thewarningafter | IC inbox for Snowblind

Well, I'm not exactly happy a version of me kicked the bucket here. But it does open up some fascinating lines of inquiry, does it not?

I find that most people are sensitive about things that matter or would provide better insight. After all, they might provide better insight into them as well.

[So many reasons Dorian decided working with Spirits was preferable to working with humans.]

Sure. Going off the data, so far whenever someone dies and is replaced by a second version, the first version hasn't come back even if the second dies. Don't know if that means anything, but it struck me as interesting. We don't even know if we're even really talking about two versions of the same person, or one person who's lost their memories. People gainmemories while they're dead sometimes; there's nothing to say they couldn't lose them as well.

In most cases we may not know but I am certainly not the man who was here before. In my world there was a cataclysm recently.

[Dorian's tone turns brittle but he doesn't seem to notice.]

Someone blew a hole in the physical world. In my version of events, the woman who closed the hole and saved the world was Inquisitor Malika Cadash. According to what I've found on the network, the previous version of me was here with an Inquisitor Lavellan. His relationship appears to have been quite similar to mine with Inquisitor Cadash. Her relationship with one of our mutual friends, Commander Cullen, is quite different.

All three of them can be found among the dead in this place.

[He meant the other Dorian, Ellana, and Cullen.]

...Now that's one I haven't heard before. The...everything you just said. I don't think most of the people with doubles do that kind of researcher; you're probably alone in actually wanting to know about the other guy.

What kind of hole? Like a hole into the Fade?

[Excuse him, he's incapable of staying on topic. Or displaying tact.]

He was here walking around, talking to people. Like his history was his own. The nerve.

[Dorian would prefer to have at least some idea of what people might have learned and which ones might know more.]

Yes, precisely. A hole between our world and the Fade. Very unhealthy for a number of reasons.

I can't imagine how you must suffer thinking about it. Except I can because it's occurring to me that if I die, Billy's Doctor Strange might show up in my place.

Creepy.

Seeing another similarity between your story and mine.

Dorian is torn between laughing and trying not to think too hard about the horror of their existence.]

Yes, we do seem to share quite a bit of common ground.

But we were discussing magic, I think, as enjoyable as this digression into my uniqueness has been. What do you think the chances are that whatever is under Norfinbury is related to time magic?

[He'd meant to bring up that idea more smoothly but oh well.]

Time magic?

[He's honestly surprised by the question. For once he hesitates, though it only lasts the briefest of moments.]

Not very high, if I'm honest. There's not a lot you can do without the Eye of -- the infinity stone, the time stone --

[His efforts to head himself off from naming the artifact backfire, leading instead to tighter clarification.]

-- which is definitely not in a library in Kathmandu inviting some kind of invasion if anyone finds out it's there -- oh, for --

Well, then. Alright. I will note that I have no desire to experiment with this or invade Kathmandu, but, this Stone. Is it a green sphere by any chance?

Capable of holding immense power. Arcane lore practically wafts off it. That sort of thing? Roughly three times the size of a man's closed fist as a wild example?

[Stephen would be more worried if he thought there was a chance of this getting back to someone who could actually do something about it. And, well, if he had more of a choice about blabbing. He lets out almost a choking sound in surprise.]

Ye -- no? Green yes, sphere, yes, immense power yes. Crystal ball size? No. It's tiny, it's a little rock in a pendant.

I'd be more comforted if I knew whether the size was necessary for a somniborium or yet another instance of Magisters being unnecessarily melodramatic. Does it have any connection with dreams or travel between worlds? Most of my experiences with such devices have been overwhelmingly negative.

No? I don't think it does. It's...an infinity stone. I don't -- I don't know what that means. I know how to use it, but I have no idea what the thing is.

A somniborium is a Vessel of Dreams. It contains immense power that can be put to a number of uses evidently. They're Elvhen so I don't know as much about them as I might. There seems a strong likelihood the elves brought them to Thedas when they crossed worlds.

[A hesitation.]

The time travel I experienced was only possible while the escaped energy from a broken one was warping reality.

Not the same thing, then. This thing wasn't broken; you just had to know how to tap into it. How not to tap into, too, but the casing helped with that.

Well, no. But that was one somniborium. There were others. And if the power unleashed by breaking it could threaten the fabric of the world, then I imagine the same could be said of an intact one in the hands of an experienced wielder. Which Inquisitor Cadash wasn't. More of an accidental wielder.

A special casing? Made of anything in particular?

I mean, there are other infinity stones, too. That new guy today, Peter the Whatever, he was just telling me he and his friends used one to disintegrate some guy who was trying to use it to kill a bunch of people. From the way he told it I should have been killed the second I picked the thing up, but -- I don't think it's the material of the casing, again, I think it's the shape of it. The Eye is latticed with the same symbol as the one of the sanctums, it's some kind of seal -- the Vishanti? Seal of the Vishanti.

I'm going to guess Vishante doesn't mean the same thing to you as it does to me. Or maybe it does. "On my tongue" could have some sort of greater symbolic meaning.

[English's lack of an imperative case made that statement less clear than in Tevene. It was missing the verb that would complete the command.]

I would talk to Peter about this but I'm not sure of the quality of information I'd receive.

No, they're -- a power. Beings. I'm not sure. There's a book. Didn't quite make it onto my reading list yet.

Listen, I need to go. I could talk to you all night -- I could talk to anyone all night, I literally cannot shut up right now -- but I'm going to at least try to sit down and meditate because I don't know the next time I'll have a chance at sleeping.

Sleep well.

[Dorian logs off before Stephen can reply.]

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