open: something grabs ahold of me tightly

[faderifting]

WHO: Inquisition Forces
WHAT: Inquisition forces cross the mountains into Orlais to deal with Emprise du Lion
WHEN: Wintermarch 25 onward
WHERE: EMPRISE DU LION
NOTES: This is a mingle-style log for the Inquisition camps, local tavern, and general/open Inquisition work, etc.

This time they hike down to the west, but the trip through the mountains is no easier. The snow is heaped up about the road where wagons have pushed it aside, stomped into slippery pack beneath the feet and hooves that have gone before. Of the main track it is ankle deep at best and in places it drifts, waist-deep on a tall man and enough to bury a dwarf who hasn't come prepared with snowshoes. Everywhere the wind howls, biting cold, and the sky hangs low, a pale flat grey that makes it difficult to judge distances. Those who know winter weather call it a snow sky, and near-daily squalls prove them right.

They set up camp in Sahrnia, across the broad expanse of frozen river that has trapped the villagers here upstream. Tents pop up in rows and in the shells of tumbled-down buildings, fires blazing and thawing the ground to mud. When the supply wagons roll in they re-open the local tavern, brightly lit with flaking paint on the walls that might once have been colorful and patterned tiles on the floor that seems to swim like an optical illusion after too many glasses of the cheap red wine that fills the cellars.

Even deadlier reds hold the hills: Red Templar sightings have been frequent and it is said they are operating in several locations in the region in significant force. Some of these men and women have become hulking, crystalline beasts. Many others are in the earlier stages of corruption: red-veined and -eyed, aggressive and superhumanly strong, but still visibly human and coherent if spoken to. Red lyrium is even easier to find, jutting out of the ground or cliffsides, filling caves-- the Tower of Bone, a fortress that has stood for centuries, now threatens to split from the inside out. The area's wildlife was none too friendly before, but now the wolves and bears have begun to be corrupted by the lyrium and many will attack on sight, without provocation. (The snofleurs that bumble harmlessly around the river seem unaffected.)

Everywhere there are ruins: broken bridges, crumbling colosseums, and the great hulking mass of Suledin's Keep tucked between the distant hills. Scouts reported that Red Templars hold it as well.

RIFTER ARRIVAL - SAHRNIA - THE HILLS - TOWER CAMP - A HANDY MAP

Comments

[apostasia]

( little about martel could be readily described as 'inviting' in this moment; long-suffering, more like. tolerant, at a generous push. he doesn't outright object to jamie's presence (after he went to such trouble to keep the other man alive and all--), and that will have to do.

it is evidently serviceable, what with how he hasn't left. )

You're welcome.

( it's mild - milder than it needs to be - but not dismissive. he isn't going to pretend it was nothing. it wasn't personal, but, more accurately, it wasn't personal to him. jamie may understandably view the matter a bit differently. his aversion to rifters doesn't extend to outright unpleasantness where it isn't warranted, at least, and he can understand feeling strongly enough to seek him out.

he'd prefer to have been taken for granted, all things being equal, but he understands the impulse and that it speaks better of him than some of the alternatives. people like that are exhausting, though. a moment later; )

It isn't. No. Nor am I the same sort of mage as you'll find here. I didn't imagine you were so conversant with their style.

( both of them coming through a rift. jamie having less investment in mage affairs than martel. )

[wontforgetyou]

[It may be that way on Jamie's end, but he's also had more than enough experience in battle to realize that chances were it was something that Martel had done in the name of keeping the fighters alive so they could close the rift rather than out of any personal desire to help him out. He can accept that well enough, and shrugs absently.]

Aye, well, I'm not con-conver...I'm not what you said I was. There's not magic in our world, except in stories. But I've had protective barrier things put on enough times by now that I know what they're like, and yours seemed different, that's all.

[Not bad, just different - and maybe more difficult too, given what had happened later on, but he's honestly not sure what was the magic and what was the rift causing issues there.]

Not so sure they'll care about that part of things now, though. Not with that rift opening like that.

[apostasia]

( a man's life means rather a lot to him. martel can't say he wouldn't be grateful for even the pragmatism, in jamie's place. at least on most days, when he's relatively sure he'd like to go on living -

but the last remark is the one that strikes, and he exhales. it isn't gentle enough to be called a sigh, not harsh enough to be anything else. )

It will change things.

( his tone is guarded; a hint of resignation underlying it. )

[wontforgetyou]

Likely not for the better, either.

[There might be than a hint of pessimism mixed in with those words, but maybe it's not all that much of a surprise, given the situation.]

Don't know if they'll actually go so far as to throw us in the dungeons, but I reckon they'll want to put more eyes on us, at the very least. I haven't heard anything for sure, though. Have you, yet?

[apostasia]

The Council of Magi convenes on the topic. I've not heard what that means, nor what the leadership with the power to enforce any of these things intends.

( you don't have to be a skilled reader of people to see martel's distaste at the thought of being watched, or the way that some pride in him bristles at it. hasn't he earned his place here? isn't he earning it? he's aggrieved at the thought of being punished for that elf girl's mistake -

always uphill. he doesn't want to leave thedas, he wants to make thedas want him. it's no small task he's set himself. )

[wontforgetyou]

Probably a lot of talking about what to do with us, I'd imagine.

[He's been a part of those sorts of meetings before. An outside part, to be sure, and usually a part that's sitting around bored out of his mind and wanting to just do something, but still a part. And there'll be a lot of talk, and a lot of arguments, and maybe if they're really lucky they'll talk themselves around in circles and not make any decisions that'll get the rifters thrown into jail. Although...that does get him thinking, and he winds up frowning just a little.]

Hey, I just had a thought. Do you or the other people with magic that fell through the rift get to have any say about what happens here? I mean, you're mages too, just not ones that were born here.

[apostasia]

No.

( martel's of two minds about that - it isn't an irrelevant point that none of the councilors bear a shard. that there are natives who bear shards, that it isn't solely a 'rifter problem'. but he dislikes the thought of a 'rifter mage' specifically singled out as such serving on the council, serving 'rifter interests'...

it doesn't sit well with him. after a slight pause-- )

The matter of 'what to do with us', ( and really, martel would prefer not to use the word 'us' at all if he could help it, ) is not a matter for the Council of Magi to decide, although they may recommend.

( they are a voice that might be listened to, worthwhile to cultivate, but ultimately - just a voice. )

[wontforgetyou]

[Jamie's of two minds himself. On one hand, he's not overly keen on councils normally, simply because he's seen so many where people just wind up sitting around and arguing over and over without actually doing anything. But on the other hand, since they've already made one, shouldn't the rifters have someone there, too? Maybe not Martel, because he'd have to be blind to see that the man isn't keen on being closely associated with the other rifters, but someone, so they don't wind up blindsided.]

Aye, that's true. But if they decide they've got that authority...

[They'd have no way of knowing what was going on until it was too late, and they wind up in prison - or worse. Given what's happened, he's not entirely sure that the council's not going to make it their business, whether or not it's their right to.]

Well. Suppose there's not too much we can do about it from here anyway. Think maybe I'll try and keep an ear out all the same. Look, maybe I'm wrong, but I'm guessing you're not all that keen about getting dragged into the middle of things. Can't say as I blame you, but I owe you for that fight. Do you want me to let you know if I do wind up hearing about anything?

[apostasia]

( it's a kind gesture, and the thought behind it - more than any real appreciation for what it is fundamentally - is what prompts martel into a smile that is, admittedly, still a bit wintry. it isn't false, for all that. )

This world is my home, ( evenly matter of fact. it wasn't before, but it is now, and the now is what matters. ) I intend to involve myself thoroughly in it, as it rather directly concerns me. And I will like as not hear before you do.

( he keeps his ear to the ground - but he hasn't got to bend far, when a member of the council is such a close friend of his. still, for the firmness in what is essentially a decline, he isn't unkind; just bluntly matter of fact.

were it someone else, he might've accepted, even with those details; it is a fitting response to what martel did for him, and martel is not incapable of being gracious. it skates, however, a breath too close to rifters looking out for rifters, and that is nothing he intends to encourage in fact or appearance.

--dryly good-humoured, he suggests, )

Try not to need saving again, and we'll call it even enough.

[wontforgetyou]

Fair enough.

[He's willing to help, but it's not as though he's going to force it on the man if it's not wanted. That's not to say he might not try to step in if it looks like Martel's having problems with a fight, but he'll worry about at such time as it might happen. In the meantime, well...he can try not to need saving again, but he knows himself well enough that the comment pulls a rather wry smile out of him.]

Aye, well. I'll see what I can do. [No promises, though. At the moment, he's safe enough, at least, and figures he's bothered Martel enough for right now. Time to let him get back to what he was doing before Jamie interrupted.] Suppose I'll let you get back to it, then.