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[aestivation]

 
  

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[aestivation]

Neither have I. [ that's a shade bitter — ] But the Circles did. Orzammar, where the dwarves live; Tevinter. Many here have not seen an election they didn't have a say in before.

But should a dwarf vote in the College of Enchanters? Should I speak for the Magisterium? I wouldn't know what I was talking about.

[rathercommon]

But - [ Frowning, puzzled - ] Didn't you have a say in the Circles?

[aestivation]

Enchanters do. I never reached that rank.

[ he sounds a bit like someone trying to sound like that's nbd ]

Ironic, isn't it? With the enchantments.

[rathercommon]

[ A discontented noise. Both acknowledging the irony and just giving vent to disapproval. ]

If only the most powerful can vote, then what's the point of having voting at all?

[aestivation]

It isn't so much power, as — a greater responsibility. Enchanters took students. They were required to mind pieces, people of the Circle that a mage would not. To know those without power.

[ some of them. in theory. ]

[rathercommon]

[ With a scoff - ] Yeah, I've heard that story before.

[ Anyway. ]

It sounds, though, like you've as much right to an opinion as anyone else. Why wouldn't you? This isn't some political battle in a far-off land - it's something that'll affect you.

[aestivation]

And the entire continent, a scattering of islands, a — ah — wherever a March might take us. It isn't, this can't be petty.

[ to steal her word. ]

Not if we want the Chantry to last.

[rathercommon]

[ She hesitates a moment - then asks, casually - ]

And do we?

[aestivation]

[ the silence, this time, is lengthier. ]

I do.

[rathercommon]

[ It's that long pause that makes her bold enough to follow up. ]

If I can ask...Why?

[aestivation]

Have you met Brother Jehan?

[rathercommon]

Yeah, I have.

[aestivation]

He attended the University of Orlais. But there are other scholars in the Chantry, beyond that, and beyond the Circles — it's one of the oldest bodies of knowledge in the South.

[rathercommon]

Doing away with the Chantry wouldn't make their knowledge go away, though. It might just...rearrange it.

[aestivation]

You are right, that, ah. That the arrangement matters. The intentions do, as well.

All things are connected. The manner in which we act impresses itself on history. Too, on the Fade. Destruction itself is preserved in its fabric.

Knowledge can be transmuted, but we must care of how we steward it.

Am I -- does that make any sense?

[rathercommon]

Erm - maybe. [ A beat - ] Is that literal? Or is it a metaphor?

[aestivation]

A wobbly line. You hm, you recall that a spirit's essence can shift?

[rathercommon]

Quite well.

[ A bit too well. ]

[aestivation]

The Fade presses against the physical world, and against our minds, more directly than they. Where the Veil is thin, emotion and memory bleed through. Ghislain will remember despair, and fear. In turn, despair and fear will be drawn to it —

It's, I can't think of the word, I'm sorry. But what happens here, and what happens there, are not so separate.

[rathercommon]

So...Sorry, though, I don't quite follow. What has that got to do with - knowledge? And how we maintain it?

[aestivation]

I may be getting sidetracked.

[ a little ]

If, ah, if chaos. Destruction. Is what we choose to make, in our culture, and in the Fade, it will last. It will change the information which we keep, and the way we discuss it. Those discussions themselves will guide new thought. If Kirkwall had not been a Tevinter city, would it have so feared blood magic? How would those stories be told?

The Chantry has... they are working toward a goal. I am trying to, that is to say. We need.

[ it sputters out entirely. i need, is a bit much. ]

[rathercommon]

[ She thinks about that a moment. Then, thoughtfully, she says: ]

But you're assuming that change is the same as chaos. It doesn't have to be.

[aestivation]

Have you ever seen an orderly change?

[ if that comes out wry, it's a genuine question. ]

[rathercommon]

Well -

[ She hesitates, then admits - ]

I guess I haven't ever really seen big changes at all, to be honest.

[aestivation]

What is it like?