Jenna gives you a smile when Shamus leaves. "Do want this to be private, or is it alright for Jenna to stay?" Vialle asks.
He looks at Jenna for a long moment before finally admitting, "I would prefer the privacy."
Jenna looks slightly disappointed but still smiles as she nods to you. She stands, pats Vialle's hand and goes into the house. Vialle smiles as Jenna leaves. When she is gone, Vialle indicates the chair Jenna was sitting in. "I know you are more comfortable standing, but you are welcome to sit."
"Thanks." He pauses for a bare second, then glides over to the chair and sits gingerly on the edge. He studies her for a moment before venturing anything else. "We may not speak of much that is noteworthy. I am simply in the habit of caution," he finally begins. "But I wished to know... why." His tone is calm, but obviously curious.
Vialle's head drops, her chin touching her chest. She gives a small sad shake before she lifts her head again. "My mother didn't approve of Brand, still doesn't. When the accident happened, it just served to confirm her worries for her little girl. When we told her we were in love and pregnant, she nearly went insane. She declared if Brand showed himself in Rebma again, she would have him executed. Before he left she told him that he would be responsible for you when you were born."
Jenna and Vialle both head around back of the house with Shamus. Onyx watches them go and once they are out of sight, she turns to Lladd.
Lladdwyr watches them disappear with an abstracted expression, but his attention sharpens as he looks back over to Onyx. "Don't trust Brand," he begins bluntly. "I gather you have a different understanding about him from your mother. Apparently Vialle does, too. But that was before he fell in the Abyss, and other things I don't know much about. Anyway, tread cautiously with him. With everyone in the Family, for that matter." He pulls up a sleeve to reveal some cream-colored beads on a bracelet, of the same size as a long beaded necklace he wears. The beads on the necklace, however, are swirled crimson and amber.
"Thanks for the advice, but I've always been able to take care of myself in the past," Onyx responds matter-of-factly. As he reveals the bracelet, Onyx looks at it, "That's a nice bracelet," she says approvingly, then looks back up into Lladd eyes waiting for him to explain or to continue.
He unclasps the bracelet, pulling it off while answering absently, "Thank you." He looks back up then, holding the beads cupped in his hand. "It's just a friendly warning. I've no doubt you're very self-sufficient, but the Family is unlike the shadow folk you've encountered in the past." He shrugs. "But as for the bracelet... I'd like to stay in touch with you after I leave. One of these beads may allow us to communicate, if that is something you would allow."
Onyx nods, then grins, "There is very little I woudn't allow." More seriously, "How do they work?"
Lladd seems torn between an answering grin, or a worried frown at her first remark. "That's my point, actually. But besides that, we both need to donate some blood." He slides two beads off of the bracelet and hands them to Onyx, and reclaspes it around his wrist with practiced ease. Then he produces a tiny knife.
Kneeling on the wooden floor, he pulls his other sleeve up, and now Onyx can see the inside of his lower left arm is scored by thin white scars - too many to count quickly. Without a pause, he slices his left arm, and blood wells out of the shallow cut. He looks up at Onyx. "The beads, please."
At the mention of needing blood, Onyx seems skeptical and suspicious, but then she seems to understand that the blood is needed to make the connection with the beads, and hands him back the beads waiting her turn. He accepts the beads, touching them both to the cut on his arm. "Would you like to cut yourself, or should I?" he inquires then, his blood soaking into the beads.
"I'll cut myself." she pauses before asking, "The blood just activates the beads for a connection, correct, Nothing else?"
He frowns a little, puzzled but thoughtful. "Yes, the blood mingled in the bead activates the connection. As for anything else... I can't guarantee," he admits. "I've never done this with someone who is still alive."
"Oh ha, ha," Onyx says sarcastically, but with a grin.