not_every_mage | Room 322, Wednesday Morning

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Room 322, Wednesday Morning

It had been more than a day since the children left, and Anders wasn't sure his head was entirely back to normal yet. It was funny how deeply you could miss someone you'd known for such a short time, and who quite likely wouldn't ever exist at all.

At least it seemed like Leo was headed back someplace where he was safe and loved. Carys, though ... that was another story. He still wasn't entirely certain he and Kathy had done the right thing by making her go home. Her parents had lots of friends, sure, and he liked the idea of palling around with a Champion (whatever that meant exactly) but ... he didn't want to raise a child in a world where her father was an apostate. It seemed likely to lead only to heartbreak for everyone.

He tried to set aside his worry for the girl as he scrounged through his books until he found one on the history of Thedas. Maybe it would at least give him some background on Kirkwall to put a bit of what Carys had said in context.

[OOC: Cracked door, open post.]

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"I've never set foot in the place or heard a nice thing about it, but one of my children this weekend was growing up there," Anders explained. "Didn't sound as though she found it particularly pleasant either. I was trying to figure out if there was any possible reason I'd move there."

The book wasn't helping. It could not predict the Blight.

Edited 2015-04-15 14:12 (UTC)

So thoughtless of it, not to be able to predict the awakening of an ancient dragon god and the far-reaching effects of the Fifth Blight.

"It seems an unlikely place for you to go," Cassandra agreed, stepping into the room. "It has one of the strictest Circles in Thedas. You would find it far more unpleasant than I did."

Really, what good was history if it didn't predict a flood of Fereldan refugees decades hence?

"I'm sure it made some kind of sense to me at the time," Anders decided, pressing his fingers into the bridge of his nose. "But from what Carys said, their Circle won't get any better. We get some kind of protection from their Champion, apparently. It was quite odd to hear about."

He gave Cassandra a speculative look. "Were there any little Seekers-in-training nipping at your heels for the weekend?"

"No," Cassandra said.

She did a moderately decent job of looking like that didn't bother her. (It did.)

"So now you are attempting to inform yourself about Kirkwall?" she said. "I am not sure that will brighten your spirits any further."

Anders suspected she was slightly more bothered about it than she wanted to let on, but he wasn't exactly in the habit of quizzing Cassandra on her feelings. Having a civil conversation with her was a large enough step. he nodded, vaguely sympathetic, and gestured to the desk chair if she wanted to sit.

"It's not terribly comforting," he admitted. "But the only other choice is trying to put it out of my head, and I'm not doing a good job with that. I may as well know a little more about what I'm worrying about."

Cassandra eyed the chair, but she did not sit down. Instead she lingered near it, somewhat awkwardly, though her expression had returned to its old brand of stoically determined. "If you have questions, you may ask," she said, "Unless I choose not to answer."

Anders bit back a smile at the stiffness. It wasn't funny, exactly, but it was interesting how some things didn't change.

He wasn't sure he had many questions so much as a lot of confusion, but one came to mind. "Do you know what Darktown would be?" he asked. "Apparently I set up a clinic there. The name alone sounds ... well, dark."

Hightown and Lowtown were self-explanatory. Darktown, not so much.

"It was once a mine," Cassandra said. "But over the centuries, it became a refuge for criminals and the destitute. That is how they tell it in Kirkwall, at any rate."

She looked thoughtful. "I have never seen it for myself," she said, "But few had any good words to speak of it."

"So I spend my days tending to criminals and the impoverished in some old mine and then complain when my family visits the alienage," Anders groused. "Sounds like a lovely life. Exactly what I dreamed of when I ran from the Circle."

He wasn't a picky man, but he'd rather thought he'd get to see the sun once in a while.

"You would be better off staying in the Ferelden Circle," Cassandra said mildly. "Kirkwall is not kind to apostates."

Mostly because they got a lot of blood mages.

"You might even be right," Anders said, equally mild. "It's one thing when it's just me, but I'm not raising a child as a target for Templars."

A wise apostate in a similar situation would go to the outskirts of some country or another to live. A place like, say, Lothering, rather than a Free Marcher city-state.

Not that Cassandra was inclined to point this out.

"If it serves as any kind of further explanation," she said, coming back to an earlier point instead, "I am told the alienage is worse than Darktown."

Why Anders wouldn't take Malcolm Hawke as a role model in that situation was indeed an excellent question.

"Oh, so that's why I don't want my five-year-old wandering around there," he said, in some relief. "Apparently Kathy -- the Kathy who's my daughter's mother, anyhow -- thinks that makes me a bigot."

He wrinkled his nose. "I was wondering if I'd hit my head at some point and turned into the kind of idiot who runs around calling them knife-ears."

Cassandra let out a quiet snort.

No, Anders did not seem like the type for that sort of foolishness. "My impression is that there is a spirited competition between the two areas," she said dryly. "Which one is the least unpleasant. While I cannot claim I trust you not to hit your head, it seems likely your decision had more to do with that than any elven prejudice."

"Thank you," Anders said, with a little laugh of his own. "I've only really known elves in the Circle, but many of them were fine mages. I've no bias against them. Still doesn't mean it's a good idea for a human to go strolling through certain alienages."

Strange, how being oppressed for centuries tended to turn a race bitter.

"But it sounds like bringing Kathy to our world was interesting all around. I couldn't quite bring myself to ask if Carys was being raised Andrastian. She mentioned we'd fought about it."

Cassandra frowned. "Why?" she said. "Would she prefer the local religion, with its preoccupation with people's personal lives?"

That's what she'd picked up from it. Not that she didn't respect it - the temples she had seen were impressive. Still.

"No, she doesn't even belong to that one," Anders said. "Her family's something else. Buddhist. I think she takes the way I feel about the Circle as a strike against the faith as a whole."

Which, to be fair, wasn't completely irrational. Maker knew Anders wasn't the world's biggest fan of the Chantry establishment, largely for mage-related reasons.

"That is rather short-sighted," Cassandra said dryly. "There is far more to the Andrastian faith than merely the Circles. Never mind that it seems strange to disagree with the teachings of something that is true."

"I've always thought the part about the magisters and the black city was oddly convenient," Anders mused. "But otherwise I agree. Besides, if we're in Thedas and her father's a mage, she's already in trouble. No need to add to it by making her a heathen."

"Convenient?" Cassandra echoed, raising an eyebrow. "You believe the poisoning of the Golden City was convenient?"

"And we were almost having such a nice conversation," Anders informed his ceiling. "The poisoning's not what I meant, anyhow. But the saying mages brought it on -- it's a nice thing to point to to justify locking us up, is all."

"You know the Tevinters," Cassandra said. "Do you really doubt they were capable of such a thing? Blood mages, especially."

It did not seem convenient to her.

Anders shrugged. "I'm just saying, Andraste had every reason to hate the magisters," he said. "If she needed a villain, why not pick the people who enslaved her? Who would know she was wrong? Besides, as far as I know nobody's figured out physical travel in the Fade since. It's interesting, is all."

Edited 2015-04-15 19:58 (UTC)

"Andraste rose up against the magisters in part because of their practices," Cassandra pointed out mildly. "There are accounts of dreamers. Before and after."

Very sketchy accounts. Possibly made up accounts. But it made perfect sense in her worldview.

"I'm not denying the magisters were awful people," Anders said, then considered it. "Are awful people, given the blood magic and the slavery. But the question isn't whether they're terrible, it's whether we know for sure that they made the Maker turn away from us. I don't know that we can. I don't think Andraste was a liar, but maybe she heard what she wanted to hear."

Of course, Cassandra happened to be right on this point. Too bad they didn't have Corypheus to tell them that.

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