bethen avilla ; the circle mage (bethe) wrote in thedas,
The vivid image that Signy was painting with her words recalled so many memories that caused Beth's stomach to churn. She hadn't been physically ill after the Joining, but she felt a sudden chill crawling along her spine now, goosebumps rising on her skin. The dwarf did know of abominations, then? Or was close enough to witnessing one that she had some idea of the terror. "Yes, that's it..." the mage responded, though her voice was very faint, and her eyes wandering the lengthening shadows in the room as sunlight began to spill through the windows. She had been in the library, almost like this one, though the ceilings were much higher and the shelves larger, when she saw an abomination for the first time. In the aftermath of the insurgency in the Tower, it was still weeks, maybe months, before she believed the charred scents had finally stopped clinging to her skin.
Signy's questions drew her back to the present, and Bethen had never been more glad to hear them, even if so numerous that she could barely keep up with the answers. It kept her mind on other things, even though she had been the one to bring the subject up in the first place. "I suppose I have always gone across the Veil, just as all humans and elves are said to, though I wouldn't have recognized it at the time," she answered, with slight uncertainty. It wasn't something she thought about much, as being a mage had been so ingrained into her sense of self-identity by now that it seemed impossible that she never realized what she was. "The Fade looks...different when you're not aware of your surroundings, and it's much harder to separate those dreams from reality. But when you know where you are, you can sometimes shape the Fade to your will. Spirits and demons, according to the Chant of Light, were born in that realm, and were the first children of the Maker. It's their domain, they can twist and turn it to suit their needs. But...they don't have our imagination. That's why they call us, his second children, across the Veil, to get a look into our minds and try to understand our world. They want our ability to create. Some of them will do terrible things to obtain it. Those are demons. I would show you around the Fade myself so that you wouldn't have to see it alone, but that's a bit dangerous." There were ways of getting in, other than through sleep; she knew the rituals involving lyrium, but she wasn't an enchanter and wasn't properly authorized to go there. There had to be a better way to give Signy a deeper understanding than her simplified explanation.
The woman got up from her seat, taking the greatly shortened candlestick with her, so that she could hold it closer to the bindings of the books on the closest shelf. Dawn was approaching, but it was still too dim and the room too cluttered for her to properly see what was around the room. "There has to be a book here, somewhere... I haven't yet learned the organizational system here, so it might take me a few minutes to find the right tome." She began to browse the titles, finding that they were sorted by subject and then by author. The shelf she had pulled Dee's second book from was about the Blight. A few steps to the right, maybe? Finally, Beth let out a soft declaration of 'aha!' and reached for one of the books. She brought it back to Signy and placed it in front of the younger girl; its title read The Maker's First Children. "Here, start with this. It's not a light read, but it's thorough. I'll ask someone later, when people are more likely to be awake, if you can take it with you, whenever we go...wherever it is we're meant to be going after this." The Warden-Commander had yet to give them word, but if a Blight really was about to begin, their departure was likely imminent.