[open] how sweet is the day, I'm craving a darkness

[doneisdone]

WHO: Teren von Skraedder and you! Especially other Wardens!
WHAT: Faffing about Skyhold (and meeting up with Benny)
WHEN: late Guardian
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: come meet your new mom



The Herald's Rest

As she orients herself to Skyhold, Teren spends a lot of her downtime in the Herald's Rest, having a drink and a meal or just sitting quietly and listening to the music and talk of the keep. She's a dour creature, but wears her warden blues to indicate her position and is open enough to friendly (or unfriendly) conversation.

Wherever

She can be anywhere you need her. Bonus if your character is doing something stupid that she can grump at them about.

[Closed to Benevenuta]

At an hour many would consider indecent, Teren knocks against the door she knows to belong to the resident Thevenet. In one spindly hand is concealed a tiny missive, dictating her purpose for being here.

Comments

Wherever

[sunshinethroughgrey]

As a mage, Bethany has to take the time to do her research. As it stood she was taking the time to do it on spirit magic. However, she had spread herself around with her old friends and new friends, so she often was on the run. Not to mention preparing for the Western Approach, keeping up with whatever they could find on Wardens ...

She'd admit it. Sometimes she forgot to eat.

That is why she was reading a book on spirit magic and eating an apple at the same time.

closed.

[ungovernable]

Teren doesn't have long to wait; Benevenuta opens the door to her modest room (far more modest than lodgings she's accustomed to, but well-kept even without a dedicated maidservant, and comfortable enough all things considered) with a promptness and a hint of surprise that is intended only for anyone who might be passing. No one is, that she sees - you can never be too careful.

"Warden," she says, politely, opening the door wider and stepping aside, knotting the light robe she wears at the waist and pushing her loosened hair to one side. "Please; my time is yours."

She has been expecting her.

[doneisdone]

Teren is perusing the library herself, sifting through the various titles, taking stock of what manner of important documents are here for public consumption. When she spots the girl reading, she eyes her for a moment, then takes care to move quietly around her. She frowns a little at the sight of the apple, but lets it be for now. Surely the woman can eat without getting any juice on an expensive tome.

[doneisdone]

Teren bends at the waist in a respectful bow, then accepts the invitation, stepping forward into the woman's room. She waits until the door is closed before she extends her hand, offering the missive to Benevenuta.
"From your mother," she quietly explains, her expression stony as ever.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Bethany takes another bite of her apple, careful to keep her sticky fingers off of the page, then frowning down at another spell. She put down the apple carefully, reaching down into a satchel by herself for her notebook, and her ink and quill. She closed the flap, showing off a stylized griffon in flight, a perfect replica of the Grey Warden emblem.

After a moment, though, she glances sideways to look at the woman ... skulking around. New ... archivist? Seemed to be quite a few of them about.

wherever!

[bunko]

In an open square, seated on a set of steps that lead up to the battlements, Skyhold's latest and greatest hero, Scipio the Marvel, is very carefully tearing pages out of a book.

In general, Scipio is happy. Skyhold is not Antiva City, and being a Warden is a drastically different career than the one that he has known. And Scipio is a complainer, but his complaints can be assuaged if he finds something to hold his interest. His involvement with the Wardens has been as distant as he could manage up until the more recent months, where he found himself participating.

Participation: what a dirty word! But it has not been so bad, no matter what Rafa says, or what he says to Rafa to cover up the fact that he's enjoyed the tasks he's been set. Yes, of course it helps, to have magic boots, to keep him warm; yes, of course it helps, that his tasks so far have been alternatively easy and heroic. A lover of tales and a lover of ballads, Scipio has found that he liked his chances to play hero. A genuine hero, not just wearing a hero's disguise.

Tearing pages out of a book is not quite so heroic, but it is necessary. He words with nimble fingers and a small pen-knife, his gloves tucked into his belt and his lute strapped firmly to his back. He hums a jaunty tune as he works, without any accompaniment besides the shrrrf of tearing paper. And, when he has mined all the pages he wants to mine, he throws the slim-and-now-slimmer volume over his shoulder, into the empty yard--

--Which is not so empty. But he's focused on his task and not to blame, should that book hit someone.

Hello, someone.

[doneisdone]

Feeling Bethany's eyes on her, Teren waits a few moments, then turns to glance back. It's then that she notices the emblem, and a small smirk crosses her lips.
"A Grey Warden?" she asks, keeping her voice low for the sake of others present.

[doneisdone]

A bark-like curse breaks the relative silence of the courtyard when Teren, unluckily walking below the battlements, takes the corner of a book's spine to the head.
She has to take a moment to recover, rubbing the smarting spot as she bends to pick up the book and finds that many of the pages are missing; this is surely the work of a careless idiot child, and she won't stand for it.

Gripping the book in her talon-like fingers, she storms around to face the steps and finds, to her disgust, that it is in fact a grown man sitting there.
"What in the name of Maferath are you doing?!" she demands.

[ungovernable]

One hand still holding the edge of her robe, Benevenuta takes the slip of paper and scans it briefly, businesslike - in the easy transition from her warm pleasantries at the door to the brisk way she considers the message in her hand, she is so much her mother's daughter. (And it is so much the Thevenets that there is nothing personal enough to warrant anything else, in a letter from mother to daughter; it isn't that sentiment has no place in their relationship, only that it has a specific place.)

"I see her point," she says, folding it again and consigning it a moment later to the fire burning low in the grate. "It is a pleasure to properly meet you. She speaks highly of you, still."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Bethany looks up at that, before putting on a pleasant, warm smile. "That is right, madam. I am Warden Bethany Hawke. What might I do for you today?"

She'd learned early on that the nicer she was, either she threw off the detractors or befriended the slightly trepidious.

[doneisdone]

"And you as well, my lady," Teren levelly replies, inclining her head in a second show of respect. "I ask now that you catch me up on any news you feel merits my attention."

[doneisdone]

MIght as well. Teren steps toward her with one bony hand extended.
"Teren von Skraedder," she greets in return, "a fellow warden, new to Skyhold and hailing from Orlais. Tell me, do you know from whence this library amasses its resources?"

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Good grief, this woman needed to eat more sandwiches. Bethany made a note to go to the kitchen and make sure the woman had something to eat, before taking her hand with a smile, "Warden von Skraedder, a true pleasure to see another one of our brethren."

There's a pause, as she looked around, then back at the woman with a sheepish expression, "I ... honestly don't know anything but rumor. Fairytales, that sort of thing."

[ungovernable]

With limited options in terms of seating, Benevenuta leaves the one chair - by a small desk - for Teren to take if she so chooses, sinking down instead on the edge of her bed as she considers not whether there's anything that merits attention but, indeed, where to begin. A glossy-coated spaniel bitch sleeps by the fireside, stirring only a little at the entrance of this new stranger; Husband is many things, but a guard mabari she is not.

"We are in a tenuous sort of a ceasefire," she says, finally, "mages and these former Templars." She doesn't even consider characterizing them so pointed; she imagines the Chantry would agree with her assessment, all things now considered. "Mother informed you of my position on the Council. It is..."

A gesture. Complicated. The authority they have is what they are permitted by not only the Inquisition but indeed other mages; they must justify their existence, constantly.

"A rift was opened in Skyhold, recently, by one of the shardbearers. A Dalish mage." A little dryly, "It failed to simplify matters."

[bunko]

Mildly, Scipio looks up from his work. This fresh book is full of pages to be extracted, and the pen-knife, in his hand, is poised for the next careful slice. On the steps beside him, there is a stack of pages resting on a cloth, waiting to be bound up and carried off.

"Work!" he answers, cheerfully. "We are in a great need of paper. This, I have heard."

She looks unhappy, he realizes a moment later. He hasn't yet realized the significance of her choice of color, though beneath the swathes of his own two heavy cloaks, he is wearing the same shade of blue. No: first, what Scipio notices is her unhappy face. Perhaps she is cold? No, but second he notices that she's clutching the book that he just emptied.

He blinks, surprised to see this book returned so soon. "Where did you get that?"

[doneisdone]

"I see," Teren answered, gripping Bethany's hand in a firm handshake. "I shall look into it myself." Her tone was amiable enough-- she could hardly blame one random warden for not knowing everything.
"What is the state of the wardens here?"

[doneisdone]

Teren takes a seat, eyeing the dog but not remarking on her. She takes little notice of the small useless pets of her wealthy associates, as long as they behave themselves.

"A rift," Teren repeats, her thin eyebrows raising in intrigue, "was there a motive?" That does complicate things, indeed. "How has it affected the Council?"

[doneisdone]

Teren's eyes narrow in fury. "You threw it at me!" she spits, waving it at him and then stepping closer, ascending a few stairs to get a closer look at the paper. "This isn't-- you can't expect people to write on this, you fool--" When the full reality of the situation dawns on her, she claps a hand over her face and steadies herself. "Maker," she breathes, collects herself, and looks at the man again.
"Stop that at once."

[bunko]

"Oh." That does make sense. It had been a wide throw; it stands to reason that it would have caught someone in the process. "Your pardon, then! I had not meant for it to strike you. And it is not to replace the parchment, you see--"

Deftly, he tucks the knife away at his belt and takes up a piece of page off of the stack, and holds it out so she can see it.

"You see, it is for notes. These are the blank pages, or the nearly blank, the ones that are not used. If we are careful, they can be re-used."

[doneisdone]

"What you meant is irrelevant," she grumbles, and snatches the papers from him to start leafing through them. "No, no-- these aren't blank, boy! These are needed in the books they belong to, the very books you are currently vandalizing!" Just to be sure, she leans in to start picking up any remaining books, as well as any covers.
"Who told you to do this? Do you have a shred of sense in your fool head?"

[bunko]

Wha--

Trepidation crosses Scipio's face when she snatches away the pages. A fairly sizable stack remains beside him, the fruit of labors, but his fruit and his labor. Not to be taken away, as she is taking away the books.

And: boy?

"No one told me. Well--I was told of the need for the parchment, yes? That such a thing is precious. I left behind the important pages, you may see for yourself," as she gathers up the books into her arms, "but not in those, in those, I have not touched. They aren't all blank, yes? But they are mostly blank! And you know, at the start of each book, there is a blank page, sometimes more. And at the end of a book too. I do not know much of books, but this I do know. Where will you take those?"

[doneisdone]

Compared to her, a boy he is indeed. Teren watches him shrewdly, and his explanation yields an exasperated sigh. "Can you not read, then," she asks, with her characteristic brusqueness, but no anger. Most people can't read, even wardens.
"Sometimes the pages containing the fewest words are the most important," she explains, "and at this rate, you risk sacrificing existing knowledge for that what's new. Did you not consult the hunters or the tanners for their skins?" She begins to flip through one of the books she took from him, trying to match it to any of the pages torn out. "This will take a great deal of mending," she gruffly observes.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"Honestly I am not even sure how much of it is truth and how much of it is all the myths surrounding that Solas person." She paused, and here at least she had a firmer grasp on things.

"We're a small number, those of us who slipped through Clarel's net. Right now we're working with the Inquisition to get our efforts out to the Western Approach, where we believe the Tevinter who has Clarel under his influence is. We've found a number of ... burned bodies, but nothing concrete on what this particular ritual is to help 'end all Blights'."

[twelvelabours]

There's matters to discuss, all told. Catching up on mage council business and the status of things, sharing what Grey Warden news might be relevant (not a lot, honestly, most of that is locked up and confidential.) If he were totally honest, he could catch up with her somewhere that was not her private quarters, and could even go speak with someone else, but they get along well. Well enough, at least, between her looks and his crooked smiles and the mutual barbs and amusement.

And then there's all the rest, but a gentleman doesn't get into all that.

Point is that he's not accompanied by Max, is dressed more like a stable hand than a Grey Warden (he's been working), and after knocking sharply at the door, he takes a respectful half a step back.

[ungovernable]

The knock interrupts what would have been an answer - Benevenuta purses her lips momentarily and rises with a fairly good idea of who she'll find on the other side of the door. 'Wardens at her quarters late at night', not so unusual, it just hasn't been Teren up til this point.

Yes.

"Warden Hansen," she says, a bit more perfunctorily than she might have otherwise. Her hand flexes and the door shifts slightly, but a suspicious pause follows--

"Is it urgent?"

--because it would be just her luck that she closes the door in his face the one time he's got news she needs to hear.