Intending to go scampering to your father's skirts, are you? [ His voice strains with barely restrained laughter just before it boils over, the sound of it harsh and cruel as it fills the air. His hand comes down in the gap between them, claws spread wide as the flat of his palm bears down on the space just above Eridanus' rapidly beating heart. ] Let me tell you something, little boy: I've killed ten-thousand men whose fathers could crush yours as though he were an ant.

[ He can't help the way his face leans near, or the way its lips split in a too-wide grin. Plump lips pull thin as they bear the needle teeth that line his gums. If there had been any thought of treating this kittenish boy kindly, it has left him wholly now; what remains is something only so comforting as affection. ]

Still, let me save you some time. [ Lucius draws back again, even as his hand remains. ] No matter what you try, your father will be nowhere to be found. You're in a land of man-eating monsters — and what luck! You've been delivered right into my den.