<em>"There is that," the Crailese woman laughed.  "But I should warn you that some unwanted company is like to follow you.  You see that woman there?"<br/><br/>She gestured to a slightly homely yet ornately dressed noblewoman across the room, surrounded by sycophants and flatterers.  By the expression on her face, she was bored to tears by the whole business.<br/><br/>"She has long wanted to see our beloved uncle's head on a plate, and will like as not seize the least provocation to see to it that he meets an untimely end.  She suspects you are here on his behalf...but then, as a Barathi, she suspects everyone and everything.  It's why she's still alive."<br/><br/>Her grin grew.<br/><br/>"Now, as it turns out, the Falcons are quite understanding when a gentleman such as yourselves are forced by circumstance to defend themselves after an ill-considered jest is voiced unknowing within earshot of a hotheaded foreigner or two."</em>