You thought about this extensively on the bumpy cart ride so as not to think about your sore buttocks. People who have been victims of malice do not need to be distracted from their memories with handstands and jests. First and foremost, they need to speak about what's happened and make plans to protect themselves.
Thus, adopting a more serious tone after your opening quips, you invite them to carry forth. "Speak then, souls of Gallibran, to us who represent Their Majesties. What lingers in your mind and eyes after the incursion that you feel your Throne needs to know?"
I'faith, you conjure up an earful with your skillful and sincere prompting. You've wisdom enough at this point to have accurately drawn a mark on the needs of this community, and you've cultivated a sort of genius for keeping other people talking with only the barest sympathetic interjections on your end.
Much of what is said treats on feeling so unprotected and overlooked by the Crown, which runs rather at counter purposes to the point of the visit. [+Discontent] But you console yourself that a momentary expression of fear or suspicion can get such ideas out in the open, where they are more likely to be examined and found wanting than if they fester in shadows, like mold.
Besides, having prompted your audience to speak freely, it only follows to embrace whatever topic they choose to raise, for good or ill. No sense in being scandalized by an invitation I made myself.
There's great satisfaction with the rest of your performance, which follows a more conventional path. In the final sum, it's clear that your presence was a memorable and well-appreciated element of the show of royal solidarity. [+Renown]
The Season Advances