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Goodness gracious. Ben thought he had already met his fair share of mad men and unbalanced women, but Countess Marivaldi took the entire bottle and not only ran with it but she high tailed it to the moon. Were it any other setting he would have thought this entire dinner was just the setup for a joke. Geoffrey did love the occasional prank but even he would have questioned the extent of the countess' imagination. She gave him too much credit; he wasn't aware it was possible to fabricate a meeting such as theirs. The only comfort giving to him is at the very least she gave him reasons aplenty to steer clear, even if he needed to have a stern word with his mage if there's any possibility of an inappropriate relationship between the two.

It had been some time since Ben had a look of pure exasperation and confusion, aimed properly at the Countess'...'look'. It was amusing to hear her try to reprimand him but the problem with that was that she held nothing over him. Fortunately, Count Sinnenodel gave him reasons aplenty to ignore the countess' rambling and focus his attention to the unfortunate target of the count's derision. It would strike a cord of pity if it hadn't been so glaringly obvious that the Sinnenodel had timed his speech precisely so the poor mage would get to hear every one of his faults exposed. [i][color=C0C0C0]The villains of bedtime stories are less subtle than this,[/color][/i] Ben thought. [i][color=C0C0C0]No wonder he struggles training Aaron so.[/color][/i] 

Ben had chosen to take his drink from Aaron wordlessly; drawing attention would only embarrass the mage more than needed. The scent of the blood was stronger than most, an unusual scent accompanied by an unusual taste. He had heard stories on how different Starag blood compared to most but even those tales fell short of the real thing. He frowned to himself as he set the glass down. Perhaps his patience had already been run ragged by the frivolous countess but it had reached a curious point by the time the count finished speaking. At this point he was convinced this entire dinner was a joke indeed; aside from an interesting collection of blood flavors, his time would have been better spent elsewhere.

[i][color=C0C0C0]The night is nearly done, may as well finish with a quip or two.[/color][/i]

[color=C0C0C0]"Now, now, Count Sinnenodel, you mustn't blame yourself so. It [i]has[/i] only been three months since Her Highness has given you Mr. Starag,[/color] Ben said. [color=c0c0c0]"If this is your way of asking for help, however, I'm sure Count Astorio would be more than pleased to offer a suggestion or two."[/color]