We must resist

[arcaneadvisor]

WHO: Morrigan; open
WHAT: Checking in on friends, checking in on the mage and rifter situation and research. Wildcard and shapeshifter lesson discussions available!
WHEN: Post-rift opening in Skyhold onwards, basically a big catch-all
WHERE: All over Skyhold
NOTES:A few so please bear with me:
1) Morrigan is seeking out rifters since what happened to Sina, there’s a starter just for them
2) For the same reasons she’s seeking out members of the mage council
3) If you’re interested in shapeshifter lessons, there’s a handy sticky post here
4) The research Morrigan is doing is based on the Hinterlands expedition here

Library - artifact research;
Since returning from the Hinterlands, she’s devoted more time to the artifact that had returned with them, or rather to the notes that had been made about the surroundings. It makes a change to reading the book on the Veilfire runs and making her own notes from what Pel had directed her to, taking her deeper into history, into Avvar culture and Ferelden legends for a change. Each time Flemeth is mentioned she makes what might be a grimace or might be a smile.

Spread across the table are copious notes taken in the Hinterlands, including sketches of the artifact, as well as a symbol drawn on the floor in the ruin, a few more of the strange statues, the piles of bones.

Another perspective would be welcome, as would a distraction in all honesty.

Gardens;
Instead of the usual peace, Skyhold's garden is a battle.  Not a serious one to most but to the children playing Wardens and Darkspawn it's very much real, shrieking and lunging, hacking and slashing with swords.  One little boy holds Morrigan's attention more than the others; this is a rare moment of peace, when things have been on edge lately.  As it is, she's kneeling, planting the seeds she brought with her, a few she's carried around since she left the Wilds, others brought with her from Orlais and beyond.  Simple, quiet work, no devious plans some might think she has, just a break from researching out in the fresh air. 

And no, contrary to what some might have you believe, not a single one of the seeds will grow into something poisonous.

Seeking rifters;
She's met a rifter or two since she came to Skyhold, and talk of them has been everywhere but hunting them down to talk was never a priority until the rift had opened within the very walls.  Now?  Well she has theories, theories she cannot test herself but looking for them might help, and it's a different sort of magic, something new to draw her attention when not working on whatever scraps of elven lore they've uncovered thus far.

Wherever the rifters might be, she seeks them out eventually, appearing around a corner seemingly from nowhere, perhaps after a particularly intent crow or cat has watched them before disappearing.  The introduction is the same each time, for she only knows one or two in passing.

"Greetings, you may call me Morrigan.  I wonder, might you have the time to talk a while?"

Seeking the mage council;
That they've made a little Circle themselves here is still a notion that disquiets her, something that she keeps an eye on without joining in, unwilling to be held to whatever rules they've made but it wasn't just anyone who opened a rift in Skyhold.  It was a native, a native mage and when she arrived in the first instance it was after an Abomination rampaged.  It hardly helps matters that she's Dalish as well.

There are too many Templars here for her liking as it stands, unsure of what reprisals there might be.  So she waits, quiet and patient, seeking Adelaide LeBlanc in particular simply because they've spoken before but it is opinions she is after, a sense of how things truly lie.  She's lingered before, to watch, to listen, to judge silently and she never could abide things being caged.

wildcard;
[Or feel free to find Morrigan elsewhere!]

Comments

[eolasemah]

Sina nods in agreement about Kirkwall-- it's absolutely been a region to avoid, at least since all the trouble with Clan Sabrae. That the veil is thin makes even more sense.

"There must be," she agrees, lightly touching her shard, "one opened above me while I was out gathering herbs. This shot out like an arrow. I never... went in the rift, or came out of one, like the Rifters." She's only seen two rifts, and both were like omens of death; the horrible green pit in the sky that brings pain until she passes out from it. She hopes to never see one again.

"Do you think... the shards are from Cor...yph... what was it?" she asks, becoming a little short of breath just at the memory and heightened awareness of the debris in her chest. "Does he control them?"

[arcaneadvisor]

“I wonder if there is the ability to choose. There are few from this world to have been afflicted so, and none seem to know how the Herald came by her mark in the first place. Since her spirit has not appeared to speak to any either, I doubt we will know the truth unless we can pry it from the mouth of an enemy.” Perhaps literally given how Leliana, sorry, the Nightingale is these days. The how and the why, the strange disparate people from the rifts, the few natives - why them, how did a rift come to be by them and then give them something other than demons.

There’s a hesitation before she speaks, a thoughftul considerate pause. “I cannot say, not entirely, but doubtless he is connected in some way. If he could control them then Skyhold would not be safe; he would be able to come and open rifts as he pleased perhaps, able to flood the place with demons and win his victory. But with all the pieces that are there, I would say that he does know more than we do. This magic involves the Veil, the Fade, and such things are often connected to the Magisters. Why do you ask?” It’s a curiousity, but a pointed one.

[eolasemah]

"Do we know that he can't?" Sina asks, her voice growing more timid. The rift she opened was an accident, at least on her part-- but was there potential for someone else to have interfered? "I just..."
She purses her lips, ruminating. After all the questioning that's been happening, she doesn't know how to phrase anything anymore without arousing suspicion. "...perhaps it's happening for a reason. With the rifters, and... perhaps it's intentional." She doesn't know where this is coming from, but at this point anything is plausible. "If this person wants power, it's... a strange way to go about it, but not entirely unsound."

[arcaneadvisor]

Instead of answering immediately, she leans out of the tent, glancing about to see who might overhear then she makes sure the flap is closed tightly. Nothing absurd about two women being entitled to their privacy yet she woud rather they not be overheard at a time like this.

There are those who would still paint Morrigan as dangerous. (They would be right, but she is firmly on their side but such assurances are seldom enough when it comes to witches.)

"Corypheus is likely to have more of a connection to the Wardens than to the shards if he is indeed one of the magisters who breached the Golden City - he is a darkspawn, after a fashion, and their connection is stronger than the shards. The shards are something other again, and I would say that given they close rifts, they have more in common with the Fade and the Veil."

She settles herself again, listening as a wolf listens for anything untoward before she continues.

"Nothing can be ruled out but given where your shard lies, I would caution you from dwelling on such thoughts. If someone were to be pulling rifters from other worlds as a way to unbalance the Inquisition then tis an odd strategy, unless giving them the power to seal rifts is something they did not forsee and cannot undo. Already there are enough here to do significant damage. Your thoughts?" She'll give Sina time to think though, careful not to give away too many Warden secrets.

(Hilarious in hindsight.)

[eolasemah]

This is the most Sina has ever learned on the shards, and she listens raptly, nodding her head along with each point Morrigan makes. When asked her thoughts, she looks aside, considering.
"...I don't know," she says quietly, "we know that they can both close and open the rifts. But why they exist at all... that confounds me. They simply erupted from the sky, seemingly-- apparently-- caused by the explosion at the Conclave." She purses her lips and shakes her head. "But I was nowhere near Haven. It makes no sense."