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[rathercommon]

crystal | letter | cease and desist notices slipped under her door | action

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[rathercommon]

[ A small shrug. ]

Well - the people here haven't fallen to pieces without it, have they? And they're still capable of kindness and goodness. And their faith's lasted a long time. And anyway, if your Sikhs and Christians and all the rest are going to war against each other, doesn't sound like their religions are really teaching compassion, are they.

[shri]

[ She closes her mouth, fixes it for a moment as she thinks. ]

Kitty, do you believe in God?

[rathercommon]

[ Kitty shakes her head easily. ]

Religion's not really part of my culture.

[ This isn't a question: ]

You do. It's important to you.

[shri]

Yes... and so do most, here.

[ Her life, before, had been steeped in faith. ]

Because it isn't just a matter of... whether there is a God or not. Belief is for many... is what dictates good behaviour. As such it covers a great deal. I am not saying anyone has ever gotten it completely correct... but...

[rathercommon]

[ A shrug. ]

Well, I think I'm rather moral myself. And I never had any belief.

[shri]

[ Oh, Kitty. ]

You can also read, Kitty.

[rathercommon]

[ Frowning: ]

Yeah. Unlike most of the people I knew. They could be moral, too, even being illiterate.

[shri]

Most people here can't either. They rely on the chantry to teach them, guide them, show them how to look at the world. They spend their time in farms dispersed amongst rural villages. What does the chantry teach them?

[ And all this back and forward, she comes to what truly worries her. ]

'Be afraid of others who are not like you, it is their fault you suffer.'

[rathercommon]

And what lesson do you think got shoved down our throats? "Magicians are the great and grand benefactors of your nation. Obey them, and throw over anyone who might stand up to them. Our enemies are foreigners and traitors."

[shri]

[ There are just too - many things to unpack in that sentence right there, in the very different conversations they're having. ]

So, then, who decides your rules? That murder is wrong, that compassion is good?

[rathercommon]

[ Kitty shakes her head. ]

Us. We do. I mean - maybe our families, if our families understand those sorts of things. [ The Hyrneks, for example - they understood. ] Or maybe just...something in us, that rings an alarm bell when things are wrong. Sometimes you just know.

I mean - [ A breath. ] I grew up in a wicked system, and my parents were - part of it. The system, I mean. The things that I was taught in school, about the greatness of magicians - that shaped my thinking. Fed it. But it didn't determine it. Your religion, saying be decent, that didn't determine anyone's thinking either, or make them virtuous. It presented them with an option. But they had a choice whether or not to follow that option. D'you see?

Not being told, be kind, that doesn't really make anyone anything. It just gives them different patterns to follow or to push away from.

[shri]

Do you have a democracy as I saw in England? The house of Lords, the house of Commons?

[rathercommon]

You saw - ?

[ There's a flash in Kitty's eyes, smothered desperate longing. She pushes it down almost immediately. That's not her world; it's not what they have. No point getting all hungry over it. ]

It - No. We used to have an old Commoners' Parliament, but Gladstone dismantled it over a hundred years ago in favor of - him. The magicians. It's just been the magicians in charge ever since. [ But - ] But that's what we were fighting for. The Resistance. We wanted a return of the parliament. Or at least some rights given to us commoners.

[shri]

Huh.

[ That - regardless of their debate otherwise, is what she thinks on for a moment. Puzzled briefly. A note there then. ]

You have, to my world. Established by... oh, some Englishman. Forgive me, it is not my land so I do not know its details deeply. Just that... a man by the name of Cromwell, I think his name was? He killed the King and made England... whatever it was then. Eventually, the King came back, but ever since then, the people have had a House of Commons, and they are the ones that decide the laws, not the Kings. However... that hasn't changed them being a wretched lot.

[rathercommon]

[ Narrowing her eyes slightly: ]

The kings are a wretched lot, or the people? 'Cause they might be a world apart, but those are my people, you know.

[shri]

[ Lakshmi shrugs, loose rather than biting into it. ]

Forgive my turn. I meant your Parliament. They're corrupt, as I have known them, through and through. I all but got down on my knees and begged them to save my people from being eaten alive. They simply chose to accept bribes and destroy my letters pleading in favour of their... wealthier patrons, and that is to say little of what they do to their own people as I saw when I came to England. I have little love for them.

[rathercommon]

[ Oh. There's a little flinch. Nothing huge; she doesn't pin her hopes on easy solutions the way she used to, and obviously just having a Parliament won't solve all of her people's problems. But it's still - disappointing.

A breath. Don't dwell. Move ahead. ]

Any institution can become corrupted. That doesn't mean they have to be like that.

[shri]

They can, and I have always believed that as long as... A base understanding can be reached regardless of difference, about wanting the best, there was hope for all people.

[ but something pinches unhappily. ]

Never mind it then, I suppose that is all there is to say, regardless of my worrying. Perhaps they do find teachings for good behaviour other places than the chantry and I have just not come across it. So there is no reason for me to be alarmed.

[rathercommon]

[ She shakes her head - ]

Why is it that good behavior has to be taught, though?

[shri]

Look at you - [ amused as suddenly as that. ] one moment you tell me you are worried that people don't know what they're doing and are all just selfish and aren't worth confinding in or seeking confidence with, and the next you insist that to be good is something people spring up out of the ground as?

[rathercommon]

[ A bit annoyed at having this ridiculousness pointed out: ]

I'm not insisting on it. I just know that anything someone's tried to teach me, I've usually gone and done the exact opposite. So teaching's never been worth much to me, and it probably isn't to others, either.

[shri]

You don't just do it in classes I've noticed, you do it even when someone is simply talking to you about something that might frighten them. I think you'd fight a brick wall if you decided it deserved it.

[ Took one to know one, after all. ]

But people don't usually do not, you might have noticed.

[rathercommon]

[ Primly: ]

I'll take that as a compliment, thank you.

[ A shake of her head. ]

My point though, really, is that - you know. Ultimately, we understand a lot of morality from stories. I think. And not all stories come from the people above us. It's not just from the authorities. It's like how - Have you heard of Shartan?

[shri]

There we are in agreement. But no, I have not heard of Chartan, tell me?

[rathercommon]

He was a slave - an elven slave - who supposedly fought alongside Andraste. The Chanty's tried to suppress the records of him - destroying paintings, banning books - as part of broader anti-elven hatred. But stories about him continue to circulate, because they're needed by the Elves. To stay - you know - sane. And to stay brave.