closed | landsmeet!

[cozen]

WHO: Bastien, Benedict, Byerly, Gela, Josias, Tiffany
WHAT: Riftwatch goes to the Landsmeet and (hopefully) unmasks an aspiring Venatori king.
WHEN: Nowish
WHERE: Denerim
NOTES: OOC post! Starters/dividers will be in the comments after we discuss.

When anyone in Ferelden speaks of "going to the city," they inevitably mean Denerim. There is no other place in the kingdom which rivals it: Not in size, population, wealth, or importance. It is the seat of the Theirin family, the capital of Ferelden, the largest seaport, and, by ancient tradition, the meeting place of the Landsmeet—an annual council for which all the nobles of Ferelden gather, held for almost three thousand years except odd interruptions during Blights and invasions. The sight of a king asking for—and working to win—the support of "lesser" men is a source of constant wonder to foreign ambassadors.

Comments

staggers in

[sprent]

Gela sighs, and sinks into her chair.

"Teyrn Cousland cannot be our man."

Angling her nose toward the coffee she sniffs, wrinkles it, and does nothing with the carafe he offers. "I spoke to his steward first, who didn't have much for me, but then I found the poor thing himself in the gardens cryin' over his late wife's favourite flowers."

She will not bring up that, naturally, she cried with him, moved by his grief, and that they had a very pathetic little hug together there in the garden where nobody could see them. – Oh, nobody except for, "And that was all interrupted by some – intruder thinkin' they could spy on the whole thing from a roof overlookin' the gardens. We had to send the guards after her."

... Are these two things related to each other? She seems not to have given it much thought just yet, still caught up in the dramatics of the situation.

[bouchonne]

Byerly is not always the most Fereldan of Fereldans, but even so, crying gets a slight narrowing of his eyes. It's not outright disapproval, but - Well, it's something perhaps adjacent to discomfort. He should not, after all, be crying.

"Grieving can sometimes make a fellow do strange things," Byerly says. Crying does not automatically disqualify Cousland from the running. But he doesn't feel much conviction as he gives voice to his suspicions. After all, this is Teyrn Cousland; investigating him was more out of duty than out of any real mistrust.

"Was the spy caught?"

[sprent]

With the air of somebody who knows they are not delivering satisfactory news, "Unfortunately not.

I alerted Cousland, who instantly brought his guards to come and search the place, but they didn't find anythin'."

Perhaps they would have, if she had helped? But she hadn't wanted to leave Cousland's side, wondering if the spy might come back to find him had they all torn off together to look. It was the wrong decision to make. "I asked him a few questions, but he didn't know anythin' of it. Didn't have a clue why somebody would be spyin' on him."

A beat. She has just realised something and adds it in guiltily, "He might have been lyin'?"