She was a sight for sore eyes. Maybe you and Dorte can be reunited soon too.

[ Marianne is perhaps one of the only people here to understand just how glad he was to be reunited with his steed. He may not be as ardent an animal lover as Marianne is, but he comes close; gone are the days of lazing about the courtyard with the stray cats, but he still looks back at them as fondly as he looks upon anything else. He can't help but smile as he watches Marianne fawn over Zaffy, giving her all of the love and affection and adoration that Claude personally feels that she deserves. He can't blame others for finding her a fearsome sight - she has personally sent many men to their deaths, so it's not altogether unsubstantiated - but she's a sweetheart. She clearly couldn't tell the difference between Mariannes either, greeting her with a roar of delight and wriggling around so that Marianne could pat her in just the right spot.

It's almost enough to make Claude forget the anxiety brewing deep in his gut. He knows what they came here to talk about: the truth, kept hidden for so long. A part of him wants to turn to cowardice, deflect and deny, just enjoy a lovely cup of tea with a dear friend like the good old days. But that wouldn't be fair to her, not now that she knows there's more to it. ]

This is plenty. Thanks, Marianne. This feels just like old times, doesn't it? [ He breathes in the sweet scent of the tea. It's not the same as back home, but it's close. ] How've you been?

[ Okay, okay, he will talk about it eventually, but... you can't blame a guy for delaying, can you? ]

An ordeal is right. I can hardly believe everything that's happened in the past few months -- or the arguments people are genuinely having over this. I really wasn't expecting this much squabbling, though that's my mistake. I should have expected it.

[ He takes a sip of his tea, pondering. Even a place as contentious and prone to arguing as the Alliance would be presenting a more unified front in the wake of such obvious misdeeds. They certainly wouldn't be arguing between the two extremes like people seem to here, as though there is no middle ground between complete annihilation and absolute forgiveness. ]

But it's a miracle that we got as many people as we did back home alive, so I count that as a celebration. And maybe amidst all of the fighting, people will cool down enough to allow cooler heads to prevail. [ He offers Marianne a small smile. ] It'll work out. You haven't gotten involved in any of that, have you?

Well... I've made it my business. You know me, [ Claude says, offering Marianne a flash of a grin. ] None of us are able to be judge, jury and executioner, though. I've been trying to confer with local governance so that we can bring the evidence to them and make judgments based off of their own customs, but it's been slow going. [ He dismisses it with a flap of his hand. ] It's just more politics. I won't bore you with it.

[ Not that he doesn't appreciate Marianne's own perspective, but she also knows his politicking well enough to interpret it correctly; it's only boring because he hasn't actually gotten anywhere with it. ]

What you're doing is arguably more important. More action, less talk! [ His eyes soften. ] Are they doing okay now? I didn't stick around for the fight for too long, but it was worse than any Demonic Beast I've ever seen.