage.

Kieran of course, is quite happy to peer up at Bruce too, and to continue talking. "All things should have friends, no matter what."

It's sort of a surprising thing to hear Morrigan laughs, especially considering the reputation that preceded her, but its not at altogether unpleasant. The question has him pause though, and Bruce is almost about to respond when Kieran cuts in and he pauses once more at the words. It had certainly had stuck some sort of chord inside of him and Bruce couldn't help but think again what an odd child he was. He supposes that what happens when you're taught and raised by somebody as much power and grace as Morrigan.

"I, um. Considering," is what he eventually says instead. "Especially since that's what people have already been assuming." Highwind's death still weighs heavily in his mind and the man always had an odd love for those creatures... they were never truly close, but there was a meaning in his death for Bruce. So perhaps in a way--though he still had to be sure. It was a commitment of a sorts, either way. One he wasn't sure if he was ever fully prepared for.

Having something that depended on him just felt too... large.

Even Witches of the Wilds, daughters of Flemeth, Arcane Advisors - all one and the same, and thus all rumoured to be up to all sorts including ensorcelling the mind of the Empress of Orlais with blood magic - are allowed to laugh. Perhaps keep that in mind Bruce. He has turned out far better than Morrigan had ever been herself at that age. He has friends. For all that she frets, for all that she worries about what people might think of him when she's alone, he has a life that is his as well. She is so very careful to be his mother first, to not be what Flemeth was.

"That is why I allow Kieran to be around Doghren - Alistair and Zevran's hound - as often as he is. So he knows that it is no small thing to be wholly responsible for a creature," Morrigan explains more for the benefit of Kieran who sighs with all the weariness a boy of ten years can muster. "Is there a reason for them to assume you have ownership of this specimen?"

It's hard to blame Bruce, since what he knows of her mostly is her reputation. But he is slowly starting to understand her more now these days--and see her more than what her reputation says. It is however still going to be a bit of a process, but eventually he'll get there.

He nods to her words, though there's no real way to hide the wry smile that crosses his face when he hears Kieran sighing from nearby. "It's definitely not a small thing," he says in complete agreement. "And as for why... well, it just tends to stick around me, and most of the time it only likes to listen to me." A helpless shrug. "To name a few reasons, really." And of course, there was also the fact that Bruce has ridden it a fair few times by now - always as a last resort due to circumstances, but still. Enough people had seen it by now for that assumption to take root.

Reputation can be a terrible thing. There are some who believe Flemeth still might be helpful and worth seeking out in such an hour of need in Thedas, and it's all Morrigan can do not to laugh before she hurls lightning somewhere. Some stories should be minded a little more carefully. Meanwhile Morrigan herself? Well, growing up in the Wilds does not prepare you for socialising.

She's trying. And let's be honest: there are an awful lot of very annoying idiots in the world.

"That must be quite the sight." Morrigan that's the understatement of the century, or maybe not quite so much given that a mage on a dracolisk makes slightly more sense than a mild-mannered doctor. "I presume you do not gallop off to make urgent visits to those in need on such a thing? The sight might finish some off. There are such ridiculous tales, almost as ridiculous as the things men will say of mages, of Witches of the Wilds. Kidnapping boys for the cooking pot."

It was pretty much a bit of an understatement, given how dracolisks do look like and the assumption most people have of them - not that Bruce can blame them for it. Their appearance alone tended to speak volumes. If there is something he has to be thankful for, its that at least its attitude doesn't exactly match up. An ill-tempered mount is the last thing he needs to try and handle.

"There's no much room for one to gallop around Skyhold itself, so no," he returns with half of a wry smile. "but I suppose in some cases, having them faint might make my job somewhat easier at times." Not that... he'd ever do it, of course, but the thought gave him a bit of amusement.

Bruce. Bruce why did you say that. Even Morrigan turns with alarm just to be sure there isn't a chunk missing out of her son though she knows that he'd be screaming if there were but look at those starry eyes, he is lost. (He is going to pester someone to make him a dracolisk to add to the menagerie.) For now, whatever he's picturing - bounding across the Exalted Plains with the wind whipping his hair no doubt - will suffice.

Dropping her voice so it's just them, to keep it from Kieran's hearing, she softens her smile. "A mage on a runaway dracolisk, how quickly that would turn to you astride a dragon." Really, the closest Thedas is going to get to the big fight scene from Avengers Assemble: Hulk on a dragon before it gets royally suplexed but moving on. "Alas, I was not allowed to set fire to chevaliers or encase baronesses in ice, I am sure someone would come submit a complaint."

Well Bruce certainly has no idea the enormity of what he had just said so he is a bit alarmed at Morrigan's sudden reaction to it... as well as Kieran's starry eyed look now. Somehow he can't help but feel as if he had caused some sort of grievous error that he can't quite see just yet. It is rather unnerving.

...though at least it doesn't seem to be anything that Morrigan would do anything to him about. Bruce looks a little sheepish at her description, scratching the back of his head. "It's hardly the most awe-inspiring image, I'm sure." if anything it'd probably look ridiculous, but at least its also something that probably won't happen for a while.

The next part has him letting out a small sound of amusement. "Well, at least you don't really have to face something like that any more." Small mercies and all that; it was better than nothing.

(Will you be able to resist the tiny face and tiny voice should Kieran breathlessly ask if he might go for a dracolisk ride one day?)

"Some might beg to differ. Perhaps the rifters - the tales they tell of dragons alone in some worlds is beyond even what we know," she says with a small smile that does waver for a moment when she remembers Thranduil and his-- well whatever it is we rightly describe Thranduil's entire deal as. "A dracolisk would be close enough for them. Though I suppose, with the tales they tell of my mother, I am hardly a fit judge."

Bruce, do you like talking body horror abominations, well oh boy is Flemeth fertile ground.

"Orlais looms. We must have the support of one of them if we are to hope to get anywhere before we start sliding backward." Each step so far has been hard won, through gritted teeth. "I expect at some point I will be expected to put in an appearance at Court - tis myself, not Vivienne, who happens to be arcane advisor with all that it entails."

Chevaliers. Baronesses. Balls Morrigan just skirts around sneering at the guests without a mask ready for any bard that might come. Maybe if Leliana comes along it'll be fun, a scandal outside of Skyhold.

(No. No, he will not be able to resist. For even Bruce is not immune to young children even if they are too sharp for somebody their age.)

He's heard of some of the stories of the other--worlds that the Rifters come from. There had been Highwind (rest in peace, Highwind) and his strange fondness for all thing dragon-like, and Granger had also mentioned them before. Strange to think how such terrifying beasts could exist in so many places. Or perhaps then again, maybe its not so strange.

As for Flemeth--well, that's a whole different story altogether.

"I'd think it only makes more qualified to judge," he remarks wryly, but after that his attention turns to her next words. Orlais was looming, indeed. The unrest seemed to be getting worse, which made it all the more important to put an end to it once and for all. The innocents caught in the middle of this civil unrest weren't going to last for much longer at this rate and the thought of it always sours Bruce's mood.

Still, the thought of Morrigan appearing in Court is a little bit entertaining - though he's sure that she takes no joy in it. "And when you do appear there, I'm sure the Inquisition will be there at your support." They weren't as new as they used to be now, but it was still going to be tricky to navigate through the politics of Orlais nobility. It was going to be a thing to make it through there unscathed and still get enough support at the same time.

Highwind being killed by a dragon likely would have been a far less problematic and fitting end, considering all he'd ever told Morrigan. To think, all that time she'd spent explaining the very nature of the Fade to him, how ungrateful of you Highwind. (But isn't that just the majority of men in general, even internally Morrigan is just sipping from a mug of male tears.) Perhaps one day she will have to bother herself to speak to Solas about her theories but when there are so many tales of dragons, and when she has lived within the Crossroads where all eluvians meet? Morrigan cannot help but wonder at how far the Fade, the Beyond, even the Void might stretch.

His words are enough to prompt a laugh out of her; support, what an odd idea. Though perhaps Bruce could say the same with the life he has lead. "How much depends on who the Inquisition believes will provide order to the world, and there will be a great many who will shout down either side. Think all the arguments with the Mages and the Templars. Only worse." Mages and Templars are arguments Morrigan can utterly avoid since she has never been part of them. This?

This was her choice, but oh the pettiness that will abound.

"Neither have made themselves a particularly attractive prospect, you must admit."

Bruce honestly doesn't think it too weird - like it or not Morrigan does have a reputation for her part in the Fifth Blight, and her earlier position within Halamshiral meant that she has a small bit of authority in a sense. It's not much, clearly--but its still more than what a nameless healer like himself has. Not that Bruce was interested in it, but his point stood.

Though Morrigan's own point had the same effect as well. Bruce winces despite himself at her words, all too easily recalling what he had seen while he had been out in Orlais. Celene had her fault in causing this to even happen in the first place, but from what he had heard of Gaspard... it doesn't seem like things would honestly get any better either.

"There... definitely could have been better choices," he admits with just the barest hint of awkwardness. Being what he was Bruce didn't really feel like he had a right to have any real opinions on things like these - not when in the end he'd be treated the same if the truth about him was known. "Right now I suppose the best thing to do is to work with the lesser of two evils."

"I wonder what the elves might say; Celene torches the alienage when she had been thought to be such a voice of support, though Gaspard is just as bad as any other. Worse, really." Worse because he could do something but doesn't. Worse because he's a chevalier and everyone knows what chevaliers do. "Hiding behind honour and codes."

What honour there is to be found in charging into alienages with their blades drawn, well she's still waiting for someone to let her know.

"There will be some who will wish we might do as the Inquisition did with the Mages and the Templars. Force them all to work together. Can you imagine?" Things are better now than they were some months ago but who knows how long that's going to last. Which does lead her to what she wishes to say, with Kieran very much out of earshot.

Probably whispering plans or sweet-nothings to a dracolisk who even knows.

"How has it been? Since knowledge of you became rather more public than you might have desired?"

What would the elves say? Well Bruce has no concrete idea, but if he had to guess it'd be something along the lines of hating shems and other related things. Understandable and unsurprising, but Bruce did wish things wouldn't be this way. Nobody was benefiting from this mess in the end, especially not with Corypheus and his army still out there, waiting to strike.

There was going to be no use for honor and politics where there wasn't even a Thedas left to do any of that.

"It would be... a step, at least." Though who knows what kind of step that might be; and its definitely hard to say if that's better or worse. Not to mention if it was even possible. Considering the fact that the animosity between Celene and Gaspard had been so great to begin the civil unrest in the first place it was hard to imagine them agreeing to work with each other. Even though it really should be the most obvious choice. Orlesians.

His mind wanders off for a moment, glancing over back to Kieran again and seeing the dracolisk continuing to very much enjoy his company. He watches them both for a second more before Morrigan's question has him glancing back to her, and his expression quickly twists into a mild grimace that he tries to smooth away just as swiftly.

"It's been... fine." There were the standard reasons, mostly, and some burnt bridges here and there - but its nothing Bruce hasn't dealt with before. "It could have easily been worse, but I'm still allowed to do my job here with some extra duties placed on top of it." And of course, he had to go on missions now, too, being an official agent and all, but he could live with it. "All things considered, I know I should have gotten worse, and I'm grateful to the advisors for being understanding enough."

If the Dalish find out what Morrigan's mirror does - well, outside of Merrill who understands the necessity of keeping some things secret at a time like this - then Morrigan will likely be detested just as much. Celene whispering in her ear, Morrigan whispering right back, caring for nothing. But then they all so easily forget the horrors of a Blight, especially those who only saw the refugees flooding out of their homes, and some who think Asha'bellanar or Flemeth will offer aid or mercy.

So long as the dancing stays in Orlais. Let them shoulder the cost of it this time rather than Skyhold.

Who knew she would miss a Landsmeet quite so much.

As if feeling the eyes on him, Kieran turns from offering a mabari crunch - it's elfroot and deep mushroom, practically medicinal, healers and doctors would approve, so a healer-doctor would doubly approve of course - to the dracolisk to smile. An unsettling sort of smile. Encouraging. Boys that age should only smile like that at other kids. He knows. Or does he. The mystery.

"Always in need of healers, I am sure. Encumbered with warriors who cannot look before they place their feet." Traps. So many traps. Always someone blundering into the path of a spell. Slapping a poultice only gets you so far after all; times were when they were near dead on their feet, holding it together until true healing work can be done. "Do you not feel unburdened now? No longer having to look over your shoulder?" That part is-- well she cannot imagine that that might be like, not really.

There was always something a little... off about the child, but right now, in this very moment - that feeling exemplified more than ever. Something uneasy took root in his gut, starting to spread outward, and Bruce suddenly found himself wanting to look away in shame. There was just something that he couldn't quite place his finger on--

Morrigan's response has him focusing back in reality, and he blinks, coming back to the present and he quickly chases those thoughts away. He must be just feeling paranoid, that's all - the stress of the last few weeks getting to him. His mind always tended to overthink on stuff when he didn't keep his thoughts in check. Surely that smile was just a normal smile and nothing more.

"I suppose so, though I am only one person - there's a limit to what I can do." He shrugs as he says that, managing a weak smile. The other part of her question, well... "It's hard to say if it was ever a burden for me - I've made the effort to keep it hidden for so long that it's already part and parcel of how I am. As for looking over my shoulder--I'm afraid that's a hard habit to break." Years of ingrained instinct at this point wasn't going to go away, even though he had already been here for far longer than he ever anticipated himself to.

The longer he's in Skyhold, the more Morrigan finds herself almost...waiting. The ugly outburst that saw her burning bridges, one of which she only recently repaired, came from such a fear, the Kieran's oddness would be discovered among so many because she notices. Of course she does, she's his mother, she is so very aware of everything about her son. They're all learning so much about their enemy and how different would Kieran be? How long before a few put together too many pieces?

(There is an eluvian, she tells herself, she can slip through it and be gone to somewhere safe. Somewhere with Kieran. Just like before.)

Perhaps she should have Kieran spend more time with friends his own age against instead of allowing him to tag along with so many adults, privy to conversations he shouldn't always be present for.

"Was it not to live as if with a limb cut off, a sense removed? A piece of yourself gone? Not all of my instruction was on magic yet at times that is what I remember most. How different you might have been." Somewhere else, somewhere that wasn't a Circle. Unbidden come memories of Wynne and how she could have Morrigan clenching her jaw or rolling her eyes at her arguments for the Circle each and every time the subject came up. But it's the other part that has her...has something not quite falling but almost. If she would fully allow it. A quiet little 'oh' that escapes without her fully meaning to. "I see," and that's a pause to breathe, to think, more than anything meaningful in and of itself. "I...I can understand that. I had only wondered. Out of curiosity."

The tale of the Warden is not so well told in all the gory details. The Tale of the Champion makes rather more mention of Flemeth, and of her daughter, and some part of Morrigan is still always waiting for that dreaded day.

Morrigan wasn't wrong with her assumptions, and Bruce could easily admit as such - which he does with a nod. "It was definitely hard, but there wasn't much of a choice in the matter if I was going to go into hiding." And wasn't that the irony of it - that no matter how most other mages tried, they ended up revealing themselves through magic anyway; the fact that despite 'freedom' they were still imprisoned by their magic. One way or another, it eventually ended up back to that.

The corner of his lips quirk up into something of a wry smile at her latter response, his expression looking as one of understanding more than anything else. "There will always be scrutiny as long as you're a mage, even if you mean no harm. For them, the danger is always there. Which is why I made the choice conceal myself the best I could. Without a staff, without the telltale robes - nobody looks at you twice for it." Far easier it had been to lose himself with work, with one thing after another until the Conclave happened and... well, here he was now, just as here she was too.

"I lived in the Circle for twenty years before I was forced to flee," he says, an admission of sorts. "I went in when I was just a boy, by the time I left I was already an adult. Until that point Thedas was only known to me through books and news, a world that existed outside of the windows I could look through." He shuffles a little and tucks his hands into the pockets of his pants, feeling a bit self conscious at his words. "Being out here... its definitely a whole different life for me. And considering what's happened, its still hard to say if living out here is any better than living in a Circle." In a way, mages were still trapped just for the very nature of who they were. Was it truly any different if they were in a tower or outside of it?

"What gave me away for what I was as a girl was never having been around people. All the touching. Sitting at a table politely. Things mother failed to teach." When it came to magic, to history, to survival, the lessons were extensive yet the common courtesies she has tried her very best to instill in Kieran? Not so much. "I suppose that is one small advantage of a Circle at the very least, or at having whatever life you had before." Not that she's prying since she...well what details she offers are details that are always so very known, things that she can share, the ones that don't quite sting so much.

Let them all think twice before anyone might decide that this is such a time to ask Flemeth or Asha'bellanar for her aid. Let whatever friends or allies they have remember any scrap that might say to them no, do not ask, do not even think her name and invite her here.

"Ah, to learn to light a fire without summoning flames from your fingertips?" The same smile is returned because after all, she is a practical woman who grew up most of her life without any sort of access to lyrium potions, why waste mana on something she could do with scraps of flint? "I have wondered at how some of them cling to their Circle robes now they are free, when any variety of anything is available to them."

Is that a dare to point out how she dresses? Doing apostate fashion harder and better than anyone else back before textures popped into frame? Whatever, she dresses like the Chasind do, thank you very much.

Still, she frowns to recall something that tugs on her memory. Kinloch Hold most likely since that is her primary source of experiences within a Circle, or the mage that had already escaped there as her brow furrows somewhat"Forgive me, tis my understanding that there are very few reasons for a mage to be forced to flee. And I have seen my share of blood mages and fools." That there is such an overlap is hardly surprising, especially when one considers a certain Circle tower in Ferelden but that is neither here nor there for the moment. There was the one encountered in the dungeons of Redcliffe who was most certainly both but very much a fool, every single blood mage that attacked them on the roads during the Fifth Blight - one could hardly walk, it would seem, without being attacked by some manner of something - but she tuts, a sigh catching. "Tis a better life. You will live as you would live anywhere. With difficulty. But the choices are all your choices. The roads you walk shall be your own."

And if she looks to Kieran, well, she does know what happens to the children Circle mages have. Wynne spoke of that too. "Some things are worth hardships," she says, more quietly than before, but the smile is warmer.

For all the faults that the Circles were, it was a fact that they had their fair points too. And for years that had been as such for Bruce when he lived there - the Circle was his place to be when he had lost everything in his childhood, without anybody to care for him or even want him because he was a mage. It was the Circles that took him in, that housed him and fed him and allowed him to grow up in the safety of the towers, without any worry of having to be attacked by fearful mobs or starve to death eventually. He owed a lot to the Circles, truly. But with that said...

"It was a good place, in theory. But the nature of it made it all too easily corruptible." With the Circles so isolated, so separate from the rest of Thedas, it was only all too easy to see how such corruption in both Templars and mages could occur. For who would truly care about a mage? And all the mages had were themselves, too. Templars were free to do whatever they want and mages would never dare to speak out for fear of the consequences. And such was the cycle that continued until the Circles were finally dissolved.

There's a brief pause when mentions how rare it is for mages to be forced to flee, and Bruce scratches the back of his neck, thinking for a bit how to best explain himself. "I made some wrong choices and trusted the wrong people. But that was a long time ago." A lifetime ago, as it were, at least to Bruce. Now he leads a very different life, for very different reasons.

In a way, he has to agree that it is better, in some ways. He makes a hum of assent and gives a small nod, smiling more properly as he sees her looking at her son. He knows as well what happens to children born in the Circle, and he is glad that there is one who doesn't have to go through such hardships. "I'm sure he's glad to have a good mother like you."

she rules her life like a fine skylark

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