Coax would be lying if she asked him if he was nervous and he said "no". The fact that they knew each other had nothing to do with his nervousness,
it was his temper that he was nervous about. She had been annoying in his youth, and he still had that impression of her, and still did not like her, but his family was indebted to hers, and while that had to do specifically with their fathers, there had been some sort of unspoken deal that Till had with Lokr. Coax didn't even know if the Revlis clan knew of such dealings. Coax only knew what his father told him, and that was their position in regards to the royal family. She probably knew this nervousness by looking at him though. Coax was not all too good at hiding everything. He was not as good as his father. He doubted he would ever be that good.

Once she had pointed to a chair that he could sit in, but found that it was just a small stool. Coax could not say he wasn't disappointed. It was barren in there, and he felt almost as if she was left with nothing, even though he knew that this would not be the case. Lokr had too many things that Coax knew that he would not be able to ship out. She had to have destroyed it, or something of the sort. Coax did not ask, he knew better than to bring up the Pentiti more than he needed to in front of the woman.

He nervously tapped one of his feet a few times before he put his hand from his satchel to his knee, trying to stop his leg from bouncing up and down in such a nervous manner. She did not need to know how much he needed to convince himself to actually come to her, in almost the dead of night. He could have picked a better time, but Coax was not known to meet the leaders at all, much less at appropriate times during the day. This also had been the only time that he for sure knew that she would be in the Throne Room, and he needed the privacy that this room provided.

She told him that she knew of no deal. That was a good way to get out of any deal made by the Pentiti. He wondered if she wanted the Ulrichs to serve her in faith, where they would be bound by loyalty, to where in such cases of treason that the Ulrichs could not attack them, they would not. Coax thought carefully of a way to phrase this. He did not want to get his father in trouble for any contact that he may or may not have had with the Pentiti after the sentence had been carried out. She stared at him, and his large ears tilted back lightly on a crown of pale autumn hair. He turned his gaze away once more from her, for now her stare had become slightly intense, more so than it had been in the past. Coaxoch wondered what exactly changed in the girl. Power should not have given her such a cold stare, and he wondered who hurt her to make her gaze so...bloody...

"You cannot say you did not notice the frequency of our father's meetings." he mentioned to her, knowing that she had to have noticed that their father's had been somewhat more comfortable with each other than others could admit for their relationship with Lokr. "I dunno. Once I knew there was something else, it all made sense." he spoke with a shrug of both of his shoulders.

It was no less than a second passing before he felt a firm hand on his shoulder. His ears shot back up and he felt his spine shiver. She guessed what he had been talking about. He nodded lightly to her, almost blindly as his eyes met hers once more and he felt entranced. He shook his head suddenly and put his hand to his forehead and then to rub at his eye. He cleared his throat.

"I do mean the oath. You are right." he spoke, nodding his head once more as he looked at her ears, her hair, anything to keep his eyes out of hers. He did not want to deal with her venomous glare once more. "I worry that with him called Pentiti, you would not honor these oaths as the Ulrichs will, plan to, forever and always. My father served as a Confidante, a Warrior, a Merchant. Your father was a teacher. He gave my family riches. You know what Till is. A Bastard." he told her plainly, for this was what she wanted, right? "Our Fathers were close, and an oath to your family is something that is important, and it is something that I would like to continue. I believe that the Ulrichs can and will still be a valuable asset to Revlis. As Confidantes, as Warriors, as whatever you want us to be to you, Elphaba." he spoke to her as he took the satchel and passed it off to her. It carried what little riches he had - jewels, and gold - along with a fat leg of boar that was wrapped to keep any juices from getting on the gold.

He could feel her sharp gaze studying him relentlessly. Coax knew better than to meet her gaze, and he knew better than to challenge her staring at him. He could only writhe under her gaze like the plebeian he was. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he was, for he still had not earned a rank within the Family that was higher than that. He was still lower than most of his peers, and while he had served in battle more than once, he knew that not all of it had to do with that. He knew his rank had to do with his arm and the lack thereof. He and his family were still looked at with scrutiny because of a curse that seemed to linger over the household. Coaxoch wondered if this all had to do with the Pentiti. Maybe that was the reason their luck had been so bad over the last year.

Maybe the Gods had been punishing them for keeping their loyalties in the wrong place. This was not all Coax's fault though, nor could it have been Till's for it had only been natural for the Bastard to swear fealty to the Pentiti. They were practically father and son. The Pentiti was the closest thing that the Bastard would ever see as a father, and Coax understood this in a way. Even now, Coax had been doing this deal, this oath for the safety of his House and specifically his Father. He was doing this for Till mostly, even if it had to do with him being indebted to the Heirophant.

Summersky eyes turned and watched her stiffen with authority, and his tall copper ears again fell back lightly on his head. She spoke, and he listened closely.
She claimed that Lokr Revlis was dead, and all deals and oaths were nullified because of this. Coax nodded his head lightly as he met eyes with her now, showing that he understood what she was saying and that she had his full attention.

Her next words made his ears shoot back up, for she had addressed him directly. With these words, he knew what he had to do.

Her touch had been unwarranted, and he flinched slightly at it, but as if it was a natural reaction, he pressed his face within her hand and his summersky eyes disappeared under the clouds of dusk as he closed his eyes and relished in the false affection. He knew that they still did not like each other, and it would probably be some time until they actually were friends. Coax did not know if they would ever be as close as their father's were, and he actually doubted it slightly, but only time could tell.

She ordered him to bend the knee. He opened his eyes and turn them to her and again he found himself nodding lightly. He slid from his seat onto one knee, and took her hand within his own. He kissed her hand before bowing deeply. With that, he spoke these words:

"I, Coaxoch of Die Ulrich Klan,
Swear fealty to Elphaba of House Revlis
To serve her and her House til the end of my days,
To stand by her side in the Darkest of Nights, The Brightest of Days.
May the Gods strike me and my down, Should we prove unworthy.
May Her Hand Be Quick in Judgement, Should I Fail
May My Own be Swift to Protect Her and hers.
May We Both Know Riches and Peace in Our Union, Always,
So Help Me Gods, I Swear this Oath to Elphaba Of House Revlis."

His words were confident, the most confident that he had been all night, and once he had finished speaking this to her, he looked back up at her with determination thick in his gaze. He would not fail her, may the gods see to it themselves to strike him down, should he do exactly that.

Coax had been compliant when he needed to be. He was a gentleman when he needed to be, and above all, he was respectful and tough. He knew how to be gentle when he needed to be, and he knew when to have a spine. The ridicule that he had gotten from his arm being missing had made him into a complicated individual, one that could be such a sad soul, yet one who knew how to be happy on the other hand. He knew how to fight for his family, and when the be submissive and courteous. He knew all of these things because Till had taught him most of what the male knew, and this was what he owed to his father. He owed him the resilience that he had given to Coax, while the expense of this meant that he would crumble from the inside with every tragedy that came his way.

Coax would stand by his father the entire way, but he also knew that things would begin to fall on his shoulders, should Till's shoulders fail to carry the weight of the Ulrich name in times to come. This - in its entirety- had probably been why Elphaba was keen on making this deal with him, this oath. Coax would still not be so keen on reporting to the Hierophant on normal days, for Coax liked his alone time, but he knew that this was necessary for not only his father, but also his brothers and sisters. As long as one of the Ulrichs were to swear the fealty, they would all be safe until it came to be their time to choose their paths in life.

He knew not of Calla and Helena's intention with the head of the Ulrich household, if they were only holding onto him to make their own families larger, to continue their blood or if they loved him, but Coax had to trust that they had Till's best intentions in mind. He hoped that they did, else he would have to step up and protect his father from the witches' spells and cast them down as snakes.

She accepted his oath as truth, and he smiled lightly at the matter as her hands hovered over his forehead to mark them as truth. He felt a great weight fall from his shoulders like a shell that finally fell from his aching back. He kissed her hand once more in blessing and then gently guided it to her thigh. He took notice to her kimono's slither from her shoulder, and wondered if she had noticed. " Familia Fortis Elegit." he chanted in reply to her before he found himself getting to his feet once more, and taking a seat back down in the stool.

She shifted through the satchel then, her long claws tinkering against the jewels and gold that she seemingly ignored as she found her hands grab at the roast. His head cocked lightly, and he truly watched her now and milked her presence for what it was. With his nerves calmed, her powerful glares seemed less threatening, and more or less natural. She swore her protection of him, as he had done to her, and this in itself made him feel a false sense of security.

"I hope you will not regret your decision to have me bend the knee to your clan once more, Elphaba Revlis. I will do everything in my power to not make regret fall on your shoulders." he told her, calling her by her full name, for sometimes he felt this was more respectful than calling her by her rank,
for this had been almost as if stripping her name from her.

When she asked if he had hunted the boar himself, he nodded sharply, and just then it really looked like he was a coyote because of the angles in his face as he turned to her and looked down at the leg that she partially unwrapped.

"I almost exclusively hunt by myself. I do not live with Till anymore, for as you know, The Old Wall is getting to be crowded. I moved out to the Springhill cemetary within the Blackwoods...I find it more peaceful there, and quiet...It also keeps the children out of my potions. " he told her, not knowing if she had known that he did not live in the same chambers as his father and hadn't for some time now. I did a lot of training with Dullahan, as you know. He taught me how to fight and hunt with a spear and sword. he told her, reminding her that he had been skilled, albeit young.

Coaxoch did not actively seek her approval like a dog to it's human, but part of him was curious to know if she had been at least remotely surprised about his independence from his family. Her face did not tell him much, only peering back at him with those bright, bloody eyes that shown like rubies against a face that had been as pale as his own. Sometimes, this marking upon her face had reminded him of his family, of himself, his father and Dirge, for they all had these pale masks that were almost untouched by other colors. These pale colors also mostly surrounded their eyes and maw, much like Elphaba's own. It was strange, to think that these markings were common enough to be found in bloodlines that were largely unrelated. Coaxoch did not know of how new the House of Revlis was, nor did he know that he and Elphaba would be distant cousins of sorts, should the Lykoi name had been kept by Lokr's father.

When her ears perked at his mention of potions, he too flicked his ears and took a deep breath as if he had been holding it for so long. She asked what kind of potions he was brewing in the depths of the Blackwoods, and he looked at her with a proud smile passing his maw. "So far I have been infusing some wines with hallucinogenic mushrooms. I finally found a brew that didn't taste like cat poop so since I finished that, I have been working on some poisonous potions...." he told her, knowing that it would still be interesting for her, for her kind loved to poison their enemies, and if there was anything that was valuable, it would be a poison that acted under the guise of a sweet and tasty wine, able to choke it's victims within minutes of ingestion. "I don't like testing it on canines, because a lot of the poisons would result in death, so I use rats and raccoons mostly. " he told her as a tidbit, a cover up to show that he was uninterested in poisoning any of The Family. "Anyway, I was hoping that my brews would help to help the coven someday, maybe it could be something like Loki's brews, though..maybe a bit tastier on that part." he spoke with a laugh as he mentioned the Crone's earthy brews. Coax had tried it once or twice, and this had been what had inspired him to start making potions and brews.

"I would have brought some of the wine with me if I thought you would have liked it. I did not see you try it at the Last Supper prior, so I was unsure if you liked it or not. " he told her, motioning at her gifts that he brought to her. He nodded to the boar leg though, and smiled still. "I hope you enjoy the meat though. Boar is pretty tough to take down with one arm." he spoke, chuckling softly at his mention of it being hard to get his 'hands' on a boar.
He'd been pretty lucky with that one, this was certain. He'd been more accustomed to hunting raccoons and smaller animals that bigger ones often gave him trouble, but he had been proud to be able to be blessed by the Red God enough to get a lovely gift for his lovely Heirophant.