What Lakshmi says gives her pause, her mouth thinning as she tries to decide just how bad it'd be if held accountable ends up being...well, really held accountable. The last thing she wants is to have to choose between answering to them and screwing up their reputations. She's used to being part of a group. Having to worry about people judging the leader based on what she does--that's new. And it feels constraining.

But the countess said take up arms and it doesn't sound like she only means when you're told to. That strikes up hope in her chest.

"If I can have a knife," Beth says slowly, "like...all the time. Not just on perimeter scouting, or...or whatever else they want me to do. Then I'm in."

It's what she wants more than anything, and that makes laying her cards on the table more difficult. But there's only one way to get what she wants, in this situation, and that's asking.