[To him it seems natural that Olivia should fade from the conversation, as the purpose of this meeting was that he and Gaius might become acquainted with one another: she serves more as a quiet reminder of why this meeting holds such weight. Nonetheless, as he listens to Gaius he gently nudges Olivia's wrist and nods to her cup as a means of indicating that she too ought to partake in the wine.

It is fortunate for the mood of this meeting that Achilles understands not the implications that the epithet babe might convey. In love he is possessive, and he sees Olivia as a treasure that is his to delight in and his to boast: he would not take kindly to any who so much as seems to impinge upon his territory.]

In truth it is Olivia who has been here far longer than I. I met her not long after I first arrived in the house of Alastair all those months ago - and even then she was quick to soothe my chapped breast, no matter how brightly burned my rage for these outrageous circumstances in which we find ourselves.

[He then gives the young man a curious look. Olivia is reluctant to speak of herself, her eyes ever pointing outward rather than pausing too long to gaze upon herself, and so his picture of her life before he stepped into it is admittedly blurry.]

Yet you must have known her since your youth, to think of her as a mere babe still, despite how she has bloomed into womanhood.