There's a dwindling pause, a weighty quiet, and the mage tries to get away with simply making a low, non-commital noise at first.

But soon enough the silence and Graves' eyes seem to be bearing down on him, and he sighs through his nose, shoulders hunching.

"Any loyalty of mine does not really belong to this world." He declares painstakingly, a quiet resolution.

"But Lord Euramar's summoners keep me shackled to it, on a thread of life, and the Captain keeps me out of a cage, and that is..." He swallows, eyes raising again with some grudging difficulty in meeting the officer's gaze for long. "An arrangement that is only half-relevant for the moment, or so it appears."

"So what is it you want from me?"