Nothing ordinary about that, you know. [Cruelty— cruelty, yes, in this world, cruelty is ordinary regardless of whether it stands at the heels of higher echelons, or whether it's spat from the mouth of a spoiled noble— but the sort of dehumanizing wickedness that Fenris spoke of just before? No. That's a shade of malice that goes well beyond social ruin or trite dismissal.

Fenris tips his head. Astarion shakes his own, albeit both run gently in their course.]

You can't truly think Violet would starve you— beat you— had she the chance. She's a bloody bitch, I'll grant you, but....

[But leaves room for pause. For doubt. It's the moment he says but that he remembers the glint of a raised glass half-forgotten, and the coldness in her eyes.

Yet that was the squabbling of siblings, was it not?]