"There had to be a better way. I am not extremely fond of being fucking manipulated," Dolly's voice was equally as grim; she had not yet put that thought into the world. She had not really let herself think she had been manipulated - but she had and it bothered her. It made her feel like so much of her interactions with Dazmond had become a lie. There was one thing Landis was right about, Dolly wanted to know who she could trust. She wanted to go back to the point in her life when those lines had been clearly drawn; she needed to know - and it seemed that the more she needed it the more she was reminded that she couldn't trust anyone. Not being able to trust Darian should have been a given (the slick ease of his charm alone should have been forewarning) but not being able to trust Dazmond, to trust that they were safe... she shook her head and poured another shot.

She felt mildly assured about Juliette - and wondered if perhaps Landis wasn't right and it really had been best to break things off with Juliette. She was safe for the foreseeable future now; but she also knew that a hothead like Vaillancourt would not be put off for long from what she wanted. Whatever Landis had himself convinced of, Dolly knew the Potions Professor was not done with him yet. Of course however wrong he was about his own love life; he wasn't wrong about this all resting on Dazmond's ability to give Malvivicus exactly what he wanted. Her ability to do all of that depended greatly on how high the orders piled; Daz was good but if the madman had unreasonable expectations... her brain visited a million scenarios as to how all of this could play out, none of them ended happily.

"Someone has to tell them, warn them - they can't be caught blindsided by this," she pressed her lips together and thought of owling Dom. She did not want to invite him back into he life but that is how he would see her concern for his family. She couldn't trust Dazmond to do it; yet she could not betray the other woman's trust enough to run and tattle on her either. Rubbing her forehead she rested her elbow against her knee and tried to quell the desire to just kidnap Livi and hide her somewhere her own damn self. Collateral damage was not acceptable to Dolly, she did not have the disconnect that Landis' dispassionate nature afforded him. Love was not something that she could dole out in varying degrees anymore; not when it came to keeping people safe. Looking at him carefully, trying to keep the strain from her voice, "Landis... just look after Liv, alright? She doesn't need to know; but we both know that school isn't some kind of bloody safehouse".

Was it wrong that she inherently lacked faith in her best friend's ability to keep it together under pressure? If someone had asked Dolly that before the stunt on her birthday she would have said yes. Now she felt she was just covering all her bases because Dazmond had proved herself untrustworthy. She only let enough information be known to serve her purposes. Dolly tried not to call into question everything the other witch had ever told her, ever shared with her, but it was impossible not to now. To some degree in Dolly's mind Dazmond had become an enemy in her own life. It was, perhaps, not a fair assessment...but life wasn't fair - and it felt as though they were preparing for all out war.

Landis shrugged. He was no happier with Dazmond's decision than Dolly was; for a while, he had felt... betrayed. But right now, spurred by either his company, his exhaustion, or time, all he really felt was a resigned sort of acceptance. Manipulation was just a tool. There was nothing personal in it. And this was repayment, of a karmic kind - Landis had still not told Dazmond about his involvement with Cinaed and the WBA, an engagement which had been ongoing for over a year, although since she'd seen him in Cinaed's company a few times now she might have guessed. It was only to be expected that she'd hide things from him, too. It was just the surprise that'd gutted him - he was known to be a liar, all locked up in himself. But Dazmond was supposed to be different, she was the one who held all the brightness he did not. She was the direct one, which he'd mistakenly believed made her the truthful one too. He never forgot she was cunning, but her easy affection, her easy warmth, made her so effortless to trust.

Oh, well. One lived, one learned. Perhaps later he would care again, but right now the more Dolly pressed it the more he wanted her to let it drop. I know, I know. He'd taken Dazmond off his mental checklist too, his circle of trust dwindling. It was very small now, this list. He couldn't trust anyone. Except, bizarrely, Dolly.

"The important ones were there that night," he said. "They're the only ones who should know. I doubt she's told them any more than she has you or I; if you want to warn them, that's fine." He watched Dolly drink, contemplated another one himself. No, not yet. She'd drawn back from the personal questions, and that made it easy to stay sober. "Thank Merlin I was there, or we'd all be left in the dark."

"Landis... just look after Liv, alright? She doesn't need to know; but we both know that school isn't some kind of bloody safehouse".

"Sure," he said blandly. It was a bizarre request. If he hadn't been able to protect Dazmond, what in the world did Dolly think he could do for Liviana? "I'll keep an eye on her." Or rather, he'd add her to the list of people he was supposedly looking out for. Livi would be fine at Hogwarts, whatever Dolly feared; far safer there than at home if Landis thought Kronos really would come looking, far safer than visiting her big sister. But he didn't think so, not really; it was exactly as he'd told Dolly, and that was what he believed. As long as Dazmond kept up with the man's demands, her family would be safe. Likewise with Landis, to a different degree. It would take threatening to wipe out the Morgan name to make him stay in line, not the culling of individual members of his family; he didn't care much for any of them. But Kronos was paying him very nicely for this farce, which Landis rather begrudgingly liked.

Again he watched Dolly, again he analyzed the hard line of her mouth and her poorly-concealed unease. This situation upset her, both the threat from Malvivicus and the betrayal from Dazmond. He was sorry to have burdened her further, but unrepentant of his need to have a partner in this mess. They would do that for one another - theirs was a relationship more necessary in times of trouble than in times of peace - and although both of them were surely thinking about their third usual mate, neither, currently, spoke.

It would have been easier if he could dismiss Dazmond, if he could call her a bitch and be done with it like Dolly. But that was not how his crooked heart worked, just as Dolly too in the end would forgive her. Resentment for this, some bitterness too, but he could never really dislike her. He knew why she'd done this and he knew what she feared; he understood her reasons, her motives, and why she wasn't answering his letters. He might not like what her reasons had led her to do, but he couldn't condemn her. In the end, he knew her too well to hate.

It was  all so much, that was the problem. So much had happened in such a short time, she had yet to really get her bearings. There was a war within herself, with the code of honor that she had lived by (though few believed she had one at all). It was like trying to explain her views on love or how she could hold on so hard to the memory of Dominik that it had made it all too possible to wait all these years for him to come to his senses. She was being forced to learn now she was the only one still bound to this code. It had been such a part of their life, such a part of their world...but hadn't she felt the falseness of it all the very night Dazmond was stolen from them? They had all laughed and joked, drank heavy spirits and made wagers of expense and hilarity...but it wasn't real.

None of the things she had loved seemed real anymore; and the person she had always confided in she no longer trusted. Landis would think her a sentimental food - and maybe she was. There was no thought after that; just that maybe she really was a sentimental fool who couldn't let go of the glory days (even if some would argue that she'd done far and wide more for herself since they were an unstoppable trio), Looking at him through drink heavy eyes she couldn't keep herself from inspecting him like a drunk would. There were so many things she wanted to say; felt she needed to say... but they weren't those people to one another anymore. They never really had been...unless he picked her up while she was falling down drunk. There had always been such urgency and anger then. Now there was this, this tolerating one another because no one else would understand.

Covering her face with one hand she just shook her head; "Just don't get yourself killed alright? I've been to enough bloody funerals in the last year, I really do not need to add your name to the list," it was as close as they would get to some sentimentality. He wouldn't allow for more than that - just as he hadn't when she nearly died. She wasn't even sure if he'd have been sorry if the attacks had done her in. No, that wasn't fair... they were bound to one another in a bigger way that all that. He just didn't feel things the way she did. He'd have seen it as a wasted life, and he wouldn't have been wrong - that was the troubling thing. Dolly thrived on Landis being wrong and he hardly ever was. The snarky bastard.