(002.) hello fade rift my old friend

[dashing]

FORM: crystal
SENDER: Herian Amsel
RECIPIENT: all the Inquisiton
WHAT: sup
WHEN: whatever today might wind up being in fair Thedas.
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: Hello! So Herian's background has some dark themes,
and she has some pretty harsh attitudes about mages, the Dalish, and pretty much anything that takes her fancy. I've got an opt out post if there's anything you want me to avoid touching on.

I fear it had been overlong since last we spoke, Inquisition.

( Crisply spoken words, the touch of Starkhaven shaping each sound. )

For those not yet known to me: I am Herian Amsel, Knight Enchanter of the White Spire. For those better acquainted with me, I apologise for my abrupt absence. My orders bid me elsewhere.

( ... and that's all she has to say about that, smoothly moving on. )

I hope the seasons and the Free Marches have not treated you poorly. However, I am bound to lament our residence in any portion of them that is not Starkhaven.

( There is just the faintest touch of humour, maybe. Possibly. You probably imagined it. )

Maker willing, Kirkwall will treat you all with kindness.

Comments

private;

[limier]

[ she deliberates some time before speaking. more than two years have made amsel an unknown; to call the conversation's potential precarious is to understate. better, she decides at last, that this not come as a surprise: some chance meeting around a corner like darton and his fucking cowardice —

better to think it through. to give them both room to approach this as they might.

(to clear some of the gravel from her throat,) ]

Knight-Enchanter. [ the words come evenly, when they finally do. ] This is Coupe.

[ can’t bring herself to append the title just now. ]

I had not known you with the Inquisition.

[ Unspoken, unsaid: I had not known you lived. Had known enough of Vipond to rather assume not. ]

private;

[dashing]

( There are not words that immediately supply themselves, words that are formed with adequate care and consideration, words that will not betray some element of her. The bonus is that she was prepared for the Inquisition to have changed a little. She does not know who else might have been called to missions, who might have fallen through another rift back into their own realms. There is a great deal she does not know, and though it displeases her, she accepts it grudgingly.

Hearing the voice of a survivor of the White Spire, of someone known to her for many years, is a relief. Hearing the voice of a templar comes with a certain amount of fear, for all that she compartmentalises. Not all followed orders without hesitation; not all were Élodie. And yet. )

Knight-Lieutenant Coupe. It is a relief to know you yet live.

( For all she knew, Coupe could well have returned to the Spire for the Annulment. She could have been sent on errands to help its orchestration. )

Only a few months was I here before my departure was necessary. I doubt there would be much reason for my name to be discussed.

private eternally; no boys allowed etc

[limier]

Ah. That is to say, likewise. There have been — too few.

[ If it's no great show of feeling, that's the least she can do. If there's a time and a place for deep emotion, it's still not here, where there's so much chance to overspill. Wren's hand is in this as much as any of them, one way or another; however she mourns their failure, that grief must pale.

Meet information with information, not trust given, but the bare exchange that might pass for it. Old guides of easement, drawn out of context here. It still seems prudent to offer. ]

I am certain you do yourself too little credit; I arrived but some six months prior, and my scope here has been limited.

[ She remembers well Amsel's reputation, however peculiarly absent thus far (expects anger from this one, if any of them; finds herself bracing not for the heat of temper but its lack).

Humility? Or caution? Taste the words and find them much the same. The tallest wheat meets the scythe.]

love it, love your work

[dashing]

Aye, that there are.

( There is a faint frostiness with that, a hardening of her words that is barely noticeable when compared to the flares of temper and petulance she used to have. Control had been her issue in years past, what Enchanter Le Blanc would school her on over and over, until she was certain her eyes would roll from her very skull (and then another lecture, because eyerolling was not behaviour befitting a mage, let alone one that would seek to become Knight Enchanter.) )

Better we all serve where we will offer most aid, than we be spread thin in too many fields and render ourselves... mediocre in our tasks. Specialisation is too often scorned as limitation.

( Her voice remains carefully even, though to see her in person might betray her a little; tension ascends her spine, pulls her shoulders back, and her jaw clenches and eases twice over. How does one casually ask someone if they were glad to take a blade to the throat of infants? )

[limier]

Quite.

[ There are only so many ways that one survives: She's under few illusions as to what Amsel must have done. Wonders (in the way that one picks at a wound) how dearly they'd regretted teaching her. She knows some of hers counted among the names of the dead; how many might have crossed paths that night?

She can feel her own fingers itch to tap, folds them into place behind her back, stands to regard the empty room. It matters not that she's unobserved. Practice decorum long enough, and calm will trail it a time for blind habit.

Calm has been put through its paces of late. ]

Though I might argue inflexibility its own limitation. To know one’s path is not to see it unbranching. We must keep our eyes cast up, lest we be led astray.

[ Perhaps she does Darton some shred too little credit. At least he'd managed to speak of it bluntly. ]

[circleprodigy]

Welcome back, Knight-Enchanter. I hope your efforts elsewhere met with success.

[There's a warmth in her voice, and a happy bark in the background.]

I admit Kirkwall does take some...adjustment, but our situations has much improved since first arrival.

[thecookery]

Should that be us all? Or are you not planning to stick round long this time?

[dashing]

Warden.

( A warden that isn't shady as hell, too. What a blessing, what a gift. )

Time will tell, I suspect. I am cautious of over-confidence, in such times as these.

( Ugh, the dog though. She doesn't make an audible ugh, though - babysteps. ) Oh? Dare I ask?

[dashing]

I cannot say. Where I go depends on the orders I am given.

( A pause, and, ) I hope you have been well, Avery.

[dashing]

True. I am... thankful that there was such flexibility when I was granted coaching in swordplay.

( Doubtless one of the many crimes the Lord Seeker felt had been allowed to play out at the Spire, and it was not as though she were highly trained.

Her tone might sound pointed in some degree, but... perhaps that was just the imagination. )

I choose to embrace the skills of warriors to further myself as a mage, and better support those who fight alongside me in battle. ( She has learned. She will not be left unarmed without her magic - never again. )

[thecookery]

[She lets out a breath that is... somewhere between a sigh and a laugh?]

Overworked and underpaid, but well enough. Hopefully you can say the same. And that you've earned at least a bit of rest after so long. I wager some here'd be glad of hearing so.

[Avery may not really know People, but by this point, she certainly knows Cosima well enough to figure they're... something??? To each other? Whatever that something might be.]

Why would this be private?

[youwonscience]

I'd say we should go on a field trip to Starkhaven, but given my history with field missions, maybe we shouldn't tempt fate.

Also, do you have a favorite baked good? No particular reason.

no reason ever!!!

[dashing]

There is no great rush; our hands are doubtless full here.

( ha ha ha she's not avoiding going home at ALL no no way nothing to do with trauma ever nope not usin duty as a (legitimate-ish) reason to not go to Starkhaven and see her relatives haha what are you saying )

I have not tried an abudenance. Any claim to a favourite might be ill-informed. What would you recommend?

[youwonscience]

[Cool cool cool that's a great subject to keep avoiding.]

Okay, well, anything Avery makes is pretty great, but I was thinking of trying to see if we could develop an Earth delicacy called churros and I need help taste-testing it.

It's really, really important, so it's a good thing you're back.

[limier]

Would that war were not necessary.

[ It seems a lifetime ago now that coaching was approved, and that she'd made her objections known to her superiors is of even less use now than it was then. She cannot grudge it — rather, knows that she shouldn't, not knowing what difference it must have made. There's sincere relief in every numbered survivor.

That doesn't mean she trusts it now any more than she ever has. Amsel was staunch once, but it hadn't come with any easy manner, not wrapped as it was alongside a willfulness far too familiar for comfort. ]

I should be honoured to observe your progress, if you are amenable. My current duties much neglect the battlefield. Blunted edges, perhaps? We might speak further then.

[ But this is how you manage the things that you can't control: You keep them in your sights. You do your best to keep informed, that you might keep ahead. Wren is not the swordsman she once was, will see her arm further diminish in the years to come. She hopes to never face Amsel with a live blade; intends to own every advantage should they must.

A beat — ]

I assume you aware of Enchanter LeBlanc's work with the Inquisition. I regret there is little more news I might give you.

[ that's a fuckin lie ]

[dashing]

Nothing would be so remiss as to deny aid to one in need.

( So solemn. Equally solemn: ) Would not my lack of familiarity prove a hindrance?

[dashing]

Mayhaps so. I make no presumption.

( SHE... is used to not talking about Feelings ever, even vaguely, unless with very specific people. Let's skirt that potential happiness thing and keep on the bad with people train. )

Are you glad to be returned to a city?

[dashing]

Even without it, I fear the divide would remain. The world at present is simply divides that were there everlong taken to dangerous extremes. Perhaps the same could be said of the Spire; the willingness to do harm may have been ever present in the hearts of those templars that so readily took up their blades against those they were to protect.

( she's a Loyalist still, but a Loyalist with some Serious Fucking Concerns. Perhaps Loyalist isn't even the right word for her, but it has been stitched into her identity for so long that she cannot easily reconsider that part of her. To be loyal and to serve was to be honourable; to be anything else could be a path to wanton destruction.

But then, as she has already said, perhaps there is no difference. )

Regardless, ( and she attempts lightness, though it is lightness only compared to the rest of her words and her tone, so more like """""lightness""""", ) I should be glad of the practice. It has been too long since I was able to train against another. Enchanter LeBlanc was so gracious as to advise me on magical training I had best pursue once returned to the company of other mages; it was a great relief to see her and her students alive and well, upon my arrival hence.

[circleprodigy]

[There's the creak of a chair as she settles in.]

Red lyrium, tears in the Veil...the Gallows was a mess when we first arrived. At least we managed their removal, as well as the statues that gave unwanted memories. The Veil is still thin, of course, but now at least we won't have literal hauntings to contend with.

[thecookery]

[HEY SHE IS RIGHT THERE WITH YOU, PAL.]

Oh, aye. I'd near forgotten the stink and the noise of it. Almost like I'm right back home.

[Different stink and different noise than Denerim in a number of ways of course, but comparable. It's really the difference in atmosphere that's most striking.]

Can't say as I'd've chosen Kirkwall if it were up to me, but maybe that's why it's not.

[limier]

[ Willingness to harm is part and parcel of the job; that she knows Amsel speaks of something more, of malice or zeal, that makes little difference in the end. Those who disliked the work must have done it no less ably.

(The question she's asked herself over again: Had I been there,)

Wren may take no joy in dead men, but she's made more than her share. They'll both continue yet. Maybe it’ll be for a good cause. Maybe it’ll be done clean and quick and face-to-face with equals. They’ll still be dead for it. ]

Cruelty. Cowardice, [ The mildness she’s affected thus far slips into something but a shade... sharper, now. ] Expediency. Oaths. Faith,

[ And there’s something she wouldn’t say aloud in public, really rather shouldn’t here, catches herself only when it’s too late to take back, ]

They all may serve for a form of blindness.

[ Easier to look down the point of a sword than to that which it cuts. If the two edges of a blade are divided, they are still inseparable of it. The work, no less bloody for that union. It takes a moment to uncurl the bitterness from her breath, to leave only strained formality in its wake, ]

I typically take exercise in the early morning. If the timing does not suit, I will rearrange my schedule. Should you, ah, need anything of your time here —

— Know only that you may call upon me, should you require it.

[dashing]

Honour might be a means for all these to be avoided; a salve for such weaknesses. Wisdom as well, if it were applied to spare a soul from oaths foolishly made. Honour grants us means to transform ourselves into something better than what we might be by nature. Those who were honourable would not have forged on with orders to slaughter innocents, for example. Children, the sick and frail, struck down as quick as though they had spilled blood.

( It is a slight flare of temper - too much of one, and she pauses, biting her tongue. A knight does not cause wanton offence, that is part of the code, but so too is the necessity for a knight to stand steady when wrongdoing is done, to seek justice. To speak bluntly of the Spire's annulment, aye, that was no wanton injury caused. )

If ever the Circles are to be restored, I pray they have better champions.

( Mayhaps not templars, and yet surely the Chantry will be necessary? To protect mages, to educate them, to show them the light of the Maker. Better templars, better Circles, where they can be all they should be.

... so this will be a super friendly training session, basically. ) — And you, though I doubt you'll have great need of a Knight Enchanter beyond the field.

[dashing]

A gift, I'm sure.

( She's not being facetious, her tone conveys sincerity in that... muted Herian kind of way. )

Doubtless there are many in the Inquisition that might agree. ( Mages, for example. Templars. Anyone with an ounce of instinct that doesn't hear the name and feel their skin crawl. )

[dashing]

Ah.

( There's a pause, because she... really has no idea how to respond to that. Because it sounds like the worst. If she knew about video, Herian would be glad that this is not that, because The Face She Made. )

Kirkwall has benefitted from the Inquisition's diligence I am sure they are more than grateful.

( #yikes )

[elegiaque]

You again, Amsel.

( She is not displeased. )