[Dorian had often wondered how much his own father knew about Danarius and his wickedness and how he was simply complicit in it so long as he was maintaining the moral high ground himself. Perhaps he was as complicit as Dorian who believed, for the longest time, that owning slaves was perfectly fine as long as they were well cared for and not starving on the streets like those in the alienages. It was normalized in him not to think of it as being abnormal.]
Generous is a loaded word, I suppose when my father, who preached to me the evils of blood magic and instilled within me a hatred of it abandoned his own principles and planned on using blood magic on me to make me more...pliable? That might have been the starting point, at least in changing the framework of things I knew to be true.
[Of course that was only a very small part of it.]
I left Tevinter, headed south to help the Inquisition and the time I spent in Ferelden, making friends with people so unlike myself and yet so alike in all the ways that matter. Hearing them, listening to their criticisms, viewing what they had to say as constructive, and seeing my world from a different perspective? It changed the way I think and that I want to do the right thing.
[Though the right things wasn't black and white not was it easy and it was hardly fun, but he would figure it out.]
For me, that means changing Tevinter, culling the magisters, and redefining their purpose. It was never meant to be a committee of mages, but those who are qualified by their merits to be leaders and arbiters of the social ills and disputes. Instead, magisters are more content in hoarding their own power and allowing things to slide.
He'd steeled himself throughout each of those points, waiting for the inevitable drop. Of course, blood magic has its place, he'd readied himself for, or naturally, I wish to keep some of the oldest families around. A hint of where they'd both come from, a taste of the inevitable backlash that Fenris just knows is coming.
Except it doesn't. It simply ends on an alarmingly sane note, and he doesn't know what to do with that.]
I . . . see.
[It's not that he wholeheartedly agrees with it. But it's also not Anders' delusional rants, full of pointless fire and idiotic reforms.
(It's possible he's still furious with Anders, even three months later).
But it is sane, and that's more than Fenris ever expects from magisters. He wonders vaguely what the Other-Fenris thought, and then decides it doesn't matter.]
That was not the answer I expected-- not from a mage, and certainly not from someone from Tevinter.
[He says it a little blankly, unsure on how to process that. It seems an oddly perfect answer, and he wonders if it's a lie. It's certainly possible.]
I can't claim that I was always of this mindset and I will not, I have a responsibility in knowing I was part of a system that was complacent in everything. In the use of blood magic, in the abuse of magic, in the suffering of slaves...and I comforted myself by saying "my family treats our slaves well" and "slavery is better than living in the alienages."
[Dorian inhaled and exhaled slowly, it was difficult having the scales fall from one's eyes.]
Those excuses came from a life that normalized such things and I realized I was just appeasing my own guilt and making excuses for inaction. Then I met people, people I never would have met in Tevinter because they would have been slaves...and I'm very glad that I met them.
[He was glad that he had Fenris's ear at least.]
I would pontificate about the wrongs of rounding mages up and locking them in towers when it hadn't occurred to me that we do the same thing to people in Tevinter. I find it's not an argument I can make without dishonesty, not any longer. If slaves can be rounded up, locked away, and abused then there is no reason that mages cannot...it's just a bad argument.
[Well this was a deep topic, he hadn't intended to go quite this far.]
Ah, but I only wanted to know if you were well or if you needed anything. I have plants from our world so I am able to make potions and tonics if you require any of that.
[This is going to take thought, frankly. It's too good to be true, and yet riddled with just enough detail to make it seem honest. He'll have to think about this and then get back to Dorian, but he knows now he wants at least to meet him.
So, with that said:]
I would not turn down a healing potion.
[He's not, like, bleeding out right now, but on the other hand, he makes a habit of wandering around the black market just to pick a fight, so he's not at his best either.]
Exchanged somewhere in public. I can offer chroma.
[Dorian was...cautiously optimistic, he didn't expect Fenris to trust him, but the fact that he wasn't shutting him down or having fits at him seemed to be a positive step in the right direction.]
There is a place called The Tea Kittle located it level 3 of Lower Lunatia, it's a cross between a library and a tea shop.
[He agrees that a public place might be safer for the both of them overall, not that he was expecting a confrontation.]
Oh, I don't require any sort of payment, I have more than I need.
[He's not above getting free shit from magisters, but at least for this first meeting . . . it makes them more equal. And in this city that throws him so off-kilter, he'll take what he can get.]
I'll see you in a few hours, then.
[Presumably Dorian knows what he looks like, Fenris figures. Even if he doesn't, there's only so many people who dress and speak as though they're from Tevinter. He'll figure it out.]
Sorry for the lag, summer has been killing my drive
[Dorian couldn't imagine anyone who wouldn't know what Fenris looked like after Danarius put out wanted posters of his rogue runaway, he made the elf incredibly distinct so that he would certainly be difficult to miss no matter where he went or how far he traveled. It was a monstrous thing to do to mark someone the way Fenris had been marked and Dorian had heard tale of other subjugations as well, but he would not bring it up, but to mark him in a way that made blending into the background and avoiding attention impossible. Dorian could not imagine...and for him who enjoyed the pleasure of attention would likely take for granted the solace he could get from privacy anytime he wanted.
Anyway he waited at the teahouse, just outside, looking as conspicuous as possible, wearing clothing from their world and carrying a mage's staff so he would be as recognizable as if it had been branded on him. As promised he had brought potions with him and was sitting readily at a table just outside the shop with tea available along with a variety of snacks to share if Fenris was hungry. It was polite anyway.]
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no subject
Generous is a loaded word, I suppose when my father, who preached to me the evils of blood magic and instilled within me a hatred of it abandoned his own principles and planned on using blood magic on me to make me more...pliable? That might have been the starting point, at least in changing the framework of things I knew to be true.
[Of course that was only a very small part of it.]
I left Tevinter, headed south to help the Inquisition and the time I spent in Ferelden, making friends with people so unlike myself and yet so alike in all the ways that matter. Hearing them, listening to their criticisms, viewing what they had to say as constructive, and seeing my world from a different perspective? It changed the way I think and that I want to do the right thing.
[Though the right things wasn't black and white not was it easy and it was hardly fun, but he would figure it out.]
For me, that means changing Tevinter, culling the magisters, and redefining their purpose. It was never meant to be a committee of mages, but those who are qualified by their merits to be leaders and arbiters of the social ills and disputes. Instead, magisters are more content in hoarding their own power and allowing things to slide.
no subject
He'd steeled himself throughout each of those points, waiting for the inevitable drop. Of course, blood magic has its place, he'd readied himself for, or naturally, I wish to keep some of the oldest families around. A hint of where they'd both come from, a taste of the inevitable backlash that Fenris just knows is coming.
Except it doesn't. It simply ends on an alarmingly sane note, and he doesn't know what to do with that.]
I . . . see.
[It's not that he wholeheartedly agrees with it. But it's also not Anders' delusional rants, full of pointless fire and idiotic reforms.
(It's possible he's still furious with Anders, even three months later).
But it is sane, and that's more than Fenris ever expects from magisters. He wonders vaguely what the Other-Fenris thought, and then decides it doesn't matter.]
That was not the answer I expected-- not from a mage, and certainly not from someone from Tevinter.
[He says it a little blankly, unsure on how to process that. It seems an oddly perfect answer, and he wonders if it's a lie. It's certainly possible.]
no subject
[Dorian inhaled and exhaled slowly, it was difficult having the scales fall from one's eyes.]
Those excuses came from a life that normalized such things and I realized I was just appeasing my own guilt and making excuses for inaction. Then I met people, people I never would have met in Tevinter because they would have been slaves...and I'm very glad that I met them.
[He was glad that he had Fenris's ear at least.]
I would pontificate about the wrongs of rounding mages up and locking them in towers when it hadn't occurred to me that we do the same thing to people in Tevinter. I find it's not an argument I can make without dishonesty, not any longer. If slaves can be rounded up, locked away, and abused then there is no reason that mages cannot...it's just a bad argument.
[Well this was a deep topic, he hadn't intended to go quite this far.]
Ah, but I only wanted to know if you were well or if you needed anything. I have plants from our world so I am able to make potions and tonics if you require any of that.
no subject
So, with that said:]
I would not turn down a healing potion.
[He's not, like, bleeding out right now, but on the other hand, he makes a habit of wandering around the black market just to pick a fight, so he's not at his best either.]
Exchanged somewhere in public. I can offer chroma.
no subject
There is a place called The Tea Kittle located it level 3 of Lower Lunatia, it's a cross between a library and a tea shop.
[He agrees that a public place might be safer for the both of them overall, not that he was expecting a confrontation.]
Oh, I don't require any sort of payment, I have more than I need.
no subject
[He's not above getting free shit from magisters, but at least for this first meeting . . . it makes them more equal. And in this city that throws him so off-kilter, he'll take what he can get.]
I'll see you in a few hours, then.
[Presumably Dorian knows what he looks like, Fenris figures. Even if he doesn't, there's only so many people who dress and speak as though they're from Tevinter. He'll figure it out.]
Sorry for the lag, summer has been killing my drive
Anyway he waited at the teahouse, just outside, looking as conspicuous as possible, wearing clothing from their world and carrying a mage's staff so he would be as recognizable as if it had been branded on him. As promised he had brought potions with him and was sitting readily at a table just outside the shop with tea available along with a variety of snacks to share if Fenris was hungry. It was polite anyway.]