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[stabsbooks]

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...

Comments

Post arrest, post visit

[fleurdesel]

"Seeker Pentaghast." Early the day after her rather bracing conversation with Galadriel- early enough that it is unlikely she'd found any sleep afterward. Weary and wary she approaches Cassandra while she is alone at the training yard- though most of the latter would have less to do with the situation and more with the sword in the Seeker's hand. A healthy enjoyment of life and a respectable distance kept is enough to settle her. "Might I have a word?"

Several words.

Or questions, honestly. This is an uncomfortable situation to be caught in the midst of- but she gave her word the night before and her word is something she means to keep.

[stabsbooks]

"Enchanter LeBlanc." Cassandra lowers her sword, looking over at the mage and nodding in acceptance. She is becoming used to being interrupting at her training, but she supposes that is simply...what happens, when one begins an Inquisition. Unfortunate, but she will not shirk her duty. "What is on your mind?"

[fleurdesel]

"The rifter Galadriel." Dancing around the subject does neither of them favors. "Her imprisonment, specifically. It is a source of some concern for me."

Locked up with no word as to why, no explanation offered in truth from either party- simply taken and shut away? It brings to mind more than a few uncomfortable memories of the last months in the White Spire.

[stabsbooks]

"For you?" Cassandra raises an eyebrow, frowning at the serious look on Adelaide's face. She shakes her head, doing her best to appear reassuring. "There is no need to be concerned. I assure you, she has been made very secure. She will pose us no further danger."

[fleurdesel]

"I am concerned that she was imprisoned at all, Seeker. That she is held without word or any manner of explanation offered as to why." Adelaide's lips press thin for a moment, her eyes flicking from Cassandra's face to the sword in her hand and back up again. "It feels terribly familiar in all the worst ways."

[stabsbooks]

Cassandra stares at her for a moment, and then says quietly. "I see." Leliana had told her this would happen. Perhaps she had been unwise to so quickly brush off the Nightingale's warnings.

Still, this is nothing that cannot be explained. She turns to face Adelaide fully, her expression keen and sober. "Galadriel is a threat to the Inquisition. She possesses great power, and has threatened to use it against us. She has been imprisoned for the safety of us all."

She pauses, and then adds, "It is not because she is a mage, but because of what she has said she would do."

[fleurdesel]

"I have heard similar words in a different voice in the Spire. When I came here, when I brought my students here from Andoral's reach it was with the hope and the understanding that such things would not come to pass. Months we have been here- and until now? I have had no reason to doubt that." The Inquisition did it's work, the mages helped, the mages healed, they were safe. As safe as anyone in this world could possibly be with a hole in the sky and demons falling out whenever they wished.

But safe none the less. Safer than they might have been in the wilds.

"Any mage can be said to have great power. Any mage can be said to be a threat, can be locked away for the sake of safety." That much had been common enough in the last few weeks- the war was not so far behind them that they could forget. "What threat could she possibly make to warrant her arrest? To lock her in the cold and dark of a dungeon that does not even have a whole floor?"

[stabsbooks]

Cassandra's breath catches, pain flashing briefly across her face.

"Do not speak to me of the White Spire," she says coldly. She is all too aware of the tower's corrupt and bloody history. "Do not presume to guilt me. If you have an accusation to make, say it plainly."

She sets her jaw, her lips pressing together in a thin line.

"You were educated in the Circle, Enchanter LeBlanc. You know what the Seekers do - what our duty is." She frowns. "Galadriel is an apostate, and a stranger. She threatened the Inquisition. If I do not take such threats seriously, and act upon them, how do you expect me to keep you or your students safe?"

[fleurdesel]

"Am I to remain silent on the matter? Are we to forget entirely what happened and all the events that led up to the slaughter?" She had stood idly by once before- trusting in the system. Trusting the templars, the Seekers, to know what was right, what was just.

As much as she has come to be comfortable here, it is not something she will do so blindly ever again.

"Councilor LeBlanc." Adelaide corrects, as calm as she can manage- which is not all that calm considering the gaping maw of bloody memory at her feet. "I know what they are meant to do. I know what they have done. I know how the Chantry and Circles intended such things to be handled, and I know the Circles are no more. They have been dissolved. I ask you now, what threat did she pose to the inquisition and how do any of us trust that she truly posed one rather than said something to displease you? We trusted Lord Seeker Lambert, and it killed us. Forgive me for being so wary to extend that trust a second time when I see history beginning to repeat itself. If she posed a threat, make that threat known. Otherwise we have nothing but words."

[stabsbooks]

Cassandra barely resists rolling her eyes at that, but she does resist. Her respect for the Council has never been high, and had only dropped after her conversation with Sina. Still. If that is how Adelaide wishes to be addressed...

"Councilor." She is frosty and forbidding now. "I am not Lord Seeker Lambert. I do not intend to repeat his mistakes. You came to Skyhold of your own accord - you led your charges here seeking safety and protection. Why would you do such a thing if you were so determined not to trust the Inquisition's leaders?"

She scowls, her features settling into a deep, unhappy frown. She had heard such accusations from Leliana before, unexpected and painful, and it stings to hear them again. "I do not imprison people for displeasing me. I would not. I take my duty seriously, Councilor. Everything I do, I do for the good of the Inquisition, and of Skyhold's people." She shakes her head, baffled. "Why are you so suspicious now? Have I done anything, anything, to make you think that I would imprison people unjustly?"

[fleurdesel]

"Because until now I have had no reason to question or doubt you." That much is true. The Inquisition struggles under it's burdens, but those that lead it do so with as much grace as anyone might expect if not more. "It is due to that trust I have held in you and your fellows that I am speaking to you now, that I am asking rather than making baseless accusations."

It would be easier to do the latter but Cassandra and the others have done much for the mages- after the Herald's death it would have been a simple enough to choose to protect one group or the other and cast them out. Of the two- the templars might have been the safer bet.

"Because Galadriel has done nothing to indicate that she might be a threat until whatever discussion you had with her gave you cause to believe so. I am not suspicious, Seeker, I am afraid. I do not understand why this was done as there has been no discussion. Even a mage made tranquil has their story told if only as a warning to others. For this? There has been nothing." She could trust Cassandra meant well, but this did not fit. There was something she and anyone else that might wonder was missing. "How is she a threat? Since her arrival in Thedas I have studied with her, discussed magic of her world and ours with her- if she is a threat? I would know how. Most would know how for she is respected by most and beloved by others. There will be a cry for answers."

Andraste preserve her, let this not be on her shoulders as well.

[stabsbooks]

oh no you di'int

"Is that so?" Cassandra's temper, always short, is quickly reaching its end. "You suggest that I imprisoned her because she displeased me, you claim that trusting me would kill you all as surely as the Lord Seeker has. You compare my words to those spoken by rogue templars in the Spire - such templars as I have helped suppress. If these are not baseless accusations, I do not know what would be."

She shakes her head, stepping closer. "I am the Right Hand of the Divine, and a Seeker of Truth. I do not answer to you and I never have. Would you have me submit my every decision to you - to your Council?" She cannot quite keep the disdain from her voice. "Galadriel has been imprisoned because to let her walk free would put all of us at risk. She has not been harmed. She has not been made Tranquil. I have killed apostates with no announcement and no explanation - apostates that posed far less danger than Galadriel. And I have done it, always, to keep the people of Thedas safe. Who are you to question me?"