"The arduer I've heard so much about," Jon says dryly, because of course Jean-Claude had been tight-lipped about it. He might sound a tad smug, too, to see Jean-Claude less than fully in control of the situation, for once.

He's halfway through getting up when it occurs to him that Jean-Claude asked Jon to make a choice rather than ordered Jon to leave. This might well be his only chance to experience it. He could interrogate Jean-Claude's taste, but the many was centuries old. If historical portraits were anything to go by, Jean-Claude had dealt with people far worse off in looks than Jon. And Jon was an expedient choice at the moment.

"It's unlikely to have a conventional effect on me, anyway," Jon says, sitting back down.