Collect the full set of mages having a bad month (semi-open)

[overharrowed]

WHO: Julius and assorted
WHAT: Julius is really sick of these phylactery shenanigans
WHEN: Catch-all for Guardian
WHERE: Various points around Kirkwall
NOTES: Starters below, but if you want to do something, feel free to DM or hit me up on Plurk/Discord. Discussion of burns and other fairly light injuries, to be updated if anything worse happens.

Comments

For Adalia

[overharrowed]

Julius spends a lot of time in the library, for all he has his own workspace now as a project leader. It simply seems more practical to take notes where the information is, especially if he finds he needs to cross-reference something.

He's sitting quietly at a table, copying some text, when suddenly he's thrown backward, knocking the chair over. He comes to what sounds like a rough stop against a nearby shelf. (Luckily the shelf is sturdy enough not to budge at a rather tall mage being thrown into it without warning, though he does displace a book or two.) "Maker take it," Julius swears, in a voice that is almost certainly too loud for a library.

[thunderproof]

Adalia is sitting in the library, as per usual, minding her own business and copying down some notes (she's moved on from the more concrete Thedosian knowledge to stuff that's more theory by now, and is today studying the Chantry in an effort to understand why the fuck so many people here like it so much), when there's a clang and a clatter and loud cursing, and the part of her that is still stuck in Candlekeep bristles at loud noises in a library.

She stands up from her table to go investigate, but Charis the baby dragon is way ahead of her, gliding between shelves until he gets to the place where all the noise came from. He blinks down at the mage crumpled against the shelf, then chirps to get the man's attention and holds a claw to his lips and hisses out air in a vague imitation of a shushing gesture.

[overharrowed]

Unable to help it, Julius starts to laugh (quietly). "Sorry," he manages between his attempts to muffle his laughter. "Sorry, I'm just... I didn't think I hit my head that hard."

He glances up as Adalia catches up to Charis. "...did I actually get shushed by a dragon just now?"

[thunderproof]

"Well, you have to teach them young, you know. They get very set in their ways very quickly, and then I'd have a dragon I couldn't bring into a library, and that just won't do."

Adalia smiles and holds out her hand to help pull Julius up from the shelf.

"If it makes you feel better, I promise he's not dangerous unless you keep making loud noises. How did you manage this, anyway? Did some warrior come and shove you in the stacks?"

Warriors are the fantasy version of jocks, it is known.

[overharrowed]

Julius takes her hand and gets to his feet. "No, nothing so neat, I'm afraid." He keeps his voice quiet, both out of respect for the general library atmosphere and to try to keep the young dragon appeased. "I don't know if you've heard, but some of the mages are being targeted with remote magic. Unfortunately, there's no advance warning to speak of." He exhales, a bit frustrated. "I should probably avoid the library, but I'm also trying to research ways of finding out who's doing it in the first place so... anyhow. I am sorry I interrupted your reading."

He's clearly curious about Charis, but doesn't immediately ask.

[thunderproof]

"I hadn't heard, that sounds... Well, terrible, honestly. Though I suppose I don't have to tell you that, do I?"

Just one more reason to be glad she isn't a native sorcerer, honestly. Where some might take this news as a cue to get the fuck away from the afflicted mages, Adalia doesn't go anywhere, instead stooping down to collect the books displaced by his hitting the shelves.

"I wasn't reading about anything all that important, it's all right. Would you like help with your research? I don't know too terribly much about your native magic, but I read quickly and I take good notes."

[overharrowed]

"It's certainly not ideal," he says, of the situation generally. At least he's in good enough shape to help her collect the books. "I wouldn't mind the help, if you're not otherwise occupied. It's a tricky problem. Phylacteries are meant to track mages down, they're not meant to track back to whoever possessed them. I suppose for obvious reasons."

He pauses, then: "Wait, first, do you know about the phylacteries?" Because he should probably back up if not. It's going to be hard for her to know what she's looking for without at least a cursory frame of reference.

[thunderproof]

"I know a little of them. Acceptable blood magic, as opposed to every other kind."

Not that anyone told Adalia that — that's a conclusion she's come to on her own, determined to find fault with the Circles and the Chantry. It's magic done with blood, ergo... The Chantry are hypocrites, no one should listen to them, et cetera et cetera.

Though perhaps saying this to a Circle mage is not a great idea.

"We have similar things in Toril, though not for every sorcerer, only those who try to achieve lichdom. They store their... mortality, I suppose you could say, in a phylactery. So long as that phylactery exists, the lich can never truly die. So I'm familiar with the idea, if not your plane's version of it."

[overharrowed]

"Acceptable very much depends on who you ask. Sanctioned, certainly." Julius feels strongly about blood magic on his own terms, not simply because it was forbidden, but saves that set of opinions for another time.

"Though if making them rendered mages immortal, I sincerely doubt that the Chantry would have made such an exception to the general rule. Are there many who achieve lichdom, where you're from?" It sounds more than mildly unnerving, but the theory interests him at least. What a world with unkillable mages might be like. (He suspects Tevinter would love to find out.)