[OPEN] - Ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when.

[laurenande]

WHO: Galadriel and Various
WHAT: Galadriel before her arrest, for those who would like CR before this Civil War plot is underway, her being arrested, and Galadriel in the cells for anyone who wants to come visit her or attempt to break her out. This post is super, duper open to anyone who wants to tag in. Please, have at.
WHEN: Late Guardian to early Drakonis.
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: No warnings yet, but have a link to the IC thread that happens amid all this: Cassandra interrogates Galadriel.

Pre-Interrogation/Arrest Prompts.

The Emprise du Lion was a dreadful place, and spending more than a fortnight within its borders had taken a toll on Galadriel. She arrived back in Skyhold only a few days before her conversation with Seeker Pentaghast, and she spent them taking what rest she could find. Sleep did not come easily to her, even at the best of times, so it was hardly a surprise that she spent long hours in the peace of the garden, watching the horizon on the battlements, or embroidering in the Rotunda.

(OOC: The above is the State of Galadriel, it's mostly for those who want to do something I haven't included, but it applies to the below as well. If you'd like to use a prompt for a specific scene, there are several options below to choose from. If the prompts don't appeal, please feel free (and encouraged) to write up any scenario you'd like, anywhere around Skyhold.)



Garden -

The winter chill that crept through the fortress was not as biting nor as pervasive as the wind outside the walls. There was something dull about the cold in Skyhold, something muted and gentle, but it was a feeling too fleeting for her to place. The sun chased the cold away just after dawn. Though the air was not warmed by the sun, the plants in the garden stretched toward it, green and vibrant as spring itself.

She adored spring and lingered for long hours in the gardens, relishing the sunlight that crested over the mountains. She spent each morning in the garden, watching the distant rise of the sun before tending to the plants. There were others who trickled in, as dawn passed and the fortress awoke, and she would leave the plants to them as they began their tasks, but she enjoyed the peace and stillness while she could.

The Emprise had been a grating, awful place but new growth and tender green leaves made her glad. More than once she found herself singing as she worked, and the plants grew quickly under her care. In only a few days, the grass would be renewed and the first small buds would open. She was thousands of years old and yet, despite that, she could hardly wait.



Courtyard -

Galadriel had not taken stock of the yard after the rift had closed. At the time, there had been more pressing matters to attend to, and she hadn't the patience to wait and search for subtle things. Now, without anything to pull her attention elsewhere, she devoted time to examining where the rift had split the veil.

Skyhold was a place with many curious sights to behold. The Orlesian nobility who visited the fortress were bedecked in feathers and quills atop gilded silk and stiff, polished leather. There were dwarves who quietly skirted the sunlight whenever they darted out of the fortress to their carts; their relief as they dove back to the keep was palpable. There were even a few humans clad in mud and fur who insisted on carrying goats. Truly, she was not so strange a sight that she merited recognition, standing in the courtyard with her staff in hand, simply peering at a space in the air. That she stood in place for hours on end, without moving a hair, was barely worthy of note.

The crowd moved and bustled around her readily enough, as though she were simply a fixture of the fortress, and she was glad for their disregard. A few mages slowed as they passed her, but they did not stop to speak. They would regard her oddly (a few of them frowned) and then they hurried away to see to their tasks. They were gifted mages, Galadriel noted silently; the majority of people who walked past her could not sense the slow current of power that rose against the veil. Those who could feel the pull of magic seemed disoriented by it, particularly when she shifted it or allowed it to ebb, but her study did them no harm.

If it had, she would have refrained from such tests in Skyhold.


Rotunda -

Galadriel's notes were artful and fluid things; they were not terribly numerous, but her time in Thedas had generated a few dozen pages of them. She hid none of them when she left the fortress, though she tidied them and tucked them out of the way when they were not in use. When she was using her notes, as she was now, she spread them out over the table as one would spread a map.

The unfamiliar letters of the tengwar curled over the sheets of cast-off vellum and pages of pressed pulp; when they were set side by side they were more drawing than words. She added to them as she read, writing between the older lines of text with habitual ease. Occasionally, amid the layers of tengwar, a word in the trade tongue appeared, but they rarely gave much clarity to the text around them.

It was early afternoon when she took over the space in the rotunda again. She had gathered a few clean pages and carefully written out the whole of the tengwar. She had promised to teach Sina these letters, and she intended to extend that invitation to all the elves of Thedas, but teaching required patience and materials. It had been centuries since she had last instructed anyone in their letters, but the memories were so fond, so filled with delight, that she couldn't repress her smile as she sat and carefully created a chart.

She could have stopped after writing them out, she supposed, but drawing the pictures that accompanied the letters was half of the entertainment of it. Sina was too old to need tales of lamps and ships and golden treasure to learn letters, and Galadriel did not need them to teach this lesson, but needing and wanting were very different things. In this instance, she wanted them and there was no reason to refrain.





Galadriel being escorted to the cells.


Courtyard - Under Arrest.

Galadriel rarely used her height to intimidate - it was cruel and largely ineffective - but she had drawn herself to her full height as she stared down Cassandra. The guards had not offended her so direly, but as they took her by her arms and lead her down the stairs and into the courtyard, she gave them no quarter. They were wary of her, as well they should have been, and she towered over them like a great looming shadow.

Her expression was rigid and thunderous, filled to the brim with deep, consuming fury masked only by the cold veneer of disdain. She walked with sweeping grace, despite the indignity of her situation, and the guards that led her avoided her gaze as they opened the door to the cells. They had made a spectacle of her and it was another slight she would not forget.





In the cells.


Day -

The cells were barred, with heavy iron gates and thick, artless locks. The stone of the chamber was crumbling, despite the efforts to reinforce the mortar and the floor. Half of the cells were unusable, collapsed or filled with rubble, and the other half were bare things, small and littered with chunks of rock and dried hay. The only objects that had been placed intentionally within the cells were a threadbare, unclean bedroll and a wooden bucket.

The chill that moved through the fortress was keenest here. Wind cut beneath the far door and the torchlight twisted wildly in the drafts. The single fire that burned in the middle of the room was barely sufficient to heat it; the brazier that held the fire was large, but it was unshielded and not well fitted to its current use. The two guards who had accompanied her devoted the majority of their attention to keeping the brazier lit. Between the bare nature of her cell and the build of the room, it became very clear how the people of Thedas dealt with captives.

Galadriel rarely lauded Mirkwood for its splendor, but her current trappings made even Thranduil's deepest, darkest cells seem kingly.


Night -

Twilight was an ordeal in these cells, one that dragged on for far longer than it had any right to. The cells that had collapsed and were open to the sky leaked grey light for hours; when they finally darkened, the far door lit the room in much the same way. Eventually, when the sun finally dropped away, a deep darkness settled over the room. The guards were attentive, but the night was cold and she unnerved them in the dark. They stood farther from her, behind the pillars that lined the walkway, and spoke only in hushed tones.

The fire required less attention at night, but without the wind threatening to extinguish it, the guards stoked it far less frequently. It burned low, dancing red and orange in the darkness, and Galadriel was left with the option to watch it or sleep. She chose to watch.

Comments

[fleurdesel]

"Cassandra founded the Inquisition with the left hand of the Divine- she holds some measure of authority over it and is primarily focused on the safety of those in Skyhold." Which begged the question- what set her off so viciously that she would demand an oath of Galadriel?

"There is something more to this- there must be. If I know her grievance, I might speak on your behalf." What worth that might have she could not say- but better that Galadriel have an advocate than none. "What led her to demanding the oath? Such a thing should not be done lightly- it should not be don at all."

[laurenande]

Galadriel listened to Adelaide but, for the first time in their acquaintence, seemed actively disinterested in the words she spoke. Whether Adelaide was correcting her or assisting her, Galadriel had no desire for the information she provided. Knowing anything about Cassandra seemed to gall her. Why it was repellant was impossible to say, and Galadriel did not explain.

Her offer to advocate on Galadriel's behalf was so absurd and outrageous that Galadriel nearly recoiled from it--to suffer the indignity of a defense was to acknowledge Cassandra's authority to cast such aspersions on her. She bristled, angered at the very idea, but caught herself before it could surface into her words--Adelaide was sincere.

Adelaide was her friend and meant no harm.

She knew that the healer hadn't the malice to exploit such situations, she had no designs wound into this debacle. There was no gain to be had, here, not for her. She was trying to help, in her way, and Galadriel could not hold Cassandra's trespasses against all of Thedas.

After another brief pause, Galadriel's expression gentled.

"I cannot say what grievance she holds," Galadriel admitted. "She is a fearful, cagey woman. Her questions were nonsense, combative and petty things. She demanded I stand idle and, if I refused, insisted I would be left in this place to rot."

Galadriel drew a deep breath and released it slowly.

"Our conversation was not a lengthy one; if there was any reason behind her arrogance or her demands, I could not see it. If you wish to know her mind, I fear you will have to ask her."

[fleurdesel]

None of this made any manner of sense. Cassandra, to Adelaide's understanding, was firm, stern, but reasonable. Galadriel calm, poised, and graceful. Whatever might have put them at odds, whatever might have led to this? To Galadriel's face so cold, so distant? To such a harsh view of Cassandra's character? She had cause to speak with Cassandra already- but at a more reasonable hour. Adelaide couldn't imagine going to her now would help matters.

This on top of Martel, on top of Anders- she would not be sleeping well tonight, if at all. But that was a secondary concern.

"I will do what I can, Galadriel." However much or little that might be. "Am I permitted to leave you anything for warmth? The fire is insufficient."

[laurenande]

"I expect the cold is part of the purpose of this place," Galadriel replied, her tone a bit more disdainful than it had been. She let out another slow breath a tried to maintain her calm.

"I shall survive, though I expect once I am freed, I will want to bundle myself well and avoid the cold for some long time." She paused as she regarded Adelaide.

"How fares your studies into the marks, or Sina's health?"

[fleurdesel]

"Inconclusive on both counts. There is far too much variation for me to establish a solid pattern regarding pain or the lingering effects of bearing a shard, not many of them have closed rifts, the natives that carry them all have their own various temperaments and concerns- but none of them have admitted to having strange dreams since their arrival. On that count I will consider everyone fortunate. Sina...her recovery is coming along slowly." There was only so much she could do, after all.

[laurenande]

Galadriel's brow dipped as she listened to Adelaide's troubles; her studies had held merit and an array of possibility, that they had become so complicated that nothing conclusive had been found, that was a tragedy. Galadriel frowned as she considered their previous discussion, as she thought on Sina, and then recalled Cassandra's blunt and purposeless questioning.

Her admission was, quite probably, driven by some measure of vindictiveness, but she made it anyway.

"I have been studying the rifts, as well as the mark," she said. "Though the latter is a more recent avenue."

A break in the clouds.

"It has taken much time, but I think I am beginning to understand how the veil shifts, how to cleave it apart and how to fold it upon itself. I cannot yet say how the marks are truly entangled with the rifts, but it is knowledge I am seeking."

[fleurdesel]

"Have you found anything more conclusive than 'they happen, we do not know why they happen, and demons pour through'? That is all I have managed to root out in the library. Texts on the fade are plentiful, more than a few on the veil exist as well- but nothing on it's rending." Which should worry her that it happens now. Something thought to be so constant, tearing open?

It did not speak well of the future. None of this did.

"...Did you say 'how to cleave it apart'? Galadriel-" That.

That is a horrifying thought.

"Sina's rending was an accident. An outlier, a single event. I have done what I can to prove that it cannot be replicated by those not of this world. Rending the veil is the opposite of what we are attempting to achieve."

[laurenande]

It was a strange sentiment; Adelaide readily admitted that she lacked knowledge of the rifts, of why they happened and what caused the veil to rupture as it did, but she was so certain it could not be replicated? Where had her certainty come from? Galadriel tilted her head as she regarded the human, confusion glancing across her features.

"Sina did not intend to open a rift," Galadriel acknowledged with a note of hesitance, "but regardless of her intent, it was accomplished. I wish to understand how.

"If you do not learn how the veil is cleft apart, how can you learn to prevent it?" she asked, her tone carefully even. Why a look of horror had stolen across Adelaide's face, she was uncertain; Adelaide had helped her understand the veil, had helped her recognize it and interact with it. Surely she was not the first person to test it?

"The thickness of the veil has some bearing on the ease of it, I suspect, but thinning it does not yield dreadful results. It is a strange, unpredictable phenomenon, and I've not encountered enough open rifts to truly gauge what can be done about them.

"When I have come upon them, study was rarely the priority."

[fleurdesel]

"Through her connection to the fade she has as a mage. The same connection all mages of Thedas share." Unless made tranquil- but even then they are not entirely immune if certain rumors are to be believed. "While much of my research has been inconclusive due to the sheer variety of worlds and peoples that have come through the rifts the one constant I found was none dreamed as we do. None touch the fade."

If one could reach through the veil all the same without that connection- or if they had that same connection without knowing-

The risks of possession was higher than she'd anticipated. A whole other brand of issues that may or may not require testing where she has no true means to do so. Adelaide shakes those fears off- for the moment they are irrelevant. Galadriel's work, her studies- those are worthwhile. Even if they are frightening.

Fear comes from ignorance, she knows too little to be anything but wary. This must change.

"...You have attempted to thin the veil." Flat. Less horrified, not entirely incredulous but-

It exists for a reason. Places where it wore thin did not often bode well for those that wandered through.

[laurenande]

Adelaide's defense was firm, if hurried, and Galadriel listened closely as she explained. She had known that all mages shared a connection to the Fade but, until this moment, it had not occurred to her that such things were established in dreams. Even with that knowledge, Galadriel could not say how far her dreams stretched, if they reached the Fade or if they fell short, and the thought was a curious one.

One to be mulled over later, perhaps.

"I have thinned it," Galadriel corrected her, her tone just shy of blasé. "It inhibits any action made against it, but the veil can be moved aside, with some effort."

She considered Adelaide and all she had told her; speaking with others, even with Cassandra, had made the climate of fear in Thedas so obvious that she had been forced to take note. Adelaide had a spirit that assisted her. If anyone would understand, without doubt or needless fear, the value of her studies, it should be Adelaide.

"The rifts do not yield to the veil, not directly, but I cannot say why."

[fleurdesel]

"That is-" A rough, inarticulate noise of frustration- though with herself, Galadriel, or the situation? Adelaide honestly could not say. She dragged a hand over her face and took a few moments to breathe. Settle herself, withdraw her knee jerk fear and panic. Such a thing is not to be easily done. Such a thing is not to be done at all. "I have taught you much but- you do not understand the effects of what it is you are doing, nor what it is you hope to achieve in doing so. Where the veil is thin demons and spirits pass through. Rifts are where the veil is thinnest as where it rends underneath them it is entirely absent. Maker- where have you been doing this?"

If it was anywhere near where the other mages slept- if it was anywhere near anyone slept- given Skyhold's lack of proper rooms and the abundance of members of the Inquisition it is likely that she's done so somewhere- "Have you put it to rights after thinning it?"

She could not be so irresponsible as to leave it like that.

Could she?

[laurenande]

Galadriel had found her temper tested often in recent days, but she hadn't expected Adelaide would carelessly throw accusations of foolishness at her. The steel that had left her as they spoke crept back into her stance, settled beneath the rise of her shoulders, and her expression became grave.

"I wonder, if you cannot say where I have tested it, how you determine what rights it must be returned to?" Galadriel asked, her tone sharper than it had been.

The veil behaved strangely; it shifted heavily and welled in places, it parted irregularly but completely, breaking like clouds to reveal a starlit sky. To Galadriel's mind it was like a blanket of pitch over the whole of Thedas; it pooled against power, forced magic to move sluggishly as it was siphoned through, and it sat thickest within the walls of Skyhold. She had only met one person who could feel the veil as she did and Cole was unlike most creatures, his insights were far too removed to provide in evidence.

If Adelaide had a keen sense of the veil, if she knew enough to chide Galadriel about how it bent and broke, then it was knowledge she should have shared. That she had not was telling.

"I am no fool, Adelaide," Galadriel reminded her, voice hard and honed. "If I truly do not understand then perhaps I am wrong, perhaps it is as you say and those from afar pose no risk, perhaps my findings are the imaginings of a sleepless mind. For they cannot be dreams, can they? That is the domain of mortal mages alone and, to be disconnected from it is to be powerless, is it not?"

[fleurdesel]

"It has not been thought possible for a single mage to simply thin the veil where it does not thin on it's own." That Galadriel has managed this at all, let alone more than once- "Warping it temporarily around a single spell, nudging it to achieve a specific task or contact a specific spirit- these things can be done, have been done. The veil simply is. I have never heard of any attempting to thin it, manage it- or manage it more than once."

It wasn't something she looked to often, not something she looked at intently aside from when she needed to. With Compassion ever present, she never truly needed to- taking such things for granted as much as she would the sun rising in the morning- and much like the sun staring at it was a fine way to go blind and see nothing at all for the next few moments/hours/days. The Veil was, it behaved in a certain way, this would not be changed easily or without a great deal of effort by multiple mages. Adelaide was-

Afraid, perhaps, but mostly? In awe. "It is not a question of power, Galadriel, it is one of security. IF you cannot connect to the fade- it does not matter how it is you achieve your magics for you are able to do that one way or another- but it does change whether or not you need fear possession. As much as any other mage is at risk- if you can move the veil- if you have moved the veil? You would be a beacon to any that would want your power."

A light, a flare in the dull mists of the Fade.

"As you say you have managed this- you are. And I pray that you truly do not need sleep as we do- or that you dream as we do."

[laurenande]

It was difficult to parse the thoughts of mortal men, even as they explained themselves before her. She had sworn to refrain from peering into the hearts of those in this land, sworn to this woman, who understood so little of what she had done and how she had done it. It was baffling and, more than it ought to, it frustrated her. Adelaide had helped her learn of the Fade and the Veil, but she had, by her own admission, mastered neither.

"I have never feared possession," Galadriel told her. "I do not fear it now...nor do I fear for those around me, for there are precious few things that can slip my notice or overpower my will."

Galadriel drew a slow breath and without moving, she pulled against the veil. Her power bore down upon it, what she could muster, and with great focus she drew against the Fade. It was not unlike the river in Sahrnia; the barrier was thick and suffocating in Skyhold, but it was not impenetrable. It could be thinned just as the ice had been, and it sloughed away gradually, as she spoke.

"I have known the heart of the Dark Lord, I have held his shadow at bay--Thedas does not share in darkness so deep. If Sauron could not overtake me, what have I to fear here? What demons would risk my notice on so bold a venture?"

The shadows became strange as the veil shifted. Skyhold was a heavy place, with centuries that weighed it down, but the veil was thickest here and as it ebbed away, so did the sense of years. Where she pulled it thinnest, the world seemed current, bright and spirited, the shadows were plain, but quiet--not silent, not entirely, but as though they simply chose not to speak. Around them, beyond the bounds of her efforts, the darkness became deep and old. The torches and the firelight seemed distant, pitiable things, and all the world was quiet and forgettable, as if caught in ancient slumber.

"Though I stand at the threshold, they shall not pass. Do not concern yourself with demons, Adelaide; the way is shut."