Listening to her words, the bottle threw him off. He knew it was blood. Hell, he could smell the metallic tinge of it from where he was. It didn't evoke very positive memories. But, soon after drinking the blood, he could see that Elara herself seemed to loosen up, and her skin deepening a shade or two. Ignoring the queasy feeling rising in his gut as curiosity got the best of him, he wondered how dangerous this place would truly be if even the queen hadn't a say in what happened to him. One thing Cyne did have to admit to himself was that he was surprised Elara had taken control of the war so effectively, ended it on her own terms, without talking to the people of hers that would be most interested in such affairs.<br/><br/>"It intrigues me that you'd make such a large scale peace treaty as soon as you had the power to, Elara. I would have figured you to play it safely with your kin before you made such a decision." Even if Cyne himself had conceded trust to Elara due to her seemingly honor-bound style, he still didn't quite know what to make of her, and if she was one of the more civil ones like he'd expected, it wouldn't be a safe place for him to be anywhere but at her side. What the day exploring had done to humanize Elara in his mind had almost been undone by the simple bottle of blood.<br/><br/>After she had to lick her lip, he almost couldn't look at her. It reminded him too much of what he'd seen happen to his men on the battle field. Even though she was calmly talking, he almost felt like there had been a palpable bloodlust in the room. He knew he was imagining it, and that it was just his reflex, or maybe his instincts trying to get the better of him. Awkwardly, he just stood in silence, waiting to hear her response. With his head tucked down, and his arms folded firmly behind his back, he thought to himself,<i>Maybe power is a lot different here after all.</i>