[Closed]

[lifeofendurance]

WHO: Aleron, Christine, Luwenna and Malcolm; Aleron, Luwenna, Bethany
WHAT: Intel from future AU comes home.
WHEN: Mid-month, after Nevarra
WHERE: Kirkwall: Christine's office / Darton house
NOTES: Al is a boring stick-in-the-mud? idk, will update as needed

[Part One: Christine's Office]
[Aleron still doesn't like this. He doesn't like working with anything but facts. He doesn't particularly care for Wren, either. Neither does Malcolm particularly wish to open up with this information, and for that he cannot be blamed. Still, there is some potential for a fresh perspective in at least speaking to Christine about Ser Coupe's account.

They arrive collectively and Aleron cannot help but feel like they're about to ambush his friend. Possibly because to date this has been mere speculative of a potential future and not substantiated facts. Even so, Christine receives a warm smile and a peck on either cheek in greeting.]

I do apologize for the inconvenience, my friend.

[No really. He does. It's on Wren to share as far as he is concerned. Hers is the eyewitness account.]


[Part Two: Dinner with Bethany]
[Well. It's done. At least the first telling of information. Now comes the remainder of the balance. Bethany needs to be told. Aleron still doesn't like this. Not enough facts, not enough evidence uncovered through investigation or research. But likewise, if this is to be pushed forward through official channels, it must needs be discussed at home.

And he refuses to upset his wife with a third-hand retelling.

It's a concession, inviting Ser Coupe into their home to dine. However, Aleron intends to conduct himself as a polite host, even if he does not care for the company nor the intended discourse of the evening.]

Comments

[limier]

"In any future, a tossed gauntlet falls."

There's little reason to suspect the nature of nature won't hold.

"Put bluntly," She interjects, fingers lifting slightly in a request for pause. "The corruption of Seekers is as much a symptom as it is a threat. Certainly, investigations must be pursued. Precautions need be taken in the field."

"But I wish to restate, this does not act as typical lyrium. Not upon any of us." Mages and Orders alike. Reed’s fate, Darton’s, what was rumoured of the Lady Seeker — they’re only the most controlled points of data, isolated from the mineral’s raw potential. "I will not presume to your expertise, but I can only suggest your researchers look elsewhere when comparing effects. Potential contaminants: A poison, some additive, even a spell. The medium of delivery may be only that."

Piece said, she tips her chin, to regard the pair, to hear the answer. What fellow Seekers? Not her alarm to raise.

[lifeofendurance]

"I have been doing, privately. Though it would be more accurate to say attempting to." For a moment, Aleron looks strained, especially around the eyes. He despises not having facts to work off of and this has been a particularly glaring void of information.

Proof that he's bothered? He actually sighs. "To be frank, they've gone missing. It's not unheard of for them to move and act quietly and without attention. However, prior to my joining the Inquisition, I'd dispatched some couriers to inquire into the validity of the claims that Lord Seeker Lambert had voided the Nevarran Accord. None of them ever returned and what contacts I'd had with the remainder of the Order vanished when I 'joined the enemy' as it were. The only one I've had any success in tracking down is an old friend who failed his Vigil and left."

And there's been sudden, inexplicable silence on that front for weeks now.

"We could potentially request Inquisition resources for aid in tracking them down, but if they want not to be found, they won't be."

[aceso]

"With the vast possibilities of what could allow Seekers to become infected in the first place, my team will need more information before we start testing." Christine feels no need to go into further detail than that, but with the wait times they all have to go through before they can return to the lab, that time can be used to gather data.

"And yet in that dark future, they were found," she states, completely unaware of just who those Seekers were. "Have you thought of working backwards from that, to see if you can find how they went from Point A to Point B?"

[tactical_alert]

It's been a weight, a strain on them both over the course of their time with the Inquisition. That whatever contacts they had had, they were no more. That the Lord Seeker up and fucked off as it were, in defiance of everything that they were supposed to stand for--and with all the others in tow? Were they really all so secretively in hiding, or was it worse than that? Were they all dead? Had they all succumbed? Were they perhaps working for the enemy, be it Corypheus or the Venatori or anyone else just beyond their reach?

He hadn't pressed Wren for details, none more than necessary, of their dark but hopefully now diverted future. He has imagination plenty and can read between lines. But the few details he has, he can help expand upon it, with a clearing of his throat.

"That I am aware of," he corrects, throwing a glance at Wren to please (please) interrupt if he's wrong, "the Seekers in question were none more than us who stand before you, rather than whatever of the lot out there is left."

[limier]

He isn't (wrong).

"Quite." Wren meets his gaze, steady, belied by the curl of nails onto wood. "The Lady Seeker predeceased our arrival."

And this, too literal a crowd to pull at the threads of whisper therein.

"I mislike a lurking threat. Yet a Venatori effort to take the South, and a concerted pursuit of our agents," She wants for a pen, a blade, something to tap and fiddle and pry. A cheap habit. Hardly permissible, here and now. "Revealed no Seekers."

"This cannot rule out their involvement elsewhere. Our intelligence was fractured, and grows moreso, for the march of days. As Mme. Delacroix says — much has changed already."

"But to whatever purpose they have gone, we've less cause for alarm than we might. Three years is time enough to raise a force, did one intend to."