[closed] a cordial meeting

[arlathvhen]

WHO: Beleth and Loki
WHAT: Beleth & Loki have a friendly chat over tea about blackmail and conspiracies
WHEN: The day after Beleth’s network post
WHERE: House Asgard’s estate in Kirkwall
NOTES: none for now

Perhaps it was foolishly risky, accepting Loki’s invitation, and entering the estate without any backup, save the possible presence of a single servant. But Beleth doubted that she’d want anyone else to overhear what they had to discuss, and she was relying on Loki being loathe to do anything, with those damning pieces of evidence somewhere out there.

Hopefully, at least. Besides, it’s not like she’ll ever get anywhere not taking risks, and she’s certainly not going to just sit on what she’s found out for the rest of her life.

So she shows up at the appointed place and time, carefully dressed and styled in a manner appropriate for a high class Orlesian tea. As much as a Dalish can be, anyway. At least if she dies, she’ll be dressed for a funeral.

It’s with that cheery thought that she crosses the threshold to House Asgard, nodding briefly to whatever servant (Slave? Let’s go with servant) came to greet her at the door. Here it goes.

Comments

[hwaaaitsme]

House Asgard's Kirkwall estate was fairly similar to how it had been when Beleth had last been inside of it, save perhaps that all the expensive renovations were now complete. Where there had been some mash of styles, previously, now it was a testament to Tevinter architecture, overwrought golden accents, and true and utter opulence.

The servant who greets Beleth is, of course, elven and is clad in a uniform that carries a tasteful echo of the Sigil of House Asgard. She leads Beleth upstairs, an alarming propisition that was certainly Loki's suggestion, and into Loki's wing. It isn't long before they arrive at his drawing room, several doors down from his Valet's chambers. The maid allows her in, spending only a moment in the threshold of the massive room, before dismissing herself.

Loki's personal drawing room is more muted than one might expect from someone so ostentatious. The floors are hardwood, original to the house, the windows are plain glass rather than stained or serault, but the furnishings are all a pitch dark wood with silver gilding and hardware. The walls are lined with rows upon rows of bookshelves and tomes, and there is an orrery in the corner that is the size of a small bear.

Loki is seated on one of two low couches, his feet propped up and a book in hand, looking all the world like a man awaiting a friend. The table between the couches has an array of fine porcelain dishes all bearing painfully beautiful finger-foods, plated exquisitely. Several of them appear to have shaved gold as decoration.

"Ah, Scoutmaster Ashara, right on time," Loki congratulates without looking up from his book. He is, as usual, clad in elegant black and green. He fits into the room like a fixture of it, he could blend into the curtains if he wanted to and managed to stand still enough.

"Tea will be brought in shortly by my Valet," Loki informs her and finally glances up, "You haven't met him, I don't think, but you did do significant damage to his room last time you were here."

[arlathvhen]

The tea would probably be more pleasant if he did turn into a curtain.

However, as that seems an unlikely event, Beleth puts on a dazzling smile, stepping forward. She slips onto the couch with an ease she doesn’t feel, tucking her feet neatly under her. "Thank you for your kind invitation, it’s a pleasure to be here." He wouldn’t poison the food, would he? She can think of a handful that would be appropriate for the food offered. But even if he is planning to make some attempt against her, he’d wait until they spoke. Probably?

She helps herself to a tiny cake. Some things are worth dying for.

"I’m glad to see your cut is mostly healed." She spends a moment feigning examining his face. "You can hardly tell, unless you’re looking closely." It doesn’t matter how visible the scar actually is, of course. She’s just saying it to be a dick. The scar on her leg certainly isn’t fading anytime soon, but at least she can cover her legs. "I feel terribly about that, of course. I’m glad that I was restrained before I could cause any more damage."

[hwaaaitsme]

Loki arches an eyebrow as she draws attention to his face--in the one fashion he disapproves of, naturally--but doesn't rise to the bait, no matter how he wants to. He grits his teeth silently and closes his book as he sits up. The food isn't poisoned, though he had considered it. It had seemed too messy at the time.

"Yes, how fortunate," Loki agrees blithely.

He debates, a moment, how to bring up the topic they need to discuss. Thankfully, his valet chooses that moment to knock on the drawing room door.

"Come," Loki commands and the door opens to reveal Coleus, a middle-aged elf with thinning but well trimmed hair and an excruciatingly haughty air about him. He steps inside, a heavy silver tray laden with a matching silver tea set balanced on one hand. His other hand is free and he uses it to close the door behind him.

"Your refreshments, Master Loki," he greets and Loki waves him to the table. He begins service with the exacting, perfect posture of a man who has done this a thousand times. He does not make eye contact, but in a pointed way, because he has spent long years in the service of Magisters and knows his place.

"Well timed," Loki replies offhand and regards Beleth as he picks up his tea. "So you have the vials, I take it?"

[arlathvhen]

The mysterious man whose room Beleth had thoroughly snooped through finally appears in the flesh, and his appearance continues to give no clues as to what the heck he actually does. Surely if he were just another servant, he wouldn't get his own room in Loki’s wing? Beleth observes him as he bustles about with the interested air you would give to a zoo animal, and only turns back to Loki once he broaches the subject they were here for.

"I took them," She replies, which isn't quite the answer to Loki's question. "If I hadn’t, they would be ash by now, surely." Which was...probably the point, but she can make it sound like a favor. "That chest was a bit of a fire hazard, don't you think that's rather dangerous?"

After taking a few nibbles of the cake, she reaches for the tea, examining its swirling contents. It was, she decided, pointless to worry over whether or not everything was poisoned. If it was, Fifi will inform the Inquisition, and it will be their problem to deal with. Beleth would be past having to deal with anything, ever, which sounded appealing enough, save for the prospect of going down in history as getting one-upped by a Tevinter.

[hwaaaitsme]

"My valet managed to never set anything aflame in all the years he has owned it," Loki mentions over the rim of his cup. "Though I suppose that is to be expected, Southerners are so rarely familiar with basic, every-day magics."

Asides and digs are always fun but Loki can't truly bring himself to play the game with a Dalish elf. There's little point to it and no one around to overhear them, besides.

"In any case, if the vials survive I would rather like them back," Loki says and rests his teacup in the saucer. His green eyes fix on Beleth and his polite smile maintains, however thinly. "If you have a price, I insist you name it."

[arlathvhen]

"And Northerners are rarely familiar with the Dalish," Beleth replies calmly, studying her tea, before taking a few sips of it. Can't imagine WHY there are so few Dalish around Tevinter. It's a mystery. "I have multiple mages in my family--and we don't send them to Circles. They usually avoid attempting flames near flammable materials."

Beleth doesn't seem quite as eager to move on as he is, probably because she still hasn't quite decided if she wants to keep the objects or bargain them away. There's nothing Loki possesses that she desires, but holding onto them long term seems like a poor idea.

"For now, I don't have a price. I would like to consider them as...encouragement for good behavior." She glances at him, eyebrows raised. "I won't tell anyone about them, and they will stay safe, for as long as you and your brother remain steadfast allies to the Inquisition." There is a measured pause, and then Beleth glances around the room, and then tilts her head, tone as casual as someone discussing the weather.

"How is Thor doing, by the way? I hope his health hasn't taken into any recent declines?"

[hwaaaitsme]

Loki levels a very wan look at Beleth. His expression lingers, flat but almost bemused as he considers what she's saying. She is either a very good liar or a very poor negotiator and Loki can't seem to decide which it is. He stares a moment longer before lowering his tea down and setting the saucer on the table.

"Pardon, did you just suggest that you are...blackmailing me for good behavior?" Loki asks. It is more forthright than he is wont to be but, by the same token, they cannot be overheard and he has never experienced something so...banal.

"Ah, no, my mistake--myself and my brother?" He clarifies and, after a pause, actually has to stifle a very sharp but honest laugh. "Oh dear, this is....hm, daresay, precious."

He folds his hands across his lap and smiles, almost bored, at Beleth.

"I shall tell you, then, what I told Thranduil. I honestly don't care about your endeavors here, nor about Corypheus, nor about the rift in the sky. They do not matter one whit to me, for good or ill, and I have no reason to sabotage them. I am here for my brother. He was...insistent we come and would give me no peace," he explains. "I am here so that, should he perish, someone can recount the tale to our father.

"Now, it is fortunate for you, that I am easily bored. One can only occupy onesself for so long with parties and sex and I have nearly had my fill. I would help your organization, and have no issue using my money, my contacts, and my skills to do so, but you have offered me no tasks. None beyond this nebulous demand that I be good, which I can only assume means do not attempt to reconquer the foolish south with a wave of blood magic.

"So here we sit, you threatening me to acquire something you already have and neglecting what I have already offered. Would you care for more tea?"

[arlathvhen]

Beleth sits through Loki's speech, her face politely impassive. Even at his laugh, her only reaction is for her brows to raise, just slightly. If Loki's condescending attitude bothered her, she certainly doesn't show it. Instead, she sets her teacup back on the table, and gives a little nod.

"I would like more tea, thank you."

And in the meantime, she'll snag another little cake. Honestly, it was worth having to deal with Loki to get these.

"It's moving, how much you care about your brother. I hope that you won't be required to do any kind of recounting in his stead." Slowly, she flicks her eyes up from the cake to Loki's face. "A hope that, I'm sure, you also share." And back to the cake. "I have a brother, as well. I know how close those bonds can be."

Now, to address the actual bulk of his statement. She doesn't speak right away, and wonders, as she's wondered many times, how Leliana would handle this situation. Perhaps she could sic Baron Plucky on him and be done with it.

"You truly don't care about this situation with Corypheus?" Okay, that might not be addressing the main point, but it's certainly something that needs addressing before she even considers touching him as a potential Inquisition resource. "He nearly tore the Veil asunder and ripped open the Fade. And the person who stopped him from doing it is now quite dead."

[hwaaaitsme]

Loki waves his valet over and the man calmly pours her another cup of tea, his demeanor perfectly in keeping with the setting, if not the conversation. Loki waits for her response and, to her credit, is a little surprised by the sudden shift in conversation. She had evaded dealing with the issue at hand by asking a rather pertinent follow-up.

Loki considers her and lifts his tea up again, taking another sip before answering.

"There is a wildfire spreading across the peninsula of Jotunn; it is a terrible thing, ruining thousands of acres of land, and has no end in sight. It cannot be contained, doused, or dealt with and the destruction it will cause is simply a fact of life." Loki tells her. "Now, we can move the people to safety, we can protect what they can take from their homes, but we cannot stop a disaster of that magnitude until it has burned to the fringes where we can get at it. Where we can kill it.

"You care about the wildfire, many people do, in a distant sort of way, but you are not faced with it just as I am not faced with it. It is, at the moment, a problem waiting for a solution that is out of our hands.

"I care about Corypheus in the same way I care about that wildfire," Loki assures her and, frankly, seems as though he is being honest. "Many things have been lost, things I never saw or knew or cared about, and I'll agree it's very tragic that person is dead, but I am not directly invested in them or the situation.

"Given the chance, yes, I would rather like to put an end to this disaster before it destroys more than it must, and I feel as though his Venatori followers are fools begging at the altar of a twisted creature cum madman, but the machinations of a distant villain don't keep me up at night."

[arlathvhen]

Beleth listens to his explanation, only interrupting to murmur thanks to the valet as she accepts her tea. Because she has manners.

However, as he goes on, she can't help but quirk an eyebrow, that becomes a slight frown as he continues. First, a sip of her tea, as she tries to figure out just how the heck Loki came to this conclusion, and how to counter it.

"I think that your view on the wildfire spreading is fair enough, but I don't feel like it quite accurately compares to what we are facing. You're quite right in that there's little point in attempting to stop a wildfire. Were I to fire an arrow at the fire, all I would have is a burnt arrow. However, if I fire an arrow at a Venatori, I now have one less Venatori to deal with."

Certainly, she's done that enough times.

"I think a better comparison would be the Blight--Corypheus is a darkspawn, after all. He spreads, killing where he can, and if unchecked, could destroy the world. And it might seem like there's nothing that can be done, but each time it's happened, we have fought, and won. With the Grey Wardens' help, of course." Which they have secured...some of. Kinda. "That is to say, Corypheus is no force of nature which must be endured. He is a person, as is his followers, and both can very much be killed."