She rolls her eyes before she hands over the report. "I know that. I just ... don't know how to parse out in simplistic terms, 'and then the slaves thanked us for their lives, sobbing and praying on their knees' into something less ... fraught."
One booted foot kicked out a little, as Katniss shifted, restless. "It got to me. All of it."
Pel loops an arm around Katniss and pulls her in for a squeeze. "You can be fraught. You have to convey the gravity of the situation in your report. You said it just fine, just now. Just don't make it into a manifesto. You can write a manifesto on the side, if you want, just not here."
She snorted softly, "Who would listen to a manifesto from a poor country bumpkin from the Hinterlands? A half-blood who never had any more schooling than what the Chantry sisters taught her."
She leaned her head against Pel's shoulder, bumping her for a moment. "Can you help me trim it down?"
"Of course I can, but you realize nobody needs to know you're a half-blood unless you tell them. It'd probably make your life rather easier, and I at least wouldn't blame you for it."
Alistair's mother had given her child away rather than let it be known he was a half-blood. This is what people do.
"Yes, but I would know." She looks across the courtyard, her eyes narrowing. "I would know that I was somehow ashamed of where I came from. I'm ashamed of my mother for being a lousy parent -- but I would never deny her as she denied my sister and me. That's ... that's just not who I am."
"I don't think a Dalish has any room to criticize idealism." Pel gives a faint shrug. "All right. First off, I want this to be half as long. Start crossing things out, words and sentences and paragraphs, anything that doesn't absolutely have to be there."
She gave Pel a wry look, before she sighed and took the report back. She plucked out a quill and ink, so she could start crossing things out. "All right, keeping this simple. A great deal simpler."
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One booted foot kicked out a little, as Katniss shifted, restless. "It got to me. All of it."
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She leaned her head against Pel's shoulder, bumping her for a moment. "Can you help me trim it down?"
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Alistair's mother had given her child away rather than let it be known he was a half-blood. This is what people do.
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no subject