008 [audio]

[reformedrake]

I think--

[Pauses. Starts again.]

I'm going to... open a chantry. Just a small one, like a... like a chapel. I even found a suitable building, it just needs a little cleaning and fixing.

[Sighs.]It might be helpful to have a place to gather, that's all. You don't have to come by if you don't want to, and if you do come by, you don't have to pay

Comments

[grace_optional]

[Anna hasn't responded to any of this man's little sermons, maybe out of bitter cynicism, or because his Maker probably isn't her Father...or because he might be. She isn't sure. And she wouldn't answer this one now if it wasn't for that final, plaintive call for guidance.]

[Somewhere in the background static she can almost hear an echo of a similar plea, one she chose to turn away from. Anna, I don't know what to do. Please tell me what to do.]

[No one can make another person's choices for them. But there's a differences between giving orders and offering a little friendly advice, or simply an opinion.]

I think it's a nice idea. If there were a place like that, I'd go there. I...I mean, if that was all right.

[Besides...she just likes churches.]

[reformedrake]

...Of course it's all right.

[grace_optional]

[She fidgets. It smacks of idolatry, to contemplate visiting an alien temple...but there are no Abrahamic places of worship here, and the story of Sebastin's deity is in some respects eerily familiar.]

My dad used to preach in a place like that when I was a girl. Only we call them churches. Our God sounds a lot like your Maker.

Right down to the part about Him leaving...

[reformedrake]

[He takes a breath. Not a sigh. Just a pause. Even now, even after three years, speaking about his family is difficult.] My grandfather was very devout, and he passed it down to us.

Oh. Even if... even if He's gone, I'm sure His presence can still be found. Even here, in such dark places. [He doesn't realize, of course, the subtleties here. Most people, when they talk about God, leave out some bits, as if he should already know them.]

[grace_optional]

[She sort of gets that. There must be all sorts of things about his Maker that she doesn't know, and that taken together would make for a vastly different sort of understanding than the extremely limited one she has now.]

Well...some people would say that He's present here in each of us, the people of my world. Or maybe even that He created this place along with everything else, though there's all sorts of room to argue that point. [Not an argument she's particularly interested in having with anyone. Who made what and who's got the biggest, best, strongest god is kind of a moot point if none of them are going to come rescue their children, and that sure doesn't seem likely.]

All I know is He's never talked to me, but sometimes I miss talking to Him the way I used to. [Whether He's listening or not.]

...um. If...you'd like any help cleaning the place up, I usually don't have much to do in the afternoons.

[reformedrake]

I know how that feels. Sometimes, I wonder if there's much point to this, if I'd be better off attending to my lands like I'm supposed to. But...but if I can help here, just a little, maybe it'd all be worth it.

[He misses the Grand Cleric. She always knew the right thing to do, and would tell him. Maybe he didn't always listen. Maybe he should have. But it helped, just a little, to have some kind of guiding light. He doesn't want to convert the world, or even much of it. He just knows that the Chantry's how he found worth, before he even had a prayer of succession.]

If you helped, I'd greatly appreciate it.