That fury you feel now, it would be shared by every templar in the Inquisition. Every knight we need yet court in Kirkwall. How many do you believe would join with us after such a thing? How many would stay?
It is not in the Inquisition's interest to execute him. They yet need us. What they do not need is the appearance of old trouble brewing on the Viscount's doorstep.
Darton has power, but not so much of it as he thinks, not so far from the Lady Seeker as we are. The context about him has shifted, and he is slow to adapt. We need be faster. We need tread carefully, and we need to consider appearances, because that is the axis of pragmatism upon which our presence here turns.
And therefore, I need you to hear me when I tell you, that what Harriman did cannot happen again.
[However little of the old trouble Simon was actually present for, he remembers it well enough to know that she's right. He quiets when he's told, and listens when he's told, and sets his jaw with seething but obedient discontent.]
And the rest of us can keep our mouths shut and be perfect models of chivalry, for what little good it does. All right. I'll try to keep him calm where I can.
[He has not historically been the best at doing that with Cade, for all his promises to be watchful. They're not friends, and he knows all too well what Cade tends to think of him, and it's only for his own peace in their shared quarters that Simon's lately stopped needling him on purpose just for fun. But nobody's life was ever at stake before.]
They talk about him like he's a rabid dog. We'd be better off if he was. Maybe then Reed would take our part.
Do not go Ferelden on me, [ a joke, because what she's about to say isn't: ] Harriman is your brother, and mine, and there are not so many of us left.
I would — sooner not lose that.
[ silence a moment, then, ]
Reed has needed to navigate politics before. Time will tell where he lands.
The rest, these others outside, we cannot blame them for not understanding. They are used to Circles as distant, hidden things. The war has eroded their trust. The Reds have. We need work harder and smarter than ever before to regain it. It is not fair; it never was. But it is necessary, and it is right.
We still have a duty by the people. Let us see it done.
[It is not fair; it never was. Simon has never needed to hear anything quite so much as he needs to hear that, and frequently. He's been adrift for too long without a mentor who can speak from hard life experience, and his naivete is stubbornly entrenched. No, it's not fair--but it won't be made fair with mere kicking and screaming and pettiness.]
It's not as if we were ever doing it for the thanks, anyway.
[ there was a time when wren wasn't angry, she knows. there had to have been something before this. she just doesn't remember it.
you learn to hold it in. to shove it down for a cause. and it works, mostly, if you try hard enough and long enough — mostly, it works. but sooner or later, you always have to shout. sooner or later, it always busts free. you kick. you scream. you get petty and mean.
and then you get back to the job. ]
Return the axe when you are finished.
[ this is the thing about simon, the thing that's unfair itself, she knows — that she need worry less of him. these concerns she keeps delaying. the questions she doesn't need to press: why do you do this? who would you be, were you not a knight? how do you see this ending?
dependability means, too often, being shunted to the bottom of one's priorities.
first things first. put out this fire. and then... then attend to the rest. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
[ count one, two, three, ]
I need you to listen to me, and to listen well.
That fury you feel now, it would be shared by every templar in the Inquisition. Every knight we need yet court in Kirkwall. How many do you believe would join with us after such a thing? How many would stay?
It is not in the Inquisition's interest to execute him. They yet need us. What they do not need is the appearance of old trouble brewing on the Viscount's doorstep.
Darton has power, but not so much of it as he thinks, not so far from the Lady Seeker as we are. The context about him has shifted, and he is slow to adapt. We need be faster. We need tread carefully, and we need to consider appearances, because that is the axis of pragmatism upon which our presence here turns.
And therefore, I need you to hear me when I tell you, that what Harriman did cannot happen again.
no subject
And the rest of us can keep our mouths shut and be perfect models of chivalry, for what little good it does. All right. I'll try to keep him calm where I can.
[He has not historically been the best at doing that with Cade, for all his promises to be watchful. They're not friends, and he knows all too well what Cade tends to think of him, and it's only for his own peace in their shared quarters that Simon's lately stopped needling him on purpose just for fun. But nobody's life was ever at stake before.]
They talk about him like he's a rabid dog. We'd be better off if he was. Maybe then Reed would take our part.
no subject
I would — sooner not lose that.
[ silence a moment, then, ]
Reed has needed to navigate politics before. Time will tell where he lands.
The rest, these others outside, we cannot blame them for not understanding. They are used to Circles as distant, hidden things. The war has eroded their trust. The Reds have. We need work harder and smarter than ever before to regain it. It is not fair; it never was. But it is necessary, and it is right.
We still have a duty by the people. Let us see it done.
no subject
It's not as if we were ever doing it for the thanks, anyway.
no subject
[ there was a time when wren wasn't angry, she knows. there had to have been something before this. she just doesn't remember it.
you learn to hold it in. to shove it down for a cause. and it works, mostly, if you try hard enough and long enough — mostly, it works. but sooner or later, you always have to shout. sooner or later, it always busts free. you kick. you scream. you get petty and mean.
and then you get back to the job. ]
Return the axe when you are finished.
[ this is the thing about simon, the thing that's unfair itself, she knows — that she need worry less of him. these concerns she keeps delaying. the questions she doesn't need to press: why do you do this? who would you be, were you not a knight? how do you see this ending?
dependability means, too often, being shunted to the bottom of one's priorities.
first things first. put out this fire. and then... then attend to the rest. ]