The Elephant King watches in quiet solitude as Edge members slowly meander towards the targets to test the glass’s strength. His great head dips towards Maude’s effervescence, provoking a slight smile to cross his otherwise solemn muzzle. Before he can answer her, an ever-excitable Chico appears (much to Mbwene’s delight) and the King’s thick neck jerks back slightly at the sharp electric stab of his stinger. His companion, however, chortles in amazement—she hadn’t know her main squeeze could do that with his tail. Her ears flap as she drifts towards him, dark eyes admiring and questioning all at once.

His head swings to Ros as she shouts at her companion—though another appears and introduces herself, stealing his attention before he can assuage the Sparklight’s concern. The woman is beautiful and delicate, slender but austere as she says her name, ”Manon”. Though the Elephant’s brows draw up and an amused grin plays at his thick lips as she turns her attentions to Ros, calling her ”lovely one.”

His Moon Doctor appears, the temperamental Tallis embracing this glass-testing exercise by shrouding the glass with his toxic breath. The King had always wondered what magical breath Evangeline’s dragon possessed. But he does not linger long on Eva, for soon Anzanie appears in a huff and he finds his old friend still in with sad eyes. “Anz—“ the King speaks for the first time, low voice soft and gentle and warm and concerned. But he is interrupted by the running shout as another colt—one he had not yet met—charges into the glass. He turns back, nearly cross-eyed, looking for praise, but finds none from the newly arrived Naerys. The Elephant King can feel her silent, brooding stare on his thick hide. Though he says nothing and simply, levelly, meets her teal gaze.

Glasgow’s arrival heralds and answer to all the questions that had been asked of him thus far, and the King nods his great, heavy head in her direction in affirmation of her answers. She is the Glazier that created these targets, so she can be the one to explain it to everyone gathered. Though Alune’s great, earth-shaking charge at the glass both interrupts and punctuates Glasgow’s words.

Silence settles after his Seer’s onslaught on the glass. With slow steps, careful of the glass carnage that now litters the clearing, the King approaches to judge the glass’s resilience against their tests. The first, larger target (that had already been melted by his magic), had a skin that bubbled beneath the toxic chemicals from Tallis’s attack. The second (already pitted) glass target lay in ruin, shattered pieces. Chico’s electric stinger had had little effect (it seemed glass was an insulator for electricity), but the spiderweb cracks had been weak points that Arakh’s head butt and Alune’s charge exacerbated, shattering it into large chunks. The last and final small target had held firm against Manon’s kicks and Naerys’s dagger slash—though a thin scratch stretches across its surface.

His ears perk as he studies, and then he turns back to those gathered, “Thank you all for testing our glass” his deep voice rolls easily over those gathered, “I believe our glass spikes will protect our borders against most, but heat and force applied to weak points will be its downfall.”

And then, with a head dip of dismissal, his waits to see if any have further questions.