I am certain of the universe (closed)

[overharrowed]

WHO: Julius and Petrana
WHAT: A visit was promised, so a visit will be delivered.
WHEN: Vaugely nowish
WHERE: Diplomacy division office
NOTES: Nerds nerding together, probably.

Julius had intended to be slightly more prompt in following up with the rifter mage who had reached out to him when he first arrived, but he had slightly underestimated the amount of work he found piled on his desk nearly from day one. With a new head of research firming up his department and the leader of the Other Powers project roping in Julius to help with the Qun of all things, he did not lack for occupation.

However, even if the state of the world was dire, Julius thought that manners were still important. So, too, was cultivating people who it might prove useful to know, either during his time with the Inquisition or after. If they survived, someone was going to have a major say in what happened to mages, after all. But with Petrana specifically, it was curiosity as much as anything that drove him to pay her a call.

After all, it wasn't every day one met a mage from another world.

He did a bit of research to pinpoint a time she would likely be in her office and would likely not be busy with something it would be hard to set aside. And then there he was, politely knocking at the door.

Comments

[ipseite]

She finds herself smiling before she's quite aware she's going to-

“I suppose to you it must all be so alien,” she says, tilting her head. “In truth, I must confess to you my grace is merely practise- this is not the first time I have been obliged to leave behind my life and begin a new one.”

It's hard to say if it's even the most dramatic.

[overharrowed]

He weighs, briefly, how heavy he wishes his answer to be. "Before the Mage-Templar War," he says, a bit less glib, "my life was expressly designed by the Chantry not to change dramatically. It did, sometimes, but not in the way we're discussing, exactly."

Mainly a lot of people died. But the framework stayed the same.

"It resulted in many of us having to learn very quickly, later, regardless of our personal politics. Those of us who are still here, at least."

[ipseite]

“I am familiar,” she says, a little more gently - a reassurance that he needn't cut open old wounds for her. There are some positions one might manage to rise to in ignorance, but head of diplomacy is not one of them. “In some ways, very familiar. Do you know,” with a small laugh, “the strangest thing is still so many men, practising magic.”

A shake of her head- “But for you it is not a choice.”

[overharrowed]

"Might anyone take up magic, where you are from then? Or choose not to, I suppose." Given the way she'd framed it, it could be either. He supposes, in some sense, it's two sides of the same question.

[ipseite]

“In theory, yes,” a little more slowly. “In the strictest sense, to discuss how it is that magic functions, yes- that is so. As might anyone take up music; there will be those who are gifted, and those who are not, but it is a skill to be taught.”

Her hands fidget a moment with her skirt, the edge of her teacup.

“It is not an unweighted decision. A conviction of witchcraft is a death sentence for the witch, and any children she may have.”

[overharrowed]

He nods, not because he knew, but to show he understands the gravity of what she said. "Perhaps it is too bold to ask so soon, and you may certainly decline to answer, but I admit to being curious. Under those circumstances, what led you to its study?"

Julius is aware of pushing a boundary, slightly, but he cannot resist asking all the same.

[ipseite]

“My husband felt that it was necessary,” she says, after an only slight pause, as if she can't possibly imagine why that might be troubling. “We were in exile, and he felt that it would be for the best if I were not entirely helpless, should the need arise.”

Not that she's terribly skilled at protecting herself- though she is learning, carefully.

“It was,” choosing her words, “a complicated time for us.”

[overharrowed]

"It sounds that way," he says, almost gently, though not patronizing. "It's something I never considered, you know. Whether I'd have chosen magic if given the choice." He supposes some mages do think that way, but it isn't his temperament. He tends to work in what is and what plausibly might be; before the rifters began arriving, the idea of other worlds was too abstract to interest him much.

"Do you find magic itself is very different here? You're the first rifter I've spoken to with first-hand experience to compare."