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[doneisdone]

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[doneisdone]

Though Lakshmi's laughter is a bit surprising, Teren doesn't mind it, her smirk remaining in place. It's amusing enough, and even moreso when Wren is invoked, bringing a playful glimmer to Teren's eyes.
"Perhaps she could use the challenge," she replies, "but I wouldn't fault you for not doing so. They're hardly seen as all that just and noble these days."

[shri]

"I think I have... troubled her enough." She is wicked, certainly, but not cruel enough to give Wren that headache. Even so - her hand waves. Shaking her head, that laughter stilling in her chest.

Templars were but the Order, in another name. "They are like all great organisations built to a higher ideal, eventually, their own weight destroys them." She takes a mouthful of wine, holding her fingers to her lips as she swallows. "In any case, if I worked that close with others, it would rather defeat the purpose of being able to hide that they are ageing, and I am not."

[doneisdone]

"Has anyone really?"
Teren likes Wren, and as a result, likes messing with her. It's just how things go. There's no need to further expound on their relationship, not with Lakshmi.

"Their own weight," Teren remarks, "or their own people." She raises her wine to swirl it a little, looking meaningfully at Lakshmi before taking a drink. "And aye, with Wardens it'd be harder than others. There's a..." Is this common knowledge? It is now. "...life expectancy."

[shri]

"I think I might approach it, soon enough. Best not push it."

She holds her next mouthful in her mouth a moment longer. Feeling the taste on her tongue that is less about the fact that it is any good - and it's not some fancy Orlais nonsense, true enough, but she isn't cheap - she swallows, voice rasping momentarily."Damn, I hadn't heard that." No, not common knowledge but it's something easily taken in by stride.

"But... that might suit. How often do your kind die, in what sort of circumstances?"

[doneisdone]

They're verging on dangerous territory, and while Teren is hardly known for her honesty or integrity, this'll be one less thing for Howe to jump up her arse about.
"Apart from what you can likely guess, it's not for me to say," she replies, with a sense of finality-- she's not about to be wheedled into giving more information. Anyone who knows of the Taint's role in their abilities will be able to draw at least the most obvious connections.

"Now will that be all, Your Majesty?" Her smirk remains quiet, but there's an element of needling to the question.

[shri]

"Then say no more," she can guess the rest, and she truly isn't here to whittle secrets out of her. She isn't that gifted, and it would be an insult to Teren to try.

Her eyes slide back to her, licking the taste of wine on her lips absently. "That depends on you, was that all you wanted it to be? I do... enjoy your company, for what it's worth." She wasn't about to go chasing her off simply because she'd run out of questions. But there is a flatness. "I am, of course, a reckless, arrogant, displaced ruler, who keeps terrible things to herself, so I... understand if the same cannot be returned."

Her eyebrow lifts, the implication isn't self-pitying, Teren won't be doing herself any favours at the moment. Acting like politics didn't exist for the sake of politeness didn't change them, and she wasn't in the mood for those sort of games and vanities.

But the bottle and their empty glasses are between them.

[doneisdone]

Draining her wine, Teren sets the glass down and looks up just in time to catch that glance from Lakshmi. Her eyebrows raise, her mouth twisting to one side. This is, perhaps, not what she thought it was.

"I had no expectations," she says outright, but doesn't move from the chair, not quite yet. "Reckless, arrogant, terrible, I can manage. We'll have to do something about ruler." There's the faintest hint of amusement in her tone, otherwise brusque as ever.

[shri]

"By all means," She's still leant forward as was, and never liked to give back the ground she took. "But I'll give you a fair warning, the last time someone tried to do something about my being ruler, they didn't like the price I made them pay. I tend to..."

But she is smiling, without particular ire. Finding the exact words, that she lets sit. Her finger taps on the side of the cup. One, two, three. "... not give out for a while."

[doneisdone]

Teren rises, setting her glass down, and steps toward Lakshmi with an odd grace for someone so tall and so pointy.

"The bootlickers and fanatics?" she asks, tilting her head calculatingly, "or someone else?" She stops when she's all but standing over the other woman, surveying her with a shrewd look in her eyes that isn't quite a smile.

[shri]

She tilts her head up, and the rest of her follows, sitting back into the chair. That roll of her shoulders, exposing the long line of her throat. Chuckling briefly as she does so, that had to come back to bite her eventually. But she is no more ashamed of it now then she was then.

"... I am not good at holding my tongue."

Her hand lifts, idle, moving the white strip of fabric that had fallen away back up her body, covering herself in absent habit

Or maybe to watch, where it was that Teren was watching.

[doneisdone]

"That much is clear." Teren catches sight of the shifting garment, glances at its adjustment, then gives a snort of amusement and turns, going back to pick up her wine glass and refill it without asking (but then she at least refills Lakshmi's as well). "You're prepared to answer, then, for the things you say." She leans against the windowsill and takes a sip. "Or you've had good bodyguards."

[shri]

"Both, I never hid behind others and for it, my people stood beside me."

Her head nods in thanks as Teren fills her cup. She doesn't rise to follow her. Stays and watches her move, how she shifts. That straight forward way she behaved that Lakshmi so earnestly admired.

"But when your words are that you will not abide to watch the suffering of those around you," her drink is deeper, harsher, well Teren undoubtedly knows who ends up truly paying the price.

[doneisdone]

"Then I suppose you'd better be ready to stand by them," Teren concludes, looking back to Lakshmi with a glint in her eye. "You saw to their suffering, I'm certain? Gave of your own table?" She might be sarcastic, but it's not clear yet.

[shri]

Ah, - and rather than being particularly angry about it. ( Spent it all up, perhaps? ) She presses her lips together, picking around the words both carefully and directly.

"It might be easier to understand if I say that I was born a servant's daughter. I never forgot that, no matter what else became of me."

She watches her over her shoulder, carefully to see if she was going to bite about it.

[doneisdone]

"Weren't we all." Though not overtly hostile, Teren is unmoved, swirling her wine around as she pins Lakshmi with her gaze. "Yet, unlike some, you became a queen."
Some of the play has gone out of her tone; she's noticed how Lakshmi dodged the question. "And how fared the servants under your rule?"

[shri]

"Shall I put on a thick Orlais accent, and talk about my own grandness?" She snorts, not faltering in meeting her look. Lifting her cup to her lips, then dropping her eyes to look into the wine. Debating the truth of it -

"The truth, is I suppose, I did what I could and I didn't care for the titles, the names, the palaces. I'll let those that come after me decide if I truly helped. But..." Because the simplest of it was: "They were my people, and I loved them. I was honoured to be their Rani, their Lakshmi - and nothing else mattered to me apart from that."

[doneisdone]

When Lakshmi's tone changes, some of the tension is broken, and Teren backs off. This candor is, perhaps, what she was hoping for; genuine feeling, acknowledgement of suffering, not the usual lip service royals pay to keep their subjects from beheading them.

Taking a few more steps toward her, Teren strokes a hand over the top of Lakshmi's head, closing it in a tight but not painful grip as she tilts the woman's face up towards hers.
"It's a pity you left them," she says, and the words sound genuine, though her expression is calculating, a little inquisitive.
If this isn't something Lakshmi wants, she's welcome to protest, pull away, anything she likes, and Teren won't pursue.

[shri]

Ah - Lakshmi goes still, moving with the gesture because at the very least, her hair is a good hold. It is thick, rather than soft. "Perhaps not too much, I did jump into the fade trying to get back to them and my duty."

Because she doesn't stop her hand, though her own lifts, to catch Teren's own by the wrist. Bracing, not to drive her away but meets her eye firmly. It is tempting, she quite likes Teren, quite enjoys her company, and would not object it. "My heart belongs elsewhere, but I ended it with them... and otherwise, I will always be Rani." But for all that she means it, and perhaps wants to sound unaffected - her tongue swipes her bottom lip, swallowing down. "I do not wish to use you or mislead for my own selfishness and admiration of you. Only do this if you know it goes nowhere and you can not ask me for anything else."

[doneisdone]

Surprised isn't a common look for Teren, but Lakshmi definitely threw her for a loop, at least momentarily. Her eyebrows arch as the woman speaks, but she catches her meaning easily enough. In answer, she leans forward, knee coming out to catch her on the bed as she pushes Lakshmi onto her back, again, only as much as the latter is willing.

"The heart is of no concern to me," Teren gruffly answers, her dark eyes betraying nothing.

[shri]

Willing is hardly a problem, she falls back onto her elbows, her body laying out in front of her. One leg catching on the side of the bed, leg curling up.

"Good." She doesn't wait for a second in response, her barefoot lifts. That faint chime of her anklets from under the white skirts. Lifting her toes to grab Teren by the belt loops and yank her firmly down to step between her legs. "As long as we're settled." Her brow lifts and there's an easy to simplicity to that she doesn't have to pretend about anything, and just gladly rake her eyes down over Teren in the same sort of blunt admiration of her.

[doneisdone]

Teren is wearing her normal night time ensemble: a sort of dressed-down version of her Warden uniform, a tunic and trousers with a long belted vest, a scarf over her thin neck to stave off the cold and provide additional coverage. There's nothing terribly sensual or interesting about any of it-- on the contrary, it evokes the same practicality and straightforwardness by which she lives. She makes no move to be rid of any of it even as Lakshmi tugs her down, but she does smirk in quiet amusement at the woman's enthusiasm.

One hand slips down a thigh left bare by the bunching upwards of the gown, short but well-kept nails dragging along the tender skin en route to the leg's base. Teren's other hand, still in Lakshmi's hair, knots a bit tighter, and she shifts to be kneeling more comfortably, pinning one of Lakshmi's legs with her own.

[shri]

She hardly needs any more incentive to enjoy herself. Lakshmi's head rolls back into her grip, arching her back up in the sheer indulgence of it. Because she didn't mind her in a uniform and wasn't that the problem half the time? Why she usually wound up with men. Liked the practicality, how it feels rough to her leg when she slides her leg to hook around her waist, even when she's pinned. That sort of wound up strength that she could sink against.

But as Teren pushes the material out of the way, it loosens, the careful tuck of pleats low around her hips coming loose. Not that it gives anything, for the way it drapes around her. But it does expose that little fluttering jump of her belly in reaching to her roaming hands.

[doneisdone]

Teren's hand ventures perilously close, but she doesn't quite go for its target, not yet. Instead, she traces a circle with one long finger, thoughtfully watching Lakshmi's face and preparing to tease her for as long as it takes. A grazing touch here, a pinch on the inner thigh there, enough to begin building arousal without ever fully addressing it. Not yet.

[shri]

She's an impatient woman, always had been, doesn't like being played with more than she's the one who calls the mark. But for the first moments, she's happy to let her eyes close, let her head roll back into the bed. Her hands stretch up behind her on the bed. Because well - truth of it: besides the many wraps of material about her body, there isn't anything else particularly in Teren's way. Nothing to stop how she shivers, that one thready sigh of relief of being touched at all. Gripping around her hips with the hard set of her leg to make sure she didn't get any ideas.

Because - like a woman used to having servants, or either way, living in houses where the poor barely had one room between a family - she doesn't seem to mind being watched or concerned for the display without Teren undressing. Rather, when her eye cracks a sliver, looking up under thick dark lashes, lips party thinly, there's a faint challenge. That meets her eye and the sound is barely that. One beckoning moan that, go on then, is more challenge than in earnest.

[doneisdone]

Impatience will get her nowhere with Teren, who smirks to herself at the little sounds the woman is making. Go on? She will, when she pleases.
For now, she releases Lakshmi's hair in order to use both hands on her knees, pushing them outward as she herself lowers to the ground. Then, a clawlike grip pulls Lakshmi to the edge of the bed, hot breath and a teasing, exploratory tongue here to meet her, flicking in and then out again in the practiced, rhythmic motions of someone who has definitely done this before.
Her hold on Lakshmi's thighs is tight, nails pressing into the soft flesh, perhaps enough to leave faint bruises on anyone who wouldn't heal them immediately.