bethen avilla ; the circle mage (bethe) wrote in thedas,
"Just his nose?" And not stab him to death, right? It probably wasn't the best part of his sentence to echo, but Beth mumbled it anyway, and hoped a second later that he hadn't heard it. He was frowning. And she had done such a wonderful job at trying to avoid raising any alarm. This was why Bethen never got herself into trouble -- she wasn't any good at getting out of it.
She tried to relax a bit. Sounding nervous certainly wouldn't diffuse his suspicions, so she adopted a more earnest, sympathetic tone, "No, it was just talk, I think. Blowing off some steam. But I don't think you need me to tell you how much some magi don't get along with Templars too well." Beth gave a half-hearted smile, doing her best to be reassuring, even if she was feeling quite the opposite. It helped a little to imagine that she was trying to comfort one of the new apprentices to the Tower, instead of trying to make excuses in front of a well-armed grown man. "In any case, even if Constans was up to something...and I'm not saying that he was, or intends to be, you know I wouldn't let him get very far in his plans."
The next part was the hardest. If she wasn't feeling like the worst person in Ferelden already, Beth was about to pull out the dirtiest trick she knew -- the same one that Constans had used on her. She looked up at Aurin with the most doe-eyed, innocent (bordering on desperate), expression she could manage, "So... Could you please promise me that you won't say anything to him? Or anyone else? If anything does come up, I can handle it myself. I won't have you getting into trouble, too."
This wasn't being manipulative, she told herself. This was protecting everyone before the situation escalated further.