bethen avilla ; the circle mage (bethe) wrote in thedas,
Bethen couldn't quite read Constans -- not unusual, as her failing subject was apparently 'normal human interaction' -- and it took another moment to decide whether or not his smile was sincere. She avoided looking directly at him, feeling small and anxious under his stare, watching the hall for the Enchanter's return. It was not that he was being unpleasant, so much as she felt entirely helpless and absolutely socially retarded in comparison. Constans possessed a swath of charisma. He didn't need to waste his time on her, when he had plenty of other people he would be later bragging to about this whole 'adventure', surely. He could probably spin the whole story around to make himself the wise, courageous one, mowing down tons upon tons of spiders, and everyone would believe him...
But he didn't. The apprentice's attention was caught by the sound in his throat. She glanced at him sideways, before she gave up on pretending to be interested in the doorway. Constans looked agitated, moreso than he had even appeared when they were staring down countless pairs of hungry, angry, beady, not-so-little eyes. She wondered if the sigh meant that he was going to throw the towel in on his efforts to be kind to her. That had to be it. She was so painfully awkward that he was going to walk away and everything would be as it was...
That wasn't what he said, though, and it was probably very obvious that what he did say came as a shock to Beth. Her brows were raised, and she blinked twice at him, though fortunately, her jaw had not dropped. He had proposed to spend time around one another, without being prompted by an official assignment. This...was an invitation. She...was confused. But at least she had the common sense not to be completely rude by just gaping at him. "I... Yes. That would be... I'd like to," she finally managed to respond, though words were not her friend at the moment. She paused, beginning to second guess herself, and where she had stopped speaking would have been a perfect place to add a 'but I can't'. She didn't, though, nodding in spite of all her doubts about the situation.
A small smile came to her lips as she tucked a bit of loose hair back form her eyes. "It would certainly save Desi some time running back and forth between us, anyway," she added quietly, as close to joking as she could get for the moment. Simultaneously, the top of Alden's head appeared just beyond Constans, accompanied by the resident healing instructor. Petra looked terribly concerned...and slightly puzzled by the exchange the two teens were having. Reflexively, Beth's smile faded for a second, before she forced it to return, speaking hurriedly, "Ah. I can find you two after dinner, I suppose. If I'm not being unnecessarily fussed over. I'll see you later, Constans."
That was the last thing she managed to say before the two Enchanters came swooping in, parting the apprentices to get a full account of what happened, as well as give them a full head-to-toe look over for injuries. Try as Alden did to poke holes in it, Bethen kept to her earlier story. As soon as Petra would let her go, she also kept to her word, and went looking for both Ledaals in the dorms that evening.