"I am a bard, or I will be one in truth when Sister Nightingale believes I am. There will be many people in every room who know me for what I am when I walk into a room, just the same as they know me for what I am when I walk into a room where I shouldn't be at home." This is the problem when only three people know the whole truth of Araceli's life in Castileos (well, that and Martel, if he doesn't know that there's something else about her beyond what he knows then she will be severely disappointed.) There have been plentiful occassions of being painfully aware of the scrutiny. Of every eye on her. How she holds a glass. How she sits in a chair. How she speaks, if she knows the dessert fork from the salad fork, if she can hold polite dinner conversation, or if she's every single thing they've ever thought about a common girl with a pirate for a father, and a whore for a mother, who in turn had a pirate for a mother and an unknown father, and a teacher for a mother and an artist for a father.
Not that she's about to tell Pel that. It isn't about trust. It's about ease of movement. About finding the places where she can operate comfortably. The fewer people that know, the better, the fewer people that know the exact extent of her knowledge and skills, well that's all to her benefit when she can surprise them.
Leliana too had stood and cautioned both Araceli and Beleth about the perceptions people would have of them, and some of what she said to Beleth might apply but that was for Beleth, said only in front of Araceli because she was there, and she won't repeat it. It was for Beleth, no one else, not even the spirit of it, even if it might help.
"Sometimes a gesture is just a gesture, you do so many things for so many other people, but never for yourself. I run here, there, everywhere when I'm not studying." Her time in the tavern? That's work. A chunk of her time on the walls or the rooftops or the battlements? She has people she's teaching slowly but surely. "Do something nice for yourself Pel. Even if you just want to sit somewhere in Skyhold in a pretty dress with a book, it's a pretty dress that you've made. Rivain was...honestly, most of Rivain was terrible. I saw it, I thought of you. Please. Keep it."
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Not that she's about to tell Pel that. It isn't about trust. It's about ease of movement. About finding the places where she can operate comfortably. The fewer people that know, the better, the fewer people that know the exact extent of her knowledge and skills, well that's all to her benefit when she can surprise them.
Leliana too had stood and cautioned both Araceli and Beleth about the perceptions people would have of them, and some of what she said to Beleth might apply but that was for Beleth, said only in front of Araceli because she was there, and she won't repeat it. It was for Beleth, no one else, not even the spirit of it, even if it might help.
"Sometimes a gesture is just a gesture, you do so many things for so many other people, but never for yourself. I run here, there, everywhere when I'm not studying." Her time in the tavern? That's work. A chunk of her time on the walls or the rooftops or the battlements? She has people she's teaching slowly but surely. "Do something nice for yourself Pel. Even if you just want to sit somewhere in Skyhold in a pretty dress with a book, it's a pretty dress that you've made. Rivain was...honestly, most of Rivain was terrible. I saw it, I thought of you. Please. Keep it."