"Do you like the salad, Inquisitor?" Ollie prompted the man sitting next to him when he realized the older man seemed to be hesitant about taking a bite. "It really isn't that spicy," he offered as he took a bite that included several slices of pickled peppers as if to prove that they were edible. "It's just that Heila is, um, exceptionally sensitive to spicy things."
"No, it's not that," Diarmuid said as he shook himself free of his thoughts while staring at the artistically presented plate enough to spear several different morsels. "I was just thinking that Master Georg managed to welcome almost everyone to the table with a single dish, and that's very, very impressive," he said before taking a bite of the salad that felt almost too pretty to eat.
