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Éliane didn’t usually deal well with threats. Oh, she was absolutely adept at being on the giving end of threats of violence, but the redhead had a very unfortunate tendency to exceptionally [i]escalate[/i] in response to being threatened. So, when a pretentious, tarted up fool of a voice from across the courtyard had the gall to scream at her drop her own weapon, she was about to take her would-be victim up on her own offer and blow her away.

She didn’t like being disarmed.

It was only the intervention of the Dragoon and the Edrenian king himself that the tense standoff eased off as quickly as it had begun. Éliane frowned at the mystel’s words, giving her a searching gaze before slowly lowering her own weapon after the samurai had done so as well. [b]“Is that so,”[/b] she replied mildly, finding a nearby Valheimian corpse to wipe off her blade before finally sheathing it. She considered the woman’s words. Normally, Éliane would have dismissed such a thing, but she liked and respected the gall this woman had to give her a recruitment pitch right after Éliane literally had her by the balls. Skael had truly been isolated from the Edrenian-Osprey conflict, but even on the basis of the stories that she had heard of this woman, then she at the very least deserved the respect of a peer in combat, even if the current circumstances were less than ideal.

[b]“Alright, I’ll consider it. Give me just a minute,”[/b] she replied, seriously, as she walked towards the Skaelan team to hear their side of story. She arrived just in time to see the blooded leader of team Unicorn bleating at the man that had threatened her and her countrymen just moments earlier. Still inclined to take the side of her countryman by default, she paused when she saw who she was dealing with and what he had said. 

Alright, she had a pretty poor first impression of the other man, but as far as threats and declarations of outrage went, ‘Do you know who I am’ was a pretty limp-wristed one, especially when she could recognize whose family the Skaelan leader belonged to. They weren’t nobodies, but in the grand scheme of Skaelan politics…

She made up her mind on the situation. She approached the man, made sure he recognized her, and looked him in the eye.

[b]“Your father will hear of this.”[/b]

Then she made an about face and returned to the former general from Osprey. [b]“I was strongly considering joining my compatriots, but it is obvious to me now they’re led by a fool, and I have no reason to doubt your words,”[/b] she admitted. [b]“My original team fell to the ambush, so I accept. My apologies for earlier. It wasn’t personal.”[/b]

She held a hand out. [b]“Éliane Laruelle, of the Household Guards. A rough start, I think, but it’ll be a pleasure to work alongside veterans,”[/b] she continued, meeting her eyes before her gaze briefly drifted towards Galahad. Walking to the rest of the team with her, she made the same introduction to the other members before apologizing to the man's victim. [b]"Let me apologize for my countrymen,"[/b] she said to Neve. [b]"Not all of us were dropped at birth."[/b]

She decided to give her two thoughts on their deliberation. [b]“If I may, as an outsider,”[/b] she interrupted, [b]“Considering the illustrious folks that make up this team, I don’t see how adhering to a rigid structure of command in this group will work out beyond the short term. The cracks are already forming by just having this conversation. You have a former general, a duke, and a white mage, among those I recognize, and myself, a knight commander. The Divine Mother above knows how badly the clash of wills will be if you don’t choose something less than formal.”[/b] Éliane frowned. 

[b]“With how informal the arrangements are, decisions should be elective, rather than resting on a sole point of failure. I’d certainly feel better following a collectively bad decision rather than one decided by the whims of a foreign leader. No offense intended, Lord Caradoc.”[/b]