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Despite the teasing, he didn't expect his sibling to be much help beyond an extra pair of eyes or hands. She had a brain in that head, despite what their Mother maintained, and picked up on things quickly enough. She would make the day's tasks more interesting. None of that was the point, though. The point, as things stood, was to get sister and stepmother moth out of each other's hair for a day, give them breathing room. Absence might not make the heart grow fonder, but it did give time for heads(and feet) to cool.

"...Yup, your day off's still gonna pack your head full. Don't worry, I won't overload ya too far." A quick squeeze with that one arm, and Viltre let the dancer go. "Hey, I did warn ya my job's not that exciting. Did'ja think I was jokin'? I scribble over a desk all day. Sometimes I'll do an illumination and hide dirty pictures in it." Hopping nimbly up on the counter, he snagged a seat right next to hipsore Niiemh. Those welts didn't look too bad. A little more of the ointment and they would heal up fine...

It was with stately gravity he replied. "I draw them, sister mine, I draw them. And they're hidden, in margins and the illuminations. You don't see 'em unless you know what you're looking for. Or else they're part of another drawing. Then you can say," here, the voice rose to a falsetto, and his hands pressed to cheeks, "'Oh goodness gracious me, what a terrible mistake! I would never have guessed that those lines made that sort of picture!' ...But that's if anyone ever bothers to mention it." And they won't, probably."

Viltre's reddish head shook sadly. "It's a dying art, what with the printing press going around. Oh well." Breath drawing right back into him, he looked sideways to his countermate. "I'd take my lumps, an' do a better job next time. See where I went wrong and remember it. Whole idea's to make people laugh, not get anyone hurt. Lot like your dancin', come down to it. These pranks don't just come off the top of my head, y'know."

"But I am innocent, sister dear! Have you ever seen someone as blameless as me?" If anything, that first sentence was a lie should have burned his lips on the way out. Viltre clasped his hands together, holding them as low as possible and looking winsomely her way. He even fluttered long eyelashes, just to overplay it. Sometimes it was a wonder his eyes didn't turn brown, for how full of it he was. And that was just how he liked it.

He had no doubt that she would live up to her word, should she learn of any punishment. Her elder brother still remembered the times that Niiemh took the rod in place of her twin. Too late to do much about it now. If that sort of thing grows worse, I may need to take steps. Still, she was an excellent peacemaker. He wondered sometimes if Merle weren't wasting her talents in that regard out of spite. "I'll consider it. But if I screw up, I've gotta learn my lesson. I'm a big boy now, sis, honest!" Bull aside, he slipped down to his feet and offered a slim, lightly callused hand. "We should get you walkin', stretch those legs a little now that the ointment's had time to work. Gotta arrange you a bath anyway."

"Oh come now, there's no need for that. Mother is bursting with just enough love for her own children and Papa. And then she ran out of room." That last comment was enough to twist his mask all the way from feigned innocence to dismay. The shudder that followed was more genuine than most of Viltre's emotional showings. "...No. No, let's keep you away from the financial books. You've a steady hand, an' you're good with words. But I've seen some of the answers you get when you try fractions and imaginaries." Niiemh had many talents, some of which her teachers ignored, but higher arithmetic was not one of them.

"Cynicism is discouraging. (Useful, you should keep it), but discouraging. I'm not polishing you for anything at all, sister mine. Mostly I wanna make sure you get to eat dinner tonight and walk tomorrow." The smile returned, far less quiet mockery in it. Inside or out, seeing his siblings well did the tall scribe good.