You wanna get ahead?

[breaksthecuties]

Ariane Emory, Ari to those that knew her well, was a busy woman. When the call had come that Khamja were holding a meeting she nearly ignored it. She didn't attend Khamja's concerns often; they were a sideline, a way to keep an ear to the ground for rumblings in the distance. When you ran such a high profile laboratory complex as Reseune, it helped to know what was going on in the outside world. The shifts in politics might not impact science, but they could impact things like funding, or where those holding the purse strings wanted you to direct your attention.

The actual day of the meeting, however, had fallen into a gap in her schedule. It was a convenient gap, all the more convenient because of what she expected the meeting would be about. Khamja liked to keep its fingers in multiple pies, and the ongoing tension between Niflheim and Lucis was the bigger concern within Niflheim, but whisperings of the outbreak of war on the lowerworld of Spira had reached even there.

Galbadia had taken a Gotei Captain hostage on false charges, and said Gotei Captain happened to be one of the two resident Captains in Archades. One was the lead scientist at Draklor, the other was supposedly a kindly, benevolent figure that had influence in Archadian upper echelons. Ari had her doubts about the kindly and benevolent part; no one rose to that sort of position by being nice, but it was the common rhetoric.

She'd taken the journey time to educate herself on the political situation, and the individuals involved. Galbadia and the Archadian Empire had tense relations. Politically speaking, they'd been eyeballing each other for some time. Galbadia's military were highly effective. If they weren't they'd be an Archadian territory by now. Their remit thus far seemed to have been defensive, but now they'd taken an action that was distinctly offensive.

And curious. Arresting someone whose role lent them diplomatic immunity and a pass to cross borders in the pursuit of their duty was treacherous ground to walk. There had to be some reason other than mere trespass. Possibly, they believed he'd been spying, but that seemed like very dangerous accusations to make right now.

There were people in Khamja whose entire reason for existing was the sourcing of information that couldn't be obtained by other means. That was why Ari had gone to the effort of attending. It was likely Khamja knew more about what was taking place than any single given side of the affair right now.

Her two personal azi accompanied her. She rarely went anywhere without them. They were bodyguards, but they were also companions; people she could trust to listen and retain information without spilling it to undesirable ears. There had been no reason not to bring them.

Ari had been to Khamja's Desert Palace only once before, some years ago. It had been a brief visit for the purposes of her induction into Khamja's ranks. Still, some memories sparked along the way as they moved from the airship port to the main entrance. She remembered the main entrance, and it, it seemed, remembered her, opening to a touch of a glyph. It was a magical defence system. Ari couldn't say she approved. She much preferred more high tech methods of protecting information. Passwords and retina scans were less prone to failure over the course of time.

Though this would have been put in place by Kuja, who she remembered was rather proud of his ability as a mage. Perhaps he was confident the wards would last, or perhaps he carefully reapplied them on a regular basis. It was a complicated bit of magic, she had to grant him that.

The first entrance took them into a corridor, and beyond that lay another entrance. Catlin and Florian were probably working the Room in their heads already; a bottleneck like this would have them on guard. The next entrance opened out into a much larger hall, expensively decorated and, Ari had to admit, a little grander than she remembered.

The place also thronged with the reiatsu of people. It certainly hadn't been this well occupied the last time she'd been here.

Comments

[catlinandflorian]

The two stood behind her, silent and observant in their identical ink-black uniforms, Catlin blonde-haired and blue-eyed to Florian's black and grey. They looked similar enough to be siblings, though Catlin was fractionally taller.

Catlin had clocked the difficult position the hallway put them in the moment she stepped into it. Should somebody shoot down its length, there was nowhere to go save out of the front door behind them, and those doors were stiff and unyielding. She wondered if they only opened with magic from the inside, too.

Florian considered that it was probably for the safety of those inside. It was daunting, being on the receiving end of it, and it made him uncomfortably aware of their vulnerable position, but once they stepped into the open hall he felt better. Not safer, so much. Just rather less hemmed in. He watched Catlin scan the larger room, taking into account all of the doors and blindspots. It was a credit to her poise that she didn't brush her gun with her fingers.

He had.

Florian felt the magic in the palace. It was a powerful sensation, deep and heavy, like being plunged into water and held there. It wasn't too much for him to handle -- thick as it was it mostly lingered in the background like the kind of low machine thrum that caught him in the chest, but it was there, at the forefront of everything. Catlin, he knew, wouldn't be paying attention to it, if she'd even noticed it.

There wasn't much point in having two bodyguards with identical strengths and weaknesses, after all.

[breaksthecuties]

Ari glanced back at her two azi. Catlin, serious and stoic, and Florian, less stoic but just as dedicated. They were both clad in black, a colour worn only by azi in Niflheim. It might be strange for them to meet normal people wearing the colour here, and they likely would.

There was a gathering forming in one part of the building. Ari was adept magically, or at least had studied the disciplines and learned the techniques, but she didn't use them as a matter of course. Why have azi and fight yourself, after all? Still, she stayed on top of the skills enough not to lose them. Weaknesses were bad, and Niflheim's politics could be volatile.

She headed towards the gathering. A double doored room had been opened up. The space suggested it was a disused ballroom. High ceilings and open floor space made it impractical for anything but social events that involved a lot of standing. There were some chairs pushed back against the walls, but they weren't enough to fill the space.

Ari cast an eye over the faces already in attendance. Many of them weren't familiar, but that wasn't unexpected. Too many well known faces would have been a concern.

[doesthissmellofchloroform]

Hojo wasn't in the best of moods, even for him. The meeting was a waste of his time, but since he was resident in the palace, a prisoner, really, he was required to attend.

It might not be a complete waste of his time. He consoled himself with that thought. The Arrancar were Aizen's underlings, and depending on the outcome they might be offered up to interested parties, or at the very least, there'd be a chance for him to state his interest in them should Aizen not return.

The rest of it wasn't anything he had much care for. What did it matter to him why Aizen had been captured, or what Khamja intended to do about it? That was all political chicanery, and Hojo had long since ceased caring what politics dictated.

Hojo wanted a cigarette, and a cup of coffee. He wanted both of those things any time he was away from his work station, and the desire for them both was making him irritable now. He couldn't access a coffee, right now, but he did have a pack of cigarettes in his pocket. He was still clad in his white coat; he hadn't bothered to take it off for this meeting. He'd only be heading back to his laboratory afterwards in any case.

He drew one out, lighting it as another unfamiliar face paraded in, flanked by two black clad followers. "Underlings are supposed to wait outside," he said, before taking a breath on his cigarette.

[catlinandflorian]

Catlin looked sharply at the man who commented on them. She looked him over, an action not missed by Florian, and decided he probably wasn't dangerous. Well, not in a way that she needed to worry about.

His attire suggested he was a scientist. It wasn't that scientists weren't a risk to them, or more importantly, to Ari, it's just that they tended against it. Catlin resolved to watch him, but take no action. That had been the instruction.

Clan Khamja was risky, but with this many people around, Ari had said that somebody would have to be an idiot to start something. Catlin agreed. She thought it quite likely that she could draw and fire faster than anyone else in the room, and with more accuracy. That wasn't much use if they were expected to stand in the hallway, though.

Florian crinkled his nose at the acrid smell of the smoke from the man, but did nothing but look to Ari for instruction. His expression betrayed his concern, but Catlin's did not.

[thechillyacademic]

Even stood to the side with Ienzo, his arms folded across his chest. He had not gone out of his way to meet the visitors to the palace, but he hadn't been able to avoid some of them. The two grey Mistants from Niflheim had been among the most often seen in the kitchen, as had the two emissaries from Lucis. None had been particularly unpleasant, but Even generally disdained to meet people, especially those he would likely not see again.

Politics was a game he didn't particularly wish to participate in again, not after his first attempt had gone so badly all those years ago. Instead, he'd kept himself in his laboratory. He'd made it clear that his room in the palace proper was to be given up in favour of the one he'd made in the suite he'd taken for himself, so he'd seen little reason to come up except to find something to eat.

The meeting was rather more crowded than he'd expected. The strange winged woman he'd seen occasionally had already entered the room and was doing little but taking in who had turned up, much like himself. Ienzo seemed on edge. He saw Professor Hojo before he caught the smell of the smoke that clung to him, but he knew that unpleasantness would only be a matter of time.

Kadaj had yet to arrive, and neither Marluxia or Lumi had made their appearances despite neither seeming the type to arrive fashionably late. A woman he didn't recognise walked in, flanked by a pair of identically dressed companions, one male, one female. Underlings, perhaps?

[breaksthecuties]

White coat, hair tied back, glasses, and a stinking cigarette hanging from his fingers. Ari didn't recognise the man from the description, but he obviously fancied himself a scientist. He looked like he'd just been dragged away from a laboratory.

The fact that she didn't recognise him indicated he wasn't high ranked here. Added to that was his language. He spoke Ivalician, and he said supposed to.

There were many things that were supposed to happen that often didn't, but that qualifier made it clear it wasn't coming with the authority of an order.

"Exceptions can be made," she replied, slipping into Ivalician that she knew had more of an accent than she'd like. She had so little need to speak the language it was hard to practice.

[hellsingsforyou]

Integra watched as the newcomer, flanked by two black clad underlings entered the room. She couldn't be sure, but the description was about right for that to be Ariane Emory, lead scientist at Reseune, and a consummate Nif.

Interesting to see that one crawl out of her hole.

Alucard had already made himself comfortable on one of the chairs, his hat tipped down so that he appeared to have dozed off, although Integra knew better. He was too much of a predator to be able to doze off while surrounded by other predators and prey.

Interesting that Hojo, that was the other scientists name she was sure, had said nothing to or about Alucard. Although Alucard had already made himself comfortable before some of these people had arrived. If she was honest, Integra was half looking forward to someone trying to tell Alucard to get out. It would take some balls on their part.

[joinmyreunion]

The last time Khamja had a big meeting Kadaj had been a scrappy little underling with bad manners. Now he was a member, and not just a puppet of Kuja tagging along to give Kuja a second vote.

It was a bit daunting. Walking into a room full of people he didn't know, and that could either kill you, or arrange to have you killed with a carefully timed look was unnerving. But Kadaj had spent so long with the clan, even as an underling, that being surrounded by extremely dangerous people didn't scare him.

And not all of them were bad. He saw Hojo, lurking too close to the doors for comfort, and gave him a wide berth. He'd managed to go whole weeks without having to lay eyes on him; it was a shame to break that run now. It would be even more of a shame if Kadaj had to do something like cut Hojo's hand off if Hojo tried to touch him, so he didn't get close enough for that to happen. The stench of cigarettes permeated the air around him anyway. Kadaj wrinkled his nose.

Gin wasn't here yet. Kadaj was half surprised at that; he'd expected Gin to want to watch for any building fireworks. L was already here, perched on a chair like a demented bird, watching as people began to assemble, probably for the same reasons.

Kadaj headed over towards Even, who was the closest thing to a friend Kadaj had in this room, a situation that probably wouldn't shift when everyone was here.

His eyes dragged over Ienzo. The automail arm was indistinguishable under his clothes. "Hey," he said, quietly greeting Even. Kadaj had never been friendly with Ienzo; he was always a bit of a stuck up snot for Kadaj's tastes, but he was cordial, at least. They both occupied the awkward spot of being young, dragged into the clan by others, and having had to earn trust within it. They also both found themselves under Nel's wing, and Ienzo had once been under Even's, too.

[thechillyacademic]

Even smiled as Kadaj approached, the expression the warmest thing about him. Even with his reiatsu contained and suppressed there was something permanently chilly about him, though that might just have been the association that he had with the Ice Element, like a shiver caused by a painting of a snowy landscape, or the distant creak of a glacier.

"Afternoon," he said, keeping his voice low enough that only Kadaj and Ienzo could have heard him, short of supernatural hearing.

Kadaj seemed nervous, at Even's estimation -- he was used to young men trying not to seem bothered by difficult situations, Ienzo had given him plenty of practice reading that. It wasn't entirely unexpected, either. Kadaj and Ienzo were probably the lowest ranked there and the room was going to fill up quickly with people that were either unknown quantities or very definitely known risks.

He wasn't sure what was worse.

[theschemer]

Ienzo looked up as Kadaj joined them and nodded, saying nothing.

The two didn't really get on, but Ienzo didn't harbour any ill-feelings towards him any more. He had bigger things to think about than squabbling with other residents of the palace, especially ones so low-impact and inconsequential as Kadaj. They both occupied roughly the same rung in the Clan, which was the bottom one. Kadaj was a jumped up underling and he himself was a prisoner, member in name only.

They both had a lot to prove.

"Who're we waiting on?" He asked.

[intangibleman]

Tyki felt a new person enter the palace from the corridor upstairs.

He didn't know who it was, and by the time he reached the stairs themselves, whoever was responsible for the disturbing the magic of the entrance seal had disappeared from view. He went down ahead of Road. Their pretense was still in full swing and he was supposed to be the representative, not Road.

Not bothering to linger in the hallway, he strode towards the meeting hall. Not bad, not bad. He recognised most of them, at any rate. L, the goblin, was lurking at the back, trying to look unobtrusive and he was managing to do that about as well as Integra's psychotic minion, Alucard, who sat in a chair a little away from his master. The two resident Selkie kids were stood off to the side with the Al Bhed, Even. He hadn't seen much of him, but the others had said he spent most of his time in his lab, which suggested that he was a scientist, much like Hojo, who happened to be smoking, as usual, and did well at pissing everybody off, including, quite famously, Kreeth, who stood by herself looking no less creepy than she ever had. She out-creepied the two Noah, even.

There was a new woman about, drably dressed but sharp, with two black-clad servants trailing her. He grinned. They, like him, would likely piss off the two Lucians who had yet to arrive. They got a little funny about people wearing black.

Depending how the meeting went, it should prove to be fun, if even if it wasn't particularly informative.

[joinmyreunion]

Kadaj glanced around at the slowly growing assemblage of Spira's most dangerous people. He wasn't sure who the woman with the two black dressed minions was, but she hadn't been in the Palace prior to today anyway. "Marluxia and Lumi," he said, quietly, "the Lucians," Ignis and Gladio, who Kadaj didn't think would be far behind, "Gin, Kuja," he paused and added, "and Bellatrix," with a note of distaste. He'd run into her in a corridor and she'd acted like he wasn't even there. Kadaj hadn't known who she was, but he'd figured it out from Yylfordt's description of the crazy bitch with dark hair and an expression like she'd trodden in something, and that something was you. Apparently she really didn't like Selkies, or Al Bhed.

"I think that's it." Everyone else was already here. "Lots of Jyllandis," he said, in a murmur. "A lot of the others declined to attend." Kurotsuchi and Tousen among them, even though this was about Aizen. Maybe they'd figured they couldn't risk disappearing at the moment to attend. "You never get the whole clan together," he explained, in an undertone. "They can't stand in a room together for long enough."

And if they did ever manage to assemble into one room together the combined weight of all those egos would probably suck Spira into a black hole.

"But this is more than usual."

[lesstravelled]

Road trailed after Tyki, wearing a skirt that was too short and over the knee socks and generally looking like she was being babysat while Tyki worked. It was Tyki that was being babysat, but no one needed to know that.

She noticed the presence of Ari Emory, though. Niflheim had a close relationship with the Noah, with the Earl in particular, but it wasn't that surprising to find someone from the Empire proper had come along. It was surprising that it was Ari Emory. It must have been a wrench to drag herself away from her work to come and attend to this.

She spied the two well behaved little azi with her, too. Reseune's finest, probably. Ari was supposed to go everywhere with them.

"I've always wanted to get my hands on an azi," she purred, for Tyki's ears only. Shame she wouldn't be allowed. Ari was, technically, an ally. The Earl would be upset if she went upsetting her.

She couldn't wait until the Lucians met her, though. She wondered how diplomatic Ignis would manage to be when one of his country's enemies was flanked by two handcrafted slaves wearing their royal colours.

[gracefuldahlia]

Marluxia saw little point in being early. Not to this, at least. They'd already met and scoped out the bubbling cauldron of Khamja members that had come to attend.

A new one arrived just as Marluxia was preparing to head for the meeting. Someone arriving at the last minute, no doubt. There had also been someone yesterday that Marluxia had yet to meet. That presented a whole two unknown quantities in the meeting. Enough to make him curious, but not enough to make him wary.

Lumi, he expected, was going to be invisibly armed to the teeth, so neither of them had much to be concerned about.

When he got to the designated meeting room he was almost pleasantly surprised by the fact that reiatsu wasn't being flashed about. It was a typical way to posture, he'd found, but right now people seemed content to simply observe each other as they settled off into their little groups. Kadaj, Vexen, and Zexion had gathered together, an unlikely trio. Hojo was smoking, and Integra, someone Marluxia hadn't been a hundred percent sure of the gender of when they'd first met, looked as if she was considering joining him. Her ill trained lapdog lurked at the back, one eye on his master without openly appearing to be watching her.

Kreeth hung back from the crowd, as did L who was probably watching everything and taking notes. Tyki and Road were here, too. They might end up cracking a window for a smoker's corner before long if the meeting didn't start soon.

The newcomer was plain to see. A stern looking woman in plain clothes, flanked by two bodyguards, and they were definitely bodyguards. They had that attentiveness to them.

He glanced towards Lumi. Doubtless he was sizing them up himself, but there wasn't anyone here that might actually pose a threat. For now, anyway, and not to Lumi, at least.

[thesilentstorm]

Lumi was, of course, sizing them up.

He'd first clocked Alucard, the one he considered to be the most dangerous of all the hostile forces in the room. It wasn't that people like Kadaj and Even weren't thoroughly dangerous, it was just that they weren't as openly psychotic as Alucard seemed to be.

He suspected that many of those in the room considered him to be the most dangerous person in it. Those who knew him tended to fear him, in spite of having never been given a demonstration of his abilities and those who didn't know him were made rightly nervous by his demeanor and lack of reiatsu.

He looked at Marluxia when he glanced at him, catching his eye for a moment. He thought they were bodyguards too, that was without doubt. If anybody was feeling nervous about them, it would be their demeanor too. The exceptionally calm and observant tended to put people on edge.

Lumi didn't say anything. He didn't really need to. They had that way about things. Entire conversations could pass between them without a single word said.

[shieldoftheprince]

Gladio headed for the hall with Ignis.

He hadn't wanted to be early, but Ignis had insisted on not being late. Gladio hadn't given much of a care for politeness, but being late was too unbelievably rude for for Ignis to contemplate, so they'd left it as late as it was safe to leave it and hoped they wouldn't be some of the first.

Observing and watching everyone in a room together could prove useful, especially depending on how everything could play out, watch the watchers and see who paid attention to who... but there'd be time enough for that. What he didn't want was to walk in too early and be watched by a room full of predatory eyes.

He watched Marluxia and Lumi enter as he walked down the stairs.

"We're not that late," he said, pointing.

[thatsit]

"Good," replied Ignis. He hadn't expected that they would be, but he hadn't wanted to leave it any longer. Of all the people that would be in attendance, they were the only ones that were merely representatives of someone else. It wouldn't do for them to arrive last, as if they were uninterested.

Although Gladio had a good point about not wanting to arrive first, either.

"Will you be playing dumb bodyguard again?" he asked, quietly, just before they entered the room. Gladio had been content to let Ignis do most of the schmoozing up to now, unless his charms had been needed against certain female residents.

Ignis had done his best in the run up to the meeting. Neliel's absence had allowed him to step in and take over. The quickest way to men's hearts was through their stomachs, whether that was the variety that went up and under the ribs or the more disarming sort that involved tantalising the tastebuds.

Forge alliances. Take note of who is there. Gather information. Ignis had done as much as he could prior to the meeting, and now he was going to have to do a lot of listening and watching. Who might be useful to Lucis? Who might be inclined to be useful to Lucis?

Inside the room he saw, many, many faces he knew. Hojo was a rare presence Ignis had seen only in passing, and L was yet rarer still, although his fondness for confections had brought him across Ignis's path. The Noah were already present. Sir Integra looked a mix of contemptuous and bored.

Ignis hadn't had many encounters with Even, or Ienzo, although he was aware of them. Kadaj had warmed since their initial meeting, a scared boy surrounded by sharks that was trying to survive without getting bitten.

He felt his breath catch at the sight of someone flanked by two bodyguards dressed in black. He'd heard of azi. They were an insult to the Lucian crown; slaves that were only permitted to wear black. With their strangely neutral expressions and attractive faces, and the expert attentiveness to their charge, there was little question of what the two must be. Azi were raised to serve, and trained only for those purposes.

That raised the very important question of who exactly they were accompanying. There weren't many in the upper tiers of Niflheim society that were known to keep azi. Even fewer of those were female.

[lesstravelled]

Road gave a quiet giggle. She didn't much like seeing the world from down here on her own two feet, but it wasn't the best time for her to be sitting on Tyki's shoulders, either. On the bright side, it did make it easier for people to pass her over as unimportant.

She watched as the Lucians entered the room and came face to face with Ari and her bodyguards. "Do you think they know?" she asked, eyeing the two Lucians before casting her eyes around the rest of the room.

The weird one called L was sitting on a chair like she would. The difference was, Road did it to unnerve people, and because sitting normally was boring. Alucard was sitting back too, safely out of the way, but she could feel his eyes boring into her anyway.

She wasn't going to show that it bothered her.

[theheirapparent]

Arc ... was nervous.

He'd appealed to Kuja to allow him to join, something he wouldn't have dared to when his father was around. It was underhanded, being initiated into Clan Khamja while his father, the main blockade to his potential for becoming a member, was imprisoned, but there was no better time. All he'd needed was somebody to vouch for him, his potential to be of use to them, and he was in. He'd got it.

Part of him wished he'd been refused, especially with a meeting he was expected to attend, but it was too late for regrets now.

He could feel his heart beating in his chest and the blood in his ears rushed loud enough to drown out the strange silence emanating from the meeting room. Kuja had said that it was going to be held in the ballroom, but there was nothing coming from it. It was eerie. He knew Khamja weren't generally on good terms with one another, but for there to be that amount of quiet in the minutes before a meeting..? Surely he wasn't the first to arrive.

Surely.

The sound of heels clicking on the marble floor a short distance away distracted him from the oddness of the situation. He slowed his step, looking up to see who else was on their way.

The Jyllandi woman. He'd heard from a few of them that she was horrible, though that was putting it lightly. She was shorter than him, but definitely not short, and her face had the sort of harshness about it that suggested she was used to getting her way. Somebody had told him that she was Jyllandi nobility of some sort, but they'd not bothered to elaborate. She'd avoided most people, apparently. She hadn't been friendly to him, but she hadn't been unpleasant either. He gave her a nod, and walked in.

[thesilentstorm]

Lumi looked up as he heard two more sets of footsteps approach the door. He half turned, knowing there couldn't be many more people to come now. Gin, perhaps. Kuja. One of the Jyllandi visitors.

When the first person entered, he raised his eyebrows a fraction, though his expression didn't alter otherwise. He glanced at Marluxia and then back at the door, intending to direct his gaze to where he was looking. The quiet in the room made him disinclined to speak.

Aizen's son. Arc.

Had he been invited on account of his relation to Aizen? Was he an uninvited guest? It would be a brave and yet dangerous thing to be in a Clan Khamja meeting, though there were already a small handful of underlings in the room.

Out of the corner of his eye he watched the two black-clad bodyguards of the newly-arrived woman react a slightly as he did with every change to their gathered number. They were good. It seemed they didn't miss anything.

[intangibleman]

Tyki pulled a cigarette out of the silver case he carried and had one halfway to his mouth when the two newest additions walked in.

One of them was the Union noblewoman, a bitch so uptight it would be impossible to remove the stick she had up her arse with a highly trained team of professional potholers, and the other...

He smirked, a flash of white teeth showing from between dark lips.

"They planning a replacement, do you think?" He muttered in an undertone to Road, opting not to speak in Standard.

[cruciohappy]

Once this meeting was over and done with Bellatrix could return to her home, where the mudbloods and assorted filth knew their places. That was the only reason she was glad to be in the meeting.

A hume boy nodded at her as he passed. Bellatrix didn't favour him by returning the gesture. A nod was hardly an appropriate greeting.

She wrinkled her nose as she stepped into the ballroom. An Al Bhed and two Selkies stood together in one part, a pair of disgusting Selkies looked directly at her and the boy, one pink haired, one white. Integra Hellsing and her vile pet lingered. Two dark skinned mistants looked on as well.

The place was rife with them. Even the humes here weren't untainted. She could spot the lighter colouring on one with glasses that showed a mist mutation somewhere in his family tree, just like Integra.

A nasty little man in a white coat and an ill behaved boy perched on a chair were the other examples of pure hume blood in the room. It was disgusting, frankly. The lowerworld was beyond reprieve.

She drew herself up. The sooner she was out of this place, the better.

[lesstravelled]

Road perked up at the sight of Arc. Aizen's son, and eldest, wasn't as far as she knew a member.

"Maybe his daddy is going to rot in prison," she replied to Tyki, her voice quiet, but there was still the risk of it carrying in the quiet of the room.

[gracefuldahlia]

Marluxia looked to where Lumi's attention was drawn. The Jyllandi woman looked as if she'd walked into a filthy stables and wanted a word with the stablehand.

The interesting one was Arc. Marluxia raised an eyebrow. That was certainly unexpected. Had he joined, or been asked to sit in? They were going to be discussing his father, after all, but then, that didn't have to concern Arc, and didn't concern him any more than it would concern Refia.

[breaksthecuties]

The attention of the room turned, almost as one, towards the door. Ari turned with it, and felt a smile settling across her face. This journey had some unexpected benefits, then.

She fixed the young man with a charming smile. "You're an unfamiliar face," she said. "What's your name?" Judging by the curious reactions of so many others in the room, he wasn't an expected person to be joining the ranks.