open | There’s tumbling stone

[arcaneadvisor]

WHO: Morrigan; open
WHAT: Morrigan and Kieran finally arrive in and explore Kirkwall (and Sundermount)
WHEN: Various points in Justinian
WHERE: Kirkwall/Sundermount
NOTES: Let me know if you want a closed starter

A long journey to Kirkwall from Skyhold at the best of times, one made longer for Morrigan's chosen route with Kieran away from the bulk of the Inquisition. An adventure, she had promised him when they had packed up their things again, only you and I, that I promise. On that she had delivered and so she arrives later than much of the rest of the Inquisition because there are times when she's missed this.

Missed it being her and Kieran alone in the world when there wasn't her place in the court, when she hadn't attached herself to Skyhold for over a year now. Time to go through the wilds and take ship elsewhere and wander through towns and villages her son has never seen before. When they do arrive, one of his satchels is filled to bursting with the treasures he has picked up along the way.

Kieran does not like the Gallows, she learns quickly when she makes her way there to settle them both and so he's very rarely far from her side. When she picks up where she left off with her research and another project of her own not meant for the eyes of all the Inquisition, Kieran is busy with his studies. If she plants some of what she had sent from Skyhold ahead of her or from her personal reserves in the gardens, Kieran is helping or playing. If she is exploring the markets and streets then he's close to her side with his eyes alighting on every new thing he might find, the riot of noise and colour and bustle so different to Orlais, the only other place this size he's known.

It's only to Sundermount that she leaves him behind with someone trusted. Sundermount is the shadow of her mouth that looms over her shoulder and over him, the last recorded sighting and for that...for that she cannot bring her son as she slips away from Kirkwall at first light to make the trek up the paths to explore for some clue, any clue of Flemeth's intentions.

Comments

[serannas]

That sense that Morrigan gets is something that Ellana wishes to have too. It's true that in certain ruins, old magic is something that reaches out to the elves only, like tendrils of smoke that curl closer before entering the nostrils. With time, hopefully she will more easily sense that something is specifically elven in nature.

"That's terrible," she says, face pensive. "And yet I can't help but wonder if they were trying to do the same thing I do: investigate to bring back the truth, instead of just accept the stories handed down." Ellana knows it's dangerous. But she also knows that her life felt directionless before now. Being with the Inquisition has helped her move forward, but exploring ruins has helped her thrive.

"At least we have a hint towards the future that awaits us if we don't look to the North. Now that we're here, we must be heading that future off, but what are we replacing it with? That's the question."

[arcaneadvisor]

There are times Morrigan has jested, or what has passed for it, that she might not be of Flemeth's body, Flemeth's blood. She knew those things for a lie years ago. But the Crossroads confirmed it if it needed confirming, that she is Flemeth's child and not a stolen Chasind girl left out to die as some are or taken away by the Mother of Vengeance because who would dare deny her? It could only be her and no one else uncovering what she did in the way that she did, her magic from her mother, her education honed in a way no other mage could claim. The Dalish have their ways, the Circles too. But Morrigan? Morrigan is a witch before she is a mage, before she is an apostate.

A small but so very vital thing in her own mind and perhaps that has ever made all the difference.

"The Dread Wolf Fen'Harel tricked all the Creators and locked them away, perhaps in some way the eluvians were involved in all of that or if what Tevinter did corrupted them when Arlathan sank, when all the Ages of hardship began for the elves and they must bear the strain as do the people. Whatever cause, it could be that t'was stupidity and misfortune: two young people stumble upon a thing and dare to reach out instead of turning. What might you have done as a young woman seeing such a wondrous thing before you?" Unlike a boiling pot, the child does not get a chance to learn with an eluvian or with many magical things. That the tale spread is enough, a sign that the warning was understood; this is a dangerous thing, do not lose your youngfolk to it we have so few we can afford to throw away foolishly.

(The Keeper of Clan Ashara it seems was not made aware that the Inquisition was very much the same as that eluvian, if she has one returning to her at the end of all this, Morrigan will be amazed.)

"There is a thing I must do that requires me to look to Sundermount then perhaps to look back, a personal matter more than that of the Inquisition; I may leave for a time and it may take my attention elsewhere than the eluvians. If you wish to have a part in the question, it is yours."

[serannas]

"I probably would have examined it closer," she answers truthfully. "If everyone always turned away from the unknown, we'd never know anything. The fact that we know anything at all about the eluvians is incredible, but that doesn't mean they aren't still dangerous." She doesn't think Morrigan walked into hers blindly that first time, but there's only so much you can get from research. In the end, she just had to take that breath and leap.

Ellana looks intrigued, and knows that Morrigan will fill her in on what they're doing when she deems the time to be right.

"Of course. Whatever assistance I can provide is yours."

[arcaneadvisor]

You are so young, Morrigan thinks but doesn't say because she hated to be told that when she was Ellana's age even if she never felt it at the time. No one does. It's only after that you have the time to unfold it and look back in mingled shock and horror and wonder at yourself. Was I ever that person? How was it possible that person was me? "What happened in Kirkwall when we went with Merrill is but a small taste of what might come should Corypheus and his Venatori get their way. If they think he will care for where they might lead, he will not. He thinks himself a god and seeks to assault the heavens, and if he is one of the magisters of old then has he not set foot there once?

"No, once mine almost slipped from my grasp in the bringing of it from Orlais to Skyhold, Merrill's was set upon, and in Serault where I spent time once we found Venatori and Red Templars seeking to repair a shattered ruin of a thing. While he lives, they are at their most dangerous," Morrigan nods very slightly as if she speaks the full truth but she doesn't, because none of them know what else walks, that the Dread Wolf is so much closer than they think.

"I will go to Sundermount to explore first, if you wish to come I would not turn away any but when I am gone, there are few who I would trust information about eluvians to. You and Thranduil remain that have been through them and who walk your own paths. I shall speak with him anon but I trust your discretion." You know, the same way Morrigan has discretion when she says what she thinks a person needs to hear but not the whole of it, that sort of discretion, all with an enigmatic smile and a cryptic statement, surely Ellana can make her own way with that and Thranduil his too. "Not everything," she instructs more softly as if not wishing to disturb even her own breath with her words, "need be noted by the one in charge of elven artifacts and whomever this division itself must report to."

(To say their names might summon them, she would rather not.)

[serannas]

It's true, and is something that only the passage of time can solve, because with time comes experience, and Ellana is far from a wise, old being. No one here truly is, except for that caretaker of the Black Emporium -- wherever he's gone off to-- if the rumors are true. There is always more to learn, to experience, to become. Morrigan is right in saying Ellana walks her own path, and that road will be dangerous as well as full of knowledge she's yearning to collect.

"I understand," she says, a slight incline of her head adding to the statement. "Some words are meant to be shared, and others to only be uttered behind warded doors." And places with an intact ceiling, since another Ellana knows likes hiding up there and spying.

[arcaneadvisor]

"There is a door coming," Morrigan almost smiles as she says it, wondering where another young elven woman with an interest in the places beyond went to, if she has ways of her own right now. "Solid oak. Witchy spells as some might say."

Morrigan's study is not a place to be entered without her permission or for her to bothered more than she wishes.

And, since she has some plans, "I plan to stay outwith Kirkwall. Talking there shall certainly be more free than presently."

[serannas]

"Oh, good. Have I told you how much I like doors?" She glances over with a smile. Though it sounds funny, she's completely serious. "Privacy is a wonderful thing." Since there was almost none in the clan.

"That's good. I would be happy to meet you there when you need me." Because Ellana knows the value of privacy and knows that Morrigan's work is both important and secretive. There are plenty of things Ellana doesn't know about Morrigan, and the woman would probably rightfully snap at her if Ellana turned up unannounced.