ooc: inbox/plot with me

[arcaneadvisor]

{sending crystal | notes & letters | personal visits}

Note: I work Mon-Fri and I'm basically away 11 hours a day but I do tags in gdocs and I try to do a round a night. Timezone is GMT.

ooc contact: deathwailart @ plurk | bansheesquad#0389 @ discord

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[arcaneadvisor]

And do not speak to me as if I am the one who has kept my secrets behind my teeth. I left Orlais to come provide the aid that I alone can, I have not conspired against you.

[She is sharp, she is waspish, she feels she has every right to be when she's sure that she's suspect to many but what she keeps to herself are things that are far beyond the reach of the Inquisition or things they have no right knowing. The greatest secrets are already known to Leliana after spending a year in her company; that Flemeth is real and the stories are true, that Morrigan managed to keep three Wardens alive upon slaying an Archdemon, that her son carries the soul of an Old God.

She is remarkably bare before Leliana now, only her motives for seeking her out and the full truth of her involvement in Orlais to be investigated, should she makes that decision.

But she can be a bird, and there are many ravens, though none that can so easily speak to the spymaster. Who knows what might pass through the lips of Wardens unaware that they are being watched; she said once to Alistair that they were 'his' Wardens but they are no more beholden to his command than Jonas was. Entitled to an opinion but with Wardens from Weisshaupt confirmed to be among them then tis not Alistair leading.

If Alistair could have truly orchestrated this then she'd quite frankly be amazed.]

I must leave, to check on Kieran. [If she needs to she can disappear and go to ground, not even Leliana could find her if she chose to vanish in the night but there is work to be done and the Inquisition is her best chance to get all that she needs. Their goals align neatly but if Kieran is in danger…] You know where to find me, if I am needed. You are not one I would make an enemy of, you might be the very opposite.

[How does one gracefully admit they were wrong in the past without actually having to make such an admission, especially when they aren't entirely sure of who the woman before them is, or why they reach for a girl that they once so openly despised. Leliana would have been hurt by the betrayal, hurt like she'd been with Marjolaine but a storm can be weathered without resorting to the measures the Nightingale will have to face, and woe betide any who think to keep anything from her now.

If it had only been Alistair then perhaps this all would have been easier. Alistair is after all a Warden, and decidedly lacking in anything that resembles a spine or critical thinking; he'd been convinced to go to Morrigan's bed and to lie with her after all, even when he'd despised and mistrusted her. However it was not, it was Zevran, and they had been so close once. So recently she and Leliana had spoken of friends, enemies, allies.

Surely the counting of such things must be easier when so many fall into one singular camp.]

[fightingale]

( And that is a shock quite on its own.
Leliana stills her voice on the retaliatory response supplied so sharply by her mind, gaze fixed on Morrigan so she gathers up pieces and tries to gather and weave together what she finds. To think that Morrigan would be the honest one - or at least the one best at keeping the appearance of it. Her concern for Kieran, though, her love for him, seems that it could only be genuine.

And to think, scant weeks ago she had been so incredulous that Morrigan could be a good mother. To think she had been making quiet jokes with Zevran, some of them comments at Morrigan’s expense, and even then he had been lying by omission, while Morrigan had been… loyal is not the right word, but honest is not fully sufficient when considering all the consequences.

Leliana only nods when Morrigan says she must depart, turning away to face down a pile of letters and information, to begin filtering through how they might control this information as it leaves Skyhold, as it inevitably will. Her mind is almost entirely moved on from Morrigan to the larger scale of these concerns and their implications, when Morrigan speaks again.

To be fair, it’s not a personal or friendly remark. Of that Leliana is more than certain. It is a professional one, a pragmatic one, but that does not keep Leliana’s brows from raising or her expression turning a little surprised. )

Understood.

( And Morrigan has lost something here, as well. If Leliana had few friends she could trust, the same must be said for Morrigan, though quite how that came to pass has been very different for both of them. She… pauses, a moment, considers if there is something she can say to reassure Morrigan, and realises that she has nothing to offer, and that the Morrigan she remembers would scorn whatever she did attempt. This is not the Morrigan from the Fifth Blight, though, as she is continually reminded.

Instead she only nods, while her hands smooth over some parchment, and she tries to determine from where they should begin as Morrigan departs. )