Cult AU

[keenly]

Dramatis Personae

ADIUTA
Elven Servant
Friendly but brainwashed.

MASTER INPROBUS
?????
Just a nice guy.

HARIOLUS
False Divine
Was not elected as Divine in Tevinter, so started a cult claiming himself as the true Divine.

EWAN
Praestes
Trying for promotion?

FAMULA
Human Servant
Serves Benedict.

FAMULA
Human Servant
Was forced to sever two of her fingers.

Comments

[sulahnan]

"It's the purpose that the True Divine has given me, and I'm grateful to serve."

[altusimperius]

"Huh."

He mulls that over for a few seconds.

"...well I'm not going to. Do that. If it's all the same to you."

[sulahnan]

"...I believe you."

It sounds a little bit like surprise, spoken in earnest.

"But you'll have to eventually. Perhaps not with me, but with whoever is assigned to you if you accept your purpose and everything that entails."

[altusimperius]

"Yeah, I already have a purpose and it's not that," Benedict sighs, rolling his eyes, "...I mean, I may not. Actually know what it is, but it's definitely not fucking some Soporati woman to make an insane person happy."

It's nice, at least, that they can chat like this.

"What's your name? Don't say Famula."

[sulahnan]

She is silent for a long moment. "It's...better if I don't tell you, I'm sorry."

[altusimperius]

"Fine." He's not going to press the issue, not after what he's seen.

"How'd you come to be here?"

[sulahnan]

This silence is even longer, but eventually she finds her words.

"I lost someone very dear to me, and felt it so deeply that something snapped. I was adrift, with no motivation, no purpose, no desire but to see them again.

"But then, I was found. The Divine helped me realize that though the body was dead, the love we shared lives on in me. And to be given the chance to give my children some of that love... I feel I am ensuring the legacy of something very precious indeed."

[altusimperius]

The story actually touches Bene in a strange way, and he angles his head toward her.
"That's nice," he says, with quiet sincerity, "...but what does it have to do with kidnapping people?"

[sulahnan]

"I don't know," She rolls onto her back, pulling auburn locks over her shoulder so as not to lay on them. "Some find us on their own. Others are saved from bad situations. We aren't told how the masters come to be here, only that they were delivered by providence."

[altusimperius]

His lip curls slightly at that. Providence. Okay.
"How sure are you that their previous situations are bad, when that's the story?" To call him skeptical would be the understatement of the century.
"Look, I'm from Minrathous, I know how people like to talk. They make it seem like there's no other right way to live your life, Maker this, divine ordinance that. But then they do things like use slaves as blood puppets, so." He wavers his hand around.

[sulahnan]

"Because my brother was a mage," she says, simply.

[altusimperius]

"In the South?"

[sulahnan]

"Yes," she turns her head to look at him, then rolls onto her side. "Many of the masters here have been given the chance to thrive in a way they could never dream of, locked away in Southern Circle towers. And none have to die in those barbaric Harrowings."

[altusimperius]

"Right, but," Benedict waves his hand, still skeptical, "...we don't do that up north, and we don't have to build a fortress and shave people's heads about it. We just don't let the Southern Chantry tell us what to do."

[sulahnan]

The Famula frowns, considering him. After a moment taken to determine whether or not to ask: "Why do you keep comparing us to the north? We are not Tevinter."

[altusimperius]

"Then why do all your names sound like they came out of an Old Tevene poetry book," Benedict sighs, his voice raising slightly in frustration.
"You know what, never mind, you're obviously fine with it."

He gets up off the bed and goes to the door, trying the latch.