exsiliumlogs | There can't be too many secrets between allies;

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Current Location: Room 207

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There can't be too many secrets between allies;

Date & Time: [Forward dated] January 9th; Some time during the day...
Location: Room 207
Characters: Closed to Elissa Cousland;
Summary: Blaine has a ton of questions, and interrogations are always better with food
Warnings: Blaine being himself.

Once her foray into the outlands was done, Blaine gave Elissa approximately one day to sleep, patch herself up or whatever else she needed to do before he invited her over. There were things to discuss. He shouldn't have delayed it for so long after she nominated him, but he was distracted by... someone, as he tended to be sometimes. Then she announced her trip and playing twenty questions with someone going out into the wilderness wasn't productive and he didn't want even the slightest chance of being a distraction by giving her too many things to think about. He was sure she was used to being out in the wild, and maybe he was just using that as an excuse to procrastinate himself. He was well aware that he wasn't going to be the only one asking questions, and he wasn't sure how much he was going to tell her. The blonde wasn't worried, but he was... cognizant of potential issues.

Blaine had just finished stir frying rice and vegetables when there was a knock at the door. He poured it into a bowl as he called out, "Come in!" because the odds were it was his guest. If not, his gun was tucked into the small of his back and ready.

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"People will take unpredictable over predictably underhanded. The first impression was not that best." At least for most people. He appreciated it for what it was. A way to thin the competition and showcase her skills. He wasn't sure if it was going to go the way she was hoping by being so outwardly sneaky. If she had chosen him instead of Elissa, he may have tried to work with it, but he knew less of the Queen than he did of Elissa.

He gave a quick laugh. "Sounds like you've already decided it'd be for the best." Using his own words against him, as well. She could be crafty when she wanted to be, which was good. He watched that eye flick and didn't press the issue. She could be cautious for the both of them. He would barrel ahead instead, and she'd just have to yank the leash to get him to slow down.

"No one will take unpredictably underhanded, though," she said with a faint smile. No one could anticipate how much one person could scheme and lie if it meant satisfying their goals. Loghain, after all, had done everything possible to ensure Maric's victory to the throne. Who was to say he did it fairly? And yet everyone was surprised about Ostagar.

She chuckled. "Well, this isn't just about me. If you want information, then you can have it." But that didn't mean she wasn't going to watch him. It wasn't about a lack of trust or faith; she just wanted to make sure someone was watching his back. "But I'll be here if you need help."

"That's why they usually hide that until it's too late." Just like any good sociopath, mimicking good, human behavior until it was too late for your victim to escape was a classic M.O. That or just a scheming asshole.

His fingers kept tapping his ankle. "Mmm, so generous. I'll let you know what I find." He doubts he'd need help for something like this. This was supposed to be his job, after all. Let Elissa worry about other things, though he felt she'd worry about him regardless.

"I don't see many people doing it well." Not since Howe, she supposed, or even Loghain. Even after becoming Warden-Commander, it was easy to spot the troubles people were cooking up for her. Perhaps it had been a product of her former naivety. "Or perhaps I don't notice those who are especially skilled in the art."

She chuckled. "Just be careful. I don't trust the Initiative at all. They can provide for food and shelter but not reliable information? It's all rather fishy."

"Maybe you just have a finely tuned bullshit detector." Not a bad thing to have, but it may be hibernating when it came to ferreting out Blaine. That or Elissa didn't truly want to probe him so deeply. Not yet. He was sure there were plenty of things about her he'd yet to uncover.

"I will. Even if their motives are suspect, you don't bite the hand that feeds."

She laughed. "I was never actually brought to court with my parents, though I'd heard some fascinating stories. It's more that I know Anora and I have a healthy sense of distrust in people." Even in friends. There was the old adage 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer'.

With a nod, she took a sip of her drink. "No, we don't want to provoke them. They're still not as much of a threat as the United Earth."

Blaine nodded with agreement at their mutual distrust in the Initiative but acknowledgement that to act against them would be rather foolish.

Then his eyebrows lift, but then lower again. "Should I consider it an honor that you distrust me less? Or that you distrust me most and therefore want to keep me close?" The second half is meant as a joke and is accompanied by a sly smile as he adds on, "I certainly don't mind your close proximity."

She looked up but said nothing for a moment, trying to find the proper words for their current situation. "I don't distrust you the most," she said, her smile crooked at the edges with his joke. Or innuendo. "Take comfort in that." If she trusted him less, he might think her behavior crueler for it.

"I think it's more that I don't know you well enough but I know that we have mutual goals and similar interests." And a very similar streak for danger. "And I can recognize, still, that it's better than having one of my friends glued to my side." She loved them like family, but it would put them in unwarranted danger.

"The thought will keep me most warm at night." Though an eyebrow indicates he wouldn't mind if she did as well, but he doesn't push it. Instead he sits up to refill his own cup again. To distrust him and keep him close would only be cruel if she decided to discard him later. Then, maybe, he'd have a reason to trip her up in retaliation, but it wasn't something he saw happening in the future.

He listened as he drank and got her meaning. "It can be easier to get things done when you don't have to worry quite so much about another set of eyes." That and possibly throwing them into dangerous situations. It doesn't slip past him that she was more willing to send him into danger than friends, but it made sense and he'd do the same in her situation.

She snorted quietly beneath her breath and shook her head. He could keep pulling those lines but she wasn't going to fall for them. Maker's breath, he was almost as bad as Zevran could be. How did she manage to pick up two flirtatious men? (Anders didn't count now that he'd changed so much.)

"And I don't need to worry about being too distracted." Having a friend at her side meant she could trust them to do their best. But it also meant she had a weakness flanking her, easily used against her.

Blaine figured he stood no chance, but flirting was fun and if he made a concerted effort to stop, he'd have to think about everything he said. Ever. Not worth it.

Now that the basics were taken care of, he cold get back to a more serious topic. He nodded at her words and then changed the topic. "In your speech, you said you lead an army of sorts, based on need and with no ties to any one nation. What were you fighting?"

Elissa settled back in her chair, looking distant for a moment, as if there was a sudden weight on her shoulders. In reality, she was only wondering how to begin.

"We were fighting monsters. Darkspawn, creatures that were once human and changed irreparably by the Maker." She shrugged. "That's how the legend goes. But their blood is tainted. If you come into contact with it...it's very likely that you'll die. They destroy and kill all they come into contact with. Their very presence can bring famine and pestilence to the land and it can take decades for it to be the same again. Animals die, crops dry up, people get sick...all long before they actually come to the surface. Until a Blight happens, they remain below ground. A Blight isn't in full effect until there's an Archdemon." She settled her chin back on her hand. "An Old God infected with the Taint. It rallies the darkspawn into battle."

Elissa briefly shook her head. "The entire world would be in danger. But it began in Ferelden, my home, and it fell to my friend Alistair and I to try and rally the different groups of Ferelden to take them to war before the Blight spread beyond our borders. I needed to gain the allegiance of the mages, the Dalish, the dwarves, and the nobility. I did it in less than a year."

Blaine thought about that. An enemy that was underground... maybe even in the Fade, whatever that kind of dream world actually was, that could kill and maim before it had even materialized. "How do you fight something like that, when you can get sick before you even see the enemy?"

He lifted an arm from where it had been resting on his stomach to lightly scratch and rub his chin and jaw in thought. There was an Archdemon involved. This was a world where there really were gods, or at least powerful beings with god-like powers. "And how do you get at Archdemon? Does it have to be summoned, or do the bad effects of the Darkspawn just... pave the way for them?"

The blonde could swear this was a fantasy novel. He was going to go home and start googling darkspawn and the fade and then it would all make sense. Not that it would be useful once he got home.

"Only the Grey Wardens can fight the darkspawn effectively. The Archdemon, too, must be slain by a Warden, else it returns within a year to continue its rampage across the land." She shook her head. "Many people will die in a Blight. There is no escaping it. A village can be overcome within a day. Sometimes, the darkspawn do not even surface, but they come close to it...and so the land withers and dies above them, but no villager will ever see a single one of them."

Elissa sat forward and traced a circle on the table. "An Archdemon lies underneath the earth. The darkspawn dig and claw their way down until they find it...and then they infect it with their taint. The Archdemon can speak, in a sense, to them; it can command them, like the central of a hive mind." But a summoning? She frowned. "An Old God would never submit to any one human, or even a group, in a summoning." But what about Flemeth and Morrigan? What about the child?

She suddenly felt ill, though she sat back and kept her expression neutral. Oh, Elissa, what have you done?

"The darkspawn claw their way to an Archdemon, who is controlling them before or after it gets tainted? What makes a grey Warden so special that they can kill a god? How do you even get the power to become one?" If they were the only people who could fight Darkspawn without instantly being KO'd by it, as well as fighting an Archdemon, they had to be some special people. Where they born that way? Given special powers by some rite? Considering the little bit he knew about mages from talking with Duncan months before, seemed like there was plenty of crazy shit going down on Thedas. Mages and circles and Templars might have to wait for another conversation unless they somehow directly tied to Archdemons, but if they couldn't be summoned he figured mages were yet another faction.

"The Archdemon..." Here, she paused, trying to find the right words. Unconsciously, she reached up for the scar on her back, fingers lingering on her shoulder. It looked like she was trying to rub her neck, though her gaze was distant, distracted. "The Old Gods call to those who will listen, creatures like the darkspawn. They call for freedom, or so they say. That, or the darkspawn can sense the power they hold and dig to find them. Once tainted, then the Archdemon controls them, giving them orders through thought. It's...like a song." A terrible one, hypnotic and beautiful. She still remembered what it felt like to be so close to one, to feel that song engulf her and nearly snuff out her life as its soul passed through her.

As for his question about the Wardens, she could only shake her head. "That's a secret for us to keep. It's not simply that we can kill gods but merely that we can keep a tainted god from respawning."

"A song...?" and his voice trailed off. One of those creepy, compelling songs, he could only assume. It wasn't something that he had any experience with. He supposed if you avoided dying from the plague, then you got treated to a song that may drive you crazy. Fun times abound on Thedas.

There was a soft noise from him and he let his fingers twine together and rest on his stomach again. "Do you have a lot of gods laying around waiting to be tainted?"

"Yes, a song." Long before, the Magisters listened to the Old Gods and stormed the Golden City. When they became darkspawn, the call remained. Infused with the taint - or so she guessed - the call continued for them...and to all Grey Wardens. "It's connected to the taint, I imagine, for normal people don't hear the song." And they should be thankful for that. No nightmares, no songs, no compelling need to find a dragon.

She smiled faintly. "The Magisters worshiped seven Old Gods. Perhaps there are more...but those are the only ones with names who could still exist." Two more Blights. Maker willing, she would be dead before another happened.

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There can't be too many secrets between allies;

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