Whoops. (semi-open)

[arlathvhen]

WHO: Beleth and Nerva, then anyone who wants to scold Beleth. This is only open to current CR.
WHAT: Beleth got caught spying, but ran for it. Nerva finds her anyway and sticks her with stables work. After that, Beleth is available for people to scold.
WHEN: Backdated to after Templar meeting but before First Day party
WHERE: Skyhold battlements, and the stables.
NOTES: This is rly late and I suck.

Comments

[arlathvhen]

"I know I don't have to," Beleth replied, shrugging. She pauses, then her eyes dart around the barn, making sure that no one else is around to overhear them. Satisfied, she turns back to Sina. "That's not the point. What Nerva did, it wasn't right. But if I skip out or tell her to get lost, right now? I'd be escalating the situation." She tapped her fingers on her leg as she tried to figure out exactly how to voice the complicated power struggle that she was participating in.

"But if I do this, and I stay quiet, then who looks worse? Me or Nerva? When this is over, I'll talk to people, and they will talk to people. Including the other Templars, the people that Nerva reports to. Then they are the ones who tell her off." Beleth spreads her hands out. "Now I am the innocent Dalish, bullied by the Templar Order, and she's a loose canon. And Nerva can't get at me about it. Sometimes, you have to lose a battle so you can win the war. When I was in my clan, I did a lot of trading with the humans. They'd try to give me bad deals. Sometimes, I would take the bad deals, so they felt like they'd won. They'd be so caught up in being smug that they wouldn't realize that I was giving them even worse deals. It's a similar concept."

[eolasemah]

Beleth may have a point, but that doesn't make Sina any happier about it. She rests her chin on her knees again, listening sourly as the older elf says her piece. Her expression begins to change, however, when Beleth tells her about fleecing people in trades. It's not that Sina would condone that sort of behavior here, but she understands the point being illustrated.

"...that makes sense," she agrees, thoughtfully casting her eyes downward. "It's... brave of you."

[arlathvhen]

Beleth looked up at Sina at the mention of bravery, eyes wide and confused. Brave? She didn't feel particularly brave. But slinging off someone's compliments is pretty dang rude, so she just gives a shrug, glancing away. "Thank you. I never really thought of it as being brave...? I thought it was just--safer, I suppose, to not directly confront them. But I guess it was better than nothing. It made me feel better, at least."

She turns back to Sina, giving her a smile. "I think things will work out, though. At least in regards to this. And I got some good information for the mage council."

[eolasemah]

Sina mirrors her smile, a bit apologetically, since she can see that Beleth wasn't entirely comfortable with the compliment. Still, they've come to a good place in the conversation. "May the Dread Wolf never catch your scent," she says quietly, with an air of wry conspiracy.