Tell. Not ask. Explicitly tell so he- it- he? So Cole understands why this is to be kept close to the chest. This isn't the sort of thing that is to be lanced so the body heals. [Fumbling over what you call a spirit - spirits tend to be something very different in the books or the way the healers talk about them, and no matter how they're discussed in Rivain, she still doesn't think that letting Cole go about with free reign to something this damaging is a good idea.

(Cole being able to just know pain...no. She shuts a line of thought down hard.)]

You could get yourself in trouble too. It would be a way to remove you from the picture, if Kas plays it smarter than we're giving him credit for at the moment. [Korrin being hurt isn't an option, Korrin being locked up or discredited or anything her mind is starting to conjure right now as she fights to stop her hand squeezing so tight it becomes painful and desperate instead of reassuring.] The Qunari too will not want to lose another agent.

[A dirty tactic but she isn't above them.]

Take off the mask and the mask is still your face. So. No Taashath. Ask him whatever questions you need if you still have them and if I have any of my own I will ask them of him as carefully as I can then we do not ask him a single thing after that because he is too obvious and he was part of the Qun. Too much of a risk. You will somehow get hold of this Cole and will tell him to keep his damned mouth shut about other people. With Sam...we can go together. Something about his fellow scouts and a girl, say we are worried but that we don't wish it to reflect when there is someone new in charge of him.

[It's something. Bare bones. But the words are there and they can figure them out better when the shock has worn off.]

He called me demon once. Then I was his friend. Not all doors are locked forever.