<strong>"Indeed. A very distracting entertainment and ample application of Semuta,"</strong>Oksana nods absently, then presses a control, bringing the display embedded in the table to life to show a middle aged and portly fellow trying a little too hard to seem as though he is still the dashing and handsome man he might have been thirty years earlier. His image was caught at a particularly unflattering moment, leaving him in the middle of a smarmy grin that inspires thoughts of blunt force to the jaw.<br/><br/><strong>"This is the most likely spice merchant, one Paeter Gull, who is known to work with Preceptor Nicodemus Richese.  The latter is from a cadet branch of the family. He may be the motive force behind the attempted parley--his grandmother was a Talbot. What we lack at the moment is more verified information."</strong><br/><br/>She gives Eliza a glance.<br/><br/><strong>"It is not your immodesty that concerns me. It is the unappealing display that may result from certain guests,"</strong>she adds, her delivery so flat and deadpan that the possibility that the woman just made a joke takes a moment to register.<strong>"He is at least not the Baron Harkonnen."</strong>