Given the situation, he's more concerned with Thomas joining Riftwatch at present (or, more worryingly, Raoul running off to see if he can track down the departed pirates), but that's a conversation they'll have behind closed doors and not at a party. If at all.
Instead, he responds to Strange's observation. "It is not that the academics in Orlais do not participate in the Game, exactly. But a bit of eccentricity is useful to them more often than it is to nobles. Not that no one has capitalized on how odd they can be, certainly that's been done. But it's a more challenging gambit for those outside the university." Which is to say: Stephen might find academia an avenue less challenging for an outsider to navigate than Orlais's upper crust.
"I do think it's a good sign that you," a collective you, here, and not Stephen alone, "are likely to be here a bit more often going forward. The more your faces," ha, "are seen in Val Royeaux, the more people will include Riftwatch in their own calculations. Not an unmixed good, but I think on balance it's useful to your cause."
no subject
Instead, he responds to Strange's observation. "It is not that the academics in Orlais do not participate in the Game, exactly. But a bit of eccentricity is useful to them more often than it is to nobles. Not that no one has capitalized on how odd they can be, certainly that's been done. But it's a more challenging gambit for those outside the university." Which is to say: Stephen might find academia an avenue less challenging for an outsider to navigate than Orlais's upper crust.
"I do think it's a good sign that you," a collective you, here, and not Stephen alone, "are likely to be here a bit more often going forward. The more your faces," ha, "are seen in Val Royeaux, the more people will include Riftwatch in their own calculations. Not an unmixed good, but I think on balance it's useful to your cause."