faderift | open; with or without your approval

WHO: Cassandra Pentaghast and you
WHAT: Cassandra, in and around Skyhold
WHEN: First half of Drakonis, before the ball
WHERE: Various
NOTES: Does your character want to yell at Cassandra about Anders? About Galadriel? About her choices in general? Alternatively, do they want to celebrate her on a job well done and thank her for her vigilance in keeping Skyhold safe? Maybe try to finally get a straight answer about exactly what is going on? This is the place!

For timeline purposes: post-Anders announcement; before/in the midst of/after rifter interrogations; either pre-Galadriel's imprisonment or while she still languishes in the cells.

She might be found swinging angrily at the dummies in the yard, assisting Cullen in training what recruits they have, or nursing a large ale at the Herald's Rest. More than likely, she's dodging Vivienne and her endless preparations, instructions, and reminders for the ball. Wherever she is, Cassandra is likely not in the best of moods, and there is a certain righteous fire in her gaze whenever she is challenged. Leliana's words and the way she had looked at Cassandra still sting, but she does not regret what she has done.

Still, no one can possibly be angry all the time, right? Maybe you'll catch her on a good day...

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"I have heard mention of her, and the others, but I have not met her personally," Nerva admitted, after she had fallen into step alongside Cassandra, the steal of her armour clinking with each step, lending it a weight her footfalls would not otherwise have.

"I understand that she believes she comes from a different world, that she has powers similar to our mages."

"Believes?"

The word is enough to disrupt Cassandra's own train of thought, as she turns to look at Nerva in surprise. It had never occurred to her not to take Galadriel at her word, or to question what little she did admit to - for all that she had refused to say, refused to swear to, she had seemed quite clear on who and what she was. "You think her confused? Addled?"

"I don't presume to guess, Seeker," Nerva said, with a frown.

"I am not a theologian. She came through the Fade, as did the others. We would be destroyed, attempting such a thing. Spirits are turned into demons. Who is to say, what form they would have had, on the other side? What their true purpose is, and how the rift effected them? It is certainly not something I can claim to understand. They are not demons, I am told, and that seems all I can be sure of."

Cassandra listens, frowning in thought. Nerva's wariness makes sense, and Cassandra shares it, to an extent. Yet even still.

"There are so many of them, and they all claim to come from elsewhere - from their own separate worlds," she says ponderously, working through it for herself as well as Nerva. She shakes her head. "They are not demons. If they are not as they say - if they did not truly come from other worlds, like ours and yet not - then I do not know what else they might be."

"But it is true that we do not know their purpose - their loyalties." She glances at Nerva, her eyes sharp. "Some may be trusted. Others have proven that they cannot be. This Galadriel is one of the latter."

"I had no concept that such other worlds even existed, or that they could. But I am sure, once Corypheus is defeated and we have a new Divine, that she will be able to figure out exactly what they are, and where they come from."

She caught that sharp look, her own expression pure stone. "That does not surprise me in the least. What happened?"

Cassandra makes a noise that is not quite agreement. Unlike Nerva, she had known Divine Justinia well, and while she had respected, trusted, admired, even loved her, she had had more opportunity than most to see past the trappings of her office to the woman herself. Justinia had been wise and fair, she had been holy, but she had not been omniscient. There is no reason to think her successor will be able to discern the truth any better than the Inquisition can.

But she lets that discussion lie for now, choosing to focus instead on the immediate issue. Galadriel.

"I spoke to her, during my course of the investigations of the rift that was opened here in Skyhold. Galadriel did not open the rift, but she was one of those who assisted in closing it." Her words are slow, measured. She will not allow her emotions to get the better of her - she will explain calmly, thoroughly, and perhaps Nerva will understand what Leliana had not. "I had meant merely to hear her version of events, to ensure that things had transpired as I was told by the others. But Galadriel was - hostile, nearly from the first. She mocked my authority, and then she refused to acknowledge it. She would not answer the simplest questions."

She closes her hand into a fist, and then slowly forces herself to release it. Galadriel had not been the first to exasperate and disrespect Cassandra during an interrogation, nor had she been the last. That is not the issue here.

"And then she said - no. She implied that she understood not only the mysteries of closing rifts, but those of opening them. I asked her to tell me clearly what she knew, and she would not." Cassandra is determined to get this right, to tell Nerva only the truth, unbiased. If she is wrong - Maker, if she is wrong, and she had overreached -

She does not believe she had, even now. But she needs some confirmation. Some reassurance that she has not strayed from the path of justice.

"She said that she knew more than one such as I could understand, and that she would not explain it further. That those who came here through the rifts risked themselves in closing them. That should she open a rift it was not my concern, and that she would do as she pleased and tell me only what she deigned to."

The last, at least, she remembers word for word, burned into her mind. Cassandra's hands clench into hard fists again, this time on the stone of the battlements as she stares unseeing down into the valley.

"I asked her to swear an oath that she would open no further rifts, and she refused. I took her staff and had her locked in the dungeon."

Nerva listens, silently, not uttering a word or a sound as Cassandra speaks, waiting until she was certain that the Seeker had finished.

Her expression hardened, as she continued, and grew darker.

"... You were wise to do so." She says finally, solemnly. "This - If she has any knowledge about the rifts, any idea of how to open them--" She cut off, taking in a sharp breath. "The very fact that they are able to open rifts is of grave concern. The idea that she may be able to do it at will - that she refuses to even tell us information vital to our security, our safety --"

Relief breaks out on Cassandra's face - relief, and perhaps a thread of vindication. She is not mad, she is not paranoid, Leliana had been wrong to accuse her.

"Yes," she says emphatically, nodding her head. "If she can do it - and that she threatens to do so. Regardless of anyone's safety."

She pauses, studying Nerva.

"I have told no one of this, save the Inquisition's advisors. I fear what may happen if what she has claimed she can do becomes public knowledge. If others with the shard realize that they may be capable of such a thing..."

Nerva nodded.

"I understand. Though I worry that it may be stumbled upon, regardless. If it is possible, it is only a matter of time before another realises they can attempt it."

"I know."

She sighs, turning her head to gaze out over the valley below once more.

"I do not know how to stop that, but we can at least delay it. In the meantime, I have been questioning the other rifters - trying to determine which of them might pose a similar threat." She shakes her head. "To date, none of them have proven themselves to be Galadriel's equal in either ability or malicious intent." There's Church, of course, but he's a whole different thing. "But it is hard to know for certain."

"It is not a threat anyone in Thedasa has ever had to face." It isn't said softly - not exactly. But it is said sympathetically, her tone low, the meaning clear.

Who could hold it against Cassandra for not knowing how to handle something that literally no one had ever had to, before?

"But I will follow your lead, Seeker, and remain vigilant."

"Thank you." She means it, giving Nerva a small smile. "Your support means...more than I can say."

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