the days that bind us

[exequy]

WHO: Lots of people
WHAT: Recovering lost phylacteries
WHEN: Guardian 23, 9:44
WHERE: The Storm Coast
NOTES: Violence! OOC post over here.

All signs point to the Storm Coast, and once scouts have narrowed down the location it's only a short journey across the Waking Sea to move a small force onto the rocky coast. They row ashore just after dawn in driving rain, and follow the beach for at least a mile before finding a path that actually reaches the top of the cliff. The rain fades to a drizzle but the day remains relentlessly overcast as they hike toward their goal, grey and dim even at noon, with a raw breeze off the water.

Comments

[galvanising]

She nearly laughs at the last, huffs out a breath that has something of that air to it. Hands are pressed together, steepled against her mouth and then clasped so she can press teeth to the side of a finger and then abruptly drop them with a jerk of her head and gesture, "I can't think, I'm so--." She shakes a hand in vague illustration. "Walk with me."

There isn't far to go, just further down the hill to pace among the rocks, and that's precisely what Nell does, linking her fingers at the back of her neck, wisp forced to relocate as she splays elbows out and takes a deep breath, the raw chill in the air biting at throat and lungs.

"If we take them back now," she begins again, still in Nevarran, "Intact. We can push the Inquisition to destroy them. Force them to pick a side, and learn where they stand. See who stands against it. And they will, won't they? The Division Heads are elves and rifters, they won't stand against us. Coupe is too pragmatic to risk losing most of us over it, and Myr is leverage if she hesitates. But what if I'm wrong? Or Skyhold steps in? Then what? Will we be able to find them and destroy them anyway? Convince enough mages to abandon the Inquisition until they agree? They've all been here so much longer, I don't trust them to give up the comforts of the Inquisition over this. And then we're back to me destroying them somehow and being thrown out."

[exequy]

While she paces, Kostos stands still, mostly ignoring the wisps that wander around his shoulders or ankles and the occasional drop of rain in the face in favor of watching her think.

"Not necessarily you."

It isn't an offer. Not quite. There are a fair number of situations where he would be willing to take the fall in Nell's place—she's better, she matters more, objective facts—but destroying phylacteries isn't one of them. Someone, though. It wouldn't be hard to find someone angry and expendable.

"Regardless, we would know it wasn't for nothing."

[galvanising]

Nell turns to study him, but she can see it's not an offer--it rarely is, from her perspective, but his loyalties are tangential at best at the moment, when what he's saying makes simple sense.

"If anything," she says, slowly, piecing it together as she stops to stand in front of him, "It might suit us if they refuse. An Inquisition genuinely on our side is better, of course, but after what's happened, with so many people affected if they're not seen to care it could turn Loyalists. We shouldn't have trouble finding volunteers to attack anywhere they chose to store them, or a shipment to Skyhold. And if somehow we did, then you and I and Gareth, Marisol. We could do it. If we had to." She looks up to meet his eyes. "Right? You'd be with me in this? We will have to push them for a decision and be ready to strike if we don't get it."

[exequy]

He hesitates, and not only for a moment. It isn't that he can't feel his loyalty to the Chantry becoming a technicality. But the Chantry, leaderless, gave the phylacteries away; the Chantry would see him executed for what he's already done, even if he does nothing else; Nell is looking him right in the eye.

His nod is nearly just a twitch.

"But we need to find yours while we're here," he says. "Just in case."

[galvanising]

Nell's answering nod is a firm jerk of her chin. "If you get there first, smash it right away. Don't wait. And Gareth's," she adds, reaching out to touch his arm, as if his attention might've wandered in the last few seconds. She tips her head, raises a brow significantly, "If any of us is likely to get into trouble with them...."

It's not an entirely fair assessment given her own antics so far, but still.

Up the hill, the team is nearing ready as night falls in earnest. Nell looks up over Kostos's shoulder as they gather. "I don't trust a single one of them to do as I say."

[exequy]

Her hand doesn’t bring Kostos’ eyes back to her face, because they hadn’t left it, but it does pull him out of his own head and sharpen his focus. His second nod is more firm. Whatever he thinks about phylacteries as a general, theoretical, amorphous topic, Nell’s and Gareth’s have to go. The hypocrisy can eat him alive tomorrow.

He doesn’t turn to look over his shoulder at the others, but he does almost smile.

“You could put me in my place while we walk back, as a demonstration,” he offers. “Say I wanted you to send them and stay behind.”

[galvanising]

"I'm not sure that would inspire much confidence, that even my closest friend thinks I shouldn't go." Nell has turned to start making her way (in no particular hurry) back toward the group, and she turns to look at him sideways. "And you really do still think that I should stay behind, don't you?"

[exequy]

“I would worry less,” Kostos says, looking ahead, which doesn’t exactly mean yes. It doesn’t exactly mean no, though, either, because it won’t matter how good Nell is if the mages in the compound make it back to the phylacteries first.

It does exactly mean that he isn’t going to try to talk her out of it. Proof:

“—but I will look fantastic with grey hair, so that’s fine.”