Arrangements On the Table [Eligos]

She didn't say anything about their last meeting, simply flourished the banner. He took a better look at it now that it was opened and close enough to see, and nodded - he needed to srop doing that, his head was killing him. "It suits well," he said. "I might trade you something to keep it once the contract is complete - it would make a rather visible border marker on a flag at the far borders." He nodeed completely mentally this time to keep his head from feeling like it was going to drill through his skull, then continued in a carefully neutral tone. "I had almost forgotten about the raids, but I am glad that you have reminded me. Aerie needs the training time this will provide. We have new members and we are not yet used to working together, and this will be a good test of their skill levels." He hesitsted, then added in a voice somehow even more neutral than before, "My brother was the best battle asset Aerie had when we began to plan these training raids. He died in the time since your festival. It makes this training more imperative for Aerie than even before." His voice, his breath, his expression all remained steady, though his expression was grim and hard, but his lungs felt like they were on fire with the pain of his loss, as though something were drawing claws down the inside of his chest. Time had done little to dull those claws.