Elissa
Peraz Dumagne 
The Ball, Maith Mansion

"You can be slow at times, Lutur, but you're not an idiot. You know I have support in Falsa where you do not. You are smart enough to know that is why I was made to marry Adrien." She said with the slightest hint of an amused smirk at her brother's beetroot colour,"There is a reason Cyprien De Lysse addressed me before you."

"Where do you expect to face war, brother? On your arse in a tent while your men die for you? While I, the miserable widow, and your bastard brother fight alongside them?" She asked with a raised brow.

Peraz's drunken mind brought all manner of horrible things to say to her brother, things that would hurt him and sometimes, in the heat of an argument and when she looked at him and all she could see was how much of mother was in his features, all she wanted to do was hurt him. But tonight she felt herself soften.

"I don't want to be your enemy, Lutur," She said, voice much more gentle than she usually spoke with him,"I pray the gods forgive all my quarrelling with you but if you would only listen to me, you might have something to learn."
David
Self-Named Sea King, Lord David Brass 
The Maith Mansion

The Sea King remained silent after he heard the questions given to him in such sweetly spoken words by the First Admiral, Gitten Maith herself. The once content look placed across David's face had faded away like stones by the seaside. The Gray Eyed Squid glazed over to the Pirate King for a long moment, before he had taken a swing of a nearby drink place not too far out of his reach. David Ignored the women's words for a while, as David remained in his seat as he finished off his drink, the sounds of him chugging the dark liquid down his throat echoed as the quieted onlookers watched in a mixture of shock and bewilderment. 

David Brass then placed the emptied cup down at the table as he looked to Reginald and spoke in a tired voice "This isn't, what I wished for, deal with this situation. It be your way to deal with the outsiders, is it not? Speak your sense to them". The Sea King said to The Diplomat. The Young Brass's words showed no fear or intimidation in them, his words only showed his frustration and annoyance at the situation that was taking place around him.

The Bastards Bane finally gazed at the First Admiral and only laughed as he remained in his chair. "I wasn't that man, I am the only true Sea King my time now, the questions you offer are for one that is no longer living. If it were I, I would've killed that bit of rotten wood, not allowed her to be sold to House Skaggerly, not allowed them to even have the chance to be able to take it, burning Nighthawk, was that her name? Well burning her was the only smart choice they made. You seem to remember it as if it happened a moon ago, any wood grown in the south is too weak and easily damaged. The cold kills it, it is too soft you could say". The Brass chuckled loudly as his gaze wasn't broken with Gitten.

David would have looked down, then seen her hand placed on the hilt of her blade, then his wandering eyes looked around him and would have noticed the group of well-armoured guards stood behind her. The Sea King pushed his chair out loudly from under the table and then stood up from his chair, as moved before The Sister Of Pirate King.

*I remember The Disappointment showed me the history of our House. At least what is still written her tale matches with one that was none too far from my rule. If so, she is the fiery-haired brute that sailed so far after a ship we took as our right. She is taller than I thought she would be, her face is brutish like a Snake-Faced Whale but better than some women at home. I will say if she wasn't this angered, more drinks at hand, and within me, the words we would have traded between each other may have been better for us both.*

The head of House Brass allowed these thoughts to swim around his mind, He continued to stare up at Gitten. The prideful grin never leaving his beard face, the confidence near leaving his stance as he spoke. "Soft like a whale hide as it is gutted by true seamen, by those under House Brass. You think you have any right to move me" The Sea King turned away and sat back down at the table. He loudly placed his chair back where it had been before he stood up. "Then move me with only your own hands, and leave your group of krill to the side, to watch you fail once again to gain what you desire". The Sea King spoke as he faced away from her and went to take another drink.
Tom
Calypso Kolgrim 
The ball, Maith Mansion 



Instead of exchanging the Bastard's gaze, Calypso's eyes fixed up towards the balcony, observing the golden lights flooding out of it, laughs, and the sound of dishware clanking together mixed with the buzzing of chapters storming off of the stone stairs like the sound of a full hive, as she felt his cold eyes search as if she had the answer for his questions written on her skin. 

But she kept that far underneath, under muscles and blood under bones and soul far from his watch.

*And I'm just another Crow...* Though, avoiding his gaze for a moment. As if he could by chance see the quip of guilt pooling in the pit of her stomach. Calypso thought if it was worth it... Whatever she was trying to snatch out of Samsom. Who was just as lost, if not more, as her. Something that she didn't even know what it was and yet...

No... She knew why she approached him. Why her curiosity was pushing.

She hummed, intrigued "My allies..." Murmured Calypso, eyes fixed up, "Our people..." Another murmur escaped her lips as she gently rocked the glass between her delicate fingers, munching on the words spoken by the knight. "That's an interesting choice of words," Stated her taking a small sip.

She leaned back a bit, her stance was now more relaxed. "I guess you are not wrong though." Sighed " Farsa, Terresol... That's all you got right?" Mumbled, weighing every letter with careful precision " A land that you belong to, that had kept you in its territory instead of sending you back from..." Calypso left the phrase unfinished, no need for her to fill up the space. 

Herr words danced through the air like feathers and still on her tongue lingered that sweetness, that caring gentleness. "You say that you haven't quite figured it out but your mouth betrays you... I don't condemn you though." Another sip "After all if our land will get massacred by the dangerous games of war..." Calypso bit her tongue pausing for a second "...What would it be of you?" Whispered. 

A soft sight slouched her shoulder "Or maybe you are truly confused and I'm rushing my judgment..." And at that, she turned around. Of that soft kindness that had first met Samsom some were lingering, at the corner, like a held back tear... But mostly concern was what reflected in her dark eyes. And, of course, Suspicion, which helped maintain that characteristic sharpness in her gaze. "Maybe that is why you went talking to the Seneschal..." Whispered her, keeping the conversation between them and them only "... To search for clarity?" Asked, with that hushed smoky tone, before dropping her eyes again "I'm sorry..." Mumbled Calypso shaking her head brows scrunched up creating a lithe crease on the smooth skin of her forehead. 

Cunning, curiosity, duty, and worry mixing up in her mind, something she was not used to and that could easily be blamed on the alcohol.
Antonio
***To search for clarity***. No sooner had she put the words forward that she bowed her face away and apologized. Samsom guessed that she was being demure by insidious design, and suddenly wished that he were a more blissfully naïve man.

'I don't ...' he began, and reached out to gingerly touch her shoulder. 'I don't need clarity, lady. Definitely don't need any insight from the likes of that man. He's all smoke and mirrors. Don't go talking to him tonight if you want to sleep easy.'

Some black cloud of disconcertion caught his mind then, and he stared at her for a little too long. With an inarticulate hum, he looked away, into his cup. 'Hell, that's what we're here for, right? Bastards. Not you, just me I mean.' He looked back at her with a slight frown. 'We're meant to lead lives of clarity. Standing just next to better kin and seeing what they don't, with their eyes clouded by... Well, purpose, I suppose. And we just watch.' 

Samsom pursed his lips, adding with a tilted head and a tone sotto voce, 'And sometimes, I suppose, we give a little push.' He met her gaze. 'Only as needed, of course.'

A bitter smile fell across his face as he lifted it to the lights. 'Not for ourselves. Never for ourselves. It's for the people we care about who everyone expects us to envy or hate.' Slowly, the smoldering ardour wavered, and he locked eyes with her again. 'And maybe they're half-right. But if I give it all into the harder feelings I have for them, then what's waiting for me on the other side of that?'