This idea doesn't matter because Belmarniss isn't going to give him as a present to her little sister.  "Okay."  (Is she even old en - doesn't matter.)

"Soup, probably," she elaborates. And then she nods to herself and skips off.

Wait what.

Oh, it's a joke about eating him instead of a joke about - getting physical - with him.  And it's probably just a joke and even if it wasn't, Belmarniss is not going to kill him unless he wants her to and he probably won't.

He - goes out to the kitchen to read, even though there's a bit of light left.

Yin is carrying in buckets of water. Via is carrying out buckets of nightsoil. Something's simmering low and slow on the coals and he can with some effort read by it.

Given his other options, it's definitely worth the effort.

Sovi skips out on some errand about half an hour later but ignores him completely in the process.

Thank God.  Anything notable about the book besides the reverse sexism?

It's a comedy of manners! The manners are pretty hard to divine from the book alone.

He would resolve to ask Belmarniss about this, but in a lot of cases it's hard to tell where the joke is even supposed to be.  He supposes he doesn't really need to know.  The prose is nice, though; it's a fine way to pass the... whatever amount of time.

Whatever amount of time later she is home again.

He will follow her to her room if she lights the way.  (If she doesn't it probably means she doesn't want him to.)

She makes the cover of the book glow for him once she walks into the room. He can follow her.

Nice.

"Someone who I think was your sister came in here to talk at me earlier."

"Was she very obnoxious?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Then yeah, that was probably my sister."

"I can handle people being obnoxious," (even if he hates it) "but - is it dangerous if I say or do something wrong?"

"She doesn't abuse the halflings any worse than, like - taking out things they've already put away ten times in a row. The real risk is that she'll learn something and tell someone since you're more interesting than I'm letting on."

"I said it wasn't my place to tell what you bet to get me."

"Then I guess she'll come bother me about it but I can talk fast." Sigh. "I'm sorry about her."

"I know you can't really do anything about it.  Do I have to call you guys anything special in front of her?  And I guess your mom or the halflings?"

"You can just call me Belmarniss or Niss, if you do that I'm obviously letting you. She'd be Miss Soviaula and Rynaeri'd be ma'am, the halflings you can just use their names."

"Which do you prefer?  For yourself."

"I like 'Niss'. It means 'limitless' by itself. All together it's just 'bottomless pit'."