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Lips curling at the sight of little Juniper causing trouble. Pieter had to admit, he would have thought that all the lessons he had offered her in subterfuge and skulduggery would have taught her the value of keeping your cards to your chest. But lo, here she is, not even to Pieter's chin and daring to try and incite a civil war inside the House. Perhaps once she learnt to let go of grudges, she could become a successful player in Venaran politics. Then again, maybe she needed to get better at holding grudges. 

Chuckling slightly to himself, Pieter took another sip of his rosé. This was excellent. Gods above, he would love to spend an evening with a few bottles of th[sub]is and maybe that sweet young actress he had seen performing at the Hierophant Theatre. Goddesses, what was her name? She had the excellent bosom, and that lovely dimple. She had actually known all of her lines while performing [i]The Ruin of Fortinbras[/i], which is rare indeed, since most of those pretty girls who took to the stage had more tits than smarts, and come to think of it it's very likely that Livia, ha! Livia! That's her name, anyway it's very likely that Livia would only be a year or two older than Juniper, and wasn't that a thought? Goddess around, that chill must be what a father feels. Disgusting. Let it be gone, there's no need of that. but given how much is going to be changing around here it might be prudent to start cutting back on dalliances- who knows how many will be on someone else's payroll? It's not that wild a thought, it was done in one of the operas a while back, now [i]that[/i] was a fucking excellent piece of work. So were the legs on that soprano. And that baritone had that alluringly snug doublet. Perhaps it would be smart to commission a play venerating Leon. Perhaps a retelling of one of those great Elven Journey Plays. Tie it in to the coming greatness of the House Delor-[/sub]

A crack.

That was a fucking gunshot. 

And there's a blur just outside of the balcony.

FUCK.

Scraping his chair roughly against the floor, Pieter jackknifed up standing, fumbling with his pistol as he pointed it towards the balcony. Otto shouting something unintelligible per the norm, Meldyr, the brave man ordering his men into defensive positions. 

Pieter listened to the masked figure talk.  Interesting, if what they said was true. Pieter lowered his gun. All aiming it did was make the fellow more likely to strike. But....

"Why are you here?"