Can't stop won't stop

[justice_is_blond]

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Myrobalan Shivana and Anders
RECIPIENT: All denizens of the Gallows
WHAT: At long last, a cure for Rifter Valley Fever.
WHEN: whenever
WHERE: wherever
NOTES: None applicable.

Good evening.

[Anders’ voice is tired, but calm and collected.]

As we set up to make sure we reach everyone, we have an announcement: we've found the cures. Myr?

[If someone can sound gently frazzled, Myr does.] Magebane first, to clear up the infestation. You should’ve gotten yours by now, but if we’ve missed someone, [all too likely they have,] you can stop by the infirmary for it. Serah Colin is managing our supply.

[There’s a too long-pause and a half-audible aside--something about “forgetting”--before he adds,] Rifters will want to speak to Madame de Cedoux since she’s not liable to forget you’re here.

That's the easy bit. [There's the noise of papers and then Anders continues:]

Rifters, we need you to bring an object you're willing to be bound to for a few hours. It's temporary, and it will stabilize your presence here for the other two stages. If you don't have one, we'll provide books.

The third step is a little complicated. Rifters need to experience and process a lot of different emotions, the more complex, the better. You're becoming like spirits; this will establish your… personhood, so to speak.

Non-Rifters, if there's something out of place in your living quarters, or things you can't remember getting, you may have strong ties to a Rifter and they may need your help for this third step. The binding should mean that you'll be able to remember them and their significance to you when you see them.

[There's a pause and a quiet huff of air.] It may take time and work. Patience will be key.

The Lady Thevenet, Enchanter Hawthorne, and Serah Averesch will be helping with the binding process.

And if that all weren’t complicated enough, [gentle sarcasm,] there’s one additional step, once you’re feeling like your old selves again. You’ve come loose from Thedas in all of this, and you’ll need to have one of our templars reinforce your being a part of the world and not the Fade.

I’m told the process can be disorienting, but it’ll also be very brief. Ser Ashlock has volunteered himself for that.

[Anders clears his throat.]

Potentially more than merely disorienting, as one who has… experienced that. But as you'll be bound the effects should be lessened, and know that we would not call in a Templar to do this unless absolutely necessary.

Once you're cured, Rifters, please check in with myself or Myrobalan so we can check your name off the list; we need to make certain no one is missed.

If you've any questions, please ask. We'll be here until the last Rifter is cured.

Comments

[laurenande]

Of all people, I cannot trust you twice...especially not if you have forgotten.

[If that sounds angrier than it ought it is because it is carried on panic and fear. She is terrified of both mortality and the possibility of being consumed in this process, of being corrupted. Ultimately she is not sure which is better, death or darkness.]

Forget me as all men do. I cannot do this, I cannot risk it--I won't be caught up in something else.

[justice_is_blond]

[He has no idea what she means, so there's really no argument he cam make.]

There's an elf here with me. Would you trust an elf? He's the one who also spoke, Myrobalan. I don't know if you know him. I don't know where to find a Dwarf or qunari at the moment but if they're what you need instead I will locate them.

[laurenande]

Ah, Myrobalan? [Said with a note of sad familiarity. She thinks he is a sweet boy if the way she has calmed is any indication.

Perhaps he would remember, he is not a Man...as distant as that hope sounds, even to her own self.

He is, at the very least, without taint.]

[rowancrowned]

Could one be bound to another living creature? A native of Thedas or another Rifter?

[justice_is_blond]

I'd think not, though binding is not my area of expertise. I'm hoping one of the people proficient in it will be able to give a clear answer.

[faithlikeaseed]

[He remembers the way she says his name--the overtones that shape it into a different sort entirely; the hazy chain of association leads back from that to a title and an impression of sorrowful kindness and...

Nothing beyond that. Not yet, though he wracks his brain for what he's lost, what might tell him why she sounds so desperately sorrowful and afraid.]

Yes, lady? If there's aught I can do to reassure you...

[He trails off; this isn't his area of expertise. He can't make guarantees on what may happen with one of the--one of the (a stag with a wisp caught in its antlers; a slash in the Fade glowing venomous green) rifters, though Petrana had come through all right, hadn't she?]

[laurenande]

[He recognizes her, or so she thinks, and it eases her just so.]

I fear there is not much--this sounds so terribly similar to the darkest of skills. Can you tell me how we are to be bound? How we are to be freed?

[faithlikeaseed]

[Her own fears echo his own uneasiness so neatly--the binding of spirits is something he's never been comfortable with.

Perhaps it does not do to say so, though.]

I can't confess to knowing all the details of it, lady; that aspect of spirit magic was not something I studied much. I can say the binding isn't permanent--it will wear off on its own in an hour or two without a mage to maintain it. [Wryly, then,] And it's not all that hard to free yourself, if it should come to that; we've had rifters walk away from whatever they're bound to and break the binding all on their own, just forgetting they had to stay close.

[laurenande]

[That does not make sense and, for some time, Galadriel is unsure how to respond. A binding that can be walked away from? It can be dissolved so easily?]

Does the word bind mean impermanence, here?

[Surely she is missing some key detail. Do the languages of mortal men flow so quickly that this one word has changed in only a few months?]

[faithlikeaseed]

No, but--

[A quiet noise--a frustrated huff--at his own lack of knowledge.]

The best I can grasp of it, they're taking a spell that's meant to bind smaller, simpler things and applying it to you rifters. Like using a bit of twine that would wrap a parcel securely to bundle firewood--in the one case, it's tied up tight, but if you jostle the other it all falls apart. It's--it's binding magic, but it's not working the way it ought. I'm not sure what a better word for it might be.

[laurenande]

Truly?

[She sounds lighter, despite his frustration. The example is comforting, more than he can know and she wonders if it is wise to explain to him why. Her relief is so great that, without thinking, she does.]

What I know of binding is not so slight, it is to merge two things, whole, together like folding steel within a forge.

I must say...if I am to be bound, this sounds far less...dire.

[faithlikeaseed]

Truly.

[It's heartening to hear the change in her voice, after that first desperate fear. And the explanation--clarifies much.]

Oh, Maker-- No, no--not at all. We couldn't in good conscience do that to anyone if it were that, lady.

It does sound we're using the same word for two different things. I'm sorry it's caused you such distress.