fadewalk | RP: Anders

Neria was pacing in front of a table full of open books, parchments, journals and notes. The farther wall from the door was covered with written rituals, most of them Ancient Elven, along with more of her notes, drawings of runes and magical circles. She was completely and utterly absorbed by her own thoughts.

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Anders squinted at the mention of lyrium as alive, a question on his lips, but he let it die when she moved on and started pacing, shelving that topic for later.

"You're asking the wrong person to confer on Dalish history, Neria," he said with a chuckle. "But...if I'm following you correctly - you're saying red lyrium - and by extension, the taint - appeared, what is that, 600 years before history said it did?"

(OOC: I'm gonna have to get to bed early tonight because of work in the morning. I'll be around tomorrow, though!)

(ooc: great! see you tomorrow then ^^)

"Yes. Andruil... the People did it."

She took some breath.

"Despite how this may affect the Dalish and how Thedas see the Elves - and I'm not really willing to give them one more reason to despise us, hence why this can't leave this place - I'm not done yet. See, Inquisitor Lavellan said there was a uncanny amount of Red Lyrium in the Temple of Sacred Ashes after the explosion, a clear sign of corruption caused by the also uncanny amount of magic that led to the explosion, in the first place. One may argue that this was due Corypheus' presence at the explosion, but I believe this was mostly due the magic." she shrugged "The Architect was all over the Deep Roads and we haven't been across one single Red Lyrium vein, hence why I dismissed Corypheus sole presence as origin for the Red Lyrium in the Temple. Magic is the key here. If magic can Taint the Lyrium, by association, the Taint is a magical disease."

She turned to see Anders abruptly, eyes wide at that conclusion.

(OOC: Sorry for disappearing abruptly! Work got a bit out of hand this week)

Anders listened intently, his brow furrowing in concentration as he tried to follow her reasoning. "So...if it's a magical disease...you can use magic to cure it, yes?"

He gnawed on the inside of his lip and took a few steps closer to the wall, then back. "Did...These ah, what did they call them, rifts? That Corypheus caused. Someone said they were caused by...some kind of, of, orb thing, that Corypheus had? Which was a magical elven artifact, if I understood what I was told correctly. Maybe that's what caused the red lyrium at the Temple?"

He blinked. "I think? Is that right? I'm not completely making that up, am I?"

(ooc: Oh, it's ok! I just figured you were busy or something. Glad to have you back though ^^)

"No, you are absolutely right, I believe." she nodded "They say those orbs could harness the power of a elven god, so the explosion at the temple could've been caused, yes, by the power of an elven god. But I digress."

She approached the wall.

"As for the Taint, there is one more thing. Remember our Grey Warden fellow, Utha?"

Anders pressed his fingers into his brow and frowned. "Utha...oh, right! She was that dwarf with the Architect, yes?"

"Exactly. After you left, I spend some time with the Architect, studying with him, getting to know his research." Neria avoided Anders' gaze on a clear sign of I-feel-guilty-about-it-because-I-should-be-killing-him-I-know "I came across some papers and found out Utha fought by Grand Enchanter Fiona's side when they both served the order, so I decided to talk to her and see if anything had happened that could hint me why Fiona was cured from the Taint." she shrugged "Well... as much as you can say you 'talked' to a Silent Sister, anyway."

And she took a step closer to Anders, lowering her voice. "Fiona was pregnant just a little before Utha left the order. Maybe, maybe and that is a really long shot, generating a new life acted as a purifying spell on its own way, you know how unconscious magic can be. But since we're trying to find a solution for everyone, and not just mage warden ladies, so I started developing this spell." she pointed to a old journal over the table "Based on that high-level Spirit magic spell, Revival. I just don't quite know how to convert it to a purifying spell, but that's why you are here."

Anders folded his arms and pursed his lips. "The Taint is something in our blood - which is why darkspawn blood is one of the ingredients in the Joining, why the Tainted who die from it usually do so from getting the Taint in an open wound. As a healer I have a hard time imagining conception would cure it? Far more likely the infant would inherit the Taint, although perhaps to lesser degree."

"That's pure conjecture though; Wardens are supposed to be infertile, aren't we?"

He moved towards the journal and inspected it. "Still, you might be onto something here."

"It's not the conception per se. It's what she felt over it." she sighed "Besides, have I ever told you about how I survived the killing blow?"

"I, ah, am not entirely sure I follow."

Anders arched a brow and looked back up from the notes to Neria's face.

"No? You were very hush-hush about that, as I recall."

"I think it's only fair you know, then. This motivated my whole research, after all."

She pointed him a chair.

"You should take a seat."

"Ah, all right..."

Anders sat down, crossing one leg over the other and leaning forward. He fixed an expectant gaze on Neria.

"In the night before the Battle of Denerim, me and Alistair were panicking. Riordan, the Orlesian Grey Warden aiding us by Duncan's request, had just told one of us would die when killing the Archdemon."

Her voice was low, grave, and she shifted uncomfortably.

"But then Morrigan came across some interesting information on her mother's grimoire, about a ritual who could save us. This ritual involved a non-Tainted woman bearing the child of a Grey Warden, so the taint would pass down to the child and the Archdemon's immortal soul inhabit the still soulless child. No one had to die, and the Old God is not evil per se, it's just the Taint so... everyone wins."

"Um." Anders looked incredulous, and he blinked multiple times. He made an aborted gesture with one hand, first and second finger pressed to his thumb. "So you're telling me...no."

He sat back, ran his fingers through his hair, tried again.

"You and Alistair avoided dying at the end of the Blight because you engaged in some freaky sex ritual? One that resulted in a god-child??" He blew out a breath. "I knew you had done some crazy shit, Neria, but that's - that's like, myth level out there, you know?"

"I wasn't confident this would work, yet here I am."

She motioned her hands, showing herself.

"Now you see why this made me question the very fabric of the world as we know and pursue this crazy nonsense such as a cure for the Taint. The order don't know nothing of it, clearly, though I suspect the First Warden might suspect of something."

"I...am not sure I would equate the cure with that, exactly. But I suppose the whole 'not wanting to die' thing is the same."

Anders tilted his head, admitting, "It's not a notion I'm unfamiliar with, the willingness to do whatever it takes to be free and live the life you choose with your loved ones, Neria. Nor is it anything to be ashamed of."

"Oh, so I shouldn't be ashamed of depriving a child from their own father? A god-child, on the top of it?" she sighed, shoulders dropping "This could be Alistair's--"

Neria ran her hands through her hair, dropping in the nearest chair "Better focus on the spell." her hand reached for the journal, and she handed it to Anders "Care to take a look?"

Anders studied her thoughtfully for a moment, trying to puzzle out what it was she was not saying. He accepted the journal silently and flipped through it without really seeing it.

Then he said softly, not taking his eyes off the journal, "Alistair has never regretted anything about being with you, Neria, so long as I've known him, and if I know him at all, he never will."

"I know."

She said, softly, glancing at her feet.

"Regretting something usually only tortures you, and I know it and yet... under the same circumstances, I would do everything again. Love is a powerful feeling. Hence my theory about Fiona."

Anders finally looked over at her, his amber gaze soft.

"Another sentiment I'm familiar with," he said. There were a lot of things he regretted, but very few of them that he would change even so. Leaving Fenris alone for so long, that one, perhaps. Not doubting Jicosa so much. What he had done in Kirkwall? Never. He might not be comfortable with the fact that he was still alive, but he wouldn't regret that. He couldn't.

He cleared his throat and picked up a piece of charcoal from the table, making a few adjustments to some of Neria's formulas and diagrams.

"You'll want to focus more on - burning the infection, so in this case the Taint, out, rather than just healing the body back to wholeness like you would with a revival spell," he said. "You have to think of a purification spell as a kind of destructive magic, rather than a kind of creation magic."

"I see."

Neria stood up and slightly leaned over Ander's shoulder, tilting her head to take a better look of his corrections "I haven't thought that way about it. We should be careful, though, with destroying the Taint. Older Wardens might have a hard time dealing with a spell too agressive, since the Taint is deeper on them."

She placed a hand on his shoulder and for a brief moment she recalled their time in Vigil's Keep and their long chats about mage rights and magic itself. Moving even further back in time, their days on Kinloch Hold and how he used to help her with her trainings, warn her about Jowan and wrinkle his nose at her conversations with Cullen. Funny thing, thinking that Had she followed any of his advices, she wouldn't be there now. Some pain could've been avoided, yes, but at what cost? Life was curious.

Anders hummed in agreement. "Good point."

He made a few corrections to add some of the healing and rejuvenating elements of the spell back in, to combat any weakness it might create in the older Wardens.

"Surely a purification spell, even one as complex and tailored as this, is too simple a solution to the Taint, though," he muttered as he worked. "Else this would have been done long ago. What are we missing..."

Edited Date: 2015-08-29 07:38 am (UTC)

"We still lack the adequate magical source to cast and sustain the spell and..." she turned the page, a very old diagram, inscribed with elven writing "I found this on the Temple of Sylaise, goddess of fire and healing. A healing spell wrote by the goddess herself, according to the books,to save her sister. I thought this was insane at first, a spell made to be casted for days, but with the right adjustments using a Lyrium circle to power it, we can make it work."

Anders studied the circle, tracing the diagram with a finger.

"Are you sure even a lyrium circle would be powerful enough to power this?" he asked dubiously, brow furrowing.

"No, not a conventional one. We'll have to add more layers to the circle, use far more Lyrium." Neria scratched her head "I saw a book in the underground library about it. Tevene technique, very simple to use."

Anders nodded. "Did you bring that one? I could take a look at it." He chewed on his lip. "It sounds feasible, if we can get our hands on the lyrium. Do you get a supply, as Warden-Commander? I've had a beast of a time getting any on my own, though Hawke and Varric have always helped with that."