OPEN | I won't be made useless

[keenly]

WHO: Colin and OPEN
WHAT: Administering magebane, dealing with phylactery bullshit
WHEN: Present/course of maybe a week
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: I will mark individual threads for any warnings.

I: Apothecary

The room across from the infirmary doesn't actually have a name, but at the moment, Colin has claimed it for mixing up drugs and one particular poison. He has never made poisons before, but the concept is really quite the same. There's also something soothingly demystifying about learning the ins and outs of a drug that causes mages to be powerless. Maybe he can start fashioning an antidote. But mainly, he is here to administer the poison to the sick. Since he has agency over this, he has made the stuff as palatable as possible by mixing it into spicy-sour bowls of gazpacho topped with fresh herbs and minced garlic. The soup is cold but flavorful, made from raw winter vegetables from the garden. The vinegar helps to mask the bitterness of the magebane, but there is still an unavoidable metallic taste. Patients are handed a hunk of bread and encouraged to wipe the bowl clean with it, eating every drop.

The apothecary himself, however, is dealing with occasional...problems. Not just being overworked to the point of moving some bedding into the room and sleeping there.

A few times, he finds he cannot put a cork in a bottle without missing. He reaches for something and his hand grabs air. His feet won't go in his shoes. It only lasts a few minutes each time, but it's maddening.

You might be in the room when there's a sudden burst of electric energy and Colin gives a cry of agony as it hits him. He hits the floor, hard.

II: Closed to Kostos

It's time for their spirit magic lesson, and Colin is waiting in his quarters when Kostos comes in. But he's sitting with his back to a wall, knees against his chest, trembling so hard his teeth chatter. His gaze is fixed on the opposite corner of the room. Nothing is there. Not to Kostos, at any rate.

You're not real.

Of course I'm real, Colly-boy. I'm just not here. And you're still afraid of me.

III: Hallway - one thread

Colin is coming back from running an errand to his store when he hears the air crackle. It's not the same sort of electric crackle as he heard before. It whistles, shrieks like ice, and before he can fling up any manner of defense, it closes around him. Ice encases him, freezes him, minute but sharp crystals digging into fingertips and toes. Most frightening is the chill in his chest, and the layer of ice between his face and air. He can't breathe.

Comments

Anders

[keenly]

Colin was taught to cast spells. He was terrible at some of them, of course. Fancy ice spells, even basic ones, were so difficult for him that he wonders if that led to them delaying his Harrowing. It never quite sank in, seeing apprentices cast such spells on dummies and buckets of water or whatever other inanimate, unfeeling thing they used it on. Now, he has felt it with his own body, and he has finally come to understand what the Circle preached for so long: magic is dangerous. Not because of demons, but because of itself.

One simple, basic spell any apprentice can learn is the reason he lies on a cot near the fire, wrapped in blankets and shivering with an intermittent cough. The worst part is the tips of his fingers and nose, burning with horrible pain and gradually turning from waxy-white to angry red. Frostbite would take time to set in on its own, but a simple, basic spell made it happen to Colin in seconds. And it could happen again to him at any moment. It could happen to any of them, so long as their phylacteries exist. The profound impact such a little thing has on the body is terrifying.

"Someone's trying to kill us," he rasps at Anders, then coughs.

[justice_is_blond]

He's gentle as he takes one on Colin's hands from under the blanket, face grim before he starts casting. Colin might not be wrong. What had been 'merely' terrifying before was now seemingly leaping headlong into lethal territory.

"We will find them, and we will kill them," he promises his student. "They will hurt us, but in the end they Will pay the higher price."

Anders feels no guilt in making that promise. Colin had hurt no one, Julius was as tamed a mage as any non - mage could hope, Inessa was rather inoffensive; they didn't deserve this. He might. But those three were being blindly wronged, and deserved vengeance.

"For now, I'm here. Mercy and I will get you through this."

[keenly]

There isn't much to be done, healing skin while it's still thawing, but it does help with the pain. A tear crawls slowly down one temple to soak into his hair, and after a moment, he shakes his head. He can't rely on someone else's protection, not if self-interest can still get in the way. Which leads him to thinking about the one bit of leverage he has with people who could aid him.

"My lyrium melted," he says. "Otherwise I'd pressure the Templars I have as customers. Take them and go after whoever's doing this. Except we don't even know what direction to go."

[justice_is_blond]

"Don't blackmail a Templar when you don't have to, Colin. Especially when it comes to a cache of phylacteries." That could backfire so horribly on them all.

"Julius is digging in the libraries, I was digging and will be again now that the plague is dealt with, we will figure this out." He pauses, pressing his lips together before continuing. "It's Circle mages in general, too. Not just Kinloch Hold. Inessa told me that another has symptoms too. . Enough people will be digging to find out where this went."

[keenly]

"A lot of good it'll d-do us when we're d-dead." More tears come to his eyes. "Could I get some elfroot? For the p-pain?" It's transcendent, the sort of pain he's in. He doesn't feel real. Only the pain is real.

[justice_is_blond]

"Of course," he says hastily, breaking off from healing to grab a potion and bring it to Colin's lips. "I'm sorry. I'd assumed you'd been given some already."

The stress is making him sloppy.

"Drink this, and I can get you a second vial if you need." The damage is extensive enough to justify it.

[keenly]

Colin would toss this back like a shot if he could hold the bottle. It burns and tastes bitter, but it will bring such relief once it kicks in. When the vial is drained, he slumps back to the bed, still shivering. It takes a few minutes, but soon the pain diminishes to a pinprick. A weighty grogginess sets in.

"I sh...sssaw things." His accent slips back a little into something low-class and utterly Denerim. "They're not just tryin' to kill us. They're t-tryin' to scare us."

[justice_is_blond]

He resumes casting, listening to Colin's words and the change in accent, knowing the stress it means the younger mage is under.

"That makes sense. They could have killed us and haven't chosen to. But what did you see?" Scare. What would be gained from scared mages? A stronger drive to fight back... for those who are already rebel-inclined. For those who are already scared of the world, it could make them want the Circles back all the more. All it would do is push people to further extremes.

[keenly]

Stress, drugs, either one will do it and both are doing it right now.

"Nightmare," he mumbles. "The sort some magic can make you see. Awake, seeing your nightmares."

[justice_is_blond]

It sounds like something in the entropy school. For not the first time Anders regrets his lack of knowledge there, but for the first time he wonders if he shouldn't at least ask someone who knows a lot about entropy for a rundown of as many spells as they know, just so he has some passing familiarity.

"Maker. I'm sorry, Colin." He's already promised to deal with this, he's healing Colin's wounds, but he wishes he could do more. This isn't fair for anyone to be dealing with, least of all the younger mages. "I'll finish up here and then we'll let you get some sleep without nightmares. You can have it here, too, if you'd like. I'll keep watch."

As much watch as he can, really, from attackers who could be anywhere. Plus it would be risky for both of them. But he won't send Colin out alone if he'd like company.