[CLOSED] FROM RIFTWATCH WITH LOVE: PART TWO

[unshut]

WHO: Barrow, Bastien, Laura and Marcus
WHAT: In pursuit of a missing mage.
WHEN: Early August
WHERE: Wildervale, near the Nevarran border
NOTES: Mage-Templar dramatics; part two of FROM RIFTWATCH WITH LOVE. Part One located here.

The orders were clear: Find the missing mage and get to the bottom of this, but use extreme caution. It's possible this is all some kind of elaborate trap.

The good news? In combination with her last known whereabouts, a description of her partner (before he got quite so abominable), the active phylactery, and Laura's exceptionally keen sense of direction, the four of them will be able to successfully discover the second mage as she heads West into Nevarra. The bad news? She's being held by two Templars.

The group in its entirety has stopped to rest during the hottest part of the day on the banks of a shallow stream, shaded by a stand of poplar trees. The mage is seated in the back of an open farming cart with her hands tied, likely under the effects of magebane. One of the Templars, in all her armor, is standing watch near the road while the second - in rather less armor, having stripped some of it in deference to the heat - is watering a mule and horse at the stream.

At one point, the mage sharpens where she sits. "Don't let her play in the water. Livia! Come here," she calls and the Templar on the creek bank bends to lift a girl of four or five out of the tall grass at the water's end. He ruffles her dark hair and the apostate mage in the farm cart goes sharper still.

"Go see your mother," he instructs the child, and she does.

Disguised as a mixed band of travelers including an ex-Templar and mage heading to join the Inquisition in Orlais, Riftwatch's agents will be able to fall in with the traveling party without much issue. "How lucky," says the Templar named Belsant in a broad Orlesian country accent. She's funny and has a crooked smile. "We're headed in the same direction."

Thanks to the mixed nature of their group, Riftwatch will be able to divide and conquer when it comes to gathering information. The Templars trade gossip on the Divine's recall of Templars to the Exalted March in exchange for the latest news they've missed while traveling. Additionally, the reveal the following about their captive:

• She's a wanted criminal by the name of Catrin Prosser, and was once a member of the Kinloch Hold Circle until she escaped in the company of another mage, Felix Naegle, during Uldred's rebellion.
  
• She and her companion are wanted for property damage, theft (including that high crime horse theft), and the murder of Sister Aislinn Madigan of Ferelden. ("I suspect Sister Madigan must have had friends in high places," alleges Belsant's partner, a Marcher by the name of Klein.)
  
• Happily for everyone involved, she's been offered a pardon in exchange for service in the war and the promise of her daughter's safekeeping. Safekeeping where, you ask? No idea. That's above their pay grade.
  
• They were meant to capture Felix Naegle as well, but he wasn't around when they found Catrin. If he doesn't come quietly, they're not sure the pardon will extend to him.

Meanwhile, the following information can be gleaned from conversation with Catrin Prosser:

• Her name is Catrin Naegle, thank you very much.
  
• She's cagey about this whole pardon arrangement. While she won't say it aloud, she seems fairly confident that there's a backup plan in the works.
  
• When Barrows folds like a wet paper bag and admits the fate of her husband, she will get very quiet.
  
• With the return of the bracelet found on Felix's person (thank Marcus) and some cajoling of the Who Are You And What Did You Want With Riftwatch? nature, will prompt her to insist that she and Felix have been working as Riftwatch agents for months at the discretion of the organization's Scoutmaster herself. When their work was finished, they headed South on the promise that they'd be spirited away into obscurity with Riftwatch's assistance. She refuses to reveal additional details.

As everyone's headed in the same direction, Barrow, Bastien, Marcus and Laura are invited to fall in by the Templars and their captive. They travel together for the rest of the day, but at night make separate camps at Belsant's insistence ("Not that I don't trust you").

Riftwatch's plan to infiltrate the Templar camp at night and free Catrin goes poorly and the alarm will be raised. Klein (in half his armor again - get your shit together Klein!) will put up a fight attempting to buy time for Belsant to escape with their captives and will have to be badly wounded before he stops fighting.

When they catch up with Belsant (who is hauling a bound apostate and child through the night and not exactly difficult to track), Catrin will intercede on her behalf and refuse to be taken freed by or taken anywhere by the people who couldn't guarantee her husband's safety. She insists she'd rather go to the war front and will refuse all attempts to be liberated.

Comments

[justashotaway]

time to think sad thoughts about mothers and magic.

Laura likes to be useful, and she dislikes the idea of mages in its purest form, unattached to people or personalities; therefore, this mission should be straightforward. But the mage in question is mostly quiet, especially after she hears the word abomination. And she has a daughter with dark hair and bright eyes, a daughter too young to understand where she is being taken.

And somehow, that complicates things. As they walk along old paths, she sticks closer to the cart than the Templars guiding it, watching the little girl seated in the cart beside her bound mother and listening to the others talk. When night begins to fall, they separate, but she can't forget the moments when the child's eyes met hers, filled with the same passing sort of curiosity she seems to give everything around her.

"What would they do at the war front?" she asks quietly, watching the other camp from the distance they've chosen, their cookfire crackling at her back. At this distance, none of the figures are distinct.

time to chase after marcus.

Matthias says Marcus is one of the greatest mages there is. His return is expected by Riftwatch; he is likely needed by Riftwatch. And he is going someplace else.

That she follows him feels like necessity; she decides it's for the good of Riftwatch. The organization's survival is one of the missions that underlie all others, and she is here to complete every mission at hand. For some time, she follows at a distance, until she's decided he doesn't intend to turn back.

"We are not going this way," she announces, once she's moved silently to his side.

chase.

[luaithre]

It's pre-dawn. Early enough that even this high summer morning is cast in grey. He had come to some decision, sleeplessly, and then packed away his things, silently. Not silent enough.

He is somewhat aware of his tag along, but he doesn't slow the plodding stride of Kevin, which is already slow. He doesn't glance back, either -- whoever is making chase can either speak their intentions or fall away again. Part of him would like it to be Barrow. And of course it isn't.

As Laura brings her horse up alongside, Marcus doesn't look to her, absorbing her announcement silently, at first, before he agrees, "Aye. We aren't."

He has no particular desire to play games with a young girl, but he short-circuits slightly into easy literalism. Yes. This isn't the way to Kirkwall. The slowly rising sun and the shadows its beginning to cast can attest to that.

[justashotaway]

Literalism has a certain comfort to her; it's familiar, easy to focus on. Other people dislike it, but working through something, step by step, makes certain that she hasn't missed something everyone around her takes for granted. The world makes more sense after.

"Our objective is a return to Kirkwall." Perhaps he dislikes the idea of the city looming up before them. She's sometimes reticent to go back, once she's someplace as open and still as the countryside feels this morning. By comparison, Kirkwall is crowded, stinking, overwhelming. "Why are you going this way?"

[luaithre]

What little Marcus has learned of the girl, the way she approaches a problem is a little bit a relief. He imagines it good for someone like Matthias, as well, someone disinclined to twist words and manipulate their meanings.

This is normally the way he prefers to communicate. His reluctance to be truthful therefore has him fall silent for a few moments, to the sound of horse hooves crunching up the earth beneath them.

"I'm reluctant to return just yet," he settles on. "There are people I wish to see before we answer to Riftwatch."

[justashotaway]

"Who?" she asks, a hand settling into the mane of her horse.

This is a matter of curiosity and a little concern all at once. If she returns bearing the story of Marcus' absence, she will need to know if he has left for legitimate reasons. It isn't enough to say he went away and I do not know where.

[luaithre]

"No one I wish to disclose to you," Marcus says, without feeling. It is not a passionately made declaration. There is no accusation, fear, suspicion. It just is.

And 'you' does not sound like Laura so much as it could be any of them. He knows, after all, why she is asking.

"All of this was wrong," he says. "More than our outcome. But what drove us here, and how it came to be. Do you sense that?"

sads.

[cozen]

"I suppose it depends on what she can do," Bastien says. He's been picking at his dinner, facing the fire since someone already has eyes on their distant semi-companions, but he's close enough to Laura that when he sets his bowl aside to lean back on his elbows, he can look up and forward at her shadowed face. "If she can fight, if she can heal..."