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[exequy]

crystal • notes • visits • etc.

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action;

[katabasis]

[If he wanted a meeting, it would be easiest to have a note passed - Mssr. Averesch, Make time to attend to the Forces office this afternoon. -, or a message could sent via crystal. What occurs instead is the invasion of a dice game going on in a cramped Lowtown public house. One moment there is a space at Kostos' right, and the next there is not.]

[exequy]

[ He gets a double-take for his trouble, but not a greeting.

Maybe luck is finite. Maybe his various gambling catastrophes are meant to balance out the lucky circumstances of his birth, or the fact that he survived the war. Maybe Flint’s appearance is meant to balance the fact that, today, he’s actually doing very well. Or maybe his appearance is a sign that the luck has already run out. Or maybe luck is fake and nothing matters.

Kostos tosses a coin into one of the piles accumulating while someone else rolls, and says, ] If I start slipping now—

[ Then he’ll be cross, that’s what. ]

[katabasis]

Are you calling me a bad omen?

[He flicks his own coin to the table, but contributes little else beyond his presence there and is evidently unbothered when the subsequent roll sees his bet swept away.]

[exequy]

Not exactly.

[ But close. And closer, still, when the next roll loses his coin as well. He turns his head enough to look accusing. ]

time is an illusion

[katabasis]

[Something flexes in the lines of Flint's face. It looks suspiciously related to amusement - that dry, self-satisfied kind that isn't for sharing.]

Then quit while you're still ahead and I'll make it up to you with a drink.

agreed

[exequy]

[ It takes him a few silent, sullen seconds to agree—which he also does silently and sullenly, saving his commentary until he's acquired that drink and it would be at least a little difficult to take it away. ]

I did not think I was your type.

[ And he still doesn't. But what do you want. ]

[katabasis]

Your money is. [Not whatever's been won or lost at the table tonight, that much must be clear even through the pitch and roll of the gambling house's company.] And I'm curious what you intend to do with it.

[exequy]

What money?

[ Not an innocent who me sort of question. Genuine confusion. His pockets are full of coins—not that it takes much to fill them, since his clothes actually fit, @ all of Kirkwall. ]

The dice money?

[katabasis]

Allow me to be more specific. [He says within earshot of a dozen miscellaneous Kirkwall scumbags. He seems ambivalent to the prospect of being overheard.] The money you stole, along with a small library of books and two dozen paintings whose provenance, I suspect, may trace back to inconvenient owners.

[exequy]

[ A pause. He knows better than to actually look around, physically, but he's looking around in his heart. There are people he does not need to become aware that he might have access to more money than is in his pockets if they twist their thumbscrews a little tighter. ]

It is not stolen, and it is not mine, [ for the record, ] but if your men surprise me by leaving it alone—if that happens, it is so we have something if we go back to war. Our war. After this one.

[katabasis]

And who exactly do you anticipate you'll be fighting against after this one is over?

[A shout rises from one of the neighboring tables. Someone's either won something or lost it.]

[exequy]

[ Instead of answering, he takes a drink. He can do that sullenly, too. Don't make him say the Chantry, his Loyalist heart can't take it. ]

[katabasis]

[There is no flat look for fixing Kostos with. Instead, he's idle - attention wandering elsewhere as he talks.]

But you intend to wait until the war with Corypheus is over to do it.

[exequy]

Yes. Obviously.

[ Strikes and looting field trips don’t count, right? ]

Why?

[katabasis]

[Here, a look tipped in his direction.]

If you ask me, [knowing that he isn't] It seems like a wasted opportunity.

[exequy]

If you are about to tell me about an exciting business opportunity—

[ Then he doesn’t know. He’ll leave, maybe. ]

[katabasis]

I don't know the first thing about business. But if you think going right back to where you left off before the Conclave is the best possible outcome instead of digging yourself a new position now while you still have some opportunity to define its terms--

Remind me, did your people ever decide what they wanted out of their war?

[If it sounds condescending, that's because it is. But it's also an honest question.]

[exequy]

[ How dare he.

And how dare he say exactly the right thing to pique interest. Wary, resentful interest, but still: ]

Self-governance.

[katabasis]

That's broad.

[But fine. He continues in an even, conversational tempo. There is no reason to draw attention in this direction.]

I assume then that you remain in contact with the mages still working under the Inquisition's banner. That you and they have an understanding for what follows once Divine Beatrix's Exalted March puts down Tevinter and the entire South sees no reason to empower your people ever again.

[exequy]

[ Wow, downer, but also: true. ]

We talk.

[katabasis]

That's good.

[As long as they're playing the two syllable game.]

[exequy]

[ Ugh no it's only fun when he plays it by himself. ]

What does any of this have to do with you?

[katabasis]

As of this moment? Absolutely nothing. [Beyond that he knows what was stolen from where and by whom; that, were there any reason to make this unpleasant, he might make some overture about who he could tell it all too. But that's not the conversation he cares to have, and so those details are optimistically left elsewhere.]

But it might benefit us both if it did. You can't seriously think you're the only people who might prefer something more than just killing a magister to come out of all this.

[exequy]

No.

[ He doesn't think that, seriously or otherwise. And the silence hangs for a moment he realizes the likelihood he's about to get another one-word answer in response, and breaks prematurely, in the spirit of cooperation and all. ]

I am not any good at this. [ Shocking news, probably. ] Of course we want allies. Allies rarely want us. Ferelden tried, and then threw us out—for good fucking reason, honestly—and we are not—

[ This is why he doesn't talk much. He gestures a little, hand barely lifting off the table. ]

I am not uninterested. I just do not know what you want.

[katabasis]

[That's fine. He prefers not good at this.]

What I want is to be finished with this - with Corypheus, but with fighting specifically. Your people aren't the only people facing an uncertain future once he's brought down, and I would prefer not to end one war only to walk straight into another if I can arrange it. What I want is for two unpopular allies to see and act on one another's potential now so that when this is done, the world will have no choice but to recognize that friendship and their liberty as a consequence.

At the moment, I can't guarantee anything but my voice. [Among the Division Heads, around what constitutes as Riftwatch's war table; it's no promise of an army, but it isn't nothing or else they wouldn’t be here.] But with outside resources and a commitment to provide aid when I ask for it-- I think I could find a way to make those two things work together.