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[fleurdesel]

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Adelaide

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Sending Crystal

[fleurdesel]

Convincing Korrin of it's merit will the the harder part.

[mythalenaste]

I can convince Korrin, especially if it's temporary. Worst comes to worst, we'll pass it without her vote. Just tell me if you think that would work. Not from a political standpoint, but if it would do the job you need to be done.

[fleurdesel]

Demons cannot easily sway more than one mind at once unless they are terribly powerful and well established on this side of the fade. None that are torn through with the rifts will likely be able to manage it. Having so different a mind as a templar's there would make their ploy difficult- they could manage one or the other and be struck down by the partnered mage or templar should they make the attempt. It could work.

[mythalenaste]

Partnered, yes. There's to be nothing that says the templar is in charge. Nothing at all. The mage is not to be controlled unless they're possessed. They're to be full equals who look out for one another.

[fleurdesel]

...Convincing some of the templars of this will also be difficult- but they simply will not be ones chosen to work with the mages that are sent out. We do need to foster relations as we are both beholden to the Inquisition.

[mythalenaste]

Just how sour are things between mages and templars? Seems to me that they're both victims of the Chantry. Or are templars more than enforcers?

[fleurdesel]

We've been at war with one another for the better part of a year before the breach opened up and everyone decided to call a tentative truce so we can fix it and go back to killing one another.

[ a beat ]

So I would say quite sour.

[mythalenaste]

Be more specific. On a scale of "we're quite pissy with each other" to "they flung us out of our homeland a few centuries ago and have a bad habit of hunting us and enslaving our kinfolk," how bad is it?

[fleurdesel]

It varies. Sometimes it is as bad as Templars not seeing mages as people, but as beasts, things to be controlled, corralled, and put down. Sometimes it is merely irritating to have them hover. Those from the Spire were locked in and slaughtered- at last those that were unable to escape. Some templars have been victimized by power mad circle mages or apostates- neither side has clean hands and we are all angry. Here we tolerate one another.

[mythalenaste]

[Pel pauses for a while, thinking.]

I can only guess at what will make both sides feel more at ease. I'm an outsider. Maybe we should ask the more reasonable templars what they think would help. Especially the younger ones. Better than guessing, anyway.

[fleurdesel]

Knight-Captain Maria is reasonable. Knight Commander Alayre seems to be as well, from what little I have seen of him. The Templar named Nerva, who brought the Tranquil? Do not speak to her. She will not see you as a person so long as you have your connection to the fade.

[mythalenaste]

Maria was assigned to me while I was researching at the Mire. She kept me safe and didn't interfere overmuch. She's exactly the sort who we should work with.

Thanks for the warning. Though I can't bear too much ill will toward someone who takes care of the Tranquil. Or am I being naive?

[fleurdesel]

She cares for people she can command and control rather than those with their own autonomy or ability to want something- or say anything for themselves. Make of that what you will.

[mythalenaste]

...Are the Tranquil safe with her?

[fleurdesel]

...nothing that I have seen or heard has given me a reason to think she is abusing them. But that is also why I asked we have mages mind them in the Library. So that should anything happen? We know and may act on it.

[mythalenaste]

I...feel so unlearned, sometimes. There's a whole world of Circles and Templars and Tranquil that I only know peripherally and I can't pretend it doesn't affect me anymore.

[fleurdesel]

Welcome to the Circles of Thedas, where everything's on fire and the mages don't matter. It is a complicated mess doubly complicated because not every Circle was the same. Some had awful mages and virtuous templars. Some had abysmal templars and innocent mages. Some had both of each and neither of either.

[mythalenaste]

Kirwall was exceptionally bad, I've heard. And the only knowledge I have on it is through Varric, who never actually went inside.

[fleurdesel]

And then the bombing of the Chantry. We heard of that in the Spire. The templars doubled up on their rounds, we were watched closely in the labs for months afterward.

[mythalenaste]

Really? After a thousand years living like that, I'm surprised something like the Chantry's destruction didn't happen sooner. Doubling down would only make someone else more likely to pop.

[fleurdesel]

Have you ever been effected by a Templar's power? It is...unpleasant. The threat of it alone is more than enough to earn compliance.

[mythalenaste]

It's that bad? What's it like?

[fleurdesel]

Have you ever exhausted your stores of mana before? Overspent yourself? That- but in an instant, and you are cold and hollow and all the color is leeched from the world.

[mythalenaste]

[There's an unnerved silence.]

The only time I've spent my mana like that was when my Keeper made me do it in practice once so I'd know my limits. She always said never to do it again, that I must always have a little at least in reserve in case something unexpected happens. To face someone with a sword who can take all of it away and leave you helpless...

[Deep breaths. Shit, that's terrifying.]

[fleurdesel]

For all our spells and skills, they can wipe it away with their will and cut us down. For all their plate and their swords we can destroy them with a thought and a word. To them we are dangerous, ripe for possession, and even though there are good men, kind women, those that mean well and mean to protect us from ourselves and their brethren they are far too few. Likewise we resent them for it, for their constant presence, their preaching, those of us they take away forever in the name of safety. Even with those like Vivienne, like Daylen that respect them for their work and mind them- too many of us are made to be afraid. Too many of us learned to hate them.

[ She gives Pel a moment to absorb that, perhaps more than a moment. ]

Do you understand the tension now?