"I hope that I have," she says, with a closemouthed smile, a private sort of expression; the sharp prettiness of her coupled with the warmth of her usual poise tends to lend a girlishness to Benevenuta that she ruthlessly exploits, but there are moments such as these where it's quite apparent that she is not a girl. No; a woman, and a shrewd one, at that.

As she sets down her cup-- "Consider that your enemy, ultimately, is not hatred. Oh, the true monsters - who will see mage, and see elf, and be driven by that, they are out there. But they are small things given power by a world that rewards sameness. Much more it is simple status quo. The way things are for they have always been so, and it's easy. When first you learn something, you must be disciplined, but...in time, it becomes habit, habit becomes nature, and then you're asked how it is you achieve something and you'll find yourself groping a bit for the answer. It becomes thoughtless."

Her shrug is elegant, "To break a singular habit is damned difficult, you know, breaking the habit of a society is a maddening task to set oneself. Our enemy is complacency. Simply in sitting upon this Council, we have said, we shall not be complacent. I consider that something very worthwhile."

Which is true, for all that Benevenuta also considers the Council to be the equivalent of herding drunk cats half the time and the single most frustrating thing she's ever engaged in - not for nothing has she on more than one occasion thought how much simpler it would have been if she'd held off joining herself and simply fed Adelaide the opinions she wanted her to have.

But this is the work she decided to do, and she will do it as she does everything: to the absolute best of her ability, and dragging the best of theirs out of everyone else if need be.