[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/GioCx6y.png[/img][/center][hr][indent][b]//Rhinecliff Estate[/b]
[sub][@Estylwen][@Click This][/sub][/indent]
Slice by slice.

It was with a firm hand and long strokes that Duke Rhinecliff portioned the venison, the bloody juices mixing with the dark sauce. It had been a young buck that he had spied upon his lands, its horns scrapping against the bark of trees as it ducked its head down to eat. He had remembered holding an arrowhead in his hand, whispering the sorcerous words, and letting it fly. Human hands erred, but magic, once one understood the principles of ‘will’, was entirely reliable.

Mene didn’t answer his question.

Laurent looked at the young Viscount. Understood that he was dodging the meat of the matter, that his sense of self-preservation was still overruled by his sense of slavish loyalty to the Wizard-Queen. The Wizard-Queen who had, in two years, demanded more taxes from neighbouring cities than the late King had in twenty. Perhaps Evelyn had some humanity yet within her soul, in showing some kindness towards those that she had orphaned, but from Laurent’s own perspective?

He sighed.

[b]“Mene,”[/b] he spoke, finishing the final cut and allowing the juices to dribble down the blade of the knife, [b]“Though it is perhaps comical for a Duke to speak of this to a Viscount, I ask that you consider carefully who you ought to be loyal to. If I were as hotheaded or callous as some of my peers, you would be leaving your sister alone in the world, if at that, and all for the chance at a mere display of loyalty.”[/b]

The duke drew his portion of the venison upon his plate.

[b]“Viscounts are assistants to courts, to counts, but offering assistance is not the same as treating yourself as disposable. You’re nobility; the consequences of your death affects all those around and beneath you.”[/b]

A chuckle broke out of him then, as he proceeded to eat.

[b]“And honestly, the food’s going to get cold at any rate. Fill up your stomach and take a nap on your way back home. I promise you you’ll have another perspective afterwards.”[/b]