In the darkness I will meet my Creators

[arlathvhen]

WHO: Bardlings and Leliana, Beleth and YOU.
WHAT: Beleth and Araceli meet their bard teacher and have a jam session on the roof, then Beleth can be found practicing elsewhere.
WHEN: Beginning of Drakonis
WHERE: Skyhold roof, then the barn
NOTES: Discussions of violence at some point probably.

Bard lessons

Beleth doesn't consider herself to have really met Araceli, just like you wouldn't consider yourself acquainted with someone that you have only seen in a nightmare. That is what that entire journey to and from Antiva seemed to be, as far as she was concerned. One long running nightmare, and one that Beleth was still recovering from. But still, she knows a little of the other woman, enough to be both excited and nervous about their introduction, and their lessons together. Korrin's dating her, so she can't be that bad.

But Beleth is pretty sure she'll be better than the Dalish at this, and that Beleth will spend these lessons being mitigated to second place. At least Zevran had said that she was his favorite.

Of course, now that position has been shuffled down six places, since the arrival of the young Crows. But it's not like Beleth cares or anything.

Meeting on the roof had seemed like a perfectly logical idea to Beleth. It was spacious, quiet, and they wouldn't be interrupted. It was a place of peace, one that she was happy to use for lessons. So Beleth tied the lute to her back, and scaled up the walls to the roof. Once seated, she pulled the lute out, carefully tuning it as she anxiously waited for the other two to arrival.

Open: The barn

The sounds of a lute being quietly plucked at can be heard throughout the barn, and anyone trying to find the source just needs to head upstairs. Tucked away on a block of hay, Beleth sits and in intense concentration, attempts to play. Attempting may be the key word here. The plucking is amateurish, hesitant, and often starts over from the top, repeating the same couple stanzas over and over, until the notes are no longer strung along like a child's attempt at beading.

Occasionally, she attempts to sing along, but the music falters whenever she gets distracted with the song. Usually, she only gets out a handful of words. Oh fiercest fighter-- And then gives up and goes back to the notes.

Her face is a mask of concentration, and whenever she stumbles over notes, her eyebrows knit in a scowl. But, despite that, she's actually...quite happy. Concentrating on the music, pouring out her frustrations into writing songs and putting notes to them, it made her feel better. It gave her some manner of control, and it gave her something to distract her mind. It gave her the ability to make something beautiful.

--Or something that will be beautiful, eventually, she's sure. She sighs as she mangles the timing of another handful of notes. Stupid rests.

Comments

[arlathvhen]

How telling the attack had effected her laid less in her ordinary demeanor, and more in how she reacted when she was surprised, when she couldn't hurriedly put her mask of sweetness on. Such as: When random intimidating women appeared out of nowhere. Instantly in flight mode, she jumps back, only saved from falling off her perch when her back thumps into a tall stack of hay. For a single moment, she looks like a deer about to bolt, eyes wide and fearful.

Then the moment is over, and she slides down back onto the bale of hay she'd been sitting on, fingers wrapped white-knuckled tight around the neck of the lute. Slowly, she resumes breathing, and pulls a neutral expression on. "Oh, hello, ma'am. I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention--But. Um. I'm quite fine, as you can see." Like she hadn't just had a year shaved off her life by Nerva's sudden interruption.

She does look well, for the most part--there's a scar across the bridge of her nose, which now leans to the left a bit more than it did before, but the bruises and little cuts and scraps have been healed away.

[keeperofmagi]

She steps up far too close, seemingly completely unaware of personal boundaries, so that she can get a good look at Beleth's nose. The fact that there is a scar is sign enough - lesser injuries are easily dispersed by the healers. She scowls, but it's not for Beleth.

"He should not have been on his own," She said firmly. "I have made strict recommendations that he is to be under full supervision from now on. You have my apology that I did not make such recommendations earlier, when it was still possible to prevent an incident."

[arlathvhen]

Dread wolf's ass, Nerva. The hay backing that had kept Beleth from falling off her perch now served to keep her from being able to lean back to try to get a little more personal space when Nerva came and crushed it under her heel. She's not sure what to think about what Nerva says, and it's really hard to try when she's so close (her eyes are really pretty wow). She shifts, trying to focus, and finally manages out an absent-minded, "Ah, well, we learn from the past. I think after what the Seekers have said is going to be done, it won't happen again."

She pauses again. That didn't sound very well thought out. "But I forgive you. And I apologize as well. I brought all of this down on all of us when I started an argument I could have walked away from."