crystal | closed to circle mages

[galvanising]

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Nell, Kostos
RECIPIENT: Former Circle Mages in the Gallows
WHAT: Phylactery update, discussing a labor strike, business as usual
WHEN: After everyone is back from the Sunless Lands
NOTES: There's no "Circle mage" filter for the crystals; they're having to read off the names of everyone they know who might be one. But if your character has been reasonably open with the Inquisition about being a mage from a Circle, you can assume they're included.

Skyhold has ordered that the phylacteries recovered from the Seekers in the Storm Coast be locked up here in the Gallows until they choose what to do with them. Since they seem to be struggling to come to a decision, we thought we should help them by making clear to them where the mages of the Inquisition stand on this issue. To begin with, Kostos and I are drafting a letter to the leadership urging them to destroy these phylacteries and any others that come into the Inquisition's possession in the future, and we would like to be able to tell the advisors that the affected mages here in Kirkwall are in unanimous agreement, or near enough.

We'll be getting in touch with the mages in Skyhold and the other bases separately, and may speak with others in the wider community if further support seems needed, but since former Circle mages are the only people actually affected by this decision, we are the ones who should be making it.

[ Kostos—quiet, due to both internal conflict, a habit of following Nell's lead, and a natural disinclination to talk to large groups of near-strangers—breaks his silence to add, ] In the meantime, if everyone could refrain from doing anything hideously stupid that would remind people why they're useful, that would be… [ Good. You know. ] And we do need to know how you feel, and how strongly. There is a fine line between making threats and explaining consequences, and we can do our best to stay on the right side of it.

But we need to know how many of you will be willing to follow through if it becomes necessary to demonstrate to the Inquisition just how much they need us.

Comments

[aceso]

[ She's mostly been listening, impressed how most of them -- despite their different fraternities or what have you -- seem to agree on what needs to be done. There's less agreement on a show of solidarity to the Inquisition, should the organization's leaders prove unwilling to comply. ]

I believe most of us are in agreement that -- while turning over the phylacteries to their owners would be preferable -- it simply is not feasible. There is too much at risk leaving them in the Inquisition's hands. My vote is for destroying them.

[ A pause. ]

As a healer and researcher, I am less comfortable with the idea of going on strike, as it were. Let us hope it does not come to that, but if it does... I honestly cannot say what I would do. I know there are other healers and researchers, but I wish to do my part too.

[exequy]

Of course.

[ Thinking aloud— ]

We could try it in stages, if we must try it at all. They are afraid of the destruction we can cause, until we are causing it on their behalves. We could refuse that first.

[aceso]

Yes, I think that would send a powerful message. It also shows our protests are done through the absence of destruction. Destruction that the Inquisition asks of us. I will go along with that.

[exequy]

[ About thirty minutes and a vigorous private argument later, he's back: ]

What about a specific exception for life-or-death healing? If it comes to that. Maker willing it will not.

[aceso]

[ The question leaves her quiet and thoughtful for a moment. When she speaks, her voice is grave. ]

I think it would be unethical to turn away anyone who needs healing if they come to me. Of course there are others staffing the infirmary, but I have no wish to pile more work on them. I already did that when my phylactery was being used against me, and I did not enter the place for fear I would harm someone.

waves my hands vigorously about time to make this post possible

[wythersake]

Are you any less valuable for the work you do, Delacroix?

[ hey kid ]

new crystal, who dis

[aceso]

[ There is a pause as she tries to work out who this is addressing her by her last name. Alas, she's not good with just voices if it's been awhile, so she may need a hint. ]

I would say there is intrinsic value in being a healer, but it is a part of who I am and I cannot so easily set that part of myself aside if there are people in need.

lmao

[wythersake]

[ it’s just bizarre how some people don’t memorize every detail of those who might know things about them out of the paranoia of betrayal. thank goodness he can be the normal one here. ]

All of them? I recall a number of injured knights.

[ because their side did the -- look. it's not the point: ]

Either there’s intrinsic value in each of us, or there’s none at all. A healer has always been an acceptable mage — one you keep close.

[ otherwise he'd never have become one ]

If we make exceptions for this now, they’ll have an exception to point to when all is said and done.

[aceso]

[ Whoa, you calling her out like this? She answers dryly: ]

I make a habit of not healing those who are currently trying to run me through with a sword.

[ But as to the rest... ]

I understand your point of view, but as has always been the case, others will find fault with us no matter what we do. Yes, they will point out that I am making an exception, but if I join the strike, they will say I am cruel and watching members of the Inquisition die at my feet. And if I will be vilified either way, I would choose to continue aiding those in need.

[exequy]

I do not think anyone would ask you to let people die at your feet. An exception for life or death healing, but let them go to surgeons or alchemists with their broken toes and turned ankles.

[aceso]

[ She exhales heavily through her nose. ]

It is so against my nature to do that. I can agree to strike if they ask me to fight for them, but this... as I said, I cannot know yet what I would choose to do. I think when a reply to this letter comes, I can make a decision then.

[wythersake]

They won’t find fault.

They’ll pat you on the hand for this and say — my, what a good mage —

[ he’s not blind to the irony in his words. it twists them wry, ]

And when we’re all at the table divvying up rights it will be that much easier to claim they should keep us. It’s simply a matter of the greater good: If the Chantry can’t rely upon healers, imagine who might die. Look; they stayed. They won’t even mind.

[aceso]

[ Bruh, she didn't even get that. You left at a good time. The Templars at Montsimmard played mind games with her and made her believe no one would ever want a mage healer helping them. They discouraged her from becoming a Spirit Healer because it meant more work for them to watch her for possession. At least other Circles appreciated their healers. ]

I would feel more comfortable making a decision on this once I know their response to the letter. If it fails to persuade them, then I must revisit my thoughts on this. It is difficult to look at a hypothetical situation and know exactly what my response would be.

[justice_is_blond]

I suggested this to Gervais as well, that if someone is at risk of death the healers could be allowed to step in there. It seems a fair compromise since we've the doctors who can do their... doctoring.

[wythersake]

People will always die. Whether we're there or not.

[justice_is_blond]

They will. But if I'm here and there's a person I could save the life of and I choose not to do so, that is me letting them die. That is me being a part of it.

Getting the phylacteries destroyed, for good, all of them, is crucial. And we have lost so many mages to the Circles. But I believe that taking more lives will do the opposite of helping us on this matter. And it will be seen as taking lives if someone dies due to inaction during the strike.

[wythersake]

[ taking more lives. a pause for the elephant in the room to finish its march, ]

Were you letting them die, to run so many times?

[ a low blow, gently asked. ]

[justice_is_blond]

[There's a reason the word 'more' is in there, and the question gets a snort.]

They were hardly letting me out to heal when I was an escape risk. I did more healing on the run than in the Circle. Besides, they'd Wynne for most of that time.

[wythersake]

But you would have left, wouldn't you? Even if you'd been treated well. Even if there hadn't been another.

[misdirection_hex]

I think that's a vital exception to make. If a situation arises at all where the need for healing is a matter of life or death, it'll do better than anything else will to prove our point of how badly we're needed.

But if we let it cross that line and let someone die, anyone die, let alone a fellow member of the Inquisition, that changes the conversation entirely. Then it's no longer about how necessary we are or not; it's about whether our priorities are selfish and make us liabilities, and whether any of us can be trusted to commit to a cause beyond our own at all.

We're already walking that line as it is. We can't afford to misstep.

[wythersake]

Do you picture anyone being placed in that situation, other than a healer? Does the capacity to heal render any other action selfish?

It’s a fine line, too, to imply that our natural traits render some of us less worthy of choice.

[ and no one pay any mind to what his actual natural traits are ]

[misdirection_hex]

What I imply, unfortunately, doesn't matter. I'm not the one who already has my phylactery in hand and the choice what to do with it.

I don't see what purpose it serves to argue as if we hold the same cards as our opposition. They don't have to be right in order to win.

[But it is a whole lot easier to argue, for his part, when he can't heal his way out of a paper bag and would never be asked to.]

[wythersake]

It serves every purpose for us to present a united front.

[ says the guy who considers 'solidarity' a dirty word]

We all need to decide what that is — and if it declares that some of us can be spared more than others?

[ not that he disagrees with the facts. outside nevarra, there are fewer applications for (say) raising the dead than in keeping others from joining them. a strike already binds their worth to their utility. ]

[misdirection_hex]

If we have no control over the narrative, we can be as unanimously agreed as we want, but we're still going to be sent home without anything we're trying to demand.

I understand the concern about healers being singled out unjustly. You have my sympathy for that. And I understand as well your point that it's inadvisable to elevate some of us above the rest in usefulness if the goal is to have all of us freed.

But we already have what you're seeking. For better or worse, the people who own our blood aren't going to distinguish between healer and non-healer if this strike ends up with a death toll. They'll blame it on mages as a single entity and end the analysis there. We can't afford to disregard the way they think and negotiate from the hypothetical position of how things should be.

[wythersake]

[ it's a good point. it's a very good point, and so: ]

I suppose I'm an optimist.

[ he leaves it at that. because it's way more mature than admitting the point was good. ]