Eira watched him from behind her mask, careful to keep her gaze from seeming like she were observing him the way she was. Instead, it appeared as nothing more than the casual gaze of a woman towards her dancing partner. She was observing him to see how he responded to the question, not just verbally, but through his body language. In this case, his body language told her little. In fact, it seemed entirely unchanged.<br/><br/>His response was about what she expected. His voice seemed calm and casual. In reality, he didn't really seem all that suspicious. Still, she couldn't help but feel like he wasn't meant to be here. She couldn't quite say why. It was nothing more than a feeling, a conclusion drawn from her short interaction with him. Not that she truly cared. If he had gone through this much trouble to be here, she hardly cared if he stayed. All that mattered to her was whether he was interesting company.<br/><br/>Of course, if he wasn't royalty, or at least nobility, she wouldn't hear the end of it if she spent too much time with him and not enough with anyone else, but that was beside the point. That wasn't what she cared about. It would be a pain, for sure, but otherwise it meant little in the grand scheme of things. What was most important now was deciding whether or not he was, in fact, someone worth keeping around.<br/><br/>She followed his gaze when he looked around the room at various masks after confessed that the masks were a nice touch. She responded to his attempt at humor with a rather enigmatic smile. "Indeed. I suppose anyone can be anything they want to be when they're hidden behind a mask," she replied with that same light and airy voice. "At any rate, regardless of your reason, I'm glad you chose to attend," she added, her tone making it difficult to tell whether she was saying this as a formality or if she actually meant it.<br/><br/>"Perhaps you should have," she responded to his comment after he stumbled a bit. "Next time, perhaps a practice session ahead of time might be in order," she suggested with a small smile, her own feeble attempt at humor. He fell silent again, looking around at their surroundings. Was he simply observing the others around them, or perhaps attempting to gauge whether or not his cover would soon be blown? She wondered.<br/><br/>"No, I imagine you're not," she allowed before adding, "Although, most people who know that they can't dance generally avoid dancing as much as possible, rather than choosing to dance with the one person in the room whose presence is likely to inadvertently draw attention to that fact." She was smiling, this time with a hint of amusement in her eyes. "I suppose that makes you different from the others," she added.<br/><br/>She had to admit, it was a rather bold move on his part. Even if she was wrong and he hadn't sneaked in, it was still rather bold. She found that rather intriguing. If nothing else, he had that going for him. As things stood now, that still gave him a leg up over the others in the room. She was at least a little curious about him. Perhaps the night would be a little more interesting than she had anticipated.