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[fleurdesel]

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Adelaide

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Sending Crystal

[fleurdesel]

With all due respect, Pel "Saying No" and "Mindful Awareness" are difficult to teach with the gravity facing a demon requires. The best advice I have been able to give is that the more like a person any particular entity in the fade is- the more likely that you've found a demon.

Sending Crystal

[mythalenaste]

I oversimplified, but it was for a reason. I really do believe there are a lot of things about how you Circle mages do things that need to be thought of more simply. The more complicated you make things, the more likely it all is to go wrong.

Sending Crystal

[fleurdesel]

As is the more simple a thing is, the easier it can be to teach or learn incorrectly. Specificity makes things complicated- the worst of it is that no one mage hears demons or spirits the same. There is no one method.

Sending Crystal

[mythalenaste]

That's what I was trying to say. Daylen and Vivienne believe we have all the answers and we don't. All we can do is compile all the things we know do work--our own ways of avoiding possession, sometimes--and keep adding to it as we find things. No clinging to relics because they're there for some unspecified reason. Can you imagine if Sina took the Harrowing?

Sending Crystal

[fleurdesel]

She'd die. Sometimes the process itself is so strenuous that it kills the mage before it is incomplete. It's a rare thing but- she would die or she would be possessed. It is not a question of her will but the shard in her chest would call every demon in the fade like a beacon.

Sending Crystal

[mythalenaste]

She came to me to ask me to sit on the Council. She said she trusted me.

Sending Crystal

[fleurdesel]

You need not convince me of the risks a Harrowing make. I've lost-


[ She sighs. ]

I know well enough. We are in agreement for this, Pel.

Sending Crystal

[mythalenaste]

I'm not trying to convince you of anything. I'm just...I need to talk about this. Because I've promised Sina I'll protect her. What if I can't do that? What if the council votes in favor?

Sending Crystal

[fleurdesel]

Three votes, at least, will be against. Much as I would rather for something like this we require the vote to be unanimous because it is so controversial, no matter what is proposed? Not all of us will support it.

That is why the discussion has been tabled. It is something I think we will be picking at for a long while yet.

Sending Crystal

[mythalenaste]

[A pause.]

Then our strategy is to make sure it stays tabled. Postponed indefinitely.

Sending Crystal

[fleurdesel]

No. We cannot do that- because something must be done. A stand must be made. Dithering makes us no better than the foutu College and we are to be better than that.

Sending Crystal

[mythalenaste]

No, listen.

I've a quarter of an idea and it's only coming through a bit at a time.

We have to postpone it. Trust me when I say nothing bad is going to happen just because you're not having Harrowings--we apostates have dealt without them for centuries. We dither. We use dithering like the tool it is, because dithering is sometimes better than rushing into something. And while we're dithering, we're also writing up our own proposal and selling it to the Councilors who can be swayed. We'll know what the vote will be before it's taken.

Sending Crystal

[fleurdesel]

We are facing demons on this side of the Fade every time a rift opens- and that is happening more often as we move forward. How long until someone, Circle or not, speaks to one? Is charmed by one? Won over by one? We are, all of us, tired. We are angry. We are afraid of this war and this world and what may come. If that does not leave us ripe for the picking I do not know what does. We need something while we dither.

Sending Crystal

[mythalenaste]

Restrictions on which mages are permitted to approach rifts? No. Restrictions on...

[Fuck.]

Mages in risky areas being accompanied by a templar. No exceptions, so we're not seen as singling anyone out. And I doubt our conservative councilors will object to that as a temporary solution.

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.