Mama, I just killed a man

He firmly stated that no, the woman was not important to him, and she nodded solemnly in return. In many respects that would make this mess far easier to clean up. "She will remain in Yfir as a thrall then, " she told him. "And if she is pregnant, you have options." She paused to consider how in depth they had time to get into Finnvi mating and birthing tradition, and decided the answer was 'not very'. "The pups are not Finnvi unless you choose to claim them as your own. They are her children," she indicated the unconscious female, "unless you acknowledge them in the eyes of the gods. If you choose to raise them as yours -and I must caution you to remember in this decision that they may not be - they will be taken from her, all her claim to them refused, and raised as Finnvi and as part of Yfir. If you choose not to acknowledge them all claim to Finnvi bame and blood will be denied them and they will remain with their mother as thralls, as all children of thralls are themselves thralls."

Her voice was calm and unemotional, as though she were making an observation about an errant branch rather than a hypothetical litter of pups whose fate rested in the untried paws of her cousin's son. It was little matter to her one way or the other - as a matter of practicality it did not matter if they were Finnvi by blood or not unless they were claimed that way in the eyes of the gods, which made Jaeger's folly all the more infuriating concerning his own children.