[ He wonders if that was the purpose of the black liquid... to make him lose control so he'd be easier to tame. He certainly feels less stable than he'd been before drinking it.

But the vile, rotten feeling escalating form within is difficult to suppress even when he knows that the ribika is correct. If he gives in, he knows he'll become the monster the people from his own world already see him as.

His nod is stiff as he tries to settle down and focus on anything else. ]

I am not getting riled up.

[ His voice is slightly petulant when he says that. ]

I was merely correcting an unfortunate assumption as you did mine. I suppose we are even now. Do you have any knowledge of what the Regent intends to do with us now that he's fed us such a foul wine?

[ That's what they both should really be focusing on. He'd come here because he had been told their host requested participation in their welcome banquet, and if this is it, he's deeply disappointed. ]