entrancelogs | ☼ Arrival; ☼

Entry tags:

☼ Arrival; ☼

Who: Bethany Hawke and [open]
Where: Outside the caves!
When: Now...ish?
Rating: PG-13 for now!
Summary: Yass queen

The Story: Her head was swimming. The battle with Orsino had taken nearly all her magical power, but it was more than that -- seeing him use blood magic to take the corpses of all the mages that she’d known living and working in the circle to turn himself into an abomination -- it was too much. Too much on top of the templars and countless innocent people who had no doubt been killed when the Chantry had been obliterated. Her heart ached as if her mother and brother had died all over again. So much senseless violence because of Meredith, because of the extremist templars -- she squeezed her eyes shut and when they opened again, she was surrounded by a cave of brick icicles. What fresh hell was this?

“Garrett!” Her voice echoed hollowly in the cave and she spun, panicked. “Garrett!” What if this is some sort of last-ditch effort that Orsino learned from that horrible beast, Quentin? Was she going to be trapped in some sort of labyrinth for the rest of her (probably very short, very painful) life? She scanned the room and let out a sob of relief at the sight of the entrance to the cave, scrambling up the incline with little care for whether she was letting the barbs of once-molten stone bite into her skirts. She rushed toward the point of light, awkwardly using her staff to half-vault her toward the ever-growing gleam.

Blissfully, the Circle-mandated wear was spelled to be durable and once she made it to the sunlight, she skidded to a stop and took in her surroundings, staff at the ready.
“Show yourself!” There had to be someone here, there had to be some meaning of this that could be explained. The pain in her heart was too fresh for this to be heaven, and she had been to the Fade -- this was not it. Impatient at the lack of an answer, she slammed her staff down on the ground. A bolt of flame shoots from the spot it hits, landing nearby in an explosion of sparks.

“I don’t have time for this!” She needed to find her brother, because nothing about this place made any sense.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"According to some that have been here a while, this place sustains itself on memories. Perhaps that's why it takes them back when we leave. But it also occasionally does things with them here? Sometimes this place recreates times or places or dangers from the worlds people hail from - only a few days at a time, mind, but it makes things confusing all the same. An interruption of an otherwise quiet and what it tries to make a very comfortable stay, it seems."

She frowns. The idea of a place that consumes memories is understandably terrifying for someone who's now concerned at home about being turned Tranquil.

"At least it follows some sort of rules, then. It makes sense for it to want to take as many memories as possible, so the memories of us staying here would let it -- grow its own food, as it were." She can't help but think, though, "Is this place then some sort of creature in and of itself?" Because that means it can be defeated, in theory.

"Perhaps, but if it is, we don't know where it makes its lair. Or if it has one. I've heard mention of a Core beyond the Mirrors, but our access to that side of this realm is... complicated," he answers with a grimace. "I haven't been over there myself, but Dorian, my companion, has and the entire place and those who inhabit it are... well. Less than pleasant."

"Creatures as foul as this one must be rarely hide themselves where they're easy to get to," she nods, "Or pleasant to be in."

She sighs, glancing ahead again. "But if it's the place where the heart of this creature might be, then I would be willing to risk it."

"Therein lies the problem," he answers with a faint quirk of his lips, more self-depreciating rather than any actual humor. "It is not up to us to choose when or how to pass through to the Mirror side. It seems those that dwell over there are the only ones with the freedom to choose to come and go as they wish. With a notable few exceptions some of the longer residents have mentioned. But it seems any time those of the Mirror side get involved, things get messy quickly."

"Is it a Mirror realm in the most literal sense, then?" A reflection of this place, but not quite the place itself -- laden with inconsistencies and small differences, not unlike the place a demon would create to entrap humans.

Hmm. The whole 'this place is a creature' theory is really starting to feel like it has merit. She shakes her head.

"This is very unsettling -- all of it. Next you're going to tell me that they raise the dead, here."

"I have not seen it personally yet - my companion Dorian has, though. You step through the Mirrors and it's a reflection of this side of the realm we're trapped in but everything is backwards. And there are copies of many of us, but... different. Worse, in most cases. If you ever come across a Mirror of one of our selves, be wary. None of those I have seen or heard of make for pleasant encounters."

Her off-hand comment gets a sheepish laugh from him as he rubs the back of his hand. "Well, actually..."

"...Maker, really? I should stop making jokes, shouldn't I."

She takes note of his words about the Mirror selves, although she has to wonder how she'll know she's encountering one if what Brennan says about the rest of their little captive population is true. How can she know the face of every single person here if they can arrive at any time, just as she had?

Perhaps the better strategy was to be wary in general, as exhausting as the thought was.

"I'm not sure 'raising' is quite the right term but no," he answers wryly. "People don't tend to stay dead here. Sometimes the events can be harsh and result in such losses - or so I've been told, I haven't seen that many threatening ones since I've arrived, more confusing than anything else. But Wonderland seems to restore what it takes in this regard. And on occasion people will show up here even if they've died in the world we know."

People will show up here even if they've died in the world we know. That statement alone has her glancing off to the side, distracted. The idea that Carver could be here, or that her mother could be ... it makes her heart beat quickly in her chest.

"The level of advanced magic that would take..." she shakes her head. "I can't begin to fathom it. I imagine this place wouldn't last long if it just killed off all its food supply, though. So it makes some sense."

"It's a scope of magic we can barely even begin to understand it seems, let alone figure out how to wield for ourselves so far," he agrees with her, sounding a little frustrated by that fact. "Not that I can do anything of the sort anyway, but there are other mages here as well. None of them seem to be having much luck."

She perks up. The idea that there might be mages here who are from other words, and who similarly might wield some sort of other magic -- the possibilities were staggering, and maybe her ridiculous scholarly side was showing, but it didn't matter.

"I wonder if they'd be willing to share something about their magics, too. We could perform research!" Leave it to Bethany to be distracted by research.

"They all seem quite delighted to share knowledge with each other, as far as I've seen. There's even a sort of study or school set up on one of the floors, for mages to come together to meet. And there is a library vaster than most I've ever seen," Brennan supplies.

He's heard all about both from Dorian, by now.

She'll be pleased as punch to meet Dorian, even if she doesn't know as much yet. She nods, eager to push out the negative thoughts about this place with something a little more manageable.

"I'm sure it will make the Circle tower look like a petty market stand."

Brennan can't help but chuckle at that. "Not a fan either, I take it? I can't blame you. It doesn't take much to look better than a Circle Tower, I'm thinking."

Bethany shrugs her shoulders, a tad uncomfortable.

"It isn't that, really. I was happy at the Circle -- the life of an apostate isn't an easy one, is it?

But the reading is a bit -- restrictive. I had a book or two confiscated in my time." Mostly ones that had come from Isabela, naturally.

"I haven't heard many mages say that life was all that easy in the Circles, either," Brennan points out gently, knowing this is a very touchy topic. Not even his time has completely erased that although he's been working on it every way he can think to.

"As I understood it, that was what caused half of the tensions in Kirkwall to begin with."

"Perhaps not, but not having to worry about my family being persecuted -- or prosecuted, worse -- for hiding me was too much of a relief." She's glad for the gentle tone, given all the things that have just transpired, and she purses her lips tightly.

"What caused most of the tensions in Kirkwall was the inability to separate those who had fallen prey to blood magic with the rest of us."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

☼ Arrival; ☼

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject