Hey Spice! I know we haven't talked much about Belle and things with you being god-awfully sick and all, but I had an idea with her. Because she's pretty much pulling most of the strings all of the time, she's a pretty big fan of stabbing backs and letting other people actually do the stabbing. It goes this;
Belle steals something(s) from the Duke, irreplaceable, possibly something that is a symbol of his Right to Rule, something that no one can know is stolen or total anarchy, and something with a little dirt on it is good too, like taxes and things otherwise made to tread on the downtrodden.
Belle meets Nas's Character, Mephisto. They plot and scheme because he has something she wants, she also know's he's playing his own games (though not interested in the Civil War, the Mages, or the Grand Duke themselves).
She get's caught after some cat and mouse, and brought before the Duke because she's 'hidden' or 'given away' any of the said items stolen; killing her outright wouldn't be in their best interest, and she has a proposal.
Playing the 'innocent' card, she informs the Duke of a power far worse than she who plans to take the Kingdom down (ALL LIES), and he used her as a puppet to steal whatever she might have stolen. Belle gives away the only way to kill Mephisto and promises that she can set him up in a trap, but for a price (seeing as men cannot read her mind or emotions, Mephisto wouldn't have a clue), and (with her devilish charms XD) she persuades him that she knows she can get from him the whereabouts of the stolen items, and return them safely.
I kinda want her to be playing the Mages as well with the things she stole, but I'm not sure how just yet. Might convince both sides they have the upper hand, and bring them to a face-off while trapping Mephisto.
Belle isn't in it to swing the war so much as play it slightly to her advantage. The war itself would probably remain unchanged, and politically, it's only on the down-low stuff, so nothings really being moved about there. No one major being killed here without permission!
Nas has said about toying with the idea of 'killing off' Mephisto, and I thought it might be interesting to see if this could work.
Also thinking of my other character November finding information on an old relic that grants supreme power to anyone who posses magical abilities, and the Mages are aware of it's existence too, making for a crazy goose-chase to destroy it before they get their hands on it for the greater good of humanity XD