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[exsecutus]

Then Benedetta's supporters are implicated in her death. Benedetta's claim is weakened. The powers that operate the Chantry--the power-hungry, the conniving, those angling for position and status, ignorant of what the people need--their true nature is revealed.

[And, full of frustrated resignation, he has to admit:]

It is nothing that happens overnight.

[rathercommon]

It seems like -

[ A breath. ]

It seems like this plan creates chaos. And it seems like we ought to have...a better way to make that chaos go our way.

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Chaos is necessary. The usual systems and governance has to be shaken for the people to find their opportunity. If the guiding hand of the Chantry is still in place, it will be relied on.

Encouragement, [and it sounds grudging, but he means it, it's not something he's good at, that's all,] will be needed. The right ideas given to the right people and the right actions to take next. But there has to be chaos. Right now, the people see the Chantry as a force that cannot be shaken, or questioned. We must shatter that. Peel back its face to show them that it is a fallible institution, made up of people and only people--and that they, the people--the larger body, disenfranchised, kept down--have just as much power within them. The force that can be wielded, if they can only see it.

[rathercommon]

[ Hesitantly - ]

I see.

[ And she does. Reluctantly. But it...all makes a lot of sense. ]

If the Chantry came crumbling down - entirely - what would happen?

[exsecutus]

I hope we'll find out.

[Which is not entirely useful, so--]

There will be space that will need to be occupied. And quickly. The world has mostly been known with the Chantry in it. There isn't precedent.

So if you have any clever ideas, you can implement them to your heart's content.

[rathercommon]

It can't be the Inquisition, I think. We're not fit for that. Though - honestly, no one else in Thedas seems to be, either.

[ A little sigh. Anyway. ]

[exsecutus]

No.

Because by all rights, it should be the people that find it. Taught to find it, and create it, and embrace what they create. If another system replaces the one that has been slain, it will be the same thing again. Over and over again.

[rathercommon]

So who is there who's even outside the system? Who's not steeped in everything Thedas?

[exsecutus]

[Shut up is the easy answer. And Nikos wants, badly, to give it, just to stop this. His idealism is bitterly veined. He looks down into his cup of wine, at the dregs down at the bottom.]

There must be people.

[--He says, eventually.]

Individuals. Not a whole. And people can be taught to see the system, and what it does. Education takes time, is the problem. And some might willfully refuse to see. Some might blind themselves on purpose.

[rathercommon]

Then...

[ She pauses; then, when she speaks again, she sounds more certain. ]

Then we should start laying the groundwork now. We should start educating people now.

[exsecutus]

[Good.

But he can't be honest, so, dryly--]

Well, there's the pamphlets.

[rathercommon]

[ And, with an admirable stab at dryness on her own - ]

Too bad about all that illiteracy, isn't it.

[exsecutus]

[He huffs--almost like a laugh--and chases it with another swig of wine, just to be safe.]

Any good at drawing?

[rathercommon]

Well...no. Quite dreadful, actually.

You know who's quite good, though, is Alexandrie.

[exsecutus]

Who.

[rathercommon]

Seriously?

[exsecutus]

I'm hoping you'll prove my guess wrong with what you say next.

[rathercommon]

Alexandrie de la Fontaine. Orlesian woman.

[exsecutus]

[A NOISE OF DISGUST.]

[rathercommon]

Oh, come on. Don't you want to see another rich kid pulled into all this? See her throw over her fellow nobles to help us out?

[exsecutus]

Will she actually do any of that, or will this be an amusing distraction to play at for a few months. One to be bragged about at lunches. "That time I drew incendiary pictures for the poor to look at."

I'd rather have a monkey paint the pamphlets in shit.

[rathercommon]

I can make her care.

[exsecutus]

[Everything in him says no, but. You do have to take chances. Sometimes.]

And trust her to stay committed to it?

Make no mistake. I do not single her out in this. I do not have much faith or place much value in the attention span of any member of the Orlesian aristocracy.

[rathercommon]

No - they all seem utterly dreadful.

[ Her voice is casually judgmental. ]

But if she doesn't stay committed to it - Is that so dreadful? We can take her help when she gives it.

[exsecutus]

It is dreadful in that it wastes my time.

[FIRST AND FOREMOST really.]

And in that, if she decides to fuck off and take up some new fun cause three months from now, once the novel amusement of revolution has worn off, she potentially carries off secrets with her.