It's not unlike Fodlan, right down to there being three nations plus a few outside of it with their own influences. A familiarity I would've rather left behind.
[ The temptation to sigh deeply is there, but he manages to restrain it. Barely. It's something he's told Geralt before in their talks and Claude doesn't necessarily mean to segue into that again. Fodlan's problems, as much as they'd occupied him once upon a time, are meaningless here in the face of greater ones they can't hope to entirely prevent between the Free Cities, Thorne, and whoever else steps into the fray.
It's the whoever else which he has in mind now, rather than Thorne specifically. He'd nodded to show agreement with that assessment of the peril they'd absolutely be in if that came to pass. But it occurs to Claude there's more to be mentioned - something that he'd been turning over and over in his mind for some months now. ]
When we were in the Feywilds a while back, did you speak with any of the leaders there? Or perhaps dance with someone mildly chatty about the state of things that happened long before we arrived, or what a future might be with us in it?
[ The best place to start is by asking, most likely, and whatever Geralt answers: his own responses to those questions tailored off his experience will follow. ]
no subject
[ The temptation to sigh deeply is there, but he manages to restrain it. Barely. It's something he's told Geralt before in their talks and Claude doesn't necessarily mean to segue into that again. Fodlan's problems, as much as they'd occupied him once upon a time, are meaningless here in the face of greater ones they can't hope to entirely prevent between the Free Cities, Thorne, and whoever else steps into the fray.
It's the whoever else which he has in mind now, rather than Thorne specifically. He'd nodded to show agreement with that assessment of the peril they'd absolutely be in if that came to pass. But it occurs to Claude there's more to be mentioned - something that he'd been turning over and over in his mind for some months now. ]
When we were in the Feywilds a while back, did you speak with any of the leaders there? Or perhaps dance with someone mildly chatty about the state of things that happened long before we arrived, or what a future might be with us in it?
[ The best place to start is by asking, most likely, and whatever Geralt answers: his own responses to those questions tailored off his experience will follow. ]