CRYSTALS | Open

[aestivation]

FORM: crystal
SENDER: ya boy
RECIPIENT: all of you
WHAT: is your sending crystal running you better go catch it
WHEN: vaguely Post-Island
WHERE: kirkwall
NOTES: i'm cool with transitioning this into a mini-log if anyone actually wants to go look!

A sending crystal is missing from the storerooms.

[ the inflection's shallow, and oddly-placed — as though someone speaking across a great, flat distance. ]

The assignment records were last updated three days ago; they don't account for its absence. I've completed a search of the Gallows towers, excluding restricted and residential areas.

[ not for lack of trying. no one spoke of privacy before the rebellion. ]

I’d ask your escort through these, or barring this, that you keep an eye open within any shared living quarters and workspaces. If you've information to contribute, please inform Casimir Lyov, in Research.

I am, [ a pause. ] distinctive.

Comments

[justice_is_blond]

...Distinctive?

[rowancrowned]

Perhaps he has an Orlesian hat.

[justice_is_blond]

[There's a pause before Anders replies.]

Going by the sound of his voice, this is not actually a time for jokes.

[unbrokenoath]

There's like. Ten million Orlesians skulking around here. I counted.

[ No, she didn't. ]

[aestivation]

My hat is from the Marches.

[aestivation]

Yes. There are few Tranquil.

[ there'd been few at hasmal. there are few here —

there are few tranquil; wars aren't a time for serenity. but that often makes people uncomfortable. a moment, he remembers to add: ]

And few Nevarrans.

[ nailed it. ]

[justice_is_blond]

I'll escort you as you'd like.

[He's not going to let a Tranquil wander alone where they might be harmed.]<small?

[faithlikeaseed]

[......... oh maker.

Myr keeps his voice even in that everything is wrong and I won't show it way he's got.]

Good to hear you again, Casimir. When did you arrive? Was the trip from Hasmal eventful?

[aestivation]

Myrobalan.

[ the word may as well be any other: hello, goodbye, liebling. there’s no hesitation, no eagerness to the recognition. ]

Last Tuesday. Ser Frid led us off-road; we were followed from the city. [ looters: not just for towers. ] You’ve chosen to stay?

[ that’d be — preferable, he supposes. it’s unlikely that a blind mage would make it far in the present climate, and myr is familiar. productive. easier to navigate. ]

[faithlikeaseed]

[He is used to this, he tells himself. A half-decade is long enough to grow used to it, to know Casimir as he is now and replace the memories of the man and mage he'd once been.

He isn't used to this. He won't forget.]

We had trouble as well. It's good you were able to escape yours.

I've chosen to stay; the Inquisition has need of my talents and I think their cause is right.

You'll be remaining here yourself?

[galvanising]

Casimir? You sound different.

[ so does she, but, you know. not nearly as much. ]

[aestivation]

[ it takes him a while to find the memory of her voice (or what that voice might have become) ]

Nell.

[ she hadn’t been nellie for years before he’d left. even so, the second syllable cloys, hangs uncertain at the end of the thought.

he doesn’t bother to set the channel private. it doesn't occur to do so. but he does switch abruptly to nevarran, because that's how they'd always spoken before. ]

I missed you. [ he clarifies — ] Some time ago; I wrote it down.

[ he’s paged through them: inky little admissions of guilt, of pangs for home, of worries for the future; the shape of symbols he’s forgotten how to read. her name had appeared.

he hasn’t missed her in years, whether nellie or nell. but he must have, at one point. for whatever missing means. ]

[galvanising]

[ nell isn't often at a loss for words. not anymore, not since she stopped being nellie and stopped tripping over her own tongue when forced into nevarran.

but that's a lot all at once, right there, packed into ten little words. nevarran may be second-nature now, but the language she needs for this, that still isn't. it takes her a few minutes.

tightly: ] When did they do this to you?

[exequy]

[ Shortly after Nell's crunch, there's more Nevarran happening. ]

What did you do?

[ What Kostos means is what happened, and he's maybe only one-quarter as certain that Casimir did something horrible as the question he actually asks probably makes it sound. He'd rephrase if he noticed. But he doesn't. Even if he were good at saying the right thing the right way, getting his jaw to unclench and form words is already an enormous undertaking. ]

[aestivation]

Kostos.

[ he's quicker to place, now that nell's been drawn back from distance. the both of them: out of sight, out of mind. the topic, too, less difficult to determine — ]

I chose. [ an answer with even odds of ending the conversation, or demanding further detail. the moratorium on speaking of those will have expired with the circle. but it's hard to know what to offer. ] It was the best option. When did you leave Nevarra?

[exequy]

[ Your life or your life is barely a choice, but Kostos relaxes a little bit all the same, knowing that the rules were followed at least that small amount. Tranquility isn't what he'd have chosen himself—he can't imagine how anyone would, what they would have to be thinking—but he can imagine Casimir fucking up that bad.

Affectionately.

Sort of. ]

Not— [ Wait. He has to clear his throat. ] Not long after you did. It was politics. I didn't do anything.

[ A joke. But it doesn't sound like one. And it isn't as if Casimir would find it very funny if it did. ]

I was in Ansburg last, and... Who was looking after you during the war?

[elegiaque]

I'll have someone look in the house and see that no more than we should have have been left here.

( She is definitely not having a tranquil mage come and poke through her servants' belongings, that sounds like a fucking nightmare. )

[aestivation]

Thank you. [ not ideal — so few people are thorough about it — but you take what you can get. the scratching of a distant pen, ] How many other Inquisition members are in residence?

[ since she's clearly one too ]

[elegiaque]

There is one, not including myself. I am not a member of the Inquisition.

( H o w many times. )

[overharrowed]

Is there a suspicion of motive? Carelessness versus espionage?

[Few people know Julius well enough here to notice the slight difference in tone -- few, but not none. Those who've known him more than a few weeks might catch more real kindness in his tone, beneath the businesslike charm he always wears. Anything he's feeling more complicated than that is well hidden.]

Either way, I'll be happy to give you access to my workspace. My living quarters are small, but I'll check them just to be sure.

[There's nothing particularly private there, but he'd prefer not to set a precedent of them being open to the Inquisition at large.]

[aestivation]

I hadn't considered.

[ — either option, really. when something's missing, you look for it. simple. that there might be other factors seems obvious only now that he's been reminded of the possibility. ]

If the latter, we'll have little luck in retrieval. [ unfortunate. they'll know someone's looking, now. ] There are records of other disappearances, but most often attached to missing agents. Where would you begin?

[ this is quickly delving into territory for which he's ill-equipped. ink scratches over parchment: obtain name, field of study. notes help. ]

[overharrowed]

I'm very new to the Inquisition myself, but I suppose if it were up to me I would do much as you've done so far -- air it to the Inquisition presence in Kirkwall at large, increase the number of people on the lookout. If there's a thief, he'll already know to be wary if he's not a fool.

[Julius considers a moment, then adds:]

And I suppose there's no sense ruling out carelessness too soon.

[Not everyone is paranoid.]

[circleprodigy]

[The inflection is familiar to Inessa; she's lived around Tranquil all her life.]

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Even one unaccounted for can lead to grave consequences. [Didn't she just speak to Carver about this? Sigh.]

I am Warden Inessa Serra, leader of the Rifts and the Veil project. You're welcome to stop by my office, whenever you like. It's located on the third floor of the main tower.

...if you hear a mabari, you're heading in the right direction.

[aestivation]

I haven't often heard one. [ templars keep dogs, upon occasion; that particular breed more difficult to come by than most, even so close to the imperium's borders. ] Is the sound distinct?

[circleprodigy]

I'll let you decide that for yourself. Garahel?

[Her mabari perks up and barks. Fortunately, his muzzle isn't right next to the sending crystal.]