[center][h3][color=#b3ccff]Esben Mathiassen[/color][/h3][/center]
[hr]

[color=#b3ccff]"Your terms are acceptable,"[/color] he replied quickly. [color=#b3ccff]"We'll do what we can. Be careful about letting anybody hear you call me a 'good boy,' though. I can think of quite a few of the other students from my time who might try to kill me if they ever hear of it."[/color]

Despite how much of an obvious joke it sounded like—indeed, it [i]was[/i] one—Kayliss had hit the nail on the head: for all the work that she and others had put in to make it otherwise, Esben [i]did not lie[/i] if he could find any way to avoid it.

With that put aside, there was still other business to attend to as long as he had her there, especially if they were to try and push the rest of the team down into Skael first. [color=#b3ccff]"If we're to do that, could you send a message to Leonhart for us and let him know just what's at risk? Or, if [i]you[/i] have any reason to think he shouldn't be trusted with that, pass the information along to someone we can and have them keep an eye on the crystal there."[/color] While it was clear that Valon was a traitor himself, working hand in hand with the invaders as he was, that wasn't reason enough to [i]entirely[/i] disregard the claims he'd made about serving Edren's supposed [i]true[/i] king. [color=#b3ccff]"I don't want to risk it going unheeded while we're on the opposite side of the continent from the invaders' base."[/color]