"...what manner of spirit was this, and how did he come to inhabit a body?" She could take a guess at the how, fell through somewhere thin in the veil, a mistaken summoning- a spirit healer calling for aid that perished mid cast but-
"We were in the Blackmarsh in Ferelden, tracking down a stray Warden from the Anderfels. Kristoff was his name. We found his body there. This was..."
Oh Maker, how does he explain the talking darkspawn and the...whatever. Whatever, he'll take shortcuts.
"The Blackmarsh has a bad history--an entire town, subjected to a blood mage baroness, had vanished many years before. You could see the Veil in places. Or maybe those were tears. We wound up trapped in the Fade, and there we found a spirit rallying the long-dead townsfolk into rebellion against the Baroness. She took the fight to the waking world, and when we woke up, the spirit was inhabiting Kristoff's corpse."
"That is...entirely unprecedented. Being pulled into a fade dream by a strong demonic presence- that has happened before but to wake and pull a spirit through with you?" That is- there is nothing that she knows of or has read, not even a whisper of a rumor of anything even remotely like this and she's been digging through the subject for the better part of a month. "There was no ritual, no rift such as those that we have seen- you simply woke and he woke with you?"
"I am going to have to look into that." She'd never heard of much the same- but her studies had been focused on using spirits to mend, not demented spirits flipping through the Veil as though it is a door.
"I always wondered if there was a way to send him back to the Fade. Kristoff's wife found it very upsetting that a spirit was walking around in his body, but the spirit claimed he couldn't do anything about it. None of the Warden mages I've ever talked to knew how it could have been reversed."
"I can imagine." Normally once on this side of the Veil- that is it. The demon is appeased. "So he continued to walk around in a corpse until it rotted out from under him?"
"It is a complicated question. Spirits are not often so bound to this side of the veil as it does not hold their interest." Less often do they find their way into bodies, living or dead.
"If Kristoff was dead before his body was possessed? I doubt it. He went...wherever one goes. For that you will have to speak to a Chantry sister, I am afraid." She is a mage, not a theologian.
"I couldn't say. A spirit possessing stone, possessing items- things that cannot truly perish? These things I have heard of. A walking, talking spirit inhabiting a corpse, something that can and will rot away? That is new. I have never heard anything of the sort and cannot say what would happen when he loses that connection."
Or what would happen to the living, breathing person he inhabits. Nathaniel will have to bring this up with Bethany. Who lacks any classical training, of course, but this information so far has been incredibly useful.
"Thank you," Nathaniel says quietly. He swirls the wine in his glass, looking contemplative. "This has been enlightening."
"If there is anything else that comes to mind- or any other questions you might have? You are free to contact me. I will answer as best I am able." No matter the question- even should the answer be 'I do not know'.
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That would be a guess. Specificity is required.
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"We were in the Blackmarsh in Ferelden, tracking down a stray Warden from the Anderfels. Kristoff was his name. We found his body there. This was..."
Oh Maker, how does he explain the talking darkspawn and the...whatever. Whatever, he'll take shortcuts.
"The Blackmarsh has a bad history--an entire town, subjected to a blood mage baroness, had vanished many years before. You could see the Veil in places. Or maybe those were tears. We wound up trapped in the Fade, and there we found a spirit rallying the long-dead townsfolk into rebellion against the Baroness. She took the fight to the waking world, and when we woke up, the spirit was inhabiting Kristoff's corpse."
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Until I talked him into it.
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He lets out a long breath.
"Aura. That's the name of Kristoff's widow."
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"Thank you," Nathaniel says quietly. He swirls the wine in his glass, looking contemplative. "This has been enlightening."
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