Elsa never spoke without thinking. That had been beaten out of her before her eleventh birthday. Not for long had she been so close to doing so though. How could a chantry sister punish one of the mightiest templars in the tower? She almost said it aloud, before biting down on the question to mull it over before actually asking. Tightening the hold of her crossed arms over her stomach to try to calm herself, she realised that there was no answer, no logic, nothing she could realise. The whole situation was turning startling to such an extent that she was really beginning to think that this was a dream.
And then suddenly, one thought, one blinding realisation so stunning that she could not help but stare again. The woman had said she was new. Was she sent from the outside? The thought, the simple act of questioning this felt as if she was questioning something fundamental about the order of the world. Was she not only overreaction, seeing strangers and strange things where none existed? Thinking about the world outside hurt, it was something she tried to forget about, because remembering that the walls of the tower were shutting her in from a whole world was constricting to the point where she could not breath.
Taking a deep breath, she focused on her calm again. Closing her eyes briefly, she imagined herself as a dark flame, burning away shock and confusion. Pushing the dark outwards until it covered her mind like a velvet blanket, soon there were only determination and clarity left. Opening her eyes, she uncrossed her arms and looked again at the dark haired woman in front of her. "You cannot possibly be 'merely a new initiate', you would not be able to stop him..." she paused to take a tighter rein on her calm as it threatened to slip away. "You wouldn't even be able to contemplate stopping him."
Hoping that the other woman wouldn't call her bluff, Elsa stepped closer to her, staring searchingly into her eyes. She had no idea what she was or from where, but she was certainly no chantry initiate. Elsa had lived in the Tower for 13 years and never had she heard anyone promised to Chantry service talk like this woman. "What are you?" she asked, trying to make her voice all hard edges and demanding intonation. She didn't care much about the 'who', that was just details. What she really wanted to know was 'what'. What was her business with Ser Valerio and how could Elsa use it to her own gain.