Aiden smiled, simply keeping quiet and letting the elven woman talk about the adventure that the group would be going on. In fact, the only time he really addressed the group was when the only other guy in the group asked to see one of his artifacts that he kept on his person, a request that he refused out of a desire to keep one of his best tricks out of the hands of a complete stranger, and to inspect the replica of the trinket that they were searching for silently before simply handing it off to the next person without saying a word. By the time Isaera came back from her adventures with the barmaid, Aiden was about 3/4ths of the way through his drink since he had been pacing himself relatively well. As much as he liked the taste of a cool drink at the end of a long day of travel, he didn't much enjoy the fact that it messed with a person's head if they consumed too much too fast. The supposed leader of the group already assumed him to be some sort of drunken fool from their first encounter, and while he didn't feel the need to go out of his way to impress her, he didn't exactly feel the desire to make their already rocky relationship any worse.<br/><br/>When she returned, seeming far more relaxed then before, he spoke in a casual tone. "So anyway, if this little thing was being carted around all over the place during battles some long time ago, it must have held some significance at some point, even if it's only good for historical value these days... what's it's story?"<br/><br/>He paused before allowing his tone to grow more faithful. "And before you jump down my throat about it, I'm not planning some sort of outrageous mutiny, I'm just curious."