Before they entered, Hawk said:

"Just try to relax."

"I am relaxed," Numair retorted, before he could stop himself.

It was a lie, and Hawk gave him a look that said he knew as much. Not because of any special gift for seeing through lies, as Numair possessed; he simply knew better. But he didn't pursue it, so they went into the sitting room, and found that they were the last to arrive. Yoshi and Liya lounged on a shabby couch with their legs intertwined; Teige had draped himself over the armchair; Vlad stretched out on a squashy beanbag chair. The low coffee table was filled with a platter of cookies, a teapot, steaming mugs of tea, and a radio which took center place.

Numair tried not to flinch as the attention in the room fell on them, and with it a wash of sights and sounds that seemed disparate at first. He always hated this part, where each new person had to decide how they felt about him, and he could only stand there and watch them do it.

Worse still, it wasn't even him they were assessing; it was the Cynn. Inevitably, the spectre of the Cynn stole after him into every room he entered, and overshadowed whatever first impression he, himself, could hope to make.

Hawk placed an arm around Numair's shoulders. "Hey guys, this is Mari," he said, somewhat awkwardly. "I know most of y'all already know who he is, but..."

Numair put on a well-practiced, polite smile, and said pleasantly, "Please just call me Mari."

He kept his expression vague. Watching several different people decide how to take this request would have been dizzying if he hadn't been used to it. Spots of color and light danced across his vision. Around them he saw Liya giving him a silent, suspicious oblique look, and Yoshi murmur a nervous response. Vlad merely gave them a peace sign in greeting. Teige, however, leapt to his feet.

"So you're the one, eh!" he said with a huge toothy smile, holding out his hand.

Teige was the only one here whom Numair had never met in any capacity. The handshake was a grand show at acting normally, and numair returned it in kind. He was less certain what Teige meant, though, so he replied cautiously, "It seems so."

That made Teige laugh, which puzzled Numair further. He could help but look closer in that moment at the images Teige brought with him, in a habit born out of self-preservation...