She allows herself to be plain – he chooses, for the moment, not to pick at it. Enough time for that in the uneasy pace of safehouse boards. Grey eyes meet blue, one pair ever the less steely of it. When he speaks, it must be agreement. To one point, to another.
"Easy enough to agree to a deal, and renege." Some trust asks consequence. His phylactery still sleeps in the Gallows, should he ever need to bargain. "If she bolts for the hills, we can hardly send assassins."
Well. Maybe they could, but that's even more risk, even more work. His mouth pulls, by measures less cartoonishly expressive than his own norm. A token for token.
"Which means a carrot to hold her to it. Something she thinks her own doing," There’d been a pleasant dream, too; he’s had it secondhand. That little island. "Other mages, perhaps. Ones we better trust."
To keep an eye out, to coax her toward engagement. He has people who might put up with it, or at least, who could occupy her long enough for a warning.
no subject
"Easy enough to agree to a deal, and renege." Some trust asks consequence. His phylactery still sleeps in the Gallows, should he ever need to bargain. "If she bolts for the hills, we can hardly send assassins."
Well. Maybe they could, but that's even more risk, even more work. His mouth pulls, by measures less cartoonishly expressive than his own norm. A token for token.
"Which means a carrot to hold her to it. Something she thinks her own doing," There’d been a pleasant dream, too; he’s had it secondhand. That little island. "Other mages, perhaps. Ones we better trust."
To keep an eye out, to coax her toward engagement. He has people who might put up with it, or at least, who could occupy her long enough for a warning.