[Video]

[weatheredforces]

...So, I'm back here, am I? [Tris smiles faintly into the Blackberry- she looks older than the last time she was on video, and, perhaps more shockingly, she looks thin, even gaunt. Her hair's loose, too, not braided.] It's been a few years for me.

Are Saguru and Spade still here, by any chance?

Comments

[inordertobelieve]

Saguru Hakuba is still residing here, yes.

Not too much time has passed since your last visit. Apparently the Author is very fond of having you around.

[Aside from Saguru, Tris is the only person Teru recalls to have been here two years ago already, after all]

[weatheredforces]

[Tris smiles faintly.] Ah, that's good to hear.


Well... I don't think that's the terrible fate I thought it once was.

[inordertobelieve]

What made you change your mind?

[Video]

[stalking_horse]

I'm here - [Yep. This is a bit of a surprise; he looks the same as the last time he saw her, around nineteen.]

How've you been?

[Video]

[weatheredforces]

...[The smile on Tris's face is less guarded than usual.]

You know how the great scholar "they" says that things tend to get worse before they get better?

[Video]

[stalking_horse]

[He nods soberly.]

Part of the story of those few years?

[At least she does seem better; relieved, if worried about what she's been through.]

[Video]

[weatheredforces]

Very much so. [She's running a hand through her hair.] ...Nik-- Niklaren Goldeye essentially has no rights to enter Emelan anymore, as dictated by Her Grace Sandreline of Emelan. [THERE IS SO MUCH IN THAT SENTENCE.]

[In Person]

[bestamontillado]

[And that would be an Eighth Flame portal behind her, out of line of sight, as Spade steps through it.]

Still here, for whatever it's worth - I thought I saw you from across the room.

[her side of the room had been there - she hadn't, and it had been enough to have him a little worried.]

[In person]

[weatheredforces]

I... went home. To me it, was... several years. Difficult ones, at that. [Tris is smiling at Spade and setting the blackberry down.]

[In person]

[bestamontillado]

[Spade settles, sitting cross-legged on the blanket they're both standing on.]

Have things gotten better? [He's no stranger to hard years, himself.]

[in person]

[weatheredforces]

...Yes. Even if I suspect mentioning my former teacher's name could likely cause one of my foster-siblings to spontaneously spit nails. [She wraps her fingers around the cord her medallion is on.]

[in person]

[bestamontillado]

[He nods - he remembers what she was like when she was little, and what'd come when she was older.]

One of the ones responsible for things? [Bad intentioned, good intentioned, he could see how that could go many bad ways.]

[in person]

[weatheredforces]

Oh yes. Since he was my primary teacher, and I was essentially an 'orphan', he was the last authority on anything to with me, to the exclusion of my foster-mothers, who had dealt with children who had problems before. [Tris smiles bitterly.] Niklaren... had some sort of ideological problem with mind-healers. He graciously permitted me to see Winding Circle's mind-healers after I'd managed to slaughter an entire pirate fleet, but when it seemed I was "over" that trauma, he put an end to it.

And, of course, I thought there was nothing wrong with that, seeing as I'd never seen a mind-healer in my life. Unfortunately, it wasn't until I had... a fairly severe breakdown that everyone realized how poorly things went. [She looks distant for a minute.] A mage's control centers on their emotional control... Well, that, and external controls can be placed, but they are-- quite literally taking part of that mage's soul and co-opting their will as much as anything. That was the alternative Niklaren implied I could take if I didn't accept my medallion.

I was scared to show that I felt like I was losing a grip on my control, terrified that would be my fate- I had a cousin killed because he allowed someone to take control of him that way. ...As you can see, I lost a great deal of weight, among other things. I was eating scarcely enough to keep alive... Well, Sandry, one of my foster-sisters, noticed something was very wrong... and decided to get to the bottom of it.

As reigning duchess of the Duchy of Emelan, she carries a fair bit of clout, and her ties to Winding Circle temple are nothing to sneeze at. Should Niklaren set so much as a toe in Emelan, she will know, and... the results will not be pretty.

[in person]

[bestamontillado]

[He met that news with a deepening scowl. Mind healers weren't something he was used to - the Flame of Harmony was the closest he knew, and it tended to be a little like a sledgehammer as such things went.]

It's good that she interfered. Some people should never be allowed near children.

[And some of it reminds him of .... well, himself, and others.]

All that time pushing control and trying to force things to be okay... [He shook his head.] It never works.

[In person]

[weatheredforces]

Mm-hm. I doubt it was his intent, but there was little our foster-mothers could do about it, since it was Niklaren who had custody over me. And I didn't know there was anything "wrong" with what he did... just that I was falling apart, and couldn't trust anyone.

...Which is sort of ridiculous when you're tied to people at the soul.