He kept sketching the outline of the room, ignoring the prince's voice as he spoke in the grand and pompous tone that meant the ambassadors from Marana were with him. Anike continued sketching, adding in an outline of the painting that hung on the far wall. Anike continued to ignore them until the prince mentioned his name, and then his attention was drawn away from his sketchpad. The prince was still talking; something about recording the momentous occasion of receiving ambassadors from Marana after the century of hearing nothing from that country, but Anike wasn't paying attention. He was too busy staring at the two ambassadors. Anike had never seen their like. He'd heard the rumors that Maranans were strange looking, but he'd dismissed them. How strange could they be, living in a country just to the east? He'd put it down to imagination and the fact that no one had seen anyone from Marana in decades. But the ambassadors were definitely not normal. They were both thin, with long faces and cheekbones that slanted at an alarming angle.
