( She wonders, sometimes, if such careful efforts to control her tone and her words makes her sound colder, rather than calmer. It seems to be a wound she inflicts on others unwittingly. )

You are right; they are not. That disparity lead to acts of... incompatable cruelty by Templars and Seekers, and by mages as well. I will not deny that Circles were flawed, but... but elves could live there snd be treated equal to human peers, and respected, and neither can I forget that. Mages can benefit from Circles in ways that apostates willfully ignore, when they are so determined that their delusions of what freedom is outweighs the safety of others, and even of their fellow mages.

( Still she sounds calm, bordering on emotionless, as deeply as her own words cut. )

Have you learned at all of the White Spire? Of Kirkwall?