[francel, too, finds some small comfort in this — a meal with a friend, light conversation over a smooth hardwood table with a warm hearth blazing some distance away. it's been a long time since he had this. even when haurchefant was alive they rarely had the time to speak to each other so leisurely. this, with y'shtola, is... nice.]

I wonder the same thing. There are not many who know of our... our friendship.

[it feels weird, calling it that. like accepting some strange label for their relationship. it's not that francel doesn't think of y'shtola as a friend, but — ishgardian lordlings do not usually keep scion scholars as friends.]

I suspect one of your associates rather than mine.

[not least because... his brothers and sister would never set him up on a friendly outing with y'shtola, and his knights are more likely to simply tell him to do so.]