Green grass breaks through snow, Artemis pleads for my help

That's harder to deflect. How are you is a nicety, easy to answer without giving anything away -- are you doing alright is specific. He can't elude it without ignoring it, at least in part. "I'm listening," he says, prompt, and hopes that comes close enough. "It was a coalition of interests, then? Those can be difficult to maintain among disparate groups of people." Like the mansion itself. Perhaps he would've never understood Shen Yuan's strange relationship to his identity, but he would've liked to have tried. "I suppose the celebration creates a sense of unity. What are the flags?" It's the natural next question, when speaking of nations and coalitions.