[ OPEN ] Days too full, nights too dark

[fleurdesel]

WHO: Adelaide & You
WHAT: Catch all for end of Guardian & Drakonis
WHEN: All of Drakonis
WHERE: EDL, Skyhold
NOTES: some prompts to follow, poke me via PM or plurk if you want a particular starter!

[ The Healing Tents ]

Even if nothing else seems to be certain- this much she knows she has right. Every scrape, every wound, every cough she mends with a faint murmur and twist of Compassion's power. Here things are simpler. There is an injury, she is to mend it. No questions of morality or trust beyond that which her patients put in her to see them made well. It's simpler. It's a relief, honestly, after the current mess. Here if nowhere else she can trust her judgement beyond a shadow of a doubt. Now and then the lantern outside showing she is taking patients is shuttered- feel free to come in and find her drinking tea with a cold compress to her forehead. Migraines, Oh joy.


[ The Library ]

For every answer there are at least ten to twenty more questions- though the further along she goes the more precise she might make them and the less dithering about archaic academic footnotes she has to endure. Still she hunches over texts with notes, ink staining her fingers, tea at her elbow long since gone cold as she sketches and notes what scraps of something coherent she can find in these rituals on spirits, the fade, and demons. Either deep in thought, scribbling furiously, or dozing in her chair she is easy to find in the far corner, candle melting down the hours.


[ The Garden ]

Lessons in the morning, sparring in the evening, meditations around midday or tea with whomever she finds that has been overworking themselves just as much as she has which will not do. Adelaide sits here cool and calm at dawn, sculptures of ice spinning through her fingers in forms and shapes that meld and melt and meld over and over- in the early day with her students going over magical theory or discussing with them one on one their fears about demons and fade dreams, in the evening with a rapier, practicing forms, or late at night when she is unable to sleep, staring at scorched earth grass is only just beginning to grow over.

Comments

[pinprick]

"She is." A beat. "His name was Karl. They made him Tranquil because Anders loved him."

Because it feels wrong to just drop the story without talking about the man.

"Bethany does not exaggerate. You can ask her, if you please. But...if Justice still has a connection to the Fade, if he can enter the Fade when Anders sleeps...you think there could be a way to send him back to the Fade?"

Something glimmers then, a bit of hope that Nathaniel fears. Is it possible to free Anders from Justice without bypassing his consent?

[fleurdesel]

"Then it was true." The cure for Tranquility exists and it involves the use of Spirits. It is no wonder that Lord Seeker Lambert reacted so violently to the news spreading. That-

That she puts from her mind. For the moment it is irrelevant.

"There are rituals I have found. Some are absurd, some are risky, some require ingredients that will take some time to gather- but there is potential in them. The day he told me who he was- that Detlef became Anders- I intended to tell him. We became sidetracked with another portion of my research, and then by what he had to say." This. She will do this one last thing and be done with it.

[pinprick]

"I will do anything I can to help." Some weight has been lifted off him. Not all, but some. "Please...do not mention the alternative to him, or at least that we are considering it. If Justice knows we might kill him, he'll take Anders and leave at best. I hope one of your alternatives proves successful first. I don't cherish the idea of operating outside Anders' consent."

[fleurdesel]

"Every spirit healer knows of the first method- anyone that didn't was either not paying attention or had sorely lacking mentors." The failure of a teacher is a grievous wound to any mage- especially when it comes to matters of spirits. "As I will not be speaking with him unless I must, you have nothing to fear."

[pinprick]

"Don't tell anyone. It can't get back to him. What's the first method?"

[fleurdesel]

"Kill the spirit. He knows of it- they are trying to avoid it. That is why they came to me."

[pinprick]

"Right. What's our best alternative?"

[fleurdesel]

"You may tell him what I've found. Let him choose if he wishes to go through with this. Finding the ingredients and somewhere safe to perform the rituals will take time. Making certain I have the right of them- that there is no possibility of failure- that will take time." Time that she could be spending on anything else but...she gave her word. "We move from there."

[pinprick]

Nathaniel nods for a moment, then ducks his head to her.

"You're an honorable woman, Councilor LeBlanc. Thank you for your aid."

[fleurdesel]

"I'm a fool that gave my word without understanding the whole of it." But she will keep it all the same. "Tell me what he chooses and I will see what can be done for the rest."

[pinprick]

"You're a lady who keeps her word even when she does not want to." Another duck of his head. "I will tell him. Thank you."

He turns to go.