[Kath]

Astilwen felt almost that it would have been better not to have asked about Gondor, as the smile on Ariane's face had faded and she was now staring moodily into her glass. As she had been talking she had sounded unhappy, as if her memories of the place were very bad. And her description didn't paint the city in a good light either.

"Was it so bad to live there? I thought that the king was improving things?"

Ariane turned to her with a sad smile, and seemed to be pondering her answer. Wanting to give her the time to do so, Astilwen picked up both their glasses and disappeared back into the crowd. Fighting through all the people without the help of Ariane's height proved difficult, and it was more than a few minutes before she returned.

Collapsing into her chair she passed Ariane a glass, and took a deep drink from her own while waiting for the other woman to start speaking.