He watched Kirion devour the runes with his eyes, feeling mildly jealous. Excitement was a feeling which had long faded from Ingram's emotional repertoire. It must be nice, submerging your mind into something which revived it. Ingram tended to sink only into the things that deadened him, in meted measures, with diminishing returns.<br/><br/>He half-smiled and took Kirion's hand. It was a firm shake, but he couldn't say it surprised him. Looks can be deceiving, he knew better than anyone. Ingram, after all, was fair, slight, with long, wiry limbs which transitioned directly from skin to bone without paying any mind to muscle. If challenged to an arm wrestling match, he would likely lose. And yet, he could kill a man twice his size with his bare hands. He imagined that there was much more to Kirion than met the eye.<br/><br/>“Ingram.” He would offer a last name, but there wasn’t much of a point. Kirion wouldn’t recognize it, or if he did, he likely wouldn’t be keen on its implications. Their hands lingered for a moment too long before they pulled away.<br/><br/>He smirked at Kirion’s words. “If you have a forgiving definition of interesting.” He was right, though. It was an eclectic group. Certainly a different crowd than Ingram was used to.<br/><br/>An imposing figure cut through the guests toward them. Ingram tried to dredge the details of him from his memory, but his memory was not cooperating. In the end, he couldn’t recall any more than he might have inferred on his own, seeing the striking figure in his full armor. He had killed bad guys with a big sword and was being rewarded by the king. Ingram wondered what people might similarly infer about him. Probably that he dealt with bad guys to deal big drugs, and was peddling them to the king. Or that he had slipped in somehow by mistake, and no one had kicked him out yet.<br/><br/>“It’s something,” he agreed. “Are you familiar with the language, or merely interested?” he repeated, flashing a cheeky glance in Kirion’s direction.<br/><br/>Just then, the tone of the room shifted. He turned from Kirion and the man whose name he couldn’t place (it was beginning to bother him, that he couldn’t place it), looking into the center of the circle.<br/><br/>A shiver crept over Ingram’s skin as he watched the proceedings. He wasn’t easily stricken, but awe struck him now. He was witnessing something of immense power, immense difficulty. An immense sacrifice. His hand fell on Kirion’s shoulder as the ground trembled, keeping his balance. He squinted at blinding light, but resisted closing his eyes. He didn’t want to miss out on anything.<br/><br/>No wonder the prince looked so damned tired. Ingram certainly didn’t envy him. There were days he felt like collapsing into the arms of a waiting drow just for walking up two flights of stairs.<br/><br/>When it was over, he turned back to the unknown man. “I maintain my answer. Definitely something.”<br/>