"Alas, I fear we'll all have to go through the motions of swearing and kneeling and saying vows before the Seven before the week is out. Possibly even the day, depending on how unreasonable our new king insists on being." Aelon had been to these kinds of functions before, and had been bored to the point of tears at every single one of them. These greenlander lords always seemed to feel the need to talk and talk and talk for hours on end, possibly to bore any possible rebels into submission.
A full fledged grin split his face the suggestion of escaping the festivities. "You make a tempting offer, m'lady. I'm afraid if I don't do something with my legs while the other worthies drone on and on, they'll fall off from lack of use. Sadly, I don't know the Red Keep as well as I might, so if you want to find some nice, dark corner to escape down I fear you'll have to find it yourself." He gave a put - upon sigh and took another drink of the excellent wine to cover his smirk. Pushing to see how far this maiden would go could either be productive or disastrous, but at least it wouldn't be boring. In the slightest.
She'd leaned forward now, eyes intent on him. He found himself looking trying to decide what shade of blue her eyes were and forced himself to think this through. Perhaps she was simply trying to toy with him. "Well, I do know several amusing places around the city, and several dangerous places, and quite a few that are both at once. But they'd be quite the dangerous place for an innocent young maiden to go with a young man." He cocked a questioning eyebrow at her, daring her to reveal how innocent - or not - she really was.