Trajan & Elseyris' Manse

Elseyris smiled broadly;

"My Lord, it is a pleasure to receive you. I trust you are well?"

"I am well, My Lord, settling into my new home. It is good to have such august company. Good guests warm a place as well as a hearth, I think," she said cheerfully. "Please, make yourselves comfortable. May I offer you a drink?"

"Of course!" Elseyris smiled, sidling over to a table where a small number of bottles and decanters sat. "I would never doom a guest to drink alone. Wine, or something stronger?"

Elseyris laughed, then plucked up a bottle of dark Summer Island rum;

"Are you sure? You may want to be able to stand up later on," she jested.

She brought it over nonetheless, but also brought a decanter of red wine and set it aside.

"Just in case you change your mind. I wouldn't think any less of you, or tell anyone," she said with a wink, as she poured them both some of the spicy-smelling rum.

There will be food shortly, so, in the meantime, what shall we drink to, My Lord?"

"Well, with such boldness as that, I look forward to being proven wrong!" Elsey laughed, also taking a moment to smell the warm spiciness of the rum, before bringing her glass up to meet his.

"Well said, My Lord!"

She drank deeply and slowly, enjoying the fiery heat of the dark liquid caressing her throat as she swallowed it. It made her nostrils and lungs burn pleasantly, and she grinned over at Borros.

"I hope it is to your liking, My Lord. Your reputation as the life of a party precedes you, so entertaining you adequately is something of a slight pressure," she said, taking another drink of the rum, hearing the sound of the servants coming up from the kitchen.

"Not in the slightest," laughed Elseyris, enjoying the wink, but also noticing that he reigned himself in immediately. "I have long meant to better acquaint ourselves, but have not had much freedom to do so."

The servants arrived with their food, and laid it out between Elseyris & Borros. A baked ham, glazed with apricots and honey, accompanied by fresh roasted vegetables, buttery potatoes, and thick trenchers of bread.

"My grandmother was a Baratheon, but the kinship between our families seems to have diminished. I would like to change that, if you are not averse."

"That is good to hear, My Lord. Some would see a distinction between my family and the Royal House, and not a favourable one. You do not strike me as a judgmental man though," Elsey said, carefully, gesturing for him to help himself to the food, and glancing around at the guards, wishing there was a way to speak more privately.

"I hope this will be to your liking."

"It is well they did not," smiled Elsey, gently. "Though you speak as though they gave you many others!"

She refilled their drinking cups with more of the rum.

"What would they be, apart from the fine booze?" she asked, with a playful grin.

"Shrewd indeed. It seems to be serving you well. Perhaps I shall emulate such wisdom myself, though I wouldn't know what His Grace admires. I've yet to see him happy about anything," she mused, light-hearted, but with a tiny edge to her tone.

"Also, I suppose the range of... acceptable vices for men, and those for women, are rather different."

At the end of a mouthful of food, she added, with a bashful smile; "Not that I am knowledgeable about vice."

"I suppose that I have inherited this vice," she said, breezily, indicating to her drinking cup. "Though I like to think I will not take it to the extremes that my father did. Other than that... is it a vice to backtalk people bigger than you too often? I suppose I like a good fight too, sometimes," she laughed. "I would say that people have inherent virtues too though, not just vices. Well, most of them. I do not believe that everyone is born depraved and must be taught to be virtuous."

"Well, while I still have optimism left, I feel it pertinent to use it," Elsey said wryly, refilling Borros' cup attentively. "Besides, I know that there are yet a few good men left, despite the Stranger's best efforts."

She drained her own cup, then refilled it, tilting the cup towards Borros in a sort of tiny salute;

"I believe I have one sitting before me, for a start," she said, with a smile.