He laughs, then, and nudges her away from the bar, to a quiet corner, a table where they are blocked from view. "Perhaps we should just be thirsty, then." He leans over her, shielding her from the rest of the world, as if the rest of the world offered some great danger to her when there is no greater lie. Aeriel always protected him. It was only once the other way around.

"Tell me what you have learned in your glass fortress, and I will tell you what I have learned of Avaric in the time I was away. I will tell you of my lady mother who never leaves my side, and of Roshka and Piirs."