That reaction is familiar. Though Mayerling had no intention to threaten, a Greater Noble at night is a fearsome sight, yet he's too on edge to relax in the safety of his own power. This world is not his own, and people's powers are a mystery greater than that of the Barbarois. The hesitation, the step back, makes Mayerling alert to the possibility of attack. Those who are frightened might do anything.

Instead, Mayerling frowns at the words, more foreign than any power. He opens his mouth to give the socially polite answer most would expect, but those words are not the ones to come out.

"No," Mayerling says, then takes a half-step back himself. What sorcery is that? Cognizant that he has given an alarming answer and not sure what else might come out of its own accord, he adds, "I have not been sleeping."

As though that simple, if growing more complex, problem is all that weighs down his shoulders.