[ If there's a ripple of tension in response to that characterization, it passes quickly - in favor of, for once, actually voicing his dismay. When he does, though, it is cautious - more probing than skeptical. ]
You make it sound like she sees you as a peasant on her estate, with no rights of your own.
[ - Which - is that what Bastien feels? For all that Byerly is Orlesian, for all that he lived multiple years in Val Royeaux, there are elements of the Orlesian mind and the Orlesian culture that have always escaped him. His mind does not naturally observe some of the castes that are so natural to the Orlesians. He can notice them, and reason through them - but for Orlesians, sometimes it seems as though these differences of status are as obvious a way to classify someone as, say, nationality or sex. A Ferelden will not, at a glance, differentiate a gleaner from a gentleman farmer, or even a merchant from a nobleman. But an Orlesian always will know.
But still. Alexandrie had always been cordial, hadn't she? Kind, even? ]
no subject
You make it sound like she sees you as a peasant on her estate, with no rights of your own.
[ - Which - is that what Bastien feels? For all that Byerly is Orlesian, for all that he lived multiple years in Val Royeaux, there are elements of the Orlesian mind and the Orlesian culture that have always escaped him. His mind does not naturally observe some of the castes that are so natural to the Orlesians. He can notice them, and reason through them - but for Orlesians, sometimes it seems as though these differences of status are as obvious a way to classify someone as, say, nationality or sex. A Ferelden will not, at a glance, differentiate a gleaner from a gentleman farmer, or even a merchant from a nobleman. But an Orlesian always will know.
But still. Alexandrie had always been cordial, hadn't she? Kind, even? ]
She likes you. I know that she does.