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]

"Could be worse then, at least." She points out, though that's not what's on her mind. She hesitates for a moment or two, watching Pel aggressively eat the bread. Then she speaks again, in a lower voice. "You know--That's why I told you that you ought to be on the mage council. There's being agreeable with the shemlen, then there's--" She waves her hand vaguely. She doesn't want to speak rudely of any of her clanmates, but surely Pel could understand-There's being agreeable, and there's agreeing with everything.

"Anyway. I thought you did a good job on the council. Be careful with them, though. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that the Empress' personal mage is still playing The Game, but she's not the only one who isn't saying what she means." She knew what to look for from her own experience, and with the training she'd been getting from Zevran, she was getting even better.

[mythalenaste]

"Empress' personal mage?" She tucks Beleth's compliment away to be picked apart later.

[arlathvhen]

"Madame Vivienne. The one with the strange hat." Beleth quickly tried to mime Vivienne's hat, but gave up. "The one who knew so much about clothing. She was Empress Celene's court mage. A renowned player of The Game." Beleth shoved some of the bread in her mouth as she dredged up what rumors she'd managed to get on that intimidating woman. Nothing of real interest, unfortunately, just the basics of who and what she was. "She faffed about calling herself the leader of the last loyal group of mages, if you can believe it. And the only one who could outdo Cyril in eyeliner technique." She snorted at that, but quickly grew serious again.

"I'll try to find out more about her, but the mage in grey, the one who was taking notes--She was thinking a lot more than she was saying. I need to find out more about her. If you want my opinion," Although Beleth was already giving it to Pel, asked for or not, "Korrin and Adelaide are going to be your best allies." This was what Beleth was training to do, after all. Watch people--not involve herself directly in politics, but be a shadow in the corner.

Or at least, a gossip who was hanging out on the bench available to observers, in between making faces at the Templar's backs.

[mythalenaste]

"Allies are for wars, Beleth. And wars have two sides as enemies. The other members of the Council aren't my enemies. This isn't a grand manipulation to fix the world the way I want it, it's a lot of scared people trying to find middle ground and bumping into each other in the process."

[arlathvhen]

"You don't need armor and swords to have a battle, lethallan. Look at The Game. It is a war waged behind painted masks, but it has just as much impact on the civil war being waged as the soldiers." She waved her hand around, frowning. "

You may not be trying to manipulate this to suit your wishes, but you can't say that for others. This is an opportunity to completely overhaul the way mages are treated. People are going to take advantage of that. We have already seen that there are plenty of people in the council who are willing to smile politely and let the others carry on with their plans." She's not going to say Ellana's name, but. It wasn't hard to guess.