The way they go about things. Make no mistake, I don't mind their determination. But I do mind their arrogance. Acting like you're unreasonable - mad, even - because you don't see things their way.
[ A hum, agreeable and fond, and Bastien shifts fully onto his side to look at By. (His earlier indecision about which side of the bed to claim has been settled instinctively and undramatically—perhaps with some quiet accommodation from Byerly—by which side allows him to face Byerly without having to bury his good ear in the pillow.) ]
Maybe it is in the blood, after all those ages of mages who had their way about everything. Or maybe we only get the difficult ones, in Riftwatch.
Maybe they think the same about us.
[ Or— ]
About you. [ With faintly amused apology for his chronic agreeability, ] Enchanter Marcus gave me a Satinalia gift.
[ Which he has been quite cheerfully abstaining from, in solidarity. ]
I gave them to Leonard. I am going to wait until I'm sure he has used them to tell him they were assembled by a mage. He will be sure that he's been enchanted somehow.
[ Byerly had been about to tell Bastien that, of course, he's more than free to use those spices, that he doesn't need to be so disciplined all the time - but he pauses to laugh. ]
Oh, you must do it while I'm there! You naughty creature. He'll choke!
Of course you must be there. And if you see an opening to mention it to him before me, by all means.
[ He rubs his thumb against the patch of hair beneath By's mouth before resting his hand against his face. While they're paused, ]
I loved you as you were, you know, when we started. Before we started. You could drink all the time and be the world's most passionate royalist, and you would still be the great love of my life. But you keep making me even luckier to have you.
[ He would have still. But better not to linger on that; even with Bastien, even now, Byerly is not altogether comfortable being perceived as virtuous. So, moving along: ]
Maker! Did you laugh even once? That woman is humorless.
[ In that case they are even more surrounded by sinners and heretics than previously thought. ]
Maybe once. You know me.
[ If someone doesn’t give him a reason to laugh he will find his own. ]
But it was serious, yeah. We talked about why she came to Riftwatch and what she wanted. I told her a little about Chevalier—because it sounds a little like that is what it has been like for them, in practice. Living all the time with their Chevaliers.
[ It has to be said, before he consents to this little list of victimhood: ]
But some, sure. I told Derrica, one tossed me into a canal when I was a boy. And one beat the shit out of me when I was working, once, and I had to let him because, you know. [ Cover. ] The one I killed—he shouldn’t really count, under the circumstances, but if I hadn’t been what I was I would have been far too young for him. So he was trying.
It must be part of their training at the Académie. Swordsmanship in the morning, bullying and entitlement in the afternoon.
[ Byerly hums in acknowledgment, and uses his thumb to pet Bastien's cheek. No pity there, just sympathy and fondness. ]
I've never understood why they're all like that. There's nothing about being a warrior that makes a person nasty - yet the only decent Chevalier I ever met was Alexandrie's twin sister. The rest of them are bastards. Templars being bastards, at least, you understand a bit, with them needing lyrium and being cut off - But Chevaliers don't have any excuse.
[ Such pillow talk. But Bastien hardly minds. He stretches one arm out, cracks his back, and says, ]
Self-perpetuating, institutional,
[ with a self-aware air; he's a two-penny man using two-Royal words— ]
culture, I'd assume. The same reason you do not find many gentle bards. They all go to the same Academie and learn from the same men, who learned from the same men. And if they are not the kind of people willing to go marauding to kill elves out after curfew, I imagine they are not the kind of people who make it through the training.
[ Bastien hums agreeably. There are surely a thousand reasons it is not quite accurate, of course. But he's interested in which reasons By is concerned with, specifically, so he says, ]
One or two might have, during an Exalted March. But then they would have become soldiers rather than farmers.
And you are right, of course. But what I mean is, I don't think it feels that way to them. The Circle mages have come from a life where everyone can do as they do, so it has been no real advantage to them to be able to create fire in their hands. We can look at Tevinter and imagine a world where they live among us and use their power to take whatever they want, or abominations are taking out villages every week, but that is not a world they have ever lived in. [ He's gone a little meditative-sounding, like he might fall asleep. But he won't. It is actually the sound of him delving into the idea as he voices it, trying to put himself more firmly into their imagined shoes. ] They have only lived in one where everyone is like them, and the Templars can hurt them or the Chantry can decide to execute them all at once and no one will come to help.
[ He's quiet a moment, thinking about that, idly scratching Bastien's scalp as he does. He is...right about that, to be sure.
Yet - ]
But they've been with us for years, most of them. It'd be one thing for a newcomer to struggle with that idea. But they've dwelled alongside these Templars - and alongside us - and are still as rigid and uncompromising as on their first day.
[ is a joke, delivered with some quiet huffing laughter. They are all remarkably stubborn. ]
But I don't know. I think—if we set aside all the ways they are not like the elves. If we only think about they feel, after what has happened. Derrica is from Dairsmuid, you know, where they killed everyone. Nearly everyone. [ She does not appear to be dead herself. ] So that is—would we ask an elf from Halamshiral, with family who died in the purge there, to compromise about working with a chevalier? To trust them? Even one who was not there when it happened, they must have been there for other things.
I suppose we might ask it of them. For the sake of the world. Things are pretty dire. And I would admire the elf who was able to see that and do what needed to be done and save their fury for later. But it would leave a bad taste in my mouth, to force it.
[ He frowns slightly as he thinks. After several heartbeats of silence, he says: ]
Yes. I would ask it of them. I would force it, if need be.
[ His voice is slow, pensive, and honest. By way of explanation: ]
My country nearly fell once to darkspawn because one man was too lost in his old wounds to see the threat ahead of him. Living in the past means death.
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Maybe it is in the blood, after all those ages of mages who had their way about everything. Or maybe we only get the difficult ones, in Riftwatch.
Maybe they think the same about us.
[ Or— ]
About you. [ With faintly amused apology for his chronic agreeability, ] Enchanter Marcus gave me a Satinalia gift.
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What kind of gift?
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[ Which he has been quite cheerfully abstaining from, in solidarity. ]
I gave them to Leonard. I am going to wait until I'm sure he has used them to tell him they were assembled by a mage. He will be sure that he's been enchanted somehow.
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Oh, you must do it while I'm there! You naughty creature. He'll choke!
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[ He rubs his thumb against the patch of hair beneath By's mouth before resting his hand against his face. While they're paused, ]
I loved you as you were, you know, when we started. Before we started. You could drink all the time and be the world's most passionate royalist, and you would still be the great love of my life. But you keep making me even luckier to have you.
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You should have told me earlier. I wouldn't have worked as hard.
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No, I think you would have still.
[ He skritches his fingers into By’s hair. And unpause: ]
I think it was because of Fitcher. The spices. I’m sure he doesn’t actually like me.
Did I tell you I went and had drinks with Derrica?
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Maker! Did you laugh even once? That woman is humorless.
[ A cardinal sin in Byerly's dogma. ]
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Maybe once. You know me.
[ If someone doesn’t give him a reason to laugh he will find his own. ]
But it was serious, yeah. We talked about why she came to Riftwatch and what she wanted. I told her a little about Chevalier—because it sounds a little like that is what it has been like for them, in practice. Living all the time with their Chevaliers.
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He does have to ask, though, as an aside - ]
Did they ever trifle with you? Chevaliers?
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[ It has to be said, before he consents to this little list of victimhood: ]
But some, sure. I told Derrica, one tossed me into a canal when I was a boy. And one beat the shit out of me when I was working, once, and I had to let him because, you know. [ Cover. ] The one I killed—he shouldn’t really count, under the circumstances, but if I hadn’t been what I was I would have been far too young for him. So he was trying.
It must be part of their training at the Académie. Swordsmanship in the morning, bullying and entitlement in the afternoon.
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I've never understood why they're all like that. There's nothing about being a warrior that makes a person nasty - yet the only decent Chevalier I ever met was Alexandrie's twin sister. The rest of them are bastards. Templars being bastards, at least, you understand a bit, with them needing lyrium and being cut off - But Chevaliers don't have any excuse.
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Self-perpetuating, institutional,
[ with a self-aware air; he's a two-penny man using two-Royal words— ]
culture, I'd assume. The same reason you do not find many gentle bards. They all go to the same Academie and learn from the same men, who learned from the same men. And if they are not the kind of people willing to go marauding to kill elves out after curfew, I imagine they are not the kind of people who make it through the training.
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You know you're very sexy when your mouth's full of syllables.
[ Is he joking? - No. He appears not to be joking. ]
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Profligation. Equanimity. Osculator.
[ The last accompanied, appropriately, by a smushed kiss. Silly, but he does look genuinely pleased, when he inches back into eye-contact distance. ]
Incorrigible.
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Then, pulling back: ]
But you're right. Clearly nothing to be done but to drive all chevaliers out of their positions.
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[ He settles in comfortably again, arm slung around By's middle. ]
But maybe that is what it feels like to them. Like they are living in a tower with their chevaliers. I can see why they wound up so... testy.
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[ By considers that. ]
I feel as though the comparison between mages and Orlesian freemen is not quite accurate.
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No?
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And you are right, of course. But what I mean is, I don't think it feels that way to them. The Circle mages have come from a life where everyone can do as they do, so it has been no real advantage to them to be able to create fire in their hands. We can look at Tevinter and imagine a world where they live among us and use their power to take whatever they want, or abominations are taking out villages every week, but that is not a world they have ever lived in. [ He's gone a little meditative-sounding, like he might fall asleep. But he won't. It is actually the sound of him delving into the idea as he voices it, trying to put himself more firmly into their imagined shoes. ] They have only lived in one where everyone is like them, and the Templars can hurt them or the Chantry can decide to execute them all at once and no one will come to help.
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Yet - ]
But they've been with us for years, most of them. It'd be one thing for a newcomer to struggle with that idea. But they've dwelled alongside these Templars - and alongside us - and are still as rigid and uncompromising as on their first day.
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[ is a joke, delivered with some quiet huffing laughter. They are all remarkably stubborn. ]
But I don't know. I think—if we set aside all the ways they are not like the elves. If we only think about they feel, after what has happened. Derrica is from Dairsmuid, you know, where they killed everyone. Nearly everyone. [ She does not appear to be dead herself. ] So that is—would we ask an elf from Halamshiral, with family who died in the purge there, to compromise about working with a chevalier? To trust them? Even one who was not there when it happened, they must have been there for other things.
I suppose we might ask it of them. For the sake of the world. Things are pretty dire. And I would admire the elf who was able to see that and do what needed to be done and save their fury for later. But it would leave a bad taste in my mouth, to force it.
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[ He frowns slightly as he thinks. After several heartbeats of silence, he says: ]
Yes. I would ask it of them. I would force it, if need be.
[ His voice is slow, pensive, and honest. By way of explanation: ]
My country nearly fell once to darkspawn because one man was too lost in his old wounds to see the threat ahead of him. Living in the past means death.
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