French, since I'm certain that would have been your next question. [ For once, he hasn't reached into Koby's mind to pluck it out of his head, although the impulse is there — but he's surrounded by many other minds, and on an afternoon like this one, people are heedless enough that their thoughts are easily gathered up to be sifted through like grains of sand.

Lestat doesn't even need to wield his power here to be able to discern a wariness, a caution — though he doesn't take it personally. In fact, it prompts a greater respect from his side; anyone who's too trusting often earns skepticism from him at best and disdain at worst. He might not seem, outwardly, like he's paying close attention to the young man sitting close by, as he idly casts his own glance around the party, but he can hear every swallow of that drink, the tension of muscle in a slender throat. ]

I grew up in a land ruled by a monarchy, and, well, history demonstrates what transpired when the people tired of a king. [ Lestat's smile is slanted, more crooked, as he reflects. As a young man, he had been less interested in greater societal changes and more intrigued by the freedoms he could possess were he to cast off the shackles of his family — his domineering father and brothers who didn't understand the truer yearning within him. ]

Besides, I've always had more of a love for the arts, not politics. So it seems we've established we'd be rather lousy Founding Fathers. [ He steers that smile in Koby's direction then, relaxed and easy. ]

Do you believe there's anything hidden in their books that will provide us with a means of departure?