Oh, you're acting your thin disguise

[arlathvhen]

WHO: Beleth and YOU.
WHAT: Beleth is back from the Fallow Mire, trying to deal with some things, trying to ignore other things.
WHEN: Before people go off on their war table missions
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Nothing so far, will edit if necessary.

Tavern

Beleth has made the decision that she needs to have copious amounts of alcohol before attempting to take on the confrontation that she has planned. Liquid courage, right? So, she takes a seat in the tavern, keeping her eyes glued to the bar, and works her way through a pint. It occurs to her, as she orders another one, that she has been doing an incredible amount of drinking lately. Far more than she had before she'd made her way to Skyhold with her clan.

Well, they were her clan, for now. Would they still call her clanmate, when those who would leave the clan finally admitted it? Would she call them clanmate? She knew it was a risk--one of the reasons she had come to Skyhold, after all, was hoping that she'd be able to persuade them otherwise. But she saw some of them, intermingling with the humans, so quick to adapt to the humans and their culture that they should just remove their vallaslin and nock their ears already.

Shit. She'd been trying to avoid thinking about what she was drinking for. And now she just wanted to drink more. She starts on the second pint with relish.

Stables

"I think you're my favorite living creature in this place."

The wild hart took this declaration in stride, chewing on the grass in its trough. Beleth followed up her statement with a laugh, shifting in her position on the side of his stall. The hart doesn't seem worried, even as Beleth reaches up and pets his neck.

"Do you have a name? I'm going to name you. How do you feel about Da'Assan? Little Arrow. For someone quick, and fleet of foot."

The hart snorts in reply, chewing contently.

"I'm taking that as agreement."

Library

Anyone who had been in the kitchen in the last few days might have heard grumbling from the cook about loaves of bread going mysteriously missing, with no one around to blame it on. A possible bread-obsessed ghost haunting Skyhold? Spooky.

Meanwhile, in the library, Beleth is enjoying a warm loaf of bread, and appreciating the fruits of having set up a little camp right above the rear entrance of the kitchen. Curled up in a chair in little alcove, she chews on the bread, while flipping through a book by some guy named Genitivi, documenting various parts of the world she'd never even heard of.

If she was going to learn how to sweet talk people, she had to expand her knowledge of the world in general. Especially if she met anyone from these particular places. Zevran would be pretty pleased, she thinks.

One thing she'd already discovered--There had been an Inquisition before this one. And quite frankly...she found what Genitivi had to say about them pretty sketchy. It made her worry--the Inquisition was supposed to be saving the world from Corypheus. Not leading another exalted march. Just what were the Inquisiton's intentions, after Corypheus?

Comments

[arlathvhen]

"Getting out of here?" She blinked at him, then vaguely gestured around her. "The stables, or--Are you leaving Skyhold soon...?" She wouldn't be surprised if he did, really--if he felt like her, he was eager to return to his clan. And he didn't have the responsibilities that she did keeping her here. As much as she fiercely missed her home, she had promised to stick this out. And a Dalish doesn't back down from their promises.

Still, it was a shame that he'd be leaving so soon. It was always nice to have more of the Elvhen around. Particularly ones that shared so many opinions with her.

"Either way, if you want your axe sharpened, I know someone who could help. He's human, but he's a pretty nice guy, and he works a lot in the forge. I dropped a bird's nest on his head and he just shrugged it off--" Pause. "On accident! I swear, I don't just...sit around on the rafters throwing nests at people."

[fortheloveoffalondin]

"That's too bad. I might have helped you with that," he joked about the birds' nests. He wanted to focus on that rather than the disappointment in her voice when it came to his eventual departure.

"I promised to find more of the clan. There are no others here, just you all from Ashara and the one young mage from clan Dahlasanor. I refuse to believe that the other hunters were simply swallowed up by a damned rift." He'd said basically the same thing to Ellana when the two of them had spoken, but he doubted that she had understood where he was coming from. At least, not as much as Beleth was liable to. He struck upon an idea though, and leaned a little closer to her. "What if you were to go with me, though?"

[arlathvhen]

"Some of your clan is missing--?" She looked startled at the information. That would certainly explain why Salem was here in the first place, when he showed little interest in the Inquisition as a whole. He didn't seem to feel obligated to help like some of her clanmates, or simply tied to the clanmates called here, like her. It also explained why he was eager to move on. A few of the People who were neither of your clan, nor in any immediate danger, were not nearly as much of a priority as missing clanmates.

But his next words, the offer he makes, is even more startling to her. Just--just offering to have her go with him? Just like that?

And the truth is, her first instinct is to agree with him. Salem is offering a return to her comfort zone, away from the Inquisition and their humans, and their Templars, and the clanmates that she had grown up with brush off everything about being a Dalish, like one would cast away clothing that had become too frayed to bother with. Where she didn't have to risk at the end of all of this, returning home with half the people she came with (or worse, a bitter voice whispers at the back of her head, all alone).

Where she wasn't the bad guy for being suspicious, where she wasn't, apparently, the only one that remembered that Tevinter, to this day, holds a significant elven slave population, where raiders still try to take children from clans to sell. It would be a relief to wash her hands of the entire affair, to go back to the Dalish, tucked away in a place she never had to deal with humans again. To be where she belongs.

But that wouldn't be responsible. She had a job here, and she had made a promise.

But would anyone really care if she left? If she didn't tell them, would they even notice?

And wasn't helping the People more important?

"...I don't know if I'd be--I think people would get mad at me, if I did." She finally whispers to him, like it's a big secret. It's the best answer she can give--her own opinions kept to herself. Neutral ground, while stating the truth.