Lorenso breathed and audible sigh of relief when the Aserit prince took his hand.<em>Well that’s temporarily averted a bloodbath for the next 5 minutes. </em>He didn’t hold out much hope for the peace talks as a whole, he suspected the Aserit would be much too proud to take any offers made. But then again what choice did he have, the two peoples could not go on warring forever.<em> Enough friends have died already.<br/><br/></em><br/>He slid into the background and allowed the Theiri royalty to do their part, introducing themselves and swapping pleasantries. As they did he took a moment to ponder Aserit culture, He wondered if they drank, that could at least make the stiff princes a little more interesting. He wasn’t surprised to  hear their castle lacked any sort of court jester; the Aserit were stereotyped as a generally joyless people. But what of music, of song and art, they must have something; he could not imagine how ones entire life could be devoted to warfare, even if that was how he spent most of his daylight hours. It certainly wasn’t how he ever intended to spend his evenings, much preferring the beautiful mewing of some curvaceous young woman to the clash of steel on steel.<br/><br/><br/>As he saw Julliete send her bodyguard back to the room he began to worry slightly. I know you want to be friendly, but still… He knew she would probably be unarmed with that dress on, and even if she was armed it wouldn’t be something to stop a warhammer or a greatsword the Aserit men were carrying. He slid into line with the rest of the procession beside her and Lenally, Keeping a wary eye on the twins in front. As he settled down into the walk towards the guest wing of the palace, he was able to relax a little more, and even started noticing the way his usual fencing partner looked in her new dress.<em> Very pretty, If only this wasn’t such a dreadful time of war, maybe I could see it more often. </em><br/><br/><br/>He listened as she talked to Lenally of the stoicism of warriors. He pondered what a waste of time this whole war was for those involved. There were plenty of smaller city nations for the Aserit to prey on, not so well defend by the grand natural defences, canyons and mountains and forests of Theiri. But forever onwards the Aserits would launch their attacks, and the Theiri would repulse them, just, month by month, year by year, and every time both nations would have a few less sons and daughters than before.<em>Enough friends have died already.<br/></em><br/><br/>He looked at Juliette’s body in the dress as he followed closly to her, slender, slightly curvy, with the dress covering most of her battle wounds. No doubt she will be back in a tunic tomorrow. His eyes then darted across to young Lenally, even she looked beautiful, signs of her young womanhood showing in the artfully crafted dress.<em> So eager to learn of warfare, I wonder if she will be if she got a taste of it.</em>Atleast Omar seemed slightly peaceful, unlike his quiet brother, who towered over him. He looked into the eyes of the bloody raven on his cape, and were those…blood stains?<br/><br/><br/>As Juliete offered Lenally the chance to join them on the archery range Lorenso gave her his friendliest smile. “Yes, you should come watch the fencing, maybe if you ask nicely the princess might even let you have a go.” He gave his old friend a little wink, running his fingers through his long hair.