Open: Nerva has feelings about Mages

[keeperofmagi]

WHO: Nerva and Open
WHAT: Nerva storms back into Skyhold following the Abomination
WHEN: Before / During the Mage Council meeting
WHERE: The Tavern
NOTES: Nerva is her own warning. Alcohol.

Before the Council meeting, Nerva was nothing but a ball of rage. She had not been in Skyhold when the Abomination struck - sent on a quick escort mission down to the crossroads - and had returned to the remnants of destruction and chaos. Destruction and chaos that should have been prevented. Destruction and chaos that she should have been there to prevent, not out gallivanting around the countryside.

Once the meeting itself started, Nerva had attended despite the fact that she had absolutely no vote in the outcome. She had no power, here - though that was not a difficult thing to reconcile. She'd had no power in the Circle, either - too vocal and distrustful to ever be promoted beyond being a mere grunt. She'd gotten used to the fact that she had no say in policy decisions.

Which was why she had to be as loud and as vocal as possible if she was going to influence the council's decisions at all. That she disagreed with the council existing at all was beside the point. It was reality, and she had to face it. But she didn't like it.

However - she didn't stay for the whole meeting. Once she had said her piece she left - fuming and white knuckled - and stalked straight for the tavern. She usually was careful about her alcohol intake, mostly because she disliked being out of control of herself, but today was a good day to drink until she could at least have a conversation without burning holes through someone just by looking at them. Her rage and grief - a grief old as time but torn open anew with astounding regularity - were almost physical presences around her, hunched over the bar and nursing the wine even as she looked at it in disgust.

Comments

[ungovernable]

Benevenuta is undeterred by the brusque nature of Nerva's bluntness, her small smile lingering.

"Just what I have said," she says, mild but not pointedly so - she is not surprised that Nerva imagines she has some game in mind, and...she does, only: it is exactly what she's said it is, for once. If there are other benefits to be found - and there will be - she will find them later. This is a perfectly adequate starting point, both in terms of beginning and of setting goals.

Her shrug is lithe - her gesture easy, the grace that comes from the very physical practise of magic in Thedas. "Templars, mages ... this is the Inquisition. It does not serve anyone for us to sit in our separate corners, nursing our separate hurts. And for the most visible and vocal of us," with a wry look; Benevenuta, visible, and Nerva, very vocal, "to be always at odds, and always apart ... it is our examples that are seen. And followed."

She thumbs the edge of her cup, with a sigh.

"I think Stannis does not believe, entirely, that it will ever be different. But I think we cannot succeed in what we do that way - and what we are doing here is more important than anything else. So I would set a better example. And match my actions to my words. And prove him wrong."

It isn't defiant. She thinks he'd be pleasantly surprised.

[keeperofmagi]

She isn't sure what to do, with such frankness. She wanted it, true, but in her experience mages were rarely so forthcoming about their intentions, so she can't help but try to decode it - to find the true meaning that she suspects are behind Benevenuta's words. But for the life of her, she cannot find anything.

So instead she simply frowns, looking at her the way a smith might assess a piece of gold, to ascertain its quality.

"I see." She said finally - still obviously not completely convinced, but unwilling - or unable - to give an argument against it. She let out a breath, before turning her frown down to her drink.

"... I hold no grudge against you, Councillor. And if you believe that being seen in together in public will strengthen the Inquisition..." She trailed off, because she didn't want to admit it, but she saw the point. Besides - it would be easier to keep an eye on the mages if they came to her willingly. "Then I shall keep your company."

[ungovernable]

The best defense is a good offense; Benevenuta is often frank, for being such an inveterate liar. Under Nerva's renewed scrutiny, she is smilingly inscrutable - nothing to see but what she has decided to show, which in this instance is her cards. Maybe not all of them, not all of what drives her, but all of what drove her to Nerva's side, this evening.

Honesty, she thinks, will get her far with this one. There must be no crack for Nerva to leverage an argument out of.

"I believe it," she reiterates, taking up her book again. "I shall finish my book, then - perhaps another day we might have a game of chess."

[keeperofmagi]

She let out a long breath, with a soft grunt, that was probably some sort of agreement. Not exactly pleased, but not exactly displeased. An acceptance of a duty, perhaps.

She would turn it over a hundred times later, when she was more sober.

Chess, indeed.