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[color=9AF781]Time: Morning, 11 am
Location: Athletic Arena
Interactions: Mina [@Tae][/color]

[color=CBCBCB][color=9AF781]“I know what you meant, it is just a tender subject, which I also know you understand. And, thank you.”[/color] Leo answered with a soft and careful reply. It was a matter he did not need to casually discuss. It wasn’t polite conversation and Leo knew better than stand around and discuss topics that he was unable to remain calm and rational about. if he spoke on it for too long and he’d say things that weren’t for public ears. Grief would unravel and he was doing pretty well at keeping it coiled and contained. It was his burden to carry and the only person he could share burdens like that with was gone. 

Mina’s words on the execution were easier to hear and she now had far more of his attention than the event taking place. While Leo had noted the absence of any members of the Caesonia’s royal family, he had not considered its potential importance beyond them not finding this particular criminal worth their time. Mina made a solid point; the game of acting as if a pardon could be earned, that the monarchs cared even for those who had lost the right to live, was necessary to keep the common folk believing that the game wasn’t rigged from the start. Without that hope, people got desperate. The trick was dosing it out, too much hope, and people got greedy, too little and you’d have a revolution pounding on the door. The common folk needed to be given those few scraps of hope to keep them quiet and dreaming of something better rather than demanding it. 

[color=9AF781]“Hope really does make the sturdiest cages.”[/color] Leo agreed with her statement, not entirely sure if Mina had meant her observation in the way he’d taken it but it hardly mattered to him, it was a valuable insight nonetheless. [color=9AF781]“Now witnessing history, sounds like a fantastic way to spend the summer.”[/color] Leo grinned and dropped his voice to whisper before continuing. 

[color=9AF781]“Whether it’s here or elsewhere, Sorian feels far less stable than I remember. Take last night’s party, every single noble in attendance now has a very bizarre case of amnesia for the entire event. And those parties have been recurring around here for a while now involving the two youngest Danrose royals.”[/color] Leo offered up his knowledge of last night’s events, it was hardly a secret, and word of it would spread quickly enough with or without his help. 

[color=9AF781]“Not to mention at some point last night a prankster managed to sneak into my room and had more than enough time to ruin every pair of shoes I had here. Which says nothing good about security. Even the palace servants are hostile and unruly. Which is to say, from one Varian to another, thrilling and historic, almost certainly, but potentially dangerous here as well. Not that I would imply you can’t handle it, but added caution wouldn’t hurt.”[/color] Leo left out the fact that the said prankster revealed herself to be one of the hostile and unruly servants. There was no way he was going to willingly admit he’d been bested by some impoverished miscreant. He offered what he thought would be useful to Mina because he thought highly of both her and her uncle and she had shared insights with him. [/color]