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Annalise looked down at the table when he pointed, almost glaring at the piece she hadn’t managed to cover up from him. Almost offended that the image had given her away. But her expression lightened again when she looked up to Vyarin. She considered his request for a moment, though she almost blurted out a hurried yes to hear his tales. It was a solid couple seconds of her thinking, almost long enough to be an awkward silence. Blinking a couple times she relaxed the facade she had been wearing up until now faltering, her gentle smile no longer resting on her face, replaced with one of neutrality. 

“That’s right, I forgot your country borders Old Gilthan.” She almost whispered this to herself. If she was honest she had forgotten that Vyrain’s people had likely been fighting Gilthan longer than any of them. “I heard they fight with more magic than most other countries have access to, but nobody knows how. Magic is such a rare skill, how can one country possess so much of it?” She was more asking this to herself than to the Prince in front of her, she doubted like the rest of them he had no clue. 

Shaking her head she sighed, the gentle smile returning to her face. She looked to the book keeper who still remained a respectful distance away. “Make note of the items I have out now, I am finished with them right now but I wish to return to them later.” The book keeper nodded and moved to start putting the books and scrolls back in their places. She then turned to the man in front of her, still smiling lightly. “There will be plenty of time to discuss The Empire and its ways. We have to focus on forging Alliances for now, to strengthen all of our countries.” There was just a twinge of bitterness in her voice when she said the last part. She still wasn’t pleased about essentially handing over what was rightfully her throne to some forign prince, but she couldn’t let the suitors know that. 

“How about we get some fresh air? We are going to be trapped in a stuffy ball room with court officials judging our every move tonight.” She didn’t really give him much of an option but rather walked to the back of the large book filled room opening the doors to a balcony that overlooked the sheer cliff leading to the ocean. The place being placed right on the cliff always made her nervous but she couldn’t deny that the sound and sight of the sea, stretching on for who knows how far, was one she would never not enjoy. “I always found it silly that the most important room in this entire palace was placed so close to a cliff face that could simply collapse at any time.” She remarked as she stood near the railing but not quite on it. Turning back to see if the Prince had followed her. “This view never gets old though.” She motioned to the sea turning back toward it as she did and closing her eyes, allowing her hearing and smell to take over. Once again she relaxed though a genuine smile graced her lips now, a rare occurrence as of late. 

After a moment of silence she opened her eyes once more and focused back on Prince Vyarin. “So Prince Vyarin of Prozdy, I have been curious, and of course you do not have to answer, what happened?” She pointed to her left eye hoping he would understand that she was asking him what happened to his left eye. “Between the two of us it seems we might only have one pair of functioning eyes.” She hoped the joke would both explain her question more and alleviate some potential tension. She wasn’t even sure the suitors had noticed her own ‘defective’ eye.