"I may not be a peak-elder, but I'm half decent at sensing your realms. Mertin is the strongest of you three, a bit stronger than Jonon who's likely an early-perennial. And I know Lyle is a peak-elder," Oli replied.
"Still, what makes you so confident against others of the elder realm? And why waste such possible talent doing mercenary work in place of the Mortal Championship?" Mertin asked again.
Sighing, Oli nodded, "True, that's a decent line of thinking. But what if I prefer to work in the shadows? And what if I don't like the idea of playing loyalty roulette and hoping the king that submits me actually gives me a choice when asking for me to pledge to them? I think that's an even better line of thinking."
Jonon chuckled, "Hey, I can get behind that."
Oli's eyes darted around the room once more. He spotted Johan and Melinda at the edge of the gathering but not Leon or Pauller.
