Gallus looked to the table, tensed his cheek, and nodded in agreement to Ri'vashi. "That sounds like a good idea. If we can work things out without sounding adversarial or making anyone angry, that would best."

With a singing wooden scrape against the floor, Gallus pushed out his chair and stood up. "Wish me luck."

As Gallus walked around the table and towards Dro'cahi's circle of discussion, he tried to catch Dro'cahi's eye. As soon as he did, he offered a friendly smile. "Hello there. Dro'cahi, right? My name's Gallus," he said when he reached him. He extended a hand, "I understand that you're an experienced member of the council here. Now, all this..." Gallus scrunched his nose and waved the back of his hand at the council table, "It's all highly strung and political. Makes everyone tense." Gallus raised an eyebrow, "Now, I think what we have in common is wanting what's best for everyone in this hill. With the opportunity to clear the air a bit, what are your feelings about this march?"

[hr]
La'khay's insistence didn't change Sabine's views on compliments directed to herself that much. She had never enjoyed drawing too much attention to herself. Of course, she was sure that Peiter did it at least partly to tease her. She didn't mind too much in that.

As for this painting, Sabine's attention to the proposal was mostly driven by both humouring La'khay and pure curiosity. At least the last time she trusted La'khay with some form of artwork it ended up with her being groomed a beauty beyond what she had set out to try in the first place. This time might have a similarly pleasant outcome.

This time, however, Peiter would be directly involved. Sabine turned her head to face Peiter and listed her head to one side, relaxed. "Peiter? What do you think?"