[ 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

Library

[fleurdesel]

"Mm?" Adelaide blinks herself back to the present, mind drifting among possibilities and rituals and frustratingly archaic language. Maria- she'd sent a note some time ago with where to find her and promptly fallen back down the pit of academic bullshit. It's a welcome change of pace to have someone to speak to. "You are aware of the Anders situation, yes?"

It is impossible for anyone to not by at this point. Most were also aware of their former association.

[nofury]

"If you're going to cry for his blood, the Order lacks that kind of oversight."

Which the mage was well aware of, Maria knew. Still, she wasn't going to speculate exactly what the councilor wished to speak of when it came to 'alternatives.' Maria would wait, relaxed in her seat.

[fleurdesel]

"Hardly. The Advisors have made their judgement and I respect them. I did not know until shortly before he turned himself in that he was Anders- but when he yet called himself Detlef he did come to me for help on a similarly grave matter. I should have spoken sooner but- fear that he'd be killed rather than an alternative found and pride in thinking I might find said alternative before anything worse than a broom being set on fire kept me silent." Adelaide flipped back through her notes, dragging a stack of them close for Maria to examine.

"Abomination or not- there might be a possibility of separating them without killing the spirit. I have found a few promising rituals and there are few templars I would trust to stand at the ready should anything go wrong. I am a fair way from doing anything with this but- I wanted you to know. And wanted to know if you would stand as a precaution when the time comes."

[nofury]

"I don't care for the fate of the demon."

There were some comfortable separating spirits and demons, but Maria was not ready to sign up for that club. Any entity coming across from the Fade wasn't to be trusted, no matter what they claimed. Pride was a fine reason why a mage may think no demon could trick them, after all; that they were wise enough to trust a spirit and not something worse.

"But if you can separate the possessed? Now that is a worthy cause."

[fleurdesel]

"Spirit."

Vengeance was the demon, Justice was the spirit. Ignoring the nuance was just as dangerous as a spirit thinking itself correct in it's flawed understanding of the world. "That was my thought. I also did not know the depth of the trouble with him- but if he can be cured? Others might as well."

[nofury]

"There is no Justice in what he has done."

Of that, Maria cannot be convinced. Against armed templars? Maybe. But not against innocent souls of the Chant.

"But it seems fitting. For him to be an experiment that other might be saved from."

[fleurdesel]

"...tainted spirit. Tackle a simple problem, a black and white mentality has use. Tackle a complicated problem...shades of grey do not fare well when a Spirit looks upon them. They cannot grasp it." Faulty logic came into play at that- then violent action. "They are both willing, which makes this simpler."

[nofury]

Maria gives her a sightly pained look. Clearly, she does not buy into this whole 'both willing' mentality. But if that is the kind of madness that might lead to a cure to an abomination? Well. There have been worse crimes.

"What must be done?"

[fleurdesel]

"They do not belong on this side of the veil." Is all she can offer, really. "I would say it's a wonder they haven't gone mad but Kirkwall proves otherwise."

For what was that but the action of a madman, a mad spirit?

"For the first..." She flips back through her sketches. "The safest are the most absurd. The first speaks of coaxing back the wayward spirit through song."

[nofury]

Singing abominations into health again. It gets a raised eyebrow from Maria, but the topic is too serious and Adelaide too serious about this topic for this all to be a joke. No one can help the rubbish that gets written down.

"And the ones that may actually work?"

[fleurdesel]

"A reverse binding ritual, a distillation of truth that would mark the core of the human soul and the spirit and decant one from the other, a fade meditation not entirely unlike that which is done when finding a spirit partner as a spirit healer-" The options were more than she'd like- and the certainty? Little.

[nofury]

The intricacies of spirit healing were beyond Maria, she won't pretend to understand. None of the options sounded particularly appealing, but all more so than an Abomination.

"Rank them in order of the most theoretically likely to work, then start from there?"

They had at least one abomination on hand she'd be willing to experiment on.

[fleurdesel]

"They all have the same theoretical merit. The difference is only in the risk to the one the ritual is being performed upon and the one performing said ritual." Which is something she will not allow anyone else to endure. This is a mess of her own making.

She will be the one to tend to it.

"Even the most absurd will take time to arrange- and those I'd prefer to start with if only for the lack of potential fallout. Finding somewhere safe to do this- as I will not risk Skyhold should anything go awry- will also take time."

[nofury]

Maria nodded in agreement, they were all reasonable points. Particularly the precaution to not invite another abomination into Skyhold willingly.

"If you provide a list, myself and some soldiers can help in gathering materials. For the location, I know what I have in mind for safety. But are there other needs for the...process?"

Aligned with the northern star or built on a forest grove? She didn't know what inane needs the rituals may have, but if they were attempting this it would need to be done correctly.

[fleurdesel]

"I have someone collecting the requisite supplies already. Discreetly." While she may have some support in this- the research and rituals themselves was more than enough for most mages and templars to either want a hand, have an opinion, or denounce it entirely. The fewer that knew? The better.

"Somewhere with room to cast a large binding circle as one of the rituals includes a rather complicated one." An anti-binding. It- that will be difficult to test even the theory of it on paper before going through. "Far enough that should anything go wrong we will not have a demon in skyhold right after us- but not so far that reinforcement,s should we need them, will be unable to reach us in time to render aid."

[nofury]

The advantage of the rank and file of the Templar order was how many demands could be made without a single question as to why. It was both their strength and one of their downfalls, how easily both heroics and atrocities could be committed without a moment of question or pause. But Maria understood. Still, if she was one of a few Templars to know, she had questions of her own.

"How many of your mages are working on this?"

[fleurdesel]

"None." They might ask why. They might get ideas, they might be exposed to something they do not understand, they might be exposed to Anders. It is not a burden she would gladly share with any mage.

A few hours sleep lost is price easy enough to pay for what could be a viable cure. I have taken this and all that may come of it, for good or ill, upon myself."

[nofury]

"I can respect that."

And trust it. It was part of the training, how mages hid and concealed and needed to be constantly watched. But the times had changed and the woman had shown herself more than enough dedicated to the Inquisition. There was no reason to be honest about the experiment than lie about those involved.

"You'll have your location. I'll let you know when I've found one."

[fleurdesel]

"And I shall send word to you and Sister Nightingale when I have all I require for the rituals." And then...

Then they might see if this truly can be done.