In the end, although Alain made it close to the end of the riddling, the winner was one of the older men, a scribe from the library who had been friends with Vannay. Roland, sure enough, barely lasted two rounds, and accepted his loss with a good-natured shrug as he stepped back. As he'd said to Nariko, it was his hands that were quick, not his mind. In truth, he was rather glad to be out of it. It gave him the chance to move around the hall, marking certain of his guests under the guise of watching the contest.

Around the time that Nariko took on her last riddle, the youngest of the three men he'd noticed - the dark-skinned man whose suit was patched at the sleeve - slipped away into the crowd. Casting a glance back around the throng, Roland followed, moving with a stealth belied by his height.

He returned a while later, carefully rearranging his jacket to hide the rip in his shirt, and made a line for Nariko. Greeting Lena and Kaine politely, he nodded down to Nathan. "You're a sight sharper than I am at riddling, cully. Well done." Then, looking up at Nariko, he smiled a little and held out his hand. "Shall we dance?"