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

[tactical_alert]

"Opinions on phylacteries are likely going to be directly influenced by their stances on Circles." That's just how it is. There are likely supporters of reinstating Circles who don't support phylacteries, but...

But the group? These people and their ridiculous game? "Abominable, the lot of them. Taking their own personal, and quite frankly fanatical, interpretations into their own hands and doing experiments? Unless they had a spy on the inside, they couldn't know who was being hurt where, so they were merely playing with the lives of mages because they could. You get a group of disgruntled people, particularly uneducated, you rile them up, you point them at an enemy, you give them some training to feel invincible, and you use them for fodder. A cult at best."

A cult with a Seeker involved.

[justice_is_blond]

"You can have Circles without phylacteries," he says lightly. There's a lot of other things he can say too, about how cages without leashes are still cruel things, but stress is high on the ship. It could far too easily turn into an argument.

Anders offers up the flask despite Malcolm not sitting down. A cult? That's interesting. He's not sure he follows that trail of thought yet, but he's curious enough to try to follow it.

"They couldn't know who was being hurt where, but I'm not sure that mattered to them. They were hurting mages, and yes, playing with the lives of mages because they could. It's not... entirely unfamiliar. For me, at least, and more than a few others. What is it that makes them a cult?"

[tactical_alert]

Malcolm looks down at the offered drink, and...perhaps he should accept what help he can get when his anxiety on boats shoots through the roof. He accepts it with a nod, drinking not deeply, no sense in taking kindness for granted, before handing it back.

And sighs. Deeply. "Perhaps less a cult and more a subset of people we know all too well but with more training from the right people and more to work with. A relatively small group, secluded. Did you hear some of their conversations? Fanatical, in their own way. These were probably townsmen, farmers, millers, barkeeps. All lured together with the ideal of a world where mages are under their control or dead."

He doesn't feel responsible for what's happened. Keeping track of phylacteries was never his job, and any Seeker that has strayed from the late Divine and her will is no Seeker any longer. What he does feel responsible for is at least some of what they do moving forward.

"And who knows truly how many more phylacteries are out there? Who's to say someone else won't take up the idea and find more? There's got to be a way to end this tiresome mage war."

[justice_is_blond]

"There's a way to end the... mage war." Not Templar and mage war. Just mage war. To say that he was surprised by the wording would be a lie, but it's still not encouraging to hear someone who'd been in authority make it sound like his people were the only cause of it.

"It's called negotiation, finding something that the various mage groups can live with. But no one's asking what we want except us, which means no one's listening to us, which means..." Anders spreads his hands to indicate the world at large. "Is it too much to ask that my people not be hurt? That we've a chance to make lives of our own? This group thought so, but they're not alone, not the first, and they won't be the last unless people deemed respectable by commoners, people with authority, decide it's not too much and say so. But that is the challenge, isn't it? Convincing people like you that letting us be benefits Thedas, rather than harms it. And I don't know how to do that. ...Not that I'm likely the right one to try."

[tactical_alert]

"You are very much the last person to try and convince anyone to calm things down, I'm afraid." Which is what happens when you blow up a big building and kill a bunch of people in a prominent city.

"But the Inquisition is only a small slice of the population. We can try diplomacy all we want, but so long as people out there believe that mages are dangerous and need to be locked up, our voice only carries so far." That's what Anders meant by people like him, right? And people with authority. "We've a foothold in Kirkwall, which is a good start, but given the history, we're not likely to ever turn over every negative opinion on mages. Then there's the nonsense with the forest, which is its own bag of worms. They can't even agree on a replacement memorial. Coexisting and supporting mages in plain sight helps, but only so far. The Templars are like the Grey Wardens, they've no centralized authority or command, just skills and titles, and the mage groups can't decide what's best for themselves. It's become less about one group against another and more and more individual people with agendas keeping up the fight, it seems."

[justice_is_blond]

"You underestimate what the Seekers could do if they took a stance for coexisting with mages, I feel. I know, there's been damage done to your order. But many still believe in it."

He can't. Kirkwall wasn't just him, it was also the Templars and the Seekers who chose to ignore his letters, Meredith's behavior, and the treatment of the mages. What little faith he had left in any Chantry-based organization doing the right thing died in the silence that was answer to his pleas for help.

The common people, though, still have faith. And theirs is a powerful opinion.

"I don't think that many people truly enjoy war. That people fight for fighting's sake. It is, for most I have known, a last resort. There are exceptions, and I'd not be surprised that some of the people we came across today are among them. But for most the war is desperation. So many mages want a life that is theirs with all the complications that entails and it is my belief that everyone deserves that. Whatever they're born as or with."

He takes a breath and a drink of his own flask, leaning back against the wall and no longer looking directly at Malcolm.

"And I can't see why people will give their lives to deny a group that. I understand fear, fear of mages, fear of magic. They've been taught it their entire lives, and there are two events in recent history of a magical nature that were terrifying. But one of those came from a mage who'd been kept by the Circles, held by that broken system..." Anders exhales. "I don't know where you stand on the matter, exactly, but you're speaking with me and speaking of the Inquisition supporting mages so maybe you've open eyes to how much of a mess keeping a whole people group locked away is and always will be."

[tactical_alert]

"The Seekers. All three of them."

Not the first or the last time he's considered the idea that perhaps the idea of the Seekers as an organization should be set aside right now, though it's not something he'll voice aloud right now.

He's restless on a boat but, with reluctance, sits at last. "I have always spoken with you, and the Inquisition has always supported mages, and despite my affiliations, I think you will find I have a somewhat more lenient on the idea of perpetual incarceration of a people. And hopefully someday this social problem of mages and their rights to exist will be solved, maybe even in our lifetime. Perhaps when a new Divine is elected..."

[justice_is_blond]

There's the briefest flash of amusement on Anders' face at the number. All three. It's definitely not a lot. But it's also none none... and that's something to speak about later if Malcolm seems amenable.

"I want to see it in my lifetime." It's the first time in this conversation his hard work to sound neutral and unemotional slips, and there's a longing in there that runs all the way to his bones. "I don't want a single additional generation of mages to know captivity, to be taught to fear and hate themselves. I want them free."

Nothing will make what he did worth it, exactly, but if mages never again have to fear abuse and confinement he can be at something close to peace.

"And I don't know if it's safe to rely on a new Divine. We could just as easily get someone reactionary rather than revolutionary. The mages can't afford to wait and hope. We have to work, we have to reach out. ...Even if it's to groups of only three."