[ 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]

"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.