she took me back and stitched me up

[fightingale]

WHO: Sister Nightingale, Scout Harding & Knight Captain Hill; possible appearances from Araceli, Lara, Hermione, Beleth, Kitty & Clarke?
WHAT: After following different sets of clues, a few intrepid detectives present the information to the Nightingale.
WHEN: After the soiree; backdated soorrryyyy
WHERE: a chamber off leliana's private quarters that i just made up and that totally exists ahem
NOTES:
Feel free to set up individual starters and I'll hop in. The post itself is a generic starter for Leliana, but I want to keep this flexible as possible for everyone and not pile too much on folks, so feel free to get in touch with me ooc if you'd like to figure out something specific or handwave :]b

There are very few places to pursue a Spymaster when she is not in her Rookery. For those willing to seek her out even in the hours after the soiree, and perhaps even a little earlier if it were possible for her to escape any earlier without undermining the very purpose of the party, Leliana can be found in a chamber that precedes her own private quarters. It is sparsely decorated. There is only a table, a few chairs, and depending when someone arrives they may find her Lead Scout and the Knight Captain present, as well. On the table sits a deck of cards, and a few glasses - water only, of course. Sharp minds over blurred wits.

Leliana has shed the beautiful dress that made up her apparel for the evening, and is back in the uniform of the Nightingale, cowled and covered, and she waits. The nature of the arrival will tell her something, as well, and one of her agents stands outside the closed door, waiting to address those who would approach and enter.

Comments

[foxsays]

"Maria left the ball in a flurry and I did not spy her returning to it - she was there to represent the Chantry, since she's a Templar and I know that there was a splitting of the Templars from the Chantry, not to mention whatever is going on within Skyhold." She clears her throat carefully, making sure she presents this as she would a report to Leandra. "I waited until I could leave without drawing attention to find her quarters in a state; it had been turned over and clearly they didn't care for being discovered or their discovery wouldn't matter because they would be gone. The candles were still wet to the touch, and pages from various books had been burned."

She leaves her personal thoughts alone for the moment, better to get through the with telling and then hash out the details, surely. Leliana will have questions if this is anything like giving a guard report. "There was no blood there though and it didn't look like there had been any sort of scuffle, the angles were wrong. A mess but a precise sort of mess.

"When I returned to the ball there were servants gossiping, as servants do, but they weren't from Skyhold, they'd come with the guests." Which guests she couldn't be sure, not when it was her first time dealing with Orlesian nobility in the flesh, as well, trying to place how they were all connected to one another and the agendas. Still, she knows many of Skyhold's servants, particularly any involved in working in or around the kitchens. "That was when I became more concerned - their talk was of Templar abuses in Skyhold, and in Emprise du Lion." There's a short pause; it isn't a secret that Araceli went to Emprise du Lion where she helped to free captives from cages, and it's a sight that's stuck with her even now, the kind of cruelty and horror she finds it difficult to speak of. She gives herself a shake so she can continue. "I was going to go back to the room armed with that to see if I had overlooked something but I saw a scrap of torn fabric that I believe matches Maria's gown. A low branch was broken, and that is where I found this knife."

She gestures to it carefully, avoiding whatever still discolours the blade in places because while she doesn't know what it is, some can be absorbed through the skin into the body, or some can cause burns and blisters. Thedas has magic, there's every possibility that a poison could be altered by them too. It doesn't hurt to be cautious here.

"I don't know what that is on the blade, poison was never a tool that I used or something very common to my country. The symbol however, that I recognise. Kirkwall's heraldry. It could mean several things however: that it was made in Kirkwall or made to look as if it has come from Kirkwall, which would mean that the wielder comes from Kirkwall too or again, wishes to give the appearance. I know that the Chantry in Kirkwall was destroyed and from all that I have heard, that was the spark that lit the flames spreading across Thedas for the Mage-Templar war. Maria was the target, because she is a Templar, because she was here to represent the Chantry to the nobility gathered tonight. The blade is a message; either for the mages and what they have stood for, or against the Templars in Kirkwall, I have heard awful things about them. Since she is gone, then they have taken her to make a statement - the mages are not gone, or that the Templars will face some form of justice."

At last she's done, the beginnings of a headache spreading out from her forehead, her voice almost gone entirely even with something soothing to drink, heart hammering. Where is Maria, she wonders, but there wasn't a chance to do anything then because a scene being caused at such a party could jeopardise so much, and with a rifter imprisoned, it would reflect so poorly if another caused a stir.

[fightingale]

An attendant arrives with the wine and sets it before Araceli before looking to Leliana and, at her nod, disappearing back out the door. For long moments Leliana is silent, going through the mental checklist of the clues that Maria had said she would leave.

"I have both good news and bad," she starts carefully, fingers weaving together as she rests her elbows on the table between them. "You have done very well to uncover all of this, and analyse it as you did." Especially for a rifter, some might suppose, but Araceli was a member of her Queen's Guard, and training to be a bard besides. The poison we can come to later. Better, first, if I set your mind at ease."

The apology for laying a false trail that disrupted Araceli's evening might never come, because it is not a matter Leliana feels especially repentant about. First, she must summon Maria, and she looks over her shoulder towards a different door, obscured by shadows. "Do you not agree, L'Aigle?"

[nofury]

Orlesian codenames. Praise to the Maker her father was not there to hear it. It brings a small, wry smile to Maria's face as she enters the room and moves to stand at Leleiana's right hand. There will be no apologies from her, either. Skills must be tested, and tests which gave results were never a waste of effort or time.

"Even better news, we were all able to leave the party."

[foxsays]

Would that the corset allow it, she might relax when she sees Maria but her small tired smile and the raising of her glass will have to be enough, though she does set the glass down long enough to reach behind and deftly give herself a little slack, something to allow the tightness to ease somewhat. To let herself breathe comfortably at the very least. The nickname she parses much more slowly, Orlesian clumsier in her mouth now after a night of balancing it, but eagle she thinks, yes, that sounds about right.

"So at least some of that was not a ruse then?" She asks only because it's polite, and because there's something that they're both in on that she was not as she takes a sip, rubbing her throat carefully. "I am out of practice," she says, an apology to Leliana but it's been a good six months without real duties beyond the ones she's made for herself, a small glance sent Maria's way because she doesn't know just how much the other woman is in on, a secret Araceli has kept so very carefully close to her skin as her tattoos, more easily hidden unless someone goes looking for it.

She's given very little reason to do so. She knows how to play games, and often her confusion has been very genuine, or close enough.

But the point still stands: she's out of practice and that needs to change. If that means cutting herself off from the work she's been doing to gather information to help fellow rifters then so be it, and so she sits up a little straighter, nodding as she settles herself and takes another sip of wine. Her head will ache in the morning. Most of her will ache in the morning but let it serve as a lesson, let it remind her of what the past year was so she doesn't slide back, so she doesn't slip into the skin of someone else.

Were this less serious she would joke that Korrin is likely more relieved to be done with it than Araceli who has learned to thrive on such things, but perhaps later when she knows her teacher or Maria better she can joke, and she takes another drink, setting her hands on her lap to hear how she's done. She's able to keep things straight in her head after being clubbed in a tavern brawl, a little party and strong wine shouldn't muddle her memory too badly.

[fightingale]

"There is time for both of you to return before the evening is entirely done," Leliana replies, looking at araceli, though the tone of it is very much directed at Maria. "There are other dresses to be had."

And then she clears her throat, leaning back in her chair and indicating to an empty one at the table, finally looking to Maria to see if she will take it, before glancing back to Araceli and offering a very slight shake of her head. She had not, as yet, informed Maria of Araceli's position and the role of her Queen's Guard. That she was training to be a bard and had related experience was sufficient, without compromising the secrecy owed to her home world.

"You are beginning your studies," Leliana amends. "Based upon your own assessment of your performance tonight, and my own, we can better refine your training. Identify areas of strength and potential room for improvement, and I can introduce you to some others in the network, so you can better work collaborate when you have the need. This was trial run, of sorts, though not solely for yourself. A series of different clue trails were lain down to see who would observe them, and to whom they would take that information in the wake of recent... developments, shall we say. You not only noticed the clues and deduced the implications, but you brought them to me, and promptly so. If anything more than Maria's party attendance had been in peril, we would both had been greatly indebted to you."

She looks to Maria, whom the attendant has provided with her own spiced wine, much to Leliana's (quiet) amusement. Introductions should probably be done more properly, no? "Knight-Captain Hill is one of my finest agents, and an exemplary Templar. I cannot emphasise her discretion or expertise enough." She is trustworthy is the basic truth of it, but there is no need to become sentimental. "Araceli Bonaventura is a student of mine, and a very fine scout, more frequently found off the ground than on it." So if Maria ever needs to keep up with her she does not recommend being armoured.

[foxsays]

"I think it would be best for all parties involved if I rescue Councillor Ataash before her patience with Lady Odette runs out entirely, I'm sure you would both agree, especially given this test." It's teasing, or it sounds as teasing as she can manage. With them she doesn't bother to hide the strain in her voice; tonight simply served as another reminder that the Mage-Templar tensions can so easily return, that any small incident could serve to reignite them, that perhaps the key instigator hid within the walls of Skyhold for so many months as if he were another seeking refuge with one hand and offering aid with the other.

First she would gain a measure of him herself, after seeing Korrin's rage.

"Poisoners come from other lands, to get hold of them in our country? The cost is extortionate, and though many creatures of the sea can kill you with one brush of their barbs, we don't use them." Her voice is soft, not from the strain of speaking over others and entertaining, reverent instead; the sea is her blood, but even the Dalish have named figures rather than primal forces to love and to cherish, and she's so very far from home. "If I need to know them or use them, I can, we aren't prohibited in making use of them if we can get hold of them but again, it is cost and as you know, I was not born to a life of extravagance."

And her queen has a gentle hand, she would prefer not to have lives taken to reach her goals, she would prefer imprisonment in the hopes that minds can even be changed unless they truly prove too dangerous, unless it is an honest fight.

A laugh escapes, not even a laugh, a soft huff that would turn into a cough if she didn't know how to control herself. "You remind me so much of someone so very dear to me, she tested me without me ever knowing." There was blood on my hands that day, she thinks, I am glad that tonight it never came to that, though the Nightingale is not Leandra. They are both steel but Leandra can wield her softness so well to all the world and show her face, can wear her many gowns and masks, her guards all so close to her; Araceli knows how warm the skin is behind her ear and that it always smells of the sea, that she will always be allowed to lead her away from her work when the candles burn low and hollow out her cheeks. Perhaps there will be time to speak properly to her teacher of Leandra in more than just a note at some point later but she's so busy she never wishes to take up more of her time for anything outside of lessons.

Looking to Maria, it startles her once again to remember just how long she's been in Thedas, how long it's been since they shared a tent in the Fallow Mire when they passed a flask between them. "Forgive me, Knight-Captain. I had no idea of your station when we first met. If you have need of me, it's best to leave a message or shout up, I'll come down if you ask." By now it's not a secret that Cassandra's soldiers physically dragged her down off the wall when she managed to evade them the first time, and though she doubts it'll be repeated, with those Leliana trusts, she's willing to make distinctions clear.

[nofury]

Maria gives a wry smile before sipping her wine. It had been a good number of months, the duties of the Inquisition, the Order, and the Left Hand calling more attention than staying social- never a strong suit of hers to begin with. But for now she's content to watch the interaction, more making mental notes as Leliana speaks than offering to agree with or challenge her.

[[ooc: go nuts and just assume Maria is observing unless directly addressed!]]