[Closed] Make No Judgements

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WHO: Bethany Hawke and Leliana
WHAT: Bethany and Leliana speak about Galadriel
WHEN: Right after Obi-Wan speaks out. Backdated
WHERE: The Rookery
NOTES: Warnings for many, many feels.

After Bethany had received Leliana's letter in response to her own,, she wasted no time in preparing to travel up to Skyhold. On went the official Battlemage armor for the Grey Wardens, on went the cloak, and the staff was used for walking and not just tucked behind her. Her pin was clear on her shoulder, her gaze was steady when she looked at each guard as she passed.

Some of them shifted in place, but the training held. Not one of them said a word.

The pomp and circumstance was a necessary evil - after all - Leliana was taking her seriously enough to have her meet her on her own turf. Which meant she still didn't trust herself down at the Warden camp. Bethany wasn't sure if that would turn things around, but she knew of all the advisors -- Leliana was the one to speak with.

So she climbed the circular staircase - up through above the painted mural room, through the library proper, and then up int the rookery itself, where hundreds of ravens cawed above her. She looked up, thoughtful, before she looked around for Leliana.

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Bethany moved around the desk, ignoring the scrolls there, to find Leliana at prayer. One corner of her mouth lifted, then the other, because that right there was all the proof she needed that Leliana was not as different as she said she was. Colder, perhaps, but the light of faith that glimmered in her? Never diminished.

She let that smile linger for a moment, before it faded as Leliana turned. Her expression went back to calm, and composed, as she dipped her head respectfully. "Good afternoon, Sister Leliana. Thank you for responding to my letter so promptly. I hope this is a good time to speak of the subject matter?"

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"Of course." Her desk has been cleared of any sensitive documents, and some twenty ravens have been sent out today. For the moment she has a window, though she never knows how long such opportunities will last. "Have a seat."

Leliana remains standing for just a moment lighting another candle and setting it at the shrine before she turns to face Bethany properly and make her approach of the desk. "Where do you wish to begin?"

Curiosity, observation. Letting others talk and seeing their priorities could tell her much.

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Bethany puts her staff aside - she won't need it for this meeting after all - and folds her hands in her lap. Composed, and calm, she waits for Leliana to finish her worship and come back to the desk. She inhales slowly at the question, before she asks quietly.

"I wish to know first, what the charges are against Galadriel?" That was first and foremost. No one knew what she was being charged for. If they had some sort of idea ... perhaps this wouldn't have gotten out of hand so quickly.

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"Threats made against the Inquisition," she starts, bluntly. Simple question, relatively simple answer-- although it was never truly simple, was it? "I cannot reveal the exact nature of them, it is...sensitive information. However, she threatened to use her abilities to endanger Thedas, and refused to take an oath ensuring that she would not take such action."

Brief, professional, though she is watching Bethany with calm curiosity to see what she makes of that.

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"I see." A frown came over her face at that, because these were serious charges indeed. A sensitive nature could mean many things, but Bethany nodded her head just once. "I trust you all to keep us safe, and if you thought this was deemed a serious enough threat to be taken as actual and not just ... well, horse manure, then I won't worry about why she is still in a cell."

There is a pause, a delicate one, before she puts her brown eyes on Leliana's blue ones. "Why were we not told?"

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"Why were you not told?" Her tone sounds a little incredulous, to say the least, and she leans forward. "I do not agree with Galadriel's imprisonment," Leliana begins, yet there is a fire burning in her. "But decisions that the Advisors make are not the public business of the entire Inquisition. They are strategy. They are complex. We are fighting a war, Bethany. Not all information is necessary to be made public, and we have greater concerns than offering the people of Skyhold a rationale for every action."

She does not sneer - she has more control than that. "What grounds do you, of all people, have to criticise us for not making knowledge public?"

As a friend of Anders, more than anything, but as a Warden as well.

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Bethany looked at Leliana for a long moment, before she exhaled slowly and softly, and stood up. She looked down at the desk, before she looked up at the other woman, her brown eyes hard.

"I didn't come here for the Wardens. I came here for every single mage, every single Rifter, and every single elf who wondered if they were next. I swore to Obi Wan Kenobi that you were men and women of honor who would never imprison anyone without reason - and I was correct. Simply stating that she was being held by making a threat against Thedas would have saved everyone a great deal of ire - and I wondered why it was not done."

Her chin stuck out, "You see criticism where there is none. You want to punish me, fine. But do not punish everyone else. They do not deserve it. I am the one who made you angry. I am the one who betrayed you, and I accept that sin. I sacrificed one friend for another, to pay a life debt. I have to live with that."

She gestured towards the window, "Just as you are protecting the Seeker Pentaghast now, for her decisions, however justified and honorable, to the people of the Inquisition." She stopped, and exhaled. "That does not excuse my behavior. Perhaps it never will. That is something I also have to accept."

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The Nightingale looks back, eyes equally cool.

"It was not done because she is not my prisoner, and I will not leave her to be imprisoned for some unspecified time without hard proof." Leliana shakes her head. It had not been a deliberate plan, but the effects of her being bound up in work and the aftermath of Anders and the Wardens and the countless other things unfolding has been her first priority... well. It suited well enough. She does not need to justify herself, even if they cannot see it, all she does is for Thedas. Each move, each stroke.

"Let there be ire. Let there be passion and discourse and pressure set upon the Seeker so she realises her error and Galadriel is set free." Leliana shakes her head. "This is not a matter of soothing and comforting people so they might sleep easy. It is a matter of showing that actions like that which the Seeker followed cannot be endured, no matter how noble and pure their intent, so that it will not be repeated."

She would roll her eyes for how dramatic this has become.

"Do not think yourself so significant that I would make others suffer simply to make an attack on you. My work stretches far beyond that."

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She fights darkspawn, Nightingale. Your cold, dead eyes just remind her of an emissary, and she's killed a lot of emissaries.

Your words, however, chill her to the bone.

"Passionate discourse only works while people are willing to talk, Sister Leliana, and listen. I think you have found, with the young elven boy breaking into the jail, that people are starting to move past that." She states smoothly, "And if you think anyone around here sleeps easy ..."

A long sigh, before she shakes her head, "Yet, I hope the Seeker learns what you wish her to learn. You know her better than I - and there is nothing more I want than to see the Lady Galadriel freed. For this to be seen as a lesson for any and all."

She snorts softly, "As for not being significant enough ... I'm not my sister, the legend, and I'm not my brother, the one chasing after glory. I don't care if I am. You are quite right that your duties extend beyond more than just one Grey Warden. It doesn't take away that your tone states that you're angry enough with me to try to cut me down to size, when I have scarcely become bigger than that young girl in the Chantry."

Her gaze didn't soften, but she did loosen her shoulders a little. "You have every right to be angry. I just hope you're not angry at me forever."