☼ Arrival; ☼

[ladysunshines]

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.

Comments

[scowls]

Once she's standing, Fenris starts walking toward the mansion at a relatively sedate pace. He thinks over what little he's learned and how he'd felt during those first moments here in Wonderland, but his experience doesn't provide much to help her.

"I'm afraid I haven't many answers to those questions," he replies honestly. "Whether there are few who know them or I simply haven't asked the right people, I do not know."

He remembers the letter he couldn't read that everyone had been trying to show him. "The magical devices that allow us to communication come with a letter of instruction. From what I gather, it seems to possess all of the answers that the people here possess."

[ladysunshines]

The level of organization and long-lasting captivity that it would take to be able to organize a sort of welcome letter is not something she wants to think too long or hard about, but it is good information to have.

"Then I will have to look at it." Fenris not being able to read isn't something she's fully aware of, not really, and she doesn't want to potentially prod into something painful (she's already done that once, after all). "And ask around, using my Hawke-twins-only charm as an advantage." She's teasing, and hopefully the smirk that crosses her lips conveys that well enough.

"As you haven't mentioned the rampant starvation or plagues yet, I assume this place has somewhere to eat as well?" Hawke priorities, man.

[scowls]

That, at least, makes him snort in good humor. He's seen Carver's charm quite a few times, though it's mellowed with time and become less brash and closer to being actual charm as he's aged. From the stories he's heard of Bethany, Fenris is relatively certain that she's got the lion's share of the genuine article. Certainly Marian never had any to speak of.

"There is food. Ample quantities." And perhaps by the wary tone of his voice, it's clear that he doesn't know what to think of it. "The mansion has kitchens that provide whatever you wish. As far as I know, you may eat whenever you like."

He frowns, eyeing the building as they approach. "It is that way with everything. If we need it, it is provided to us through magic. Or something near enough to magic that I cannot tell the difference."

[ladysunshines]

Aha, so he still has at least some of the sense of humor that the Fenris she knew would've responded to. That's good, because re-learning ways to make someone smile was quite time-consuming. Even within her own family of Hawkes, Bethany had been the most sweet and even-tempered of the three children.

Her brows knit together briefly. "All these things provided to us so that it doesn't seem as if we've been kidnapped and taken hostage, I presume." She understands his frown all too well -- being a former slave must've made this more maddening even than coming from the Circle -- and she sympathizes with it.

"Magic on this scale is ... well, it hasn't been heard of in Thedas for years, has it? That's worrisome."

[scowls]

Fenris nods in agreement, biting absently at the inside of his lip. The strength of the magic here is troubling, as is having no clear target to fight. He cannot kill their captors if they never show themselves.

"And it makes us reliant on it. Complacent. Such magic troubles me." Not simply because it's magic, but because if people grow too reliant on it, they might be more easily controlled.

"I am told you are an accomplished mage," he says slowly, glancing over at her in inquiry. "Perhaps you might be able to study it? Find out more about it than someone like I can?"

[ladysunshines]

There's certainly something to be said about relying so heavily on the magic of this place. For one thing, if they don't truly know how it works -- who's to say how consistent it will be, how reliable? For all she knew, the food they were eating was transformed from some sort of mind-control drug.

She returns the nod with regard to the magic. "I can see why it would. I'm not thrilled with the idea of it, either." Then again, she'd always been more likely than other mages to fear magic in the first place -- from what she'd seen in Kirkwall.

At his inquiry, though, she manages to duck her head slightly. "I don't know about accomplished, past being able to teach the basics," which was certainly not true, but she wasn't given over easily to bragging, "But studying it is something I would like to do, regardless." She pauses, though. "But sometimes it's good to have an outside perspective from someone who doesn't do magic, too. I'm sure you'd still be of help."

[scowls]

Fenris accepts that easily enough. "If something requires killing, I will be glad to lend my assistance."

That's where his skills lay anyway. He doubts that he would be any use in true discussions of magical theory and application. He isn't a mage, there is much about the process he cannot understand, and he still hates it too much to be unbiased.

Upon reaching the door to the mansion, Fenris pulls it open and holds it so that Bethany might pass through. There's nothing harmful in the entry way, he knows.

[ladysunshines]

She's been circularly around whether Fenris has any other skills with the elf she's familiar with enough to know that protesting he might have another use isn't going to produce any useful results. "I'm glad to hear you'd be willing to help."

Once the door is pulled open for her, she steps inside cautiously -- her eyes scan the entrance as she walks through it, but she does have enough residual politeness left in her to murmur a quiet, "Thank you," to Fenris.