[Well, this is an interesting opening. He gestures to the only chair he has left in the room (the other is still firmly in Dorian's) going to prop himself up on a wall. ]
I'm certain you had your reasons for that. It wasn't my place to pry.
[It'll make sense in a second, just give her a second to work up to it.]
I'll admit the reasons were primarily selfish, but we'll get to that. For now, what do you know about the Inquisition? I'm not sure what Dorian has told you.
[The chair has been offered, but something that Jove and Fenris have in common is their propensity to pace. She stays on her feet, wandering in front of him as she tries to put all this together coherently. It really is a mess, the Thedas she's been left with, and when Fenris mentions Corypheus she laughs.]
That's a good place to start, actually. With Corypheus. He was the start of all this, for me, because I had the good fortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. [There's a beat, and she shakes her head.] The right place at the right time, if we're going to be honest.
There was a meeting to stop the mage and templar war, you see. He arrived there with an ancient artifact and attacked the Divine, but I happened to come in in the middle of it. I took hold of the artifact and it transferred its power to me, and then... then the conclave exploded. Everyone died, except for me. I fell out of the Fade in the middle of the ruins of the conclave and everyone assumed I had done it, but it was Corypheus who had been behind it.
The explosion left a big hole in the sky, bigger than any of the other rifts in the area. You could see it for miles and it just kept pouring out demons from the Fade. The power that had been transferred to me was part of that tear, so only I could close it. I didn't have enough power at the time to heal the scar completely, but I did stop it from spreading and stopped the demons from crossing through.
And because I lived through all that, through the Fade and closing the breach, and since a... a woman, she led me from the Fade and everyone who saw her was certain it was Andraste...
[She's been slowly pacing all through this explanation, hands alternating between touching her forehead and rubbing through her hair, gesturing as she spoke, but now she comes to a stop and glances at Fenris.]
This is a lot, I know, and it makes very little sense, but... the point is, that's what happened in Thedas, that's what the Inquisition is working to fix, and I- well. I'm the Inquisitor. And if you've heard anyone talking about the Herald of Andraste that is... also me.
[Fenris doesn't interrupt her. He stands, silent and stoic as always, no emotion crossing his face to give away what he's thinking. What he's feeling. It's disconcerting, knowing what will happen in the future. That he will undoubtedly be amongst the chaos. Not with the Inquisition, but wherever he will have put himself. Perhaps still within the Free Marches. He supposes that entirely depends on where Hawke will go.
After he realises she's...stopped talking, he knows he needs to offer something up. ]
Suddenly everything makes a lot more sense.
[A part of him almost wants to ask if she really is the herald. He's still fairly new at the whole...faith thing. Sebastian would no doubt have better questions than he could ever give. ]
I have a friend who would be very excited to hear that about you.
Hearing all that made things make more sense? Maybe I'm better at this than I thought.
I hope you can see why I'd keep those kinds of titles to myself. They aren't exactly... well, your friend isn't the only one who would be interested to know it, and they might be less happy about it once they saw I was an elf.
Yes, we're working on that. Do you remember that green magic I used on the dragon? That was how I open and close the rifts, it's not, ah... typical magic.
[Not everyone is as op as her Fenris you're safe.]
And I happen to be a very nice mage, so I'd hope he would forgive me this one failing.
[Honestly she had been expecting a worse reaction, for him to trust her less because of the things she had hidden, the station she held that she had been keeping from the entire fleet. And more than that, that her powers that tied directly to the Fade would put him on edge, make her more unstable and more of a threat than most mages, but he's... accepting.]
It means a lot that you would still feel that way after hearing all this. I consider you a friend, I'd have hated for the truth coming out to ruin that.
[Of course, Fenris' terrible secret is that he's tied to the Fade himself. Every time he phases, the lyrium tugs at the edges of the Fade, he slips through, partly. Of course, he doesn't say this. Not to her, not to anyone. ]
You're stopping the demons from tearing Thedas apart. That is what is important. As for your position. [A shrug.] You have met Hawke, right?
I have in fact met Hawke. They wanted her to do my job, before they put the title on me. I think things worked out well though.
[With all that out of the way, Jove finally goes to sit down, smile twisting into more a of a rueful sort of look.]
But now that you know I'm the Inquisitor, I thought it would be good if we talked about Cole. Since Dorian was telling you he was part of our organization and it's nearly impossible to keep secrets with Cole around, it only seemed right for me to come clean so we could try to come to an understanding about him.
I don't think Hawke would enjoy leading the Inquisition He...or she is more inwardly focussed. They never wanted to be involved in the mess in Kirkwall. It just...happened to us all.
[Ah. Here it comes. Fenris' face twists into an ugly scowl for a moment, before he settles for a more all-round look of irritation.]
I have promised to leave it be. So long as it does not come near me, we will have no problems. However foolish I think you are all being.
His name is Cole. I'm not asking you to like him, but tolerating him could start with not calling him it. He saved my life, you know, and Dorian's life too.
[And almost the entire population of Haven, but Dorian will be the important part to Fenris and so she sticks to him.]
If you want to hate him for being a spirit then I can't stop you, but perhaps him being part of why you have Dorian now can be enough to use his name on occasion.
[Something deeply unpleasant crosses Fenris' face for a moment. It's the sort of look you'd expect he'd get before someone died horribly. He lets out a breath, calms, and his expression settles into one of a more irritated exasperation. ]
So? Justice saved many lives, it travelled with the Hero, did work for her. It did not stop the creature and Anders destroying the Kirkwall chantry, slaughtering hundreds of innocent lives and throwing our world into a civil war- where hundreds more have undoubtedly perished. Just because it has saved some lives does not mean it will not turn.
[His eyes narrow, his shoulders tense. She has overstepped an already fragile boundary. ]
Do not presume you can use Dorian against me. I won't be manipulated. Not by you, not by anyone.
Edited (oh my god I cannot spell) 2015-04-02 20:02 (UTC)
[Doesn't that sting. The idea that should would ever use Dorian, use anyone, as a bargaining chip makes her feel ill and like she could hit him all at the same time. But neither of those things show, beyond a tightening around her mouth as her lips thin. He's crossed his own boundary now, but she can't even blame him for this. She can't even really stay angry.]
When I leave here and you consider what you've just said, you'll see it's as far from the truth as you could ever be. Cole is Compassion, Fenris, not Justice. His entire existence is to help, not to find retribution for those who are slighted. He isn't possessing a human, more importantly.
[And now she stands, because if he's on the way to hating her she doesn't want to make it worse.]
And before you make your assumptions about his turning, you should know that he begged me to kill him if he ever hurt anyone. I've promised that I will, and the saddest part of all of this is if you were to kill him for being a danger when he truly was, he would thank you.
[Boy, does he not care about the differentiation. He has seen too much of the arcane, of spirits and demons in Tevinter to know letting his guard around one, treating it as if it were a PERSON would be a foolish move.]
[She doesn't respond. Up til now, Fenris has always gotten the side of Jove that every single one of her friends gets; sweet, supportive, willing to talk out differences.
But Fenris says it again and something turns off in her eyes. Cole is a person, more now than he had ever been before. He had been losing his fear of becoming attached to people, starting to learn that it didn't always mean they would hate you the moment they found out your true nature.
But Fenris does, and Fenris will never change, and Jove heads for his door without another word.]
[He doesn't stop her. Perhaps, eventually, he will feel some regret in the way he spoke to her about this. His views on Cole will remain. He needs more time, to conquer this particular fear. ]
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I'm certain you had your reasons for that. It wasn't my place to pry.
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I'll admit the reasons were primarily selfish, but we'll get to that. For now, what do you know about the Inquisition? I'm not sure what Dorian has told you.
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...Also Corypheus isn't as dead as we most assuredly made him.
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That's a good place to start, actually. With Corypheus. He was the start of all this, for me, because I had the good fortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. [There's a beat, and she shakes her head.] The right place at the right time, if we're going to be honest.
There was a meeting to stop the mage and templar war, you see. He arrived there with an ancient artifact and attacked the Divine, but I happened to come in in the middle of it. I took hold of the artifact and it transferred its power to me, and then... then the conclave exploded. Everyone died, except for me. I fell out of the Fade in the middle of the ruins of the conclave and everyone assumed I had done it, but it was Corypheus who had been behind it.
The explosion left a big hole in the sky, bigger than any of the other rifts in the area. You could see it for miles and it just kept pouring out demons from the Fade. The power that had been transferred to me was part of that tear, so only I could close it. I didn't have enough power at the time to heal the scar completely, but I did stop it from spreading and stopped the demons from crossing through.
And because I lived through all that, through the Fade and closing the breach, and since a... a woman, she led me from the Fade and everyone who saw her was certain it was Andraste...
[She's been slowly pacing all through this explanation, hands alternating between touching her forehead and rubbing through her hair, gesturing as she spoke, but now she comes to a stop and glances at Fenris.]
This is a lot, I know, and it makes very little sense, but... the point is, that's what happened in Thedas, that's what the Inquisition is working to fix, and I- well. I'm the Inquisitor. And if you've heard anyone talking about the Herald of Andraste that is... also me.
[Surprise?]
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After he realises she's...stopped talking, he knows he needs to offer something up. ]
Suddenly everything makes a lot more sense.
[A part of him almost wants to ask if she really is the herald. He's still fairly new at the whole...faith thing. Sebastian would no doubt have better questions than he could ever give. ]
I have a friend who would be very excited to hear that about you.
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Hearing all that made things make more sense? Maybe I'm better at this than I thought.
I hope you can see why I'd keep those kinds of titles to myself. They aren't exactly... well, your friend isn't the only one who would be interested to know it, and they might be less happy about it once they saw I was an elf.
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[He smiles, faintly.] Sebastian is not one of prejudice such as that. He would be more upset about your being a mage.
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[Not everyone is as op as her Fenris you're safe.]
And I happen to be a very nice mage, so I'd hope he would forgive me this one failing.
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[Which is unusual because, well, Tevinter. ]
Maybe. If I can enjoy your company, I'm sure he could manage it.
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It means a lot that you would still feel that way after hearing all this. I consider you a friend, I'd have hated for the truth coming out to ruin that.
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You're stopping the demons from tearing Thedas apart. That is what is important. As for your position. [A shrug.] You have met Hawke, right?
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I have in fact met Hawke. They wanted her to do my job, before they put the title on me. I think things worked out well though.
[With all that out of the way, Jove finally goes to sit down, smile twisting into more a of a rueful sort of look.]
But now that you know I'm the Inquisitor, I thought it would be good if we talked about Cole. Since Dorian was telling you he was part of our organization and it's nearly impossible to keep secrets with Cole around, it only seemed right for me to come clean so we could try to come to an understanding about him.
[A beat.]
Try is the operative word there.
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[Ah. Here it comes. Fenris' face twists into an ugly scowl for a moment, before he settles for a more all-round look of irritation.]
I have promised to leave it be. So long as it does not come near me, we will have no problems. However foolish I think you are all being.
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[And almost the entire population of Haven, but Dorian will be the important part to Fenris and so she sticks to him.]
If you want to hate him for being a spirit then I can't stop you, but perhaps him being part of why you have Dorian now can be enough to use his name on occasion.
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So? Justice saved many lives, it travelled with the Hero, did work for her. It did not stop the creature and Anders destroying the Kirkwall chantry, slaughtering hundreds of innocent lives and throwing our world into a civil war- where hundreds more have undoubtedly perished. Just because it has saved some lives does not mean it will not turn.
[His eyes narrow, his shoulders tense. She has overstepped an already fragile boundary. ]
Do not presume you can use Dorian against me. I won't be manipulated. Not by you, not by anyone.
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When I leave here and you consider what you've just said, you'll see it's as far from the truth as you could ever be. Cole is Compassion, Fenris, not Justice. His entire existence is to help, not to find retribution for those who are slighted. He isn't possessing a human, more importantly.
[And now she stands, because if he's on the way to hating her she doesn't want to make it worse.]
And before you make your assumptions about his turning, you should know that he begged me to kill him if he ever hurt anyone. I've promised that I will, and the saddest part of all of this is if you were to kill him for being a danger when he truly was, he would thank you.
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Then I am glad it is aware.
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But Fenris says it again and something turns off in her eyes. Cole is a person, more now than he had ever been before. He had been losing his fear of becoming attached to people, starting to learn that it didn't always mean they would hate you the moment they found out your true nature.
But Fenris does, and Fenris will never change, and Jove heads for his door without another word.]
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