When Ves arrived at the Cloud Estate, Gloriana was calmly chatting with a group of aunties. They chuckled and giggled as they talked with reckless abandon.
Now that Casella had clued him in, Ves realized what Gloriana was doing. She wanted to earn the approval of the Larkinsons.
She didn't have to, of course. The Larkinson Family never really meddled with relationships because they didn't matter. Even if the Larkinsons disapproved, the most they could do was kick the offending Larkinson out of the official family ranks.
Even if the Larkinson Family did not possess that much power, Ves still preferred it if Gloriana was able to live in harmony with his relatives.
From a practical point of view, the Larkinsons made up a key part of his hierarchy. Several of their retainers still occupied the top management positions in the LMC. Melkor and many other Larkinson mech pilots formed a solid and dependable core within the Avatars of Myth and the Living Sentinels.
