faderift | [Open] The Boys Are Back In Town

Secrets always have a way of coming out. The last month has been... particularly rife with information being revealed that Thor is of mixed feelings on, but that doesn't mean he's too distracted to read the reports going through, especially where the word 'magister' is involved.

Though that doesn't mean he knows how to respond to this particular reveal. Thor mulls over it for a few hours before he finally heads to Hanzo's room in the Gallows and knocks.

"It is Thor," he announces at the wood. Maybe he should have called by crystal, but he is never entirely certain how secret conversations on those are.

Hanzo had known the secret would emerge eventually. There was no way to hide something from an organisation of this size for this length of time, not when they were travelling to and from Tevinter with some kind of regularity. The Shimada name is one that is not as loud as others, but it is not one that can be ignored, not when the Venatori have returned and carry his blood with them.

It's a kind of agony he had not expected. He had spoken to Kostos about reclaiming his title, of bringing the Shimadas under heel, but this does nothing more than hurt him. To see his family brought into such disrepute, to see the dishonour they bring to the name and legacy of his blood...

He groans at the knock to his door - expected and unwelcome. Barely able to move to sit, Hanzo sits up and breathes out gently.

"Enter."

The noises from within are quiet, but say a great deal. For a rare moment Thor hesitates. He has no desire to impose. He also does not want to abandon someone he's coming to consider a friend to whatever the South chooses to pile on him for his bloodline and heritage. They will not be kind; they are never kind.

So decided, Thor comes into the room and closes the door quietly behind him. After a short mental debate, he finds a convenient stretch of wall near Hanzo and leans against it before focusing on the magister.

"I read that you are revealed." Hanzo knows why he's here, doubtlessly. There's no point in pretending there's some other cause. "I read it in your hand."

People do not look fondly at people from Tevinter here, do not demand their time or their attention. It has been difficult enough for Hanzo without the additional knowledge of his status and power being revealed to Kirkwall, but there is no hiding it now. People will have heard of the assassination attempt, will have heard of his family's connection to the Venatori, and he will be judged for it.

Being a Magister will come second to the chance of him being a spy, the chance of him being a danger to this entire organisation. It sickens him to think his chosen path might be broken so horrifically after the dedication he had shown thus far.

"Yes." He sits up a little more, rubbing his palms into sore legs. "Venatori assassins came for my head on the outskirts of Kirkwall. There was no hiding it."

"I am sorry." Thor's enjoyed a few assassination attempts - they'd come at good times for him to get out frustrations by bashing in heads and setting truly expendable people ablaze - but most of them are stressful affairs even when it isn't your own brother trying to kill you. And now Hanzo has lost the anonymity he'd so wanted, on top of that.

"Do you have an idea of what you will do?" It's not just curiosity fueling the question. His mansion is large enough that-- except it also houses a qunari. Venhedis. He can hardly help his own house, but he can at least still try to help Hanzo if it's needed.

Thor needs a drink. Or five. Hanzo might too, by the looks of him. Thor fishes into his robes to find his flask and takes a deep drink of ale before offering it out.

"It is not the first and it shall not be the last." Hanzo knows the Shimada family will not give up on removing him, not until he either takes them down or reclaims his position as Magister. It is not something he had truly abandoned - there is no Magister of the Shimada household other than him, no one strong nor brave enough to replace him - but it is something he had given up. It was no longer his.

Frowning at his legs, reaching for his bow, Hanzo strokes over the edges. The wood is familiar, warm, and he can feel the dragons envelop him before anything else happens - why hide them now? Two blue spirits emerge from Storm Bow, wrapping around him and comforting him, nudging against his neck, his jaw, his arms, resting on his lap.

Surprise, he thinks wryly.

"I will stay here. I will report to the leaders of the Inquisition and see if they will remove me. If not... Then I will plan my future." He frowns at the flask, smells it, winces, but drinks it all the same. He needs it.

Surprise indeed. Thor gapes at the blue forms, completely uncertain about what magic is going on there. They're spirits. He's fairly confident there, but beyond that? They seem to have come from Hanzo's bow, no less, which might put a certain amount of protectiveness in regard to it at a certain dinner in more clear light, but it doesn't clarify anything else.

"Of course," he says somewhat automatically, accepting the expected pragmatism. He holds out against his curiosity a few more seconds before he has to give in. "What sort of spirits are those?"

Hanzo's fingers reach out and stroke along the edges of the spirits, who curl against his touches. One of them is far smaller than the other, as if something has stunted its growth, and that is the one that Hanzo gives a touch more attention to, stroking against the image of scales. Both the dragons twist and lope around his body, settling against his chest, and Hanzo relaxes, softening just a little.

He is more at ease with them nearby, there is no denying that.

"Honour." There is no hesitation. He thinks that Thor will not be surprised at their union.

"Honour," he repeats, weighing it against what he knows. It fits the man before him well enough, if it could be said to fit anyone. It still doesn't explain how a bow has honour spirits seemingly bound to it, but there's all sorts of things magic can accomplish that he's not 100% familiar with. Especially where blood mage and Tevinter come into play.

There's a quiet pause before Thor unfolds his arms and takes a seat rather than continuing to hold up the wall.

"Is this the beginning of reclaiming your heritage? Of getting House Shimada in order?" It is not a fair question, when Thor has no idea how he'll get his own in order anymore, but it is what comes to mind as he watches the small things curl up with Hanzo. He's a little jealous, truth be told. He has never before been as alone as he is now.

It is something that is natural to the Shimada household: all their children had been given a spirit. Hanzo had two and he loves them, adores them so deeply and intensely that he had almost lost himself. He had almost lost one of them, and the realisation of that is what had torn him away from the path he had been walking. Genji's death had been the last nail in the coffin, so to speak, literally and figuratively.

Leaning close, he lets them nudge his forehead, soft and tender with him.

"I am uncertain." Kenji and Tomo dance around him and he sighs softly. "I have spoken with others about the idea of reclaiming my seat as Magister. It might become a benefit for the Inquisition to have some support from Tevinter, especially if I can reclaim the family from the Venatori."

Reclaiming his seat. Going back. Thor contemplates that before he nods.

"And not the Inquisition alone, though that is the current priority." As much as he'd like to rush off and fight for Minrathous and his people back home, he can do more to help here. As can Hanzo. As the battle has proven. "Corypheus must be openly opposed, and that is something that few of our people have the clarity of mind for."

Sure, once they see a weakness they'll swoop in, but right now Corypheus is strong and Tevinter follows the strong even to their own destruction.

"Even my father has not fully declared himself, for all that he is resisting and aiding there." Thor sighs. Now is not the time to dwell on that. He left his house for a reason. "Would you be comfortable reclaiming the seat? You have shown the opposite of interest in that before, and it would be a lifetime task, not one that ends when the war is over."

It is not something that Hanzo wanted or had considered for himself. He doesn't want to even think about what it might mean for him to become a Magister again, to feel the weight of that on his shoulders. Would his spirits survive? Would he survive? Is it honourable for him to go back if his intentions are to aid the Inquisition? Kenji curls around his arm, seeking to comfort, and Hanzo breathes out.

"Tevinter has forgotten its honour." Hanzo is strict on that if nothing else. He is disgusted by the way that their people have fallen in line behind someone as dishonourable as Corypheus, someone who has no measure of duty or understanding of the world. He understands that his spirits feel the same way: two spirits of Honour wrapping around him, delving into his heart and knowing him intimately.

Breathing out, Hanzo bows his head, pained.

"If it is what is best for the Inquisition then I will do it." Quiet, low. "I am their tool, their weapon. It would be wrong for me to ignore how I might best be used."

The sentiment is wrong, or the words are. That's not duty. That's someone who is broken. Thor does not have the words to help with that, but he has never been so much a man of words as he is actions.

Decisively Thor stands, joins Hanzo, and does what he does best. He hugs the man. It's not as firm as the hugs he usually gives as Hanzo is injured and also Thor isn't entirely certain about the logistics of hugging when tiny honour spirits are flitting about, but it's there.

"You are more than a mere tool or weapon," he says with certainty. "You are Hanzo Shimada, and it is a credit to you that you are focused on what the Inquisition needs, but you must also think past them as well."

To Hanzo, duty is all he has left. It was his duty and his burden to raise his dragons, raise his magic, and strike down his brother. It was his duty to rid the clan of someone not fit to be a part of it. It was his duty to commend himself to the position of leader, as it was his duty to flee once he realised the impact on his spirits. It is his duty now to be true to the Inquisition, to lend himself to them in whatever way is possible.

The hug is unexpected and it shocks him, clearly, eyes widening for a moment as he stares at the wall behind the other man. Tomo and Kenji dance out of the way as Hanzo does not resist, his hands limp at his side, accepting the embrace as it is but not returning it. He is not entirely sure how: he has not been embraced by many people. It has been many years since he was this close to a person he did not intend to kill.

"There is nothing passed the Inquisition," he admits, voice low and calm. "This is the path I have chosen to earn my redemption. It is in their hands now. They can punish me or they can use me, but my future is theirs to dictate."

When the hug is not returned he eventually pulls back, enough to search Hanzo's face. Redemption. His gaze flickers to the spirits and back as he tries to get a grasp of this. Hanzo is not suicidal, but he clearly has no driving need to live either. Has this been there the whole time, or is it new, brought about by the defeat? The whole time, Thor decides. It's why Hanzo had not thought about going back, and did not lay claim to their people.

"What do you so need redemption from?" He would never have asked such a direct question in Tevinter. He would have had Loki dig for the answer, and maintained a discrete distance. But he also never would have gotten this close to a potential rival magister there.

It is not something that Hanzo thinks many people are aware of - those inside the Shimada household know what happened to his brother, but those outside? Allies of the house are entirely unaware and it was designed to be so. The murder of an unfit son might be somewhat more acceptable in Tevinter, but it was not something to confess to anyone with ears. No, it might have been his duty but he cannot celebrate it. Even ten years later he feels the weight of it, cotton in his mouth as he tries to find the right words to speak.

Lifting his head, he stares at Thor, eyes dark and intense.

"What do you know of my brother, Genji Shimada?"

"He had... questionable tastes." The same has been said of his own brother, until the people saying it had fallen very ill. Then it had been conveyed in whispers and looks. But Loki had not vanished the way Genji had.

"And associations. And then he disappeared around the same time you did." It's not a lot of information. The Shimada hadn't been direct competition or allies, which means they'd never been high on the priority list for observation. That Hanzo asks about it now... Thor doesn't know what that means.

His voice is factual, eyes focused on the man in front of him. Hanzo will explain or not, but Thor can't deny that he's suddenly very curious about a man he's never met.

Hanzo snorts, then winces.

"That is one way of phrasing it." And not an incorrect one. Genji was uncontrollable, desperate to find any means of displeasing their father and the uncles, the elders, who helped care for the Shimada line. He would do whatever was possible to ensure their wrath was swift and vengeful, no matter what Hanzo did to protect him, to aid him. Sometimes it would be taking a beating on his behalf, sometimes... It would be nothing.

Powerlessness is something he is altogether too familiar with.

"He did not disappear." The dragons swirl around Hanzo, aware of his mood, careful as they twist and move around his tattoo, his torso, trying to comfort. "He did not simply fade away, and he was not sent to some cousin to live his life in silence. The elders of the Shimada family ordered for him to die. It was the duty of the leader of the family to ensure that the punishment was carried out, that he would bring no more shame to the line."

His eyes turn, sharp, to look at Thor. He was the leader. There is no ignoring the confession here.

Sometimes reading between the lines takes a effort. This time, it does not. Thor looks down, weighing this. He has to speak with his father about what Loki is. If he's to be given that order, could he follow it? Could he kill Loki? He thinks the answer is no. He doesn't know what he thinks about that.

"To many of our people, you did the right thing," Thor says slowly. Finally he looks back up, clearly troubled. But Hanzo is too. Redemption, he'd said. "I cannot agree with them. But as you seek redemption and to do things better now, I can still be your friend, if you wish it."

There is no way that Thor can keep from feeling a little judgmental, but he understands the pressure of their society. A son that could perhaps destabilize the entire house would of course be seen as a liability.

"And I would suggest a return to Tevinter eventually all the more. The elders of your house likely do not feel the need to redeem themselves for that. They continue to benefit from his death. You may be the only person who can put House Shimada in an honorable order."

To Hanzo it had been an easy choice. He had been raised to believe this was the only option for him, that this was the path that he must follow or lose everything. He had been a child moulded into the fit of a Tevinter heir, to be the perfect Magister when his time had come. The idea of doing anything other than what they had ordered was foolish indeed.

In hindsight, he knows some of the truth. He had been broken, he had been battered, he had been ruined by expectations laid on his shoulders. The idea of doing anything but wilting under that pressure had been inconceivable. He had been the perfect son and thus he had followed the perfect line of expectation.

"To many of our people I did the only thing worth doing." He lifts his head, gazing at Thor, unwavering. Once he had felt no shame in admitting what he had done, but he realises the faults in it now. He realises the discomfort. He has to manage that in his own ways now.

Waving a hand, Hanzo breathes out.

"If it is what the Inquisition would ask then it will be done. House Shimada may be of great benefit to them and I would not deny them the chance to make use of that tool."

[Open] The Boys Are Back In Town

For Hanzo

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