Constans forced himself to stop absentmindedly scratching his chest, slouching and letting his left arm fall to dangle at his side like the other while he endured Bethen's scolding. His attention only half on his friend, he regarded the drops and smears of blood he'd left all over the floor and Bethen's clothing in dismay.
"Okay, first," he frowned at Bethen defensively, inwardly elated as the perfect excuse presented itself, "I didn't start this."
It was well-known in the tower that Constans and most Templars got along like cats in a sack. The Templars' short-list of convenient scapegoats undoubtedly had Constans in capital letters right at the top, a position which he had cemented for life in his ill-spent youth. Not even a week ago every single candle in the chantry went missing overnight, never to be found; afterward Constans swore blind to his friends that he'd had nothing to do with it, but that hadn't prevented him from turning up the next day with a foul mood and a black eye. When it came to Constans, the Templars liked to handle things... quietly.
"Aurin and his goon squad aren't even looking for real excuses to kick me around anymore," and as he said this between his clenched teeth his hatred at least was genuine. He huffed, "But no, nobody else is hurt. I was just going to lay down some persistent ice on the stairs so they'd ride all the way down to Chantry on their shiny metal asses. That-"
He paused before the accusation could tumble out, uncertain. The rivalry between he and Aurin Demarc spanned over a decade, but while punishments and surreptitious beatings came regularly to Constans because of the man, it was nearly unheard of for a Templar to attack a mage this severely without there being a truely Chantry-sanctioned cause.
"That jackass Aurin came out too early," he manages. "He slipped (believe me it was hilarious) and then he got pissed when he saw me there in these robes. I- well, maybe I shouldn't have laughed at him, but getting laughed at is no reason to slit someone up!"
Acutely aware of the scant minutes left to flee before it would become so much harder to explain any of this away, Constans continued frantically, "When he saw how bad I was bleeding after he cut me, he said if I told anybody it was him who did it he'd murder me. By the Maker, after this I almost think he would. He just ran off then, and I knew I couldn't go to the infirmary like this or this whole thing would explode." He injected what he hoped was a sufficient amount of fear into his features, not an altogether difficult task. Terror hadn't been a foreign emotion to him recently.
"I just prayed I'd find you here. Thank you, Bethen... so much. Please, I'm begging you, you can't tell anybody about this!"