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]

"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."