01. || crystal

[fairforce]

FORM: sending crystal
SENDER: Theophania Hart
RECIPIENT: Riftwach
NOTES: nah

Hello, Riftwatch. I can't tell from observation if it's the custom to give an introduction--I think it's not--but I prefer this to waiting to catching everyone one-by-one in the hallway or training yard. I'm Lady Seeker Theophania Hart. [Well.] Tiffany. I do the title first so there's no surprise later.

I'm among the newest of your company, permanently, but here to investigate the recent abomination. I'll be requesting records and following up on the leads that I have throughout the course of my work, but if anyone has anything additional that should be said, please, let me know.

For the record, I'm finding the Gallows to be surprisingly comfortable, but maybe that's because I've been on the road for what feels like an actual Age, and the weather is terrible, and I'm suffering what I believe to be a mild case of trench foot. Given the time you've all been having, I'll stop my complaining there.

I suppose that's it, unless anyone has any advice to offer to a new recruit. And you can skip any hazing, I'm much too old for it.

Comments

[keenly]

[He nods. She seems less intimidating than he expected, but he's still somewhat nervous, though it shows only subtly through a slight forced quality in his smile.]

Denerim. [He gently opens her toes and examines the nails.] Though like you, I haven't been there for a few years. I've been here for more than three. How did you wind up a Seeker?

[fairforce]

[Warmly--] Oh, I love Denerim. I went with my father for the Landsmeet when I was small, and I'll never forget seeing it that first time. Every time I've been back I remember it. It was the biggest city I'd ever seen and I was absolutely gobsmacked by it all. I think I'd live there over Kirkwall--though of course Riftwatch would have to move house for that to happen.

[She makes a little wince, the mild swelling in some of those toes sending a twinge of pain up through her foot.]

What do you know about the Seeker order?

[keenly]

[A slight smile as she describes a city she definitely knows better than he does nowadays. The last time he saw it, the entire market district had essentially been rebuilt, the street he'd grown up on having been destroyed completely by the darkspawn. Fortunately, he doesn't have to fiddle over-much with her feet, since there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with them that won't sort itself out so long as they are allowed to rest and dry.]

Almost nothing, [he confesses. He'd spied the Seekers who had investigated after Uldred's massacre, but their order has always existed on a less visible plain than the Templars and no one who had known what they were was willing to explain it to a twelve-year-old apprentice.]

[fairforce]

I think that means we're doing our jobs right.

[She settles back in the chair with a sigh.]

The Seeker Order investigates corruption, both internal and external. And we work to protect the Chantry from threats, which are often connected to that corruption. Together with the Templars, we were the first Inquisition, which is where the interest in Riftwatch comes from. [Well. A smile pulls at the corner of her mouth as she confides,] And you lot are also just interesting.

But the work is important, and requires a great deal of training, so Seekers are recruited young. I was chosen when I was six years of age. I was always going to be a knight, or a fighter of some sort. Being chosen by the Seekers felt very special.

[keenly]

[Colin doesn't appear impressed by this. If anything, he's starting to look faintly nervous rather than carefully neutral. It's probably a look she sees on a lot of people when they find out what she does.

Well. Whatever the Seekers did or didn't find when they came to Kinloch Hold, they didn't round anyone up making false accusations for appearances'--oh.

Oh.

Oh, shit. Now he remembers where he's heard of the Seekers and why he had a sense of foreboding hearing the title.]

So wait you're...the Lady Seeker? Or-or are you a lady, and a Seeker?

[Because, of course, the Lord or Lady Seeker would totally have to join Riftwatch in order to be useful in the war. Don't worry, he'll realize it's a stupid question in time for the embarrassment to keep him from sleeping tonight.]

[fairforce]

[Tiffany gives him a small smile. It has a gently conciliatory touch--because yes, she is used to this sort of reaction, and she's tuned to the small tells that accompany it. Only some people are happy to see a Seeker.]

A Lady Seeker. We've recruited more since I was recruited. And technically a lady as well, but that's a formality at best.

[She takes a slight pause before she adds--]

I really am only here to help.

[keenly]

[That doesn't appear to help. He offers her a tight smile and turns to check how the water is heating up.]

Good news: nothing's wrong with your feet that won't resolve itself so long as you get them dry and keep them that way. Next time you travel, take extra socks and boots.

[His hands busy themselves taking a cup and a little sack of tea from his bag.]

[fairforce]

I will. Thank you. I lost some of what I was carrying on the trip here--apparently, the bag with my socks.

[She looks at the fire instead of at him, pulling the blanket more closely around her shoulders.]

How did you come to be with Riftwatch, Colin?

[keenly]

[That's a slightly more comfortable subject. He spoons tea into a strainer.]

Started out with a merchant's contract, back when this was part of the Inquisition. While I was here, I started to realize I wanted to be a healer instead.

[fairforce]

You trained as a healer here?

[keenly]

[he nods.]

I knew some herbalism before that. Sorry—I knew a lot of herbalism before that. [unused to tooting his own horn, he still has to instill confidence in the Riftwatch healers.]. And some other things. Enough to form a foundation.

[fairforce]

[Even without knowing the mental work behind that quick revision, Tiffany gives it a little smile.]

Finding that you had a talent for it must have been wonderful. I've always thought knowing how to heal someone must be very rewarding--like mending something that's been broken but on such a larger scale. Or being able to see pieces of a puzzle and fitting them back together, backwards.

[keenly]

I like taking care of people. Making them feel safe. Some people, it's the only care and comfort they get in their lives.

[He sets the mug aside, still waiting for the water to boil. At last, he gears up for the big question:]

Were you at the White Spire?

[fairforce]

[Tiffany has a good sense of the pattern of a conversation. There are people who need to fill in any empty spaces. She isn't one of them. She understands silence and she can sense--not always in a way that she could explain--when something larger will follow.]

I wasn't.

[She doesn't stare. She does look at Colin, careful, thoughtful.]

[keenly]

[A small nod. He seems to relax minutely. At least she doesn't appear to be someone who murdered mages. Her personal views on it don't have to be sussed out yet.]

Sorry, I...sorry. [That was definitely counter to the speech he just gave about why he loves healing. He blows out a breath and his cheeks flush a little.] I shouldn't have asked.

[He'd been afraid, is still sort of afraid, but it wasn't professional to bring a personal matter into this.]

[fairforce]

You've nothing to be sorry for.

[She takes a small pause--almost a hesitation--before she hazards her guess:]

You are a mage, yes?

[keenly]

[He'd been thinking of never telling her, but asking about the White Spire was always going to be a dead giveaway. He nods again, glancing up to her after, uncertain what he'll find in her face.]

Lake Calenhad.

[Considering how young she was when chosen for the Seekers, he isn't sure if she'd have come to Kinloch Hold after the Blight to investigate Uldred's rebellion, but since she looks to be around his age, he's thinking it's unlikely.]

[fairforce]

[A slight shadow passes over Tiffany's face. She doesn't look away from him. Her small nod should say part of what she is thinking. She knows the Circle. Even if she wasn't there, she's heard of it.]

I'm glad that you came to be here. And thank you, for telling me. I know you didn't have to.

[keenly]

[Slight confusion.]

That I'm a mage? It's hard to hide when it's part of my job. [He gestures to her feet.] Not in this case, though. They'll be fine without magic.

[fairforce]

[She smiles.]

Very underrated to be able to heal on good advice and company alone. I partly meant the mage part, yes. You could have kept it to yourself. I know Riftwatch is small enough that I would have learned, eventually--it being part of your job especially--but being trusted with the knowledge is still something worth saying thanks for. As is telling me of yourself at all.

Many people--mages, templars both--don't have a lot of trust for Seekers. So I appreciate even a small piece.

[keenly]

[His eyes widen slightly as he takes that in. What is it she's saying? Thanking him for telling him his Circle is like thanking him for telling her his hometown--only when he told her his hometown, she didn't know he was a mage. So that changed something. Now she's thanking him.

Because, in spite of what he'd assumed about her, she's telling him she expects nothing from him. She's not digging for anything. She's only asking to hear what he wants her to hear. People who want more than that start asking gentle questions, getting people to open up, relying on the fact that most people love to talk about themselves. She's recognizing the lack of trust that exists--not just to herself, but out loud, instead of denying it or blaming him for it. Acting like they can start afresh the way the Chantry wants.

This makes him relax more than he has since entering the room, and he smiles, a natural softness coming to his eyes.]

Thank you.

[fairforce]

[Her hands are clasped around the ends of the blanket, holding it close to her shoulders. It probably makes her look more childish than she'd want, but that's better than looking terribly intimidating, if she really thinks of it.

She smiles back at him.]

Of course.

Though-- [She shifts in her chair a little, pushes her feet closer to the fire.] I'll admit, it's not exactly altruistic. I'm hoping to make friends.