The griffons were visibly uncomfortable but they coped through it with a bloody mindedness Handy approved of, still cursed them for their stupidity, but approved in the long run. High King’s Aleksy still had that damn smile of his. He was surprised to learn that this kind of immaturity only occurred between the dealings of these two kingdoms and was considered something of a geopolitical joke in the wider international community, like how Russians are as welcoming and loveable as drunken bears, or how America’s a free country. It had something to do with how the two countries had fierce wars earlier in their history and the ‘tradition’ of difficult negotiation over splitting hairs was the result of some kind of fantasy cold war that has long since thawed out into reasonably warm relations.