Lyon's POV

Duke Lyon's POVs unlock upon choosing him at the end of Week 3. His first POV was originally written as a consolation prize and can be found here.

Before the Summit
“…”

Lyon glared at the letter in his hand, as if that could change it’s contents. It was simply unbelievable that he was being forced into something so inefficient, illogical and useless as a diplomatic summit. That meant there would be people. And people would expect him to talk to them.“ Certainly they could scrounge up someone who wanted to go. Even if they had to dig under a rock and pick someone ambitious. In fact, if they had any sense at all they would recruit the people they most wanted out of the country and marry them off to be some other nations problem.

Maybe he could suggest it.

”…“

But that would require talking about this more. He had already said his piece and it had been ignored. Arguing further would be redundant.

He glared at the letter again before tossing it in the fire, determined to distract himself. He might as well read. He might be able to learn something worthwhile that way.

The Welcome Feast
It would be easier if there was a formula. If you could take the variables of the number of people, add in the type of event and space and come up with some sort of calculation that would give a firm answer to how many more agonizing seconds he would have to endure before the evening would finally end. He could attempt to create the forumla himself... But that would require repeated experiments. He stifled a groan.

Not even for scientific advancement would he willingly subject himself to more of this torture. He had been forced to come, but no one said he had to talk. So instead, Lyon stood against a wall, comforting himself with the thought that while his body might be physically trapped in hell, his mind was free to wander to more interesting climes.

Which is exactly when she walked up, a determined glint in her eye. He did his best to warn her away. He knew this conversation was going to end up nowhere good for either of them and he was tired of disappointing and upsetting people because he didn't know the rules to their arcane dances of pointlessness.

But to his surprise, she wasn't like that. She listened to what he said and actually paid attention, instead of having her eyes glaze over. And when she spoke, she wasn't so incoherently stupid that he couldn't follow her logic.

And when the conversation was over, he could sense* she wasn't determined never to speak to him again. Quite the opposite, in fact. And for once, the idea didn't totally appall him.