OPEN: Kirkwail

[faderifting]

WHO: Anyone
WHAT: Ghosts
WHEN: Wintermarch 20
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: OOC post. More content warnings than you can shake a stick at, probably, including allusions to slavery and violence in the body of the log post. Please use appropriate warnings in the subject lines for your own threads.

The storm sweeps in like an assassin: unexpected, in the dark, and throwing sharp pricks of sleet at exposed eyes and noses with expert aim and enough force to almost draw blood if the angle is right. Half an hour after the clouds crest the cliffs is all it takes for the city to retract indoors and huddle around fireplaces, settling in for a long night that will, unforeseen, turn into a long two days.

The Gallows, too, is pelted with ice; the walls of the cliffs and the fortress protect much of it from the worst of the wind, but when it can find a path over or through the walls, it slams through windows or doors to scatter papers and snuff out fires.

In the dark, in the rain, hurrying between towers or already accustomed to jumping firelight casting strange shadows and the wind howling like a wounded animal, people might be forgiven if they don't notice at first. But there's a hanging in the courtyard, a dozen translucent wisps of bodies dangling from the idea of nooses, and there's a girl's voice in the basement of the templar tower screaming for her mother, and there's a ghostly man in the library holding the blade of a knife to his palm and whispering this is it, this is it—or maybe there isn't, actually, when you lift your head to pay closer attention.

But as the night wears on they multiply, and they brighten, and even if you haven't noticed them, they begin to notice you.

Comments

[altusimperius]

"Because," Bene says quietly, clearing his throat, "I haven't properly learned any school of magic yet. My tutor left me here to rot in the dungeon after teaching me nothing, and I want to be valuable." He glances at the barrier again.
"And I have a shard." Solas is the first person, other than Marcoulf, who has come to know this-- Bene tugs his glove off to show him. "I want to learn to use it. Properly."

[dirth]

"A shard does mean you are any more or less deserving of tutelage." But Solas watches Benedict for a moment, taking it in. It must be something new - he had no knowledge of Benedict having a shard before this, and he is aware of most people - before he shakes his head and breathes out. "I will consider it."

[altusimperius]

That alone seems enough to placate the boy, at least for now. He's halfway through a smirk when a ghost with a sword throws himself at the barrier, dissipating, but not in enough time to keep Benedict from gasping and flinching away.