"He is a junior midshipman of a moderately well to do family. I doubt that he would have much of what you would seek. Besides, his sickness have already been dealt with by the faerie healers. They magicked it on a pig of all things..." Renaud chuckled a bit and shook his head. "I assume it will last until the curse is broken, but who can be sure when it comes to these things. Magic" he scoffed. "Annoying superstitions most of the time, and thrice as annoying when they turn out to be true."

"Which means they aren't superstitions," the Admiral replied, chuckling. "You don't seem particularly eager to cure this acquaintance of yours," he told the younger man. "Could it be there's a grudge? What did he do, sleep with our wife?"

That made Renaud chuckle a bit, giving the other man a wry smile. "If you had met him you would have understand how amusing that was. No, I fear he's mostly a rather annoying and unpleasant young man, not unlike many others that comes from moderately good families and suddenly come face to face with the fact that being in the navy requires you to serve before you can command. But, dislike is not my reason. If you are correct then, about this so called cure of yours, I am simply not sure what would happen if you cured him and not me. Would I be cured once the curse is broke? Or would I still be deathly ill, this time without a cure."

He had not mentioned anything about it, but he was becoming increasingly tense every time the admiral sent a barb in Iolanthe's direction. Had it been anybody else, he would have dressed them down by now. It was his wife he was talking about.

The Admiral smiled pleasantly in response. "Believe me, I could cure the both of you many times over," he answered. "This isn't a limited offer, you see. I..." He nodded. "I'll just hold onto it, then," he told him. "Until I come across someone who really needs it."

"Would this somehow be related to how you survived your untimely demise?" Renaud looked as if he did not really believe that the man truly had been dead, nor that he had a cure.

"What?" the Admiral asked. "Oh, no, not at all," he replied. "No, this is completely different. I only discovered this in Mercer. And I thought it was rather obvious that I didn't survive that."

"And yet you are here" Renaud pointed out. "Or, if it is not you, a remarkably eloquent simulacrum." Renaud didn't really have many doubts that this was Admiral Romain, his intellect might deny it, but his instincts told him that this was the man.

The Admiral crossed his arms over his chest. "Survival implies I didn't die," he pointed out.

"So you do claim to having come back from the dead." Renaud gave the other man a disbelieving glance. "Keep up that story if you like, but I find it a lot more likely that you somehow faked your death. Still, it is not my business what you claim, and Iolanthe was convinced that you truly had died, so I suppose I should trust her word in the matter."

The Admiral smiled dryly. "Iolanthe knows more than she lets on," he replied. "I'm surprised she hasn't told you more."