pockets full of stones

[rowancrowned]

FORM: Sending crystal!
SENDER: Thranduil
RECIPIENT: All the Rifters. (Just the Rifters.)
WHAT: Now that the Tourney's done... 
WHEN: The day after everyone returns for the tourney. 
WHERE: Kirkwall!
NOTES: The stunning next step to the Rifter Phylactery p...lot?

I hope we are all somewhat recovered from the Tournament. We should all be very pleased with our efforts. The very warm farewell before the matter of the Anders incursion was a result of your hard work-- all of you. 

And now we find ourselves returned to Kirkwall. I begged patience from many of you, and I thank you for it. Skyhold wishes for us to come and speak with a delegation from the Chantry and the Templars much as the mages did. I will be attending, as will Obi-Wan Kenobi and Araceli Bonaventura. Both are known well to the leadership of Skyhold and very familiar with Thedas itself.

However, we need a fourth for our party, and this I leave to you. Any Rifter is eligible for nomination. I would suggest that you choose carefully. Ideally, our fourth would be familiar with Thedas and settled into the Inquisition, as well as accustomed to dealing with pressure with grace. 

There will be a box outside my office with slips for nominations nearby. Please record your name and the name of your nominee below it. I would appreciate responses turned in with all haste.

Comments

[sorcerised]

[ He's surprised. ]

Adalia, you want to attend?

[ Well, he does trust her. He knows her best of everyone mentioned so far. ]

Do you truly believe they'll listen? I don't trust the Chantry, I don't know the Templars, and I don't know where the Inquisition stands but I doubt it's with us. What would you say to them if you went?

[thunderproof]

I want to be ❰ in the room where it happens — ❱ helpful. I think I can be helpful in Skyhold, and learn a lot besides.

Well, see, I've been speaking to a few people about who wants this and why, and whether or not the Inquisition is truly on our side, I think they know that what hurts us hurts them in the long run. Look at how this bullshit has already distracted so many of us from our true work, and you'll see — the point of the phylacteries isn't truly to track us, though I doubt the Chantry would say no to that, too. The point is chaos, so the Inquisition eats itself alive.

❰ see, petra, she can listen. ❱

[sorcerised]

[ Hesitates. ]

You think the Chantry wants to do harm to the Inquisition? Why?

[thunderproof]

❰ a laugh, though not unkind. ❱

Why wouldn't the Chantry want to hurt the Inquisition? They're a dying power and we're poised to take their place. They're more than willing to cut off their nose to spite their face if it means they remain in power — so long as they have that, if all of Thedas falls to Corypheus they can pretend they mattered. They're trying to distract us and pick us off from the inside out so that when they launch a more direct attack we won't have the structural integrity to stick together. The most important thing is not letting them distract us with this demand. It's not the point, it's not what they really want. If it hadn't been the rifters it'd have been something else.

[sorcerised]

If that's true, then it's short-sighted and foolish.

[ Aro sighs. ]

I don't know who can speak for me. The truth is I don't know most of these people any better than I know the Chantry. I'd rather send someone I know.

Go with them. Speak with them, see if the Chantry listens, and if they don't, then. At the very least tell me what they said. Will you do that?