[He listens with careful appreciation, making some further private deductions about Ishgard from the new information. At the end, he only smiles at Francel’s artless finishing line. How amusing the social gatherings of the ruling classes invariably are. So much sophisticated veneer for the elaborate word games that allow old grudges and rivalries to be aired and played out anew. The players only vary in their deftness.

He still has a trace of that smile when he replies to Aymeric.]

That depends on how amusing you wish to be.

[More seriously:] I believe such affectations are simple and useful – to the same degree wearing a hat can be useful. If the title is customary to Aefenglom, for example, it could be a posture of compliance. The local observer will see what is alike to them, and perceive us as willing and eager to assimilate: we cease to be uncomplicatedly alien, exotic strangers.