<div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/3/31/Male_Asian_Hair.jpg)</div><hr/><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: verdana;">Marquis Captain Alaric Whitecliff</span></span></strong>,<em>Human, 199cm, 86kg, green eyes and black hair</em><br/><strong>Current location</strong>: In flight<br/><strong>Current event</strong>: The scenic route<br/><strong>Current tags</strong>: Foss, DuPierre<br/><hr/><br/>Alaric leaned back into his seat, again watching out the window, though he was perhaps paying more attention to the scenery.  Then again, perhaps not, and the tenor of his thoughts would have almost certainly surprised everyone in who knew him- or thought they did.  Certainly, Marks wouldn't have thought that Alaric might have been thinking about the larger strategic picture.<br/><br/>He hadn't responded to Cavanaugh- after all, there was nothing to say to that.<em>They're supposed to come back in a year.  With all of the Great Houses here, banded together and ready for them, what must they be thinking?  What do they know that the Houses don't?  They have the initiative, but is that enough of an advantage to overcome so much might?</em>His eyes flicked to the reflection of the interior of the craft on the window he was looking out of as Countess Foss grinned at the Viscount.  They were talking to each other, bonding in the face of a new duty (<em>as I should be,</em>he reflected, guiltily), but were they aware of the dangers around them?  The Lyran pilot and the Combine Shogun were certainly making overtures towards each other, feeling out a relationship and perhaps a back-channel means of communicating to each other for their respective factions- meanwhile, he sat in silence, alone in his thoughts, while his juniors discussed who-knows-what.<br/><br/><em>The enemy of my enemy is my friend, he said... but we've not had enemies here but each other for over a year.  The bandits may well have moved on.</em>What if the bandits never showed up?  If an external threat never appeared, tensions here would only rise between the houses, and eventually someone would see and opportunity to seize.  That Shogun seemed traditional, properly militant for a representative of the Dragon, and he'd overheard his father the Duke deride the eager foolishness of Lyran "social generals."  The Free Worlder and Capellan contingents he'd not yet seen, but the League was always a hotbed of intrigue (according to Alicia, but she never really thought Alaric paid attention) and the Capellans never could be trusted.<br/><br/>Who would pull the trigger?  Where would it go from there?  How many worlds would be embroiled by a war that might start for want of an outside threat?<br/><br/>Stricken by a sudden urge, he triggered the comm again, addressing Countess Foss and Viscount DuPierre.  "I apologize for interrupting your conversation," he said, not knowing that they had just concluded.  With his habitual air of superiority and a tone of voice that seemed faintly arrogant, he continued, "I am Marquis Captain Alaric Whitecliff of the Emerald Shore Whitecliffs, and I wished to know whether you would be dining together this evening?"  The innocuous question would have seemed out of place, but it was really a placeholder to get their attention.<br/><br/>As he broke radio silence, he was pointing to his helmet with his left hand and holding up three fingers with his right.  Marks, sitting next to him, jerked up in surprise, but wasted no time in adjusting his helmet comm to the third private channel.