<div class="floatleft">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/5/50/15b3a41b63432bcd1c3755c910f8be5c.jpg)</div>Umari smiled as the others fell in around him. Should treachery be afoot, he would have at least one bargaining chip in his hand, but something inside of him whispered that this was not the case.<br/><br/>The glow ahead increased in intensity as he walked through the corridors, and he narrowed his eyes a little to accommodate it. He turned as Ashen Heron spoke, giving a nod and a smile to signify his approval for his protectiveness. "I appreciate your desire to place yourself in danger ahead of me, but I think this is something that I must attend to personally." His fingers flicked a quick message in front of his chest, the silent war cant the manse military used when speech aloud could be dangerous.<em>Ready response force. Armoured. Hold here. Guard. Ready.</em><br/><br/>Parting the guards, he stepped through their ranks, moving to the doorway and pausing there to take in the show of power in the room, the flickering animas and solar caste marks, and the assorted expressions on the faces of his guests.<br/><br/>"It would seem Captain that you have perhaps more, and stranger, stories to tell than I bargained in when you accepted my hospitality this day." His voice was calm and measured, seeking to diffuse any potential for violence, and reminding the newcomers that they had accepted guest-right would hopefully quell further any violence. His lips quirked in a sign of slight amusement before he continued. "I have to say, you have an odd way of announcing yourself, when you eventually got around to it. But since it seems the light has cast away the shadows that concealed, I suppose we have much now to discuss. Moreso than we did before anyway."<br/><br/>With an effort of will, he let a little essence trickle into his own caste mark, causing it to bloom on his forehead. Simple and understated, compared to the full animas that danced in the room, but he suspected it would have just as great an impact on his guests as they had had on the inhabitants of the manse.