faithlikeaseed: (sighted - :J)
Myrobalan Shivana ([personal profile] faithlikeaseed) wrote in [community profile] faderift2019-03-12 12:13 am

OPEN + starters | nothing is what it seems

WHO: Myr & YOU; starter for Simon (and more by request)
WHAT: Divine Election nonsense + an elf/mage doing elf/mage things
WHEN: All through Drakonis
WHERE: The Gallows & Kirkwall
NOTES: hit me up if we've discussed something for this month & you would like a starter for it!



i. extended office hours - Chantry Relations office
With the Divine's election in the offing, there's much for Chantry Relations to do, both officially and not. Above the board there's letters to be sent on Inquisition policy, research to be done on the various candidates' intentions for the organization, requests to answer for their agents as guards or troubleshooters at Chantry functions, good will on all fronts to curry and maintain. That by itself would be enough to keep Myr in the office most working days of the week--

But there was also the matter of Skyhold's unofficial suggestion that Grand Cleric Clorentine ought to be discouraged in her ambitions. After much deliberation (and thought, and prayer), he had agreed to go along with it--and so there is all that much more deniable work to sort through as well, often later in the evenings when he's alone.

So: If anyone's looking for him they would find him in the office from shortly after breakfast to not long before dinner (and sometimes well after it), with or without Cade present; the door's usually open in invitation, a kettle of hot water for tea and a plate of treats on a side table to share with anyone who stops by with a concern or a report.

In the new-minted Inquisition tradition, he's also left a box outside for anyone who'd prefer to bring their comments, complaints, or other communications through writing.

ii. cash me outside - the gallows & kirkwall
Despite the workload, keeping at it seven days a week through the whole month would be a recipe for disaster and cruel to Cade, besides. Myr can afford to set aside a day to tend to body and soul, whether that means spending time in the library with some light reading (Hard in Hightown for the umpteenth time) or mucking around in the garden with the Comtesse on hand to dispose of grubs or dead plants with all a nug's voracity.

Sometimes you might catch him practicing spells in a disused corner of the courtyard, tweaking the Fade in volatile ways that are prone to backfiring (though mercifully without much effect on anyone but him).

On good days he'll make the trip out to Kirkwall and the Chantry memorial garden there, to pray at Andraste's feet or simply sit on a bench and absorb the early spring sunshine.
onlyhymns: (down)

i

[personal profile] onlyhymns 2019-03-12 05:42 am (UTC)(link)
There's been an excess of correspondence resulting from the current political climate, and more than one late night has been spent just catching up on filing and replies. Cade's sense of duty knowing no bounds, he had shooed Myr out the door with the assurance that he'd work a bit late and lock up when he's finished.
It's several hours later now-- unreasonably late-- and he still hasn't traversed the hallway that Myr and Simon share with Nari and himself. Cade hasn't come home, and that's because he's still at work. Or at least, the physical place known as work. He's asleep, with a smear of black over his cheek and forearm from where they've rested on the parchment, of which he makes a further mess every time he moves.
laurenande: (1)

ii

[personal profile] laurenande 2019-03-12 05:42 am (UTC)(link)
Galadriel finds him in the garden.

It is early, the sun has crested and the layer of fog that comes with proximity to the sea has yet to burn away completely. The spring air is bright and crisp and Galadriel savors it, even though this conversation is one she has...reservations about.

She hesitates as she watches him work, digging in the soil and clearing away debris. A small creature follows in his wake, a nug, snuffling the ground and prancing daintily through the budding flowers and new green grass. She watches a moment longer and then moves forward--it is habit, approaching from behind, moving softly, and it does not occur that she might startle him by doing so.

"Myrobalan," she says, kindly, and it has the lilt of a greeting. She is uncertain if he has ever seen her without her cloak, but today she wears none. Her dress is white and sylph, silk she has woven herself that is as delicate as spring. It is terribly bright, even in this light.

"Good morning."
Edited 2019-03-12 05:42 (UTC)
laurenande: (pic#9662097)

[personal profile] laurenande 2019-03-12 06:18 am (UTC)(link)
"I am...much improved, yes," Galadriel admits and answers his question at once.

It is more forthcoming than she is wont to be but, ultimately, Myr was the one who deserved honestly most. She regards him as he stands and there is a moment when she is struck silent. It passes, as all things must, and she offers up an apologetic smile.

"I apologize, I have spent many hundreds of years silent on this subject, it is hard to address even the farthest orbits of it with candor," she prefaces and gestures to the bench the young nug darted beneath.

"Sit with me, please. I wish to know how you have been in the wake of...what happened."
meds4sale: (/Sits on ur table)

ii - training

[personal profile] meds4sale 2019-03-12 06:42 am (UTC)(link)
He often watched people train from the sidelines, quiet and unobtrusive. He'd be loathe to disrupt something so vital, given what Beleth had told him about the Inquisition's defeat at Ghislain, after all.

But Myr's training catches his eye - perhaps it's the use of martial and magical that bares some resemblance to his own techniques which makes it more feasible that he might learn something useful from observing.

When Myr was taking a breather, he finally spoke.

"I have not seen mages use such skills before."

Normally it was a lot of staff twirling and sparkly lights.
onlyhymns: (surprised)

[personal profile] onlyhymns 2019-03-12 06:45 am (UTC)(link)
Myr isn't the only one who struggles with sleeplessness, though Cade's has improved somewhat since he took up residence with Nari; chalk it up to the herbs Colin gives him or the... erm... activities toward which he and his roomie are disposed, but either way it's unwise to look a gift horse in the mouth.
He is still a light sleeper, however, especially when the herbs aren't involved. Cade stirs at his name, then sits bolt upright with the second utterance, a few pages and his quill falling to the ground with the force of it. Blinking confusedly around at the dark room (the candle burned out ages ago), he tries to piece together what happened.
onlyhymns: (ABORT ABORT)

[personal profile] onlyhymns 2019-03-12 07:02 am (UTC)(link)
Though he sucks his breath in when the voice that woke him comes again, they're both fortunate that any dreams Cade was having were not of the violent sort, and he recognizes Myr pretty quickly. Then the moonlight from the window, the desk in front of him, the faint smell of smoke from the candle going out.
"--oh," he breathes, and looks to where he can see the elf partially illuminated. "Yes. I'm sorry."
laurenande: (pic#9662097)

[personal profile] laurenande 2019-03-12 08:47 am (UTC)(link)
She listens with the whole of her being as Myr answers, as he speaks in starts and splintered thoughts, dancing back and forth between starts and ends. It is a confusing confluence, but each aborted sentence is aligned to the same axis. He catches himself, begins, catches and begins again; she makes no move to stop him, nor to join the sentiments together through suggestion. She will wait--in this? Patience is the very least she should offer him and she has a great wealth of it.

Galadriel cannot know his guilt, especially not given the true weight of his blindness. That he had taken his sight from himself is a horror and one only he can know, but she recognizes the shape of this feeling, she has known its like. It is a tragic thing, that he should feel this, that he should have stumbled into it without real warning.

What was done, unfortunately, cannot be undone, not even if he should want to.

"Is it weakness to accept a gift given freely?" she asks and, for all her wisdom, there is a genuine question there. "Given to you with the full knowledge of what it would cost?"

It is a question she has pondered often and one for which she has no answer.

"In the end, it does not matter if you believe you deserved your sight," she continues and she speaks kindly, softly, despite the stark content of her thoughts. "The woman who returned it to you believed you deserved it. She believed you deserved what it would cost her to grant it. You did not take, you did not steal, you were given this gift...and once it became yours the question of deserving, or want or need, of weakness, that all became irrelevant."

She takes a deep breath and turns her gaze from him to look at the grass, at the fledgling shoots and blooms that litter the soil around them. Spring is dear to her and seeing it here brings her joy, despite all the ills of Kirkwall. Of Thedas. It is a small thing but she is grateful for it, regardless of the desolation and despair that wanders the lands beyond this small garden.

"Have your eyes given you joy?" she asks. "It has been some time since you regained them--have you seen anything beautiful or merry? Have you not beheld one precious thing that would have otherwise passed unknown?"

Is your gift a burden?
nadasharillen: (crooksmile)

I

[personal profile] nadasharillen 2019-03-13 04:07 pm (UTC)(link)
In the box in the morning, Myr will find complaints, comments, and a small bundle of freshly cut flowers: the brilliantly purple crocuses that are spring's advance guard. Given that there is a small careful arrangement of them in a little carved wooden vase on Cade's desk as well, it's not too difficult to guess the origin.

Even less difficult when Nari turns the corner and comes walking back down the hallway carrying the second vase that she'd gone to fill with water. She raises a hand in greeting, smile breaking warmly across her face.

"Oop. You beat me back."
Edited (maybe put a subject) 2019-03-13 16:07 (UTC)
laurenande: (pic#9667154)

[personal profile] laurenande 2019-03-14 07:54 am (UTC)(link)
Oh how lovely his hope, how bright and beautiful the sparkle of it is, even as it wounds him...even as it wounds Galadriel as well.

Her expression softens to the point of absolute fondness and then drops to something a bit sadder as she looks to his hands, twisted together in anxiety. She had not expected an answer to her first question, doesn't expect one still, and the fact that his eyes have brought him joy...that is heartening, if nothing else.

"You cannot..." she begins and stops, trails off as her gaze drifts and she considers her own hands.

For Myr, as she has done for no one else in all her life, she shifts and twists Nenya free. The ring parts from her with a tug, already resettled into the space between her fingers, the space that it shall occupy evermore. The ring appears as she moves it, her own light dimming as it shifts free. It is a fine band of mithril and adamant, delicate as woven roots, glimmering in the sun like the surface of a river at dawn.

It is small and, in the spring light of this garden, seems no more dangerous than any other piece of jewelry. It is a far cry from how it must have looked during the flight from the Abbey.

If anyone at all had been nearby she would not have done this, but for him, she will.

"No one," she begins again, the distinction much more firm. "Can avoid the price that must be paid. Many have tried, the wise and the strong, each with great knowledge of these bands, of the shadow that clings to them and the breadth of their power."

She takes a deep breath and, despite the grimness of the sentiment, cannot help but look at the ring with that same sad fondness that she levels at him.

"All have failed...including the elf who forged them," she admits and lets out a short sigh that is broken in the middle, either as a soft sob or a soft laugh, it is impossible to say. "Do not blame yourself for something far beyond your control, Myrobalan."
meds4sale: (/Sits on ur table)

[personal profile] meds4sale 2019-03-14 08:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Stop being allergic to pastels, Thedas, you don't know what you're missing.

"My thanks," he said, his tone flat as ever, but there was a brief dip of his head that may suggest he wasn't being insincere.

"I have heard of knight enchanters, yes. Most mages tend to favour staves. Not swords."
laurenande: (pic#9667170)

Me, in every tag I wrote with her name in it. You are not alone.

[personal profile] laurenande 2019-03-15 05:19 am (UTC)(link)
She watches the emotions play on his face but holds the ring in the open, nonetheless. Something in her rallies against this foolishness, but her heart calms it. Myrobalan is too clever to fall for power so easily; he knows all too well the price of it. Eventually, he withdraws his hand and breaks his gaze on her ring.

When his eyes turn up to her, she can see the turmoil in them, the longing and the resignation. His heart is an honest one, for all his guilt and debate.

"I was not given this ring idly," she tells him and it is nothing so strong as a correction. She reaches down with her free hand and traces the lines of the metalwork with something like nostalgia.

"This ring, and both its sisters, were intended to protect us," she explains. "To protect our people from the rising shadow."

She lifts the ring again and, shifts it, settles it back into place on her finger. She has no desire to hide it from Myrobalan, but what he sees may no longer be the ring.

"They were...and they remain a necessity in Arda, for without them we would fall to ruin. I do not fear what Nenya will make of me, dreadful as it might be, because I know what could be without it. I know what would become of me if I cast it aside."

She is strangely at ease when she continues.

"I would fade to a wraith myself, a hundred times over, trapped ere the ending of all things, before I would surrender the security the rings grant....and I may suffer that yet, but such is the fate of those who bear rings of power."
nadasharillen: (pondering)

[personal profile] nadasharillen 2019-03-16 04:42 am (UTC)(link)
Nari opens her mouth fully intending to say she had, but she'd join him anyway, and then her brow furrows as she slowly realizes she can't actually remember the last time she'd eaten. There'd been a quickly bolted sandwich of cold meat and cheese on her way up to the Grove... but... that might have been yesterday?

"Huh," she says with a self-conscious ruffle of her hand through her hair and a lopsided quirk of her smile, "You know, I've no idea?"

Better stay.
in_death_sacrifice: (hide in the sun 'till you see the light)

ii garden

[personal profile] in_death_sacrifice 2019-03-17 10:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Kain is wandering through the garden with a couple of packages in hand. He's done quite well with giving away most of those sweets by now, and is seeking out one more individual to whom he's promised them... Ah, perfect. The sight of the nug wandering about makes even him stop and half-smile. He glances around, seeing Myr, and approaches.

"Ah, Myr... I'd hoped to come across you eventually. I've come bearing gifts, for one or... perhaps even both of you."

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