video;

[ladyspitfire]

[There's a certain dog snuffling at the communicator when it turns on. In fact, his nose actually turns the device off and onto audio for several moments, the sound of his heavy breathing filling the microphone.]

Off, you lush. I need that.

[The mic is covered by something - fabric, actually, in an attempt to clean off the device - and then it switches back to video. A woman with red hair can be seen looking over the communicator critically, looking for scratches and cracks. The dog is gone and she settles back. It's easy from this angle to see the Warden-Commander's crest on her armor, even if it's partly covered by a curtain of hair.]

I wish to speak to whomever's in charge of bringing recruits here. They have no authority to conscript a Warden in any way, not without first making an appeal to Weisshaupt. If I cannot have an audience with the leader of this outpost - [or whatever it is] - then I would speak with anyone else who carries a position of authority.

[She knows her stuff, clearly. She frowns into the camera, tapping it once. She sighs, glancing at her dog. The commanding aura nearly vanishes, replaced by exasperation.]

...I'm speaking to myself, aren't I?

[Elissa glances back to the device, fussing with it once more. It turns off.]

Comments

[birdhousesoul]

Invited him, actually.

[The corner of his mouth twitches.] I'm not the one you would have expected for it, am I? We used to disagree, Justice and I. He wanted me to fight for mages, I wanted to leave well enough alone. Well, let's say I started to see his point. Or, rather, I realized my choice wasn't a choice at all. I couldn't cherish my own selfish safety, because I wasn't safe, not in the Wardens. Not anywhere. No mage ever is.

[There is, here, a faint undertone of bitterness. You conscripted me. You took up for me against Rylock and her gang of magecatchers. But you didn't stop what happened next. But the bitterness is only faint, because Anders knows the Wardens didn't really have a choice, either. It was accept Rolan, or surrender Anders, and they'd already stood firm against the latter option.]

In case you were wondering: no, you can't talk to him. He doesn't just come out for a chat any old time.

[ladyspitfire]

[Elissa's face is one of both confusion and dismay. Two of the people she knew, knew well, in fact, have become one...and she still feels like she's lost so much time just by coming here. So much has happened and no one can tell her where she was at the time.

She frowns.]

You have always been safe with us, Anders. We have never let anything happen to you. When they came for you, I didn't let them even entertain the notion.

[Oh, Maker. So much has gone wrong.]

Is he... Are you both all right?

[birdhousesoul]

In a manner of speaking. Better, since we dealt with some business long overdue in Kirkwall. Neither he nor I like this place much. I'm sorry they've dragged you here too.

[ladyspitfire]

It's all right. I'd rather be in a place where I can provide assistance.

[It's just a shame that she's so behind.]

What happened in Kirkwall?

I have no icon apt for this

[birdhousesoul]

Justice was served.

eh, close enough

[ladyspitfire]

[It hits home like a strike to the stomach. The mage uprising, the Circles falling... And there was Anders, at the heart of it. Business long overdue.

Elissa doesn't know how to feel about this. She's not sure if she wants to hit him, if she wants to yell, or if she just wants to throw her hands up and ignore all of this. But she can't do the latter. Even so far away from home, it is still her home and her duty, and here is her friend and ally as the cause of so much trouble.

She shakes her head, at a loss.]

Why?

[birdhousesoul]

It was necessary.

[ladyspitfire]

I don't want to hear that.

[Necessary. That's what Howe said, Loghain, Anora, the Architect and the Mother.]

I need to know why. All of it, Anders. What happened?

[birdhousesoul]

[A hollow chuckle.] I wasted years explaining why. No one ever did want to hear it.

If you need it explained, you'll never understand. [He's not even angry with her. Simply ... matter-of-fact, flat.] You're the Hero of Ferelden. You slew the Archdemon. You had sense enough to spurn the Architect. Justice has no quarrel with you.

[Let's keep it that way, and if he's talking as much to himself/his spirit as to Cousland, he won't be the one to admit it.]

[ladyspitfire]

[All right, that does it.]

You don't treat it like that, damn you. I know about mages, Anders. I've wandered with you, with Morrigan and Wynne. I've seen what's done to them. I just don't understand why Kirkwall. I don't even know what bloody happened!

[The worst part is that she's not even angry at him beyond what he's done to endanger lives. No, she's angry for two selfish reasons. The first is Wynne. The second is that whatever he's done has received so much backlash that he and the other Wardens might not be safe either.

It all cycles back to her. Where is she when this happens? Why wasn't she there to help things?]

[birdhousesoul]

Mage business, not Warden business. You have no right to interfere.

We took down the Kirkwall Chantry. The prison they called their Circle has fallen.

[ladyspitfire]

I don't give two nugs whether or not it's Warden business. If it concerns a friend, then it's my business.

[She rubs at her forehead.]

...Did they try to capture you? How many people have died?

[birdhousesoul]

Cousland. Elissa. When, in all the time you've known me, have they not been trying to capture me? Of course they've tried. I expect they're still trying.

I ... don't know how many people died. [The question gives him a moment's pause.] Fewer by far than the count of dead in the so-called Second Qunari Invasion, if I'm to guess. Do you know how the Qunari handle mages? Stitch their lips shut and drag them round in chains. It's monstrous. And more honest than the Chantry, in its way, since the Chantry hides its chains behind Circle walls, and gives us the brand of Tranquility to govern our tongues. With our mouths sewn up we couldn't hawk their wares in the market, after all.

[ladyspitfire]

Yes, but you didn't provoke them. Did they even know you were a Warden?

[Because they can't do that to any Warden. She won't have it. The duty of the Grey Warden is a calling and a curse, but she will never allow for others to abuse its members.]

I know what they do. [Sten has told her, much to Wynne and Morrigan's mutually horror.] The Qunari are different. Every member born in their society has a purpose. They believe that every mage who speaks can poison other members.

But the Chantry... No, they have no excuse. [After rescuing Wynne and meeting Jowan, she knows too well what mages will do under duress. Most succumb because of fear.] I never heard about the troubles in Kirkwall. If I had...

[She trails off. What could she have done? Wardens can't interfere in politics...but when did she ever abide by those rules?]

[birdhousesoul]

Justice and I left the Wardens, thanks. A former Templar getting himself Joined, just happening to be sent on every job I got assigned? Andraste's tits, why not just chuck darkspawn into the nearest Circle and send me there? The effect was about the same, and the company not nearly as friendly.

Wouldn't even let me keep my cat. They claimed it made me 'too soft'. Soft! After the sorts of places I'd been with you, and the things we'd killed. More likely they'd heard the jokes that Pounce was my familiar, and took that for true, never mind magic doesn't actually work that way. Not the magic I know.

Of course, the Joining can't be undone. I'm a Warden where it counts. [In his veins, mainly.] For purposes of public record, though, I'm fairly sure I'm seen as an apostate. Possibly one who ran away from the Wardens, if any story keeps the Warden connection.

[ladyspitfire]

...What? When did-- I heard you left after you were requested to speak at one of the Circles...

[Oh. Oh no, they did not take his cat.]

They did what? [Elissa looks furious.] That was a gift, Maker damn them. He wasn't theirs to bloody take.

[What in Andraste's name has happened to the Wardens since she's been gone? She's always been fair to all of them, hoping that through camaraderie and kinship that they would work together and protect one another. It worked for her group during the Blight and even when they faced the Architect and the Mother. So why has all of this happened so quickly?]

As you always shall be, even if you spend the rest of your life away from the order. [She tries to smile.] I don't believe anyone should fault or degrade you for what you've done. I'm only sorry I was not there when all of this happened.

[birdhousesoul]

Yes, well, I don't know where you were. [He looks a little uncertain, as he says it. He remembers her; she remembers him; the name, the face, shared history; and yet, there's this. Some divergence, somewhere ... It'll unsettle him too deeply if he thinks about it long.] I did the best I could. I ... expect you did, as well, wherever you were.

I did get Pounce back, after Kirkwall. Went back to Amaranthine to fetch him. He's with me here.

[ladyspitfire]

Maker...

[She pinches the bridge of her nose in frustration, taking a few moments to calm herself. She finally looks back at him with something less than anger, though there is a note of bitterness in her tone.]

I wish I knew what it was I had been doing...though I'm glad you got him back. [Faintly, she smiles.] I'll keep my dog away from him, I promise.