arcaneadvisor | ooc: inbox/plot with me

[Honestly, he's a bit surprised that he had gotten a response so soon.]

The afternoon?

[A small pause as he considers it, listening as well to where exactly she'll be.]

Thank you. I will stop in later then.

[It is some time later that Sam actually is standing at the fore mentioned door - actually he had been around earlier, but had thought to not show up too soon. The door is open like she had said it would be, but he still reaches over to knock on the wood before taking a step in.]

Afternoon.

[With Kieran off at lessons, she's in the midst of reading a report sent from Leliana's scouts when she hears Sam, beckoning him in to take a seat before she closes the door behind them.

Some discussions she prefers to have without anyone listening in.]

So, shapeshifting then? Not a skill I thought a former Circle mage would have much interest in.

[He bows his head at the offer, making his way over to a chair slowly, watching Morrigan some as she closes the door as he settles into the chair.]

Not a lot of mages work the forges either. What can I say, I'm a bit unusual.

It seems like a rather useful skill to have, and something that would prove to be a challenge.

[At least her rooms are cool though not damp, carefully chosen so as not to put anything she keeps at risk; she has gathered all her materials at great personal cost, she won't put them in harm's way because some barns could put Skyhold to shame with the state of their roofs.]

Unlike the forge, however, this is something that will require far more finesse. This is not simply copying a shape and being done with it, this will go far deeper than that. Why exactly do you believe it will be useful to you?

Magic always does.

[He nods in agreement about needing more finesse. That he has plenty with his magic, particularly with healing.]

As you've pointed out the last time we talked, in the garden, there are many things that the Circle doesn't teach. Many of the things, like certain plants, would be useful to know considering I plan on staying outside those stone walls regardless of what ends up getting decided. Shapeshifting would give me another way to help me survive out here. I'm not afraid of a challenge, I'm not looking for something simple.

And yet the Circle teachings leave so much to be desired of in the way they attempt to order things for their limited perspectives, understanding, and comforts, with so little chance for anything new or for the old to flourish and to be kept alive.

[Healing is perhaps the only true art the Circle can claim, simply because it is the least objectionable, the one thing they can point to and always call useful because there will always be sickness, war, pestilence, and death in Thedas, so there will always be healers required.

A pity they were still shut up in their towers.]

Shapeshifting is simply a common name most call it by: the soul is what is copied, and that is a much more difficult thing to master. You must think long and hard on that, on each animal you would wish to be, on how you would experience the world as it does. And there is one caveat that I did not think I would need to add but circumstance has rather forced my hand.

You can see why I am interested to learn then. For all the things I did learn in the Circle, there is much that I do not know from the outside of it, which I'm trying to change.

I only know it by its common name otherwise I'd address it differently - really the soul?

[The name wasn't completely misleading if that were the case, but it certainly did not give you the entire picture.]

So, are you no longer yourself when you change, just the animal? Or are you both yourself and the animal?

I am glad to have proof that the many years in the Circle has not rotted your mind entirely as I feared. [And she leans forward, steepling her fingers as she does so; did she not explain this to Shale once? It feels like another lifetime ago that she did.]

Tis indeed the soul, and though there is some small measure that can be gained from a book, that would be more about the animal itself than the magic. This is not a discipline you will learn from a book, believe me, if there are those who will claim to have done so then it will be a poor shadow of what this truly is. Each form must be learned anew. You study the creature, learn to move as it does, to think as it does; how do you think you know the world? And yet how many creatures disappear before you ever even knew they were there but for their song in the wind, the rustle of the leaves and bushes, their footprints?

I am still me. I smell it as a wolf, hear it as a cat, see it as a raven, but I am still myself simply another form.

You thought my mind was rotted did you?

[That has Sam chuckling a bit, even if this was a bit of a serious subject. Though he supposes she thought that of anyone who learned from the Circle.]

I did not live my entire life in a Circle, I suppose that helps contribute to that.

So to learn it I would have to study the animal? What if it isn't easily studied? I also assume that even if you've learned the animal, you still have to learn the magic. How does that work?

What else is one to expect when so many will accept the bars and to do nothing, to keep waiting for one day and the next day until they are utterly gone, until they are useless? All those years of fraternities and what did it get you in the end?

[A madman blowing up a Chantry, an abomination that paints all mages in the worst sort of light that forces change. Change comes to the world, and there are those who will leap and fight for it like the ones who took that vote and became the rebels but there is so much that stands against them yet.

She is more aware of it now, when she must stand between the world and Kieran.]

You would, and thus it would be up to you to track the animal and to study it. I have learned to become a swarm of stinging insects where I am no longer one body but thousands, or to become a blighted creature, no small feat as I am sure you are aware. As for the magic, well what is magic? It is pulling from deep within yourself, it is seeing the change, it is willing that into being, telling your body to be just so, that it is no longer what it is, that it is something else. Tis easier once you have studied, when you have the quiet and the focus. The very first time is why I insist on it being outside the walls of Skyhold where there are fewer distractions.

I see what you're saying, but having lived behind the walls... deciding to free yourself of the Circle is not an easy thing. Having ways to track you, not being able to trust a fellow mage not to rat you out... For myself I had to learn magic first as well.

Every Circle is different as well. I did not enjoy being put behind stone walls, being taken from my family - I do not agree to how the Chantry deals with mages. Even so I cannot deny that I did learn while I was in there. I wasn't raised as a mage, and with how things were going I don't think I would have found anyone to learn my magic from, or have even tried.

I don't like the Circles and I don't plan on going back, but I cannot ignore that I also learned to heal and protect. I've always been an opportunist and taking what I can from a situation.

[He was not supporting the Circles in anyway, but he had been a Circle mage. It was who he was for better or for worse, even if it had not been by choice. Even so it was because of it that he was who he was and how he ended up here - he could not disregard all of that.]

A swarm of insects? Really? How does that feel?

[It seemed hard enough to be something completely else, but to be many of something else?]

... Does that mean you will teach me? Or at least take me through the steps?

Giving up freedom should not be an easy thing either. [Not that Samouel can know that she has spent ten years looking over her shoulder and then over Kieran's, that she is keenly aware of something worse than fellow mages or the long lines of Templars. If only what hunted her were so easy to evade then she wouldn't have to worry but no, he doesn't know and doesn't need to know.] If you leave a piece of yourself behind when gaining your freedom it will be worth it. I had no Circle and yet I have never fallen prey to any demon or abomination, and I know much that you will never find in the books the Circles approve. Magic is within you. That is where you find it. In the first days were there teachers? What I teach you is not in a book, if anyone tried to teach you it from a book I would laugh in their face, and only suggest you read on animals should you wish to if they are harder to find or if you truly wish to know all there is to know of them.

[Better to steer from that topic though before he says something that might have her telling him to get out of her sight and she nods, smiling.]

Tis...difficult to describe in truth. I use it in combat only and how well does one remember a battle? You attack your foe and move as one thing, like casting a spell that requires all of you but I have done this since I was a girl, and that often makes things easier when you are still learning your body yourself.

There is one caveat. The abomination, Anders, we met prior to his identity being revealed where he expressed an interest in learning how to change his form, no doubt to make it easier to go to ground but I would not have it come back to me. Rest assured, should he ever learn, I will make it my business to know of it, and I would not have it come from one of those I have taught myself. Are we clear?

[What Sam doesn't need to know is that Leliana knows for certain that Morrigan informed her of this, and that Morrigan even made sure to send a private note to Vivienne to keep her in the loop regarding this development too.]

[It is certainly an interesting subject, most of which he'll agree with Morrigan on. It was just... life had turned out as such for because of what had happened. He's wishes it had been different, but then again it had brought him here, to all this. Still he can see that this wasn't something to really talk about if he wanted Morrigan to teach him.

At the mention of a condition, Sam nods, curious to what Morrigan would ask of him. Hearing mention of Anders has Sam's eyes widening, having not expected that.]

You do not want me teaching Anders how to use this sort of magic if you are to teach me. Yes, we are clear.

[Considering everything that happened he wasn't all that surprised that Morrigan did not want it coming back to her.]

[At least he has good sense in his head, more than she expected for a former Circle mage though each one that comes to her should there be more will certainly be a case by case basis but for now she gives a small smile, nodding.]

Well then, I am afraid that I will be called away on urgent business to the Hinterlands soon and that since the first lessons require a great deal of involvement and study that Ellana has managed to slip ahead of you but next month I will arrange a time that suits us both. There is an area outside Skyhold, not far, less snow and more trees, fresh green grass and sheltered from prying eyes that works best for such things. Until then I would suggest that you think on the first form you wish to attain and begin to study it, if you have further questions you are free to seek me out or to contact me by a note from a runner or the sending crystal. Will there be anything else you wish of me at present?

[It's a little disappointing that he won't be able to learn sooner, but Sam nods in understanding at the news. Urgent business obviously had to be tended to, and giving full attention to another student who had already started was important. He also had all his other lessons and work to keep him busy until then.]

No, I don't think so. I will start studying right away then - I think I already have the animal I want to change into first. I appreciate you seeing me and accepting to take me up as a student.

Edited 2016-04-28 08:59 (UTC)

ooc: inbox/plot with me

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