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[aestivation]

 
  

[  crystals, letters, private scenes  ]

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[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?

[rathercommon]

[ A breath out. ]

What, being stuck in a world that just goes round and round in the same stupid circles and never changes? Absolutely awful, that's what it's like.

[aestivation]

What sort of cycles?

[rathercommon]

Well - I mean - on the immediate level, just - who's in power. It's constantly - one person grabs at power when one falls out of favor, and then another jumps up to take that one's place. It's always the same Prime Minister, but his favorites just come and go. And then on a bigger level, a historical level - it's the magicians oppressing the commoners, or commoners rising up and smashing the magicians who then bide their time and wait to take over again, and on and on. Nothing ever changing. Just everyone always miserable and angry and afraid.

[aestivation]

[ everyone, of course, includes kitty. holds that at something like distance — or tries to — sweaty palms oustretched and uncertain of the heat within. not willing to ignore it; hesitant to burn. ]

You think it could be different here?

[ changes within changes, chaos that only begets itself. what a grim thought. ]

[rathercommon]

I think it can be different anywhere, if we only try. But -

[ She pushes her hair from her face. ]

Here, too. Yeah. No more of this where mages get to be in charge based on how much they can bully the others, like up in Tevinter. And no more of what they did to you, and the others like you. It can be done.

[aestivation]

Andraste thought so. I don't mean to preach, only to say — Maker, I'm going to insult the Prophet.

[ a grimmer thought. ]

I don't mean to, anyway. No more than I mean to you, or your commoners. Your, ah. Ministers. [ that's what she called magisters right ] Good intentions. But they were all changes outside a system, weren't they? And they didn't last.

[rathercommon]

You can preach. Or whatever. I know some Rifters get all - weird about Andraste and all that, but I'm not one of them. I like hearing what people really believe.

[ She tucks her hair behind her ear. ]

Anyway, I've been talking, but - What do you believe? Do you think that real change can happen, Casimir?