[ CLOSED ] Scarce the blessing from on high

[filotimo]

WHO: Byerly, Flint, Madi, Silver
WHAT: A Princess Returns From The Dead
WHEN: mid-August
WHERE: Kirkwall/The Gallows
NOTES: Bad news from Nascere is followed a week or so later by an unexpected arrival.

Two things, all the world among,
Help the lover to attain
All that doth to Love belong:
E’en desire the good to gain,
Hope that makes the coward strong.
Both within my bosom lay.
No, ‘twas in my stricken soul
That they lurked to take away
My desire to reach the goal.
Hope hath fled and will not stay.

Comments

[filotimo]

Madi accepts the torch passed with canted brow and looks from Flint to the charts to Silver.

"There is an ancient ruin, connected by a network of caves beneath Nascere Town. We suspect—" We, here, meaning Flint and herself. "That the Altus is using Woodes Rogers to focus our attentions away from it. They have no interest in quelling violence on Nascere. If that was their only goal..."

They would have been crushed already, if all they cared about was stopping a rebellion. Even with movements only briefly plotted out on charts and maps and diagrams, there is a clear disconnect between the Governor's maneuvers and the movements of the Venatori. Madi shakes her head, a frown nesting in the furrow between her brows.

"They have a far greater investment in that ruin than they do in the island itself."

[hornswoggle]

"So our efforts were incidental."

John's tone is hard to read. There's something galling about it, having hammered against Tevene forces for so long only to discover that there was some other goal at play none of them had seen.

His fingers brush across the maps, a light mimicry of Flint and Madi's examination.

"What changed?" He asks finally. "If they'd been so content to entertain the fighting this long, why the sudden shift in response?"

The answer is already there, at the tips of his fingers. Whatever they'd been stalling for, they'd accomplished it. It was less a breakthrough, one force triumphing over another, than it was a washing of hands in preparation for the next step in a process. What he should be asking is what they could do about it.

[katabasis]

He takes incidental like some bitter pill, sour in the mouth, and lets it sit there on the tongue rather than swallow it.

("What have you heard from Hightown?" he'd asked Madame de Cedoux.

"Some concern that Tevinter is removing its distractions from the board."

It had seemed like such a half informed conclusion to draw at the time—not a bad guess, but lacking the nuance of years which had all but guaranteed that Rogers' invested in the island had less than total backing from the powers that be either in the Imperium or among the Venatori. For if he had, surely the island would have been lost already.

How irritating it would be to have had it the wrong way around—)

"I think it likely that whatever is happening there has entered a delicate period which requires more focus than they could afford while under siege. That at this stage our efforts there stood to pose a legitimate risk, and given the opportunity might still." To Madi— "Do we have any idea what their aim is?"

[filotimo]

"Not with certainty," she says. "But I think it is safe to say their interest is not archaeological. And the location of the rift in relation to the ruins cannot be mere coincidence."

Madi leans across the table to point to where they've marked the rift's location on a map. "The rift is here, as we know."

Then, she finds the map of the caves, roughly drawn but accurate, and sets it beside the other map. "This space here is where the ruin is located. Directly under the rift."

[hornswoggle]

A prickle of dread settles at the nape of John's neck. Even without any clear picture of what Rogers is angling to do, what Tevinter is trying to grasp, he knows that the end result of whatever course of action they pursue will demand something from John. Blood, bone, or—

"We can still thwart whatever they're planning, now that we know what their aim is," John says instead, ignoring every instinct that says otherwise. It passes. It is subsumed by the familiar patter of conversation, setting a problem between the three of them and pulling it apart.

His gaze lifts to Flint as he says the obvious, "And we're going to have to bring some of our fine fellows with us, especially if we've suffered losses."

And that will be an uphill battle, if they do not frame the problem very carefully. It seems a foregone conclusion to John, just as the instinct kicking at the back of his mind warns against his own participation: this cannot be managed from afar. Madi did not come all this way to say what a messenger could have. They've run out of time.

[katabasis]

Both maps are regarded with an unfeeling look, a closed hand kind of efficiency. Silver is right.

"Safeguarding threats to the Veil is what Riftwatch is meant to do. I'll say as much to the other Division Heads if there is any resistance; pulling a force together to reinforce the effort should be easily accomplished."

If that is an overly optimistic assessment, it doesn't reflect in the severely drawn line of his face. All that may be true, but there will be some cost to this. He's certain of it.