☆ the vorkosigan saga psl post, volume 3

[runawayballista]

welcome to hell

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[dirthena]

The matter of spirits and demons is one that Lavellan leaves to Solas, deferring to an expert who's knowledge she's learning firsthand but can never hope to match at present. Maybe if she had a decade or two to devote to it, much like he must have. But at least Miles seems to be interested, rather than insulting them and the world by turn.

"To use magic, one must have the willpower to both pull magic through the Veil that separates the Fade from this world, and to resist the whispers of any demon bent on possessing them." It's an occupational hazard, if one will.

[forwardmomentum]

Well, it's certainly...inventive. Interesting stuff. Miles nods slightly along with the explanation, tapping his fingers in thought.

"Sounds like risky business, but I'm guessing the risk is well worth the reward?" He tilts his head slightly. "So can anyone who dreams do magic -- access the Fade like that -- if they've got enough willpower?"

[lonesomewanderer]

"No, not with the Veil separating us from the Fade. Drawing magic threw it is no simple feat and it takes more than being able to dream to access it." If there was a way for others to use it, the fear of it made it impossible to foster such abilities. Solas longs for the days of old, of his own childhood where magic had been a simple feat and not feared.

"The risk is well worth the reward, as you put it."

[dirthena]

Lavellan nods, confirming Solas' opinion on the matter. "Many think so, but many think otherwise as well." Like humans, and for a moment her gaze is piercing before she stands, and gestures out the stained glass doors and windows of her room, out towards the sky.

"The Breach is a tear into the Fade, larger than any." She's assuming Miles can put one and one together and understand why that's a bad idea overall.

[forwardmomentum]

Miles follows her hand and looks at the great green gash in the sky again, and his eyes widen slightly. He glances back at Solas and Lavellan.

"Ah. I'm guessing that's what you're all trying to do -- fix that great big hole in the sky?" Miles's brow furrows. "What caused that? I mean, how do you open the Veil in the first place?"

[lonesomewanderer]

"Large concentrations of magic can create tears. We are still searching for the source of this one." Which wasn't technically a lie. He had an idea of what happened at the Breach, of the Tevinter magister that his agents had given his foci to. But he needed to see the monstrosity to get a full read on the situation and no one else in the Inquisition knew what was happening.

"What we saw at the Conclave was an abnormality we seek to fix."

[dirthena]

"Whoever made the Breach still has the object most likely to have caused it in his possession," Lavellan clarifies, thinking of the focus that he'd held aloft while holding her aloft. Of Solas' confession that it was elven in nature, how they needed this fortress to earn and keep the Inquisition's favor once they found out. "And we're beginning our search for it and him. But we have little to go on, and are only just recovering from the loss at Haven."

Holding out her hand, she lets the gash across the palm glow in the light of her room. "This can close rifts -- at least the smaller ones. I don't know how I got it, but I walked out of the Fade and into the remains of the Conclave. Like you did." Only he wasn't marked.

[forwardmomentum]

Miles glances down at both hands, and, nope, no glowy green anything. It'd have been hard to miss before, anyway. He looks up at Lavellan with a crooked smile and suggests lightly, "First come, first serve?"

But he shakes his head and chews at a hangnail on his thumb. "Right, so. The Breach is dangerous, that's clear enough, and big enough that it had to be manmade, with an object capable of generating enough magical...er...whatever to make a tear that big." He looks up, frowning. "What happened at Haven?"

The additional question of what the hell is Haven is implied.

[lonesomewanderer]

Miles words are far more true than Solas would care to say. Elera's life had been shifted in unimaginable ways by simply being in the wrong place at the right time. All due to his mistake. He lets that topic slide past and instead focuses on Miles' question.

"A battle. We lost Haven when Corypheus revealed himself and brought his army to attack. He thought he would have us there, but we managed to regroup here," he replies motioning to the fortress around them. Once elvhen and now painfully Ferelden. It held its own importance to Solas, but that was another bit of personal history he kept to himself.

[dirthena]

That makes her smile, a small twitch of her lips upwards. "So it would seem. I don't suppose you'd be interested in a trade?" Lavellan only partly means it, her thumb running across the mark before she withdraws her hand. Solas has answered the question about Haven reasonably well, which means it's up to her to address the unspoken part of the question.

"It was a village, close by the Breach. And served as the Inquisition's headquarters, although we were leaderless at the time." Cassandra had been hoping that Hawke, or the Warden, would finally come forth. Still, Elera can only hope she's filled the role as well as Cassandra wanted. "You are welcome in Skyhold, so long as you pose no threat to our efforts."