One thing that Siv did not do, for she was wise in these ways, was underestimate anyone. Power need not be physical, need not be savage and vocal to be present. The smallest snake could kill a horse with venom, and so too were people like this. She might have thought Odessa, who was slight of frame and shy in her body language, was weak for such things. Yet those eyes…oh they were quite terrible in their own way, perhaps in such fires as the girl herself did not know. She had potential within her, and Siv doubted that Salsola, as she knew it, would allow such a thing to be wasted.
It had been part of her decision to stay, after all. If Salsola would produce children like Eris’, well trained and ferocious in spirit and body, then her own daughter would become mighty. Nurture was as much a part of the final outcome as was the heredity and the nature of a beast. Magic, too, played a part. She had denied this for so long yet now understood that even doubt was a test of faith. The witch had been rewarded with more than simply a title she had long held upon that long, terrible night.
The dark woman watched her smaller companion quietly, assessing her as one might an untested horse. She finally smiled. “I have never hunted seal,” she admitted, unashamed of such a fact. In the north, the waterways had been rivers only. “And I do not wish to damage their pelts. I may be able to break the spine,” she glanced to the fat babies, eyes narrowing. “Do you think you can hold them still? They don’t look as if they’d put up much fight, but it will be easier for me this way.” And less cruel, ultimately. If she managed to make a clean break by snapping the neck there would be no pain, only a sharp and sudden blackness. Additionally (and more importantly) the pelt would be fully intact for her to do as she pleased.
<style type="text/css">
#sivtext { min-width:500px; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; }
#sivtext p { text-indent:0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-peft:0px; }
#sivtext .ooc { float:right; text-align:right; font-style: italic; }
</style>
[/html]