so you can throw me to the wolves

Cypress had to say her olives weren't the best things in the world, but they weren't as bad as they could have been considering their age. She finished half a can before the salt and mushy texture became too much for her, and she tossed away her can in the same bin Thoth had tossed his into. By then Danny was asking what they were looking for, and where, and Thoth was replying. Cypress studied his face with concern. He genuinely looked like he didn't care; about this place, about the stuff in it. But wasn't it all left for him by his mother? Wasn't there a part of him, somewhere, underneath the bluster, that did care even just a bit? Catching Danny's warning look, and Thoth's own firm expression, Cypress pressed her lips into a tight line and nodded.

"Okay," she said, just a bit reluctantly, and the three set out for upstairs.

She hadn't expected to find something she wanted so badly within seconds. The three split up, with Danny going to a bedroom on the left, Thoth to the one on their left, and Cypress into the middle. A dog statue, small enough to fit into the palm of one's hand, stood out on the bookshelf that made up the far end of the room she'd selected. Peeking over her shoulder, she carefully pulled it down from the shelf to flip it over in her hands. It was a greyhound, a species of dog she'd only heard of in books but was unique enough to be recognized easily. It was sleek, made of some black material like obsidian, and finely crafted. It probably wasn't worth much, but...

She hesitated. Thoth had said they could take whatever they want, but it felt wrong to just slip it in her pocket, especially since she had no intention of selling it but wanted to keep it as a souvenir from her first trip to Earth. She turned back toward the entrance and yelped, clutching the statue to her chest as she stumbled backwards.

Qarinah stood in the doorway, an uncharacteristically reproachful look on her normally blank face. Unlike Danny and Thoth, who were high enough level to be separated from their familiars as-needed, even over vast distances such as this, Cypress was only level three. Of course Qarinah had to come along; she'd probably have been lurking in the shadows after them this entire time. But... Cypress hadn't noticed. She hadn't felt it - maybe because there was still a part of her that didn't really want Qarinah at all. Would she ever stop grieving for Useless?

"You alright?" Danny called worriedly from his room.

"F-fine," she said, eying the jackal as she tried to force her heartbeat back to its normal pace. "Thoth, there's lots of books in here..."

With a quick, muttered apology to the house, she strode to the opposite side of the room and, leaving the dog statue to stand sentry on the top of the desk, shuffled through a few drawer. Finding mostly paperwork, notes, and writing materials, Cypress began to wonder whose room it was that she was going through. Qarinah entered the room fully, moving silently and gracefully to a patch of shadow on the far end of the room, just at the far corner of Cypress' vision.

Cypress;