Scallop the breastbone

[arcaneadvisor]

WHO: Morrigan, open;
WHAT: Morrigan (and Kieran) join the Inquisition earlier than planned; she looks for tutors, tale of the Warden's companions present and assistance with her research
WHEN: mid-Haring
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Kieran is an npc and as such shall be shuffled off elsewhere quickly.  Feel free to spot her anywhere around Skyhold looking suitably disgusted.

With one small boy practically dead on his feet, it had been easier than it might have been elsewise to arrange for suitable quarters for a woman and her son, perhaps easier than it might have been had she come in a rather more official capacity.  True, the eluvian might have been with her then but things were rather less organised than she would have hoped and the rumours filtering into Orlais hadn't been wrong about the utter chaos.  Even when Orlesian theatrics were taken into account.  No matter, they were here, the last of her things that were too much for the two of them to transport safely would arrive shortly and doubtlessly she would be able to find a safe place for them.

For now, her priorities are getting the lay of the land as it were and it's not long before yet another mage is prowling through Skyhold though this one will look any Templar in the eye until they look away first if challenged, a woman clearly on a mission.

Tutors for her son for a start, she won't have him neglecting his studies.  Seeking old companions or word of them next when she heard talk on the road that she'd have the truth of.  And lastly, help with her own research and the not inconsiderable stash of very old, and very rare magical books she's lugged all the way here from Orlais, with two volumes kept always on her person lest they be lost again.

Comments

[amygdalae]

A good part of Skyhold was still trying to recover from the whole abomination incident that had happened, Bruce himself included - although for him what he had to recover was more than just the physical; he had more to heal besides the bandages around his head and chest.

Still, life went on, and even with his injuries it certainly wasn't going to stop Bruce from continuing what he needed to do. With his usual bag of supplies Bruce is on his daily rounds like always, treating the patients under his care and taking extra care for the ones who had been caught up in the entire incident with the abomination.

[arcaneadvisor]

Secrets would soon escape Skyhold faster than rats from a sinking ship though perhaps managing to find every spot of trouble during the Blight gave one a rather different view of abominations. Certainly they got old and few had ever glimpsed what truly lurked in the darkest parts of the Deep Roads where only the Legion and Grey Wardens dared to tread. News to keep away from Kieran, if she could; she knew all too well the fears and the uglier things the fearful might say.

Not that she had imagined to see so many in need of healing, not when all at Haven had gone quiet and she strolled over confidently. As if she'd ever walked any other way in her life. Odd though, to see someone giving healing with bandages himself when not on a battlefield.

"Tell me, are there no others to dress wounds and dispense potions and poultices? Surely they will learn for themselves which ones they drink and which ones they don't."

[amygdalae]

Bruce paused in what he had been doing - attending to a patient - and looked at the strange woman standing before him. Well, at least he was pretty certain she was no Rifter, but still--

"Not at the moment," he replies, voice wry, but with an apologetic look on his face all the same. "We're rather shorthanded as it is, and a fair number of people are still recovering from recent events." Not to mention that Bruce didn't feel entirely comfortable just giving people potions and such without instructions - there were already enough problems and he didn't want to cause more, as indirect as it could be.

[arcaneadvisor]

"Recent events is hardly the way most would refer to an abomination prowling even in the wild, let alone a place like Skyhold. The last time I heard tale of many abominations in one place, there were calls for the Rite to be sent for." A typical Templar overreaction though the demon had been something else then, but still ultimately contained, a product of the Circles but more the Blight for allowing opportunity to beckon.

Here? Perhaps rather more like firing an arrow straight up and being surprised at the outcome.

"How many lost or wounded to this particular 'recent event', including yourself?"

[amygdalae]

Oh, well. Bruce was purposefully being vague since he guessed it was best to not disclose what happened to people not in the know, but since she was already apparently in the know then the need for secrecy was invalid.

"Not too many that we're crippled, but enough to feel the damage done." Mages and templars and the common folk - everyone had been affected by this, one way or another. "Everyone is doing their best to recover, though." As it was the best they could do right now - recover, and move on, and try to not let this incident stop them in their tracks.

[arcaneadvisor]

If there was one thing the Inquisition could stand to gain from any Orlesian influence, it would be how to hold their tongues better even as they guarded their speech.

"I had the misfortune to be by the gardens, I see for the time being I shall have to procure my own supplies as and when they're needed. You're a healer from the look of you, how is the mood of the people since the attack? Last I saw templars and abominations in the same spot, oh the histrionics they indulged in, truly embarrassing for grown men and women." And that had been a moderate Circle all things considered, before there had been brazen talk and deeds leading to freedom that made so many come down all the harder.

[amygdalae]

Bruce gave an apologetic smile to the first part, since he could only guess the trouble that has to come with only depending on your own supplies. Hopefully in due time things could change and the damage would be repaired.

The mood of the people, though, was another thing entirely.

"Not very good, unfortunately. Everyone was rattled with the appearance of the abomination, and its affected the rate of work. Along with the fact that some of the healers and surgeons are injured, many others are refusing the aid of a mage to heal them." Bruce, having his cover as a surgeon and hiding his identity as a mage, managed to escape that, but it didn't exactly make things easier overall. If anything it was worse since some of the injuries were best treated by magic and people refusing it was... well, it was hard to manage.

[wickedchase]

"You look like someone on a clear mission."

Really, not that he has any idea what that might be, nor who she is, but the way she walks gives a clear indication: she has clear intent, and she won't be deterred by anyone, regardless of who they are.

Difficult to not see that in her stance.

The elf slides off from where he'd been perched and dusts off his trousers before giving a bow of his head. "Been here awhile. Might I be able to assist you in what it is that you seek?"

[arcaneadvisor]

Now there is an elf very much unlike those she's been around so often lately, especially since the violence in Halamshiral.

"If a mission is finding someone competent then I am indeed," she replies with something of a smirk because honestly, you could herd cats and hope for more organisation. "What I seek are tutors in a variety of subjects, for my son, and for someone to give me the truth of the situation here. After all, stories of abominations on the loose will grow more arms and legs than a nest of spiders."

Well, the abomination story she'll seek first, to understand just how such a thing managed to happen under the Inquisition's watch, not a wholly comforting sign for a fledgling organisation with little to no support from anyone else in the world.

[wickedchase]

That earns a low chuckle. The elf tips his hat back slightly as he glances over her, terribly interested.

"That certainly would be a mission here," he says dryly, well aware of their state of affairs. Though he isn't part of the Inquisition for its impressive organizational status, that doesn't mean he can't observe that fact for himself as well. "I don't know what sort of tutors you would need, and I admit I would not be best fit to offer that advice." After all, he doubts she wants her son to be as roguish as he. "But I can attempt to explain matters with the abomination, if you like."

She isn't wrong; rumors grow so quickly after these matters, and spiral out of control.

"One of the mages, of course. Don't know who the unlucky bastard was, but in the middle of the night, the abomination started its little stampede through Skyhold. Just one, though if you asked a templar you'd get a number in the dozens."

[arcaneadvisor]

With Leliana involved somewhere, though she hasn't encountered her yet, she had thought for something rather more. You couldn't be a hand of the Divine without knowing how to get the job done but clearly the Herald had held together more than Morrigan had initially thought with the threats on the horizon. Small wonder that there's no point in the Orlesians getting involved when they have more than enough going on on their own doorsteps.

"Of course, Templars are prone to exaggerations as a whole, tis why they join the order in the first place." Too many of the Templars are those who either believe they're carrying out some holy duty or out of this misguided belief that they defend the realms against a great and terrible evil. Still, she sighs, folding her arms in annoyance and she's glad she and Kieran weren't present for it.

The best way to deal with an abomination is quickly and given the many she's fought, she would have little problem in getting on with the job once her son was safe.

"A Circle mage or one of those from outwith? If I were the sort to gamble, I would say a Circle mage or a former Circle mage, I've seen their...lapses. A lifetime of restriction and then they seem to turn out rather wirld? How very surprising." Sarcasm drips off the last words, leaving absolutely no doubt as to her opinions on that matter but as if people would ever learn from such mistakes.

[wickedchase]

"Wisely spoken, madame. The paranoid that work together as group simply feed off of each other. Such is the way of them." Twisted Fate shrugs a little, a frown on his face as he considers the topic at hand. Less than pleasant, but he knows she desires information and he'd volunteered as much.

Though he does chuckle at her remark in regard to abomination topic.

"Former Circle, I believe, but I don't know for certain. It would surprise me if it had been an apostate and had always been one. A Circle mage is lucky to know how defend themselves, especially considering their Harrowings. In any case, I think we both agree in that regard."

[arcaneadvisor]

"How sensible an attitude, I had wondered if such things had been forgotten or sucked into the tear in the sky." Rare praise but someone had to get it here and there were very few worthy of it from what she had learned so far.

"Ah yes, the Harrowing, allow us to test the minds we have taught to fear themselves all their days and offer them temptation on a plate and yet so many would still cling to the Circles and call it tradition and find no fault in it. Now freedom for others may already have been squandered." And it was always the mages like that who found themselves giving all others a bad name and unsavoury reptuation, mages who accepted their shackles easily and never reached their full potential. "Were there others killed beside the fool the creature once was?"

[onlyhymns]

One of the aforementioned stared-down Templars was Cade, who was passing by when he saw the oddly-dressed witch and her son. He could tell by the look of them that she was a mage, and a seasoned apostate no less, and he watched her cautiously while making no move to stop her.

[arcaneadvisor]

With Kieran tucked out of the way, she took her full measure of the man. She'd known the Inquisition had managed to garner both factions of the war so she had been prepared to find the Templars amidst all the rest though it still disappointed her. What use could they serve against a threat such as the Breach in truth? With an irritated sound in the back of her throat, arm about Kieran, she finally called out to him.

"If you have something to say then out with it, else be on your way Templar."

[onlyhymns]

Though Cade had nothing to say, he resented being ordered about, especially by a mage. He irritably canted his head at the woman and gestured in the direction she'd been walking, as if inviting her to continue.

[arcaneadvisor]

Oh no, that wouldn't do, not at all. She had come here to offer the sort of aid only she could provide and just because Circle mages were fools unable to be trusted when they were so used to the leash that they forgot all sense without it didn't mean she needed an invitation to do anything, to go anywhere. Closing the distance between them, with the confident walk of a woman bold enough to argue with an empress, she halted just far enough away to keep out of reach of any weapon.

"Out with it, I will not be treated as one of your little Circle flock when your authority is less than it ever was."

[onlyhymns]

When the witch advanced, it was all Cade could do not to back up, but he stopped himself in time and kept his stance rigid. "I have nothing to say," he said, his voice quiet and a bit gruff, "...less so to an apostate." Had they been out beyond the confines of Skyhold, he might have been more assertive, even aggressive. But he knew there were rules here about such behavior, and he didn't dare risk getting himself put back in the cells. One mage wasn't worth it. Especially not...
He glanced down to see that she had a child with her, and immediately looked aside.

[arcaneadvisor]

"Perhaps your memory serves you ill; the mages in the Circles at last chose to seek freedom and here of all places we stand on equal ground, do we not?" As far as opening gambits go, it's less subtle than what would be employed in the Game but then again she was talking to a Templar, hardly the brightest from her recollections. With Kieran tucked close she would guard her tongue more than normal because even if he happened to be anything else, he was a boy, her son and the games her mother had played...

But that glance did stir something and she curled her arm about him just a little tighter as he pressed close to her side, the boy still wearing a small smile, tired and overwhelmed, curious as to what exactly was about to happen.

[ombranera]

"Well now- I did not expect you to find your way this far north anytime soon." Not when he'd seen her further south. Seeking out information, all that distaste she'd had for the very idea of how things were run- he will say he didn't think it'd be something she'd consider, let alone do, just yet.

Oh she'd make her way to the Inquisition. Morrigan and her Mother had a habit of popping up where destiny and fate would have their hands.

"I cannot imagine traveling with the boy was easy on the way up through the mountains." Zevran says with no small amount of fondness.

[arcaneadvisor]

"You think I have forgotten long marches?" There are good things about growing up in the wilds and being moved the way a wolf moves her cubs, the sort of way she's reared Kieran. The lad never complains but for the early starts when the sky remains dark.

Kieran goes where she goes, he's known wandering since before his own legs can carry him.

"On the contrary, last we were in parts such as these he was too young to remember them well, though I imagine he shall sleep for at least a whole day unless his stomach wakes him first. It gives me time to make arrangements. And you - I had wondered if you were on your way to some mission on behalf of those in charge."

Don't mention Alistair, not yet, she still needs more time.

[ombranera]

"Scouting for resources and demons, little else." He shrugs and offers her his hand- Alistair he will embrace gladly, Lelianna he will tease- Morrigan? He greets on her own terms, however she chooses to dictate them. They've been of a mind before during the Blight, eyeing one another and marking their plans, their supposed or actual machinations.

Far from cursing her for them, every twist in the web made Zevran respect her all the more.

"What arrangements need to be made? Somewhere to sleep where you and your boy shall not be troubled, I suppose?"

[arcaneadvisor]

A handshake is still about as far as Morrigan is comfortable with personally so she takes it with a firm grip. "Were you away when everyone apparently managed to miss what must have been obvious signs?"

The Circle had been less than subtle, that had been obvious from the notes they had found and from when Jowan had been encountered in the dungeons of Redcliffe for if such a fool as him could learn blood magic so easily then the signs had been there in Kinloch Hold. With a small sigh of disgust, she pinches the bridge of her nose a moment and nods, deciding that yes, the eluvian will be a need to know basis only, once she gets word of the progress it makes in the snow.

"A room we can share, a place where I can work in peace - Kieran can study in our room. Suitable tutors in the things he should know. To investigate this council of magi, a Circle by any other name."

[ombranera]

"Most circles do not have apostates sit on them and speak in their interest- but I know little of it, alas." Not his circus, not his monkeys. Someone else can worry about it; and Morrigan will likely have opinions enough without his input. No need to speak more on the matter.

"The wing in which I rest has a few rooms left that aren't taken- mostly due to holes in the ceiling but that, I think, is not so great a deterrent to you and your boy. You can tell him it's a bit like camping. He enjoys that, yes?" Most children have some love of camping. If they were not raised in the city.

[arcaneadvisor]

"Most apostates are wise enough to leave the Circles and the Chantry at their back to find their own fortune," or their ruin, more often than not seeing as so few of them actually know anything of surviving and making a life without drawing attention to themselves. Far too many of the ones who run find blood magic and do all mages a disservice each and every time.

His suggestion pulls a laugh from her; they're no strangers to such hardships and well, Kieran isn't put off by anything much really. Surely she can find someone to order about quickly. "If I can find a place for my books safe from damp and sticky fingers," other mages or templars, not her son, "then a hole or two is little problem, I remember well the damp creeping in through mother's hut and how the smoke had no place to go. Though it does make it all the more easy for the lad to pester you with questions."