FORM: sending crystal
SENDER: Cullen Rutherford
RECIPIENT: everyone
WHAT: Cullen is attempting to turn nostalgia into a good thing again
WHEN: now

[ The voice over the crystal sounds tired, which is nothing new, but there's a little bit of fire that's been lacking lately. Maybe it's a desire to get back to something that's been slipping away. ]

I've had a reminder recently that one's past can not be outrun, and perhaps that isn't such a bad thing. It is the hand that shapes the people we become. Looking at those I have in my life now, I feel I have a cause to be grateful for the pasts we all carry.

I'd like to ask for something - a happy memory. Something that gives you hope, something that keeps you going. I realize it's an easy thing to lose sight of, things being as they are, but forgotten is not the same as gone.

I've spent some time interacting with Benedict Artemaeus at the suggestion of Madame de Cedoux and with permission from Ser Coupe. [There's a long pause. Possibly the message has been edited a lot, and somewhat clumsily, by someone who really doesn't get this magical social media shit yet.

Then,] Let me just get right to the point, if you folks want to use this kid as some kind of resource in the fight against the Venatori or Corypheus, you're going to need to get him out of solitary pretty damn fast. [Maybe also quit scaring the shit out of him, he thinks, but doesn't add.] He's a quick study; I taught him a pretty complicated card game in almost no time, and short of making a few rookie errors, he picked up on it fast. I get the impression everyone around him thinks he's an idiot, to the point where maybe he thinks he's one too. He's been chronically under-estimated by everyone around him.

[A pause.] He's a prick, but he's not an evil prick. If you get him out of solitary, give me a little time with him, I think I can bring him around.

[There's a short intake of breath as if the person with the crystal is suddenly reconsidering this decision and wondering if it's a bad idea. That's because he is, and this probably also is. The pause that comes after is due to him debating if he should just put down the crystal and walk away or if he should charge on anyway.

The latter, as usual, wins out. Anders clears his throat.]

Good afternoon. Due to... I'm Anders.

[Master speechmaker.]

There is still a great deal of confusion and emotion connected to what I did and the site where it happened. In an effort to try to help, I am offering to answer questions. Ask them if you have them. I don't promise to answer everything. If something seems a deliberate attempt to be rude or provoke, I'll ignore it. But if you've a genuine interest in an answer, I will try to provide it.

[The message ends abruptly so that he can now take a shaky breath and sit down and wonder if he's just been an idiot.]

Right, gotta ask since it's been nigglin' me like a loose tooth for a bit now Inquisition, what d'you all know about dwarves? Rifters you don't get a free pass unless you fell out the skies yesterday, s'not like we're a rare sight but, y'know, 'specially since we've been here a while now and-- [there's a little edge to his voice, he coughs to clear that, can't sound like he gives a shit, just the damp and the smoke lingering yeah?] you've been with lots of dwarves. Lot of my family even!

Might get invited to Sunday dinner if you play your cards right but word to the wise, maybe don't? Politely decline. But not too polite yeah? [Don't know what you'll be served on a Darktown dinner table do you now?]

To most, Ferelden simply ends with the Korcari Wilds: There is nothing beyond. The Wilds is a land of great trees, wet marshes and dangerous monsters. What more need be said? [The book closes with a snap, borrowed from a library long ago not the Inquisition or the Gallows, not even from the Court in Orlais but much older, the words of Mother Ailis whoever she was. Morrigan makes an amused noise in her throat.]

But I wonder, for those who would call themselves well-travelled with the Inquisition, would they be willing to dare to venture there? Sundermount has yielded all that it can and I must depart in hunt of prey I might only find deep in the Wilds but I would prefer not to travel alone. Do you have the stomach for it? To venture deep into the marshes where so few have ever returned from? Where we might find the Chasind Wilders so many bedtime tales are made of?

If so, speak with me and I shall tell you more of what I hunt, if not then do not trouble me. What good comes of troubling witches? [Are you going to listen Inquisition no she would guess not but it's worth a try.]