Draiss watched the 'elf' leave with, apparently, only minor interest, before shooting the glass of champagne with a grimace. He preferred heavier alcohols when he did drink, and wines and champagnes tended to leave a bad taste in his mouth. He extinguished the cigar with a thought as Kyuubi approached, and nodded, tucking it back into his cigar holder and then jerking his head to the construct, indicating it could leave. He had a fairly strong feeling his was safe here, almost as safe as at home, as watching Barid from the distance didn't give him that same feeling of unease he had had during the Verdelet war. Barid was born, bred, and raised to lead, both on and off the field, and being alone in a prison for who knew how long had likely unsettled him. But like every other disease, one either got better, or died, and Barid was very clearly alive at the opposite end of the room.<br/><br/>His jet black, barely adorned armor stood out like a sore thumb, and that was before the splash of scales and cat eyes made it even more obvious that he was NOT a usual fixture in the Court. He was gestured to wait at the bottom of the steps, and grinned before placing one foot on the first step, and leaning back slightly as he 'relaxed,' old memories suddenly surfacing as he looked around, for a moment not in reality, but in a far, FAR older and more sophisticated Court, and he had just been an uppity commoner that had dared succeed where nobles had either failed or yet to try. Then Kyuubi announced his current name, rather than his oldest one, and he was back in reality, take a foot down to grin up at his old friend, that same cheeky grin of an engineer who didn't believe in unsolvable or unwinnable situations. And it had served him quite well in both the first and his current lives.<br/><br/>He saw that uniform, and that medal, and had to shake his head as the past suddenly loomed again. He hadn't been on that bridge, he had led a flanking maneuver, without orders it might be added, a system over with his own fleet, drawing three of the eight enemy fleets near the super flagship off, giving Barid the four to five odds he had used to win, rather than making it almost one to two against them. He shook his head to clear the memories and returned the hug. "Hell of a greeting for a brother. Or did you forget that damned blood ceremony you did after my insanity at that battle?"<br/><br/>He nodded to the medal, and sighed. "Hell of a journey getting back, especially at the end. And you are looking MUCH better than the last time I saw you, right after I disintegrated a planet."