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In the end, nobody passed her the gravy, so when they made to leave, Éliane went ahead and took it for herself. It was in a polished, attractively decorated silver pitcher. She took a spoon, also silver, for good measure, because she wasn’t an uncivilized brute that consumed gravy straight from the pitcher. Being in tune with these sorts of things, she knew that the silverware costed a pretty penny, especially with the custom monograms and house heraldry, but she considered it the Asshole Tax. 

This was why she preferred dealing with her own countrymen. Far more civilized, even among the commoners.

By the time they made it to the aforementioned lodge, the pitcher of gravy was finished and after cleaning it, set it amongst the trophies that adorned the interior of the building. When she went to her things, though, she found her belongings slightly disturbed. Frowning, she carefully inspected them, and found an unexpected note in her satchel. After reading it with a frown, she discretely approached the fireplace and disposed of it amongst the flames. 

It was vaguely amusing that SEED wanted her back, even if temporarily after they’d been so angry with her about the way she conducted her missions… loud. Granted, there wasn’t much discretion needed for what they were asking for, and they were stating the obvious that all of her companions here would be of interest to Skael… but the command to investigate Arton was somewhat surprising. 

There was also no mention of the members of her delegation that had fallen in combat. How cold of them. 

Éliane sighed. Things in life were far easier when you could bash them in with a sword or shoot them with said sword. 

Unexpectedly, the Skaelan man that had interested SEED so had actually approached her the next morning. A little bit suspicious, perhaps, but he also made her coffee, which made up for all of the world’s ills, so she gladly accepted it and returned the greeting. “Good morning. That’s the stuff, thank you…” Taking the cup, she consumed nearly a third of the cup before sighing with satisfaction. “Gods, the coffee here is fantastic.” After taking a few more sips, smaller this time, she glanced over at her countryman. Well, she supposed this an opportunity if anything. 

“Yesterday was a mess, and I wasn’t drunk enough to deal with it,” she admitted. “This is why I don’t like leaving our country. Far more civilized…” She paused, and glanced back at Arton. “I was a bit surprised to meet a fellow countryman here, aside from my late companions…”