therookery | 002.

Entry tags:

002.

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Etienne Guerinet Beaumanoir
RECIPIENT: everyone (sorry)
WHAT: whats all this
WHEN: post-proposal etc
WHERE: the walliest kirk
NOTES: Orlesians

( A quiet clearing of the throat; one can naturally assume it is a very beautiful clearing of the throat, done by a very beautiful man. )

This matter of the phylacteries for rifters… it seems sensible. If they are such a valuable resource to the Inquisition, the closing of rifts, and so on, being able to find said resource if a rival power were to try and overpower them and abscond with them makes sense, I think. For their own safety, for our own safety. If Corypheus and his forces were, for example, to make an attack on a party closing a rift and kidnap those rifters for nefarious purposes, it would be better for all if we were able to find them as quickly as possible. The phylacteries are an established way of doing just this, no?

By all means, if you wish to see the world end, protest. Even if this is not your world, though, I think we can all agree that you are currently in it. It’s fate is not entirely irrelevant to you.

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Nonetheless. (He does not retract his feelings.)

You can hold your own; it is not your well-being that concerns me. Our rights - as free, independent beings - are what is being infringed upon and I will not have it. I leave the diplomacy for you and perhaps King Thranduil.

If they wish for volunteers, I shall not stop them. If they desire another way to find those who are lost, I could assist them....

But if they level accusations at me as they did before my arrest, I will offer nothing.

[He makes a soft, aborted sound, though it's impossible to tell whether it's frustrated or chagrined. Then:] I said it poorly. I mean that the threat which might be posed could be as involuntary to you as it is unknown to the rest of us.

Tell me differently if you know, but the way rifters arrive here is a mystery to the both of us. Isn't it?

You can sense far more than they can dream of knowing. I will encourage them to make an ally of you.

(A storm of emotion darkens his features.)

Nor should you.

I can only hazard a guess, not having been privy to their decision myself, but I would wager it was first because mages are natives of this world well-known to the Inquisition. They have a long history here, and know that they will have to live with the consequences of their actions, and that those mages that come after them will suffer for their choices as well. Whereas rifters come and go at random, and may hope they will soon escape their fate. Second, because when the issue arose, mages quite incredibly followed orders to deliver the phylacteries back to the Inquisition despite their misgivings, then calmly organized and pursued the matter through official channels and peaceful action, without--to my astonishment, I will freely admit--a single threat of violence.

Whereas your fellow Rifters, whose histories, motives and capabilities are largely unknown to us, have immediately responded with public temper tantrums, property damage, threats of violence, and calls to abandon the Inquisition altogether and hare off across Thedas. It does not precisely inspire the same confidence.

If a phylactery can force your hand, so can a blood mage.

I know not how I was brought to this place, for if I did I would have reversed it long ago. If it was a force that brought me here, the hand of Iluvatar himself, then the threads that weave our fates will not be altered by any phial. The dangers we may pose will not be averted by so small a thing, not if our presence here was orchestrated by a higher being.

If it were a simple accident, a twist and eddy in the currents of time, then there are far greater dangers to concern you. Of all that could be drawn from my world, I am by no means the worst, nor the most powerful.

I would assume that holds true for each of us.

I cannot see how a phylactery might abate that threat, for no power greater than myself would ever permit one to be made, by force or otherwise. If you can see this path, predict how it will end, do enlighten me. I am ever curious of how Men view this world.

You suggest one may prevent the other, then?

Just so. There is very little room in the budget for such wastefulness.

I imagine the world's fate matters to mages as well, and yet they spent these past weeks struggling against the very leash you would put on us.

Why should we not be concerned?

What is there room for?

[Just, you know, out of curiosity.]

Surely the Inquisition may be trusted to cast on phylacteries only if their subject has become a danger, as is the typical use.

Very little beyond the bare necessities, I'm afraid.

[ just a sec ]

Had you something particular in mind? I handle many sorts of requisition requests.

[This one she knows, his voice is familiar enough even if she has not spoken to him in some time. His idea is in alignment with her preference, voluntary participation over mandate, and she would encourage it.]

There is an art I know, one that can track anyone, nearly anything, if the need arises. I would offer it for use, if the situation is truly dire, but not to these men.

Nor to anyone who would see us leashed and bound.

I'd sincerely hope the Inquisition may be trusted, ser. [His tone says as much. The words are very careful.] But that leaves open how "endangering others" might be defined. And does not address the issue of how much havoc a single infiltrator might wreak with the rifters if she should get in among their phylacteries.

The Inquisition safeguards many persons and secrets against infiltrators. There are things more dangerous and valuable in the vaults than a handful of phylacteries.

And what of the havoc a single rifter might wreak? They have greater and stranger powers than anything seen before; who knows what damage just one might do, and we left with no means to stop them.

[She can't know why guilt curdles in his stomach, strikes him silent at the sound of her voice--but it does, and it delays him a moment in responding.

(Or maybe she could; had Thranduil shared his plan with her? Who knew.)]

...Could it be used with someone who's already been taken?

I don't blame you in that, lady. Not at all.

True enough, [were they speaking in person, he'd tip out a hand: conceded.] But is that reason to make more of them that might be used against Inquisition personnel?

I've been led to understand that magebane and a templar's abilities are both as effective against rifters as they are against we mages. That's hardly "no means".

And while their powers might be strange indeed, I've not heard of one who's done more damage than an abomination might--but then I've not been with the Inquisition so long, nor am I completely versed in the history of rifters. Do you know of one so dangerous?

[There is a pause and she considers.]

Yes, but I have used it much of late. It will be difficult to attempt again.

Has someone been taken from you?

Should we stop collecting useful artifacts on the mere chance that one might someday be stolen and used by our enemies?

I have read reports of rifters posessed turning abomination and others of at least one presently among their ranks who threatened to open new rifts of it pleased her. But no comprehensive investigation has ever been made into the nature or extent of their powers, nor of their vulnerability to ours. It was not permitted lest it offend their delicate sensibilities.

[Ah.]

Such as?

[That's not an answer at all, is it? But don't go fishing without having some idea of what you might hook.]

I'd wondered when first arriving here, if the Inquisition would take 'no' for an answer in our assistance with their rifts.

[ he'd been tempted to try it just for the sake of seeing what would happen. in the end, hadn't, because there was information he needed to seek that he wouldn't get while being under suspect. ]

I suppose this policy is their answer. We are pieces on a board to them, nothing more. Even our flesh and blood are not things we've our own rights to.

They miss the point of this - we have said 'no', to a question we hadn't had the courtesy of being asked to begin with, and it means nothing to them.

[ forget the benefits or troubles of phylacteries, and the part where, at the same time of proposing this new policy, they've agreed on the same for mages being unjust even to abolish them. the point is that this is not a kind request of the inquisition, not an option for those rifters who would like to have these phials made for their safety. what was proposed was a mandate, not of their conduct or their access to resources. it is an order for their blood. ]

Hey Fingon! This whole situation has suddenly put me in more concern for that thing I showed you and asked you about. Can you get me introduced to your friend that I can't pronounce?

Phylacteries are a way to find people who get lost? Who're taken?

They're not stealing freedom away or chaining people somewhere?

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