[closed] a templar's reckoning

[onlyhymns]

WHO: Closed to Seekers and Knights-Commander. And Cade!
WHAT: A meeting and/or hearing to determine the future of Knight-Lieutenant Harimann.
WHEN: Early Drakonis
WHERE: in that one empty tower
NOTES: everyone dies

[Cade has been temporarily released from Nerva's supervision to attend a gathering in the sparse but appropriately isolated tower where the Templars last met. There is a small half-circle of chairs facing a single chair, which he is escorted into by a fellow Templar, who promptly takes their leave.

Dressed in plainclothes and in possession of nothing that could be construed as a weapon, Cade looks rather smaller than usual. He folds his hands, looks at the floor, and waits for it to begin.]


OOC Note: It would probably be easiest to do this in the style of other meetings, more of a rapid-fire discussion than a log with full paragraphs. Having said that, let's still use a turn order just so nobody gets left behind or talked over.

Comments

[onlyhymns]

[Cade nods wearily.] Yes, ser. We were making our way down from Kirkwall.

[lifeofendurance]

[Sweet Maker, what in the world could provoke a templar to attack a Dalish scout. Other than madness or blood magic? Aleron's certainly going to exhaust the possibility of one before exploring the other.]

How often have you suffered these gaps in awareness? When did they begin? Before or after the encounter with the rebels?

[onlyhymns]

[When addressed again, Cade looks shyly in Aleron's direction.]

Since... [He thinks a moment.] ...since the Qunari invasion of Kirkwall, ser.

[Before that, it had been pretty standard Templar duty, and nothing too upsetting beyond the occasional Harrowing gone wrong. Something about watching his brothers in the Order, and innocent townspeople, burned and dismembered and brutalized to death-- battle was different now.]

[lifeofendurance]

[Kirkwall. If there is anything under the Maker's sun that can make Aleron feel immediately guilty, it's mention of Kirkwall. He still blames himself for not having seen what was truly brewing under the lid when he was there a decade ago.

That does not negate the blood magic concern, since Kirkwall was known to be rife with them. However, it does temper the Seeker's train of thought and opens the door for further possibilities which must needs be addressed. Meredith's infamous use of red lyrium certainly complicates matters.]

And how often do you have these lapses? Are they frequent?

[onlyhymns]

[Cade looks down to consider. They may be more frequent than he's noticed, but he at least can gauge the frequency by how many instances in which he's actually lost time.]

I... find it... increasingly often, ser. [He says this with a wince, but his expression changes to a more pensive one when he realizes something.]

...it's when I'm fighting. [He blinks a few times, then looks in Aleron's direction, but past him.] She-... [He curls a hand over his mouth when, all at once, an important piece of the scenario comes back to him. Somehow it manages to be even more offensive- nay, pathetic- than if he had just attacked the elf out of nowhere.]

...she pushed me. [He says this in a mumble, and lowers his face into his hand. Maker have mercy.]

[lifeofendurance]

[Ah. Well that certainly does shed new light on the situation. Several actually. It's not the first time he's heard of men and women suffering from a disquieted mind following a traumatic experience.]

Pushed you. In what manner?

[The fact that Cade seems surprised to have remembered that fact doesn't go unnoticed.]

I will not hold you as shirking responsibility by speaking. You have taken ownership of your wrong and for that I commend you. Now it is time to bring the remainder to light. If you can.

[equanimiti]

[Alayre could do naught else but listen to the exchange. The more Cade elaborated regarding his unseemly condition, the more he found him pitying the poor man. He did remember Beleth telling him that she pushed Cade too far but he's wasn't sure what that meant. Now that Cade has confessed to these odd...relapses, Alayre wondered if the same happened in Emprise du Lion during the Red Templar attack.

Cade undoubtedly saved his life that day but at what cost? Did the harrowing events of that day lead them here? Certainly seems like it.

Alayre's anger is somewhat sedated now. Instead of glaring daggers, knives and everything particularly foul at the poor blond, Alayre looks upon Cade with sympathy.

It seems that they all pushed Cade too far despite all the warnings.]

[onlyhymns]

She was... saying something, ser. I don't remember what. And she gave me a shove.

[He still looks like a dog caught tearing up his master's shoes; there really isn't any justification for the violence he inflicted on the elf, regardless of what she did first. He was in full plate and she was not, and he is certainly much larger than she.]

And after that, ser, I... [He thinks, his eyes going vacant for a moment, and he shakes his head.] ...please forgive me, ser, I recall nothing between that and when Warden Theirin intervened.