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The conversation was grating for all the wrong reasons; once again Ben was fully prepared to defend his own actions and decisions but it seemed Lilie was more of a hot topic button. To be honest he expected comments on her appearance, on the unlikelihood of shaping her into a proper servant, but he hadn't thought she was so interesting that things would loop around to her again. In actuality it was a touch worrying as no vampire would want their mage to outshine them. This bode ill: Ben was not nearly as interesting as an albino mage. How terrible to have made so little an impression, could that have been why the count was smirking? The business with Mr. Spellman was also an unexpected and admittedly unpleasant surprise to hear. He hadn't been as informed as he would have hoped.

There was little time to deliberate as Countess Marivaldi decided to give him words that utterly confused him. He had heard that a situation had unraveled but he had been with Her Highness when it occurred. Ben somehow had lost the handle on this evening and to think it was because of the [i]Marivaldi[/i]. He expected to make an attempt to weave himself out of a snake's clutches, not get bowled over by a feline who decided to take offense to his words. Of course he knew Lilie better than she, stars above, Lilie was [i]his[/i] mage! The girl never so much as uttered the Marivaldi name!  

The only true constant of the night was Eris and it was a sad day when the egotistic troublemaker of all people seemed more genuine. He couldn't very well expect a leopard to change its spots and was more surprised the countess deemed it appropriate to throw any chance at conciliation into the bin. Perhaps this was a sign to lean towards tradition. Modernism did attract the odd vampire and was more unpredictable. And to think Eris was being more reasonable than Countess Marivaldi. Eris! The man could barely tear himself away from his own reflection to speak! What a sad day for the nobility. And at this point he had had enough. If he was going to win one heir's favor he may as well go all in. Even if it meant needing a long shower afterwards.

[color=C0C0C0]"I'm interested to hear this reasoning as well as it would seem I have made a poor impression on you; a stark contrast from what I had initially thought was a pleasant encounter at the bookstore not too long ago,"[/color] Ben said. [color=C0C0C0]"For one, I wouldn't dream of accusing Her Highness of such a thing, your imagination has truly taken your reasoning somewhere I can't seem to follow. For another, you seem to be under the impression that you have some sort of moral high ground over [i]my[/i] mage coming for some reason. So please, enlighten me to your thought process so that I may understand when and where I went wrong."[/color]