she stares at the coffee cup that’s been handed to her. the crows own cafe pietra, and she knows lucanis wouldn’t slip anything into her drink (if only because teia would kill him), but there is still a whisper in her mind that it might be poisoned. it could be her last drink. ferona knows how easy it is, how quickly someone can pour a powder or vial into a drink when someone isn’t looking, and she did not see this drink be prepared.
she also didn’t bring alessio, for whatever reason, and she regrets it as the nausea in her stomach rears its head. the thought of drinking makes her sick. but she trusts lucanis. and lucanis would understand if she…
“will you.. take a sip? please?” her cup is gently pushed towards her fellow crow. it is a huge show of trust on cantori’s end. only alessio is usually allowed to touch her food before her. “humor me, please?”
When all you know is death, it becomes easy to see its shadow everywhere.
One did not survive as Crow without learning how to best sink a knife in a target for a quick death, how to cut to make it painful, how to make strangling look like an accident. Throughout the years, one would get intimate with myriad ways of killing — myriad ways of dying. They were not invulnerable; and what one Crow knew likely was known by many others, who could easily turn those lessons against a colleague.
It is natural, perhaps, that they all grow a bit… mistrustful. It manifests differently, his discomfort with too-open spaces one example of many. One had to fear the unseen shadows not to be caught unaware.
Poison is, admittedly, not his greatest concern. Lucanis knows Master Poisoners such as Viago to be able to deal lethal doses unnoticed, easily making death seem accidental or natural. He knows one of the Fifth Talon's caliber to have a vial for every occasion and to hold in his hands the choice of an easy or painful death without ever having to wield a blade.
No Master Poisoner himself, Lucanis nevertheless knows the basics, having made use of poison on occasion. Careful though he may be with most of his meals, however, the risk of poisoning is hardly ever considered unless the environment gives itself to it. Somewhere safe, like Café Pietra, in the company of someone as trusted as Rook, poison could not be further from his mind.
Not until Ferona pushes her cup towards him.
He knew, of course, Alessio would test her meals with a diligence he seemed to have inherited from the head of his House; yet Lucanis had not considered her fear making itself manifest here, not when his fellow assassin had so readily agreed to come with him. Oversight, perhaps. Not something that cannot be corrected, hopefully.
"Of course," Trusting, again, to easily agree to be her tester in more practical a manner than vials and alchemical components. But he trusts her. There are not many people Lucanis can say that about with conviction, yet he does not doubt Ferona in the slightest.
Another may condemn her behavior as odd, but there is no sign of reproach in his answer. Cup picked up, he brings it to his lips and takes a sip as requested. It is a few moments before he pushes the cup closer to Ferona again, brown eyes warm as they seek her gaze. "I hope this helps put your mind at ease."