(then he's a servant separated from his duties. that is a pity, though it piques his interest as a mer who had countless in his service. it's familiar and therefore comfortable to speak with one, and voryn listens well to the entirety of the explanation without comment.

a grey hand is raised.) I asked you a question and you answered it completely. It's what I expected of my own retainers.

(oh, to have one here now... it'd make his life so much easier...)

I imagine that the consistency and nutty flavour come from the birds' diet, (he wonders, likening the birds to the kwama whose menus rarely vary. eggs from grassland mines differ in taste from eggs from ashland mines, which is expected; they eat the organic material in the earth they dig. voryn, who is always curious and learning, places another devilled quail egg onto his plate.) The egg is fattier than I'm accustomed to, though I am fond of this.

(sebastian is regarded less severely now that he's easing into simple conversation.)

Quails must be more expensive than chickens to buy and raise. The Houses of my home province invested heavily in the procurement and sale of eggs.