So she could hold that tongue that flayed goats at twenty paces when she tried. Not for her brother's sake, but for her own. If it was only her brother's life in the offing - how would she behave, then? Call for guards? Threaten him with death, or worse? It would not have found her standing before him, offering a glass of white wine to a man unwelcome in her bedchamber, who demanded things of her as though she were a servant. Fenrir still took a deep breath above the rim of the glass. Savoring the smell of it, the taste that seemed to drift through the air and settle on your tongue - which in turn became wet in anticipation. A fine white, he thought, but he had no nose for wine and would not know it by taste alone. Not cultured, but sharp enough for such things. The memory of wine came from another life that he did not recall.
He did not recall.
"I was wondering," he said casually. "Why you care so much that your brother survives."
A sip of the wine. Absolutely delicious. Her face gave away nothing, and her body even less, so that he wondered if she was even listening. But she was. He could see the wheels of her mind turning and churning, in search of an answer. It might have been only a few seconds, but he let his mind wander all the same. If someone came for her brother would she step in personally? How far did her desire to save her brother's life go? How much could it be relied upon? Fenrir wondered, having tested her brother, if she would be so easy to manipulate and mentally map. Her brother was not adroit, he was not skilled in combat, and he most likely did not deserve to rule a house. That did not mean he also deserved to die. It simply meant that someone would drive him until he learned for himself, how to do for himself.
No one would do it for him. Except pretty Ceannah, who was a viper without clear motivations. The viper, at least, would strike if it felt threatened. It would strike if it were hungry. Why would Ceannah strike? The answers he could not draw from that pretty face. What if she managed to hide all the important pieces of herself this night? What if he gained nothing?