Many of the newcomers within earshot raise a cheer and begin their chanting again, thrusting their hands into the air in vigorous accompaniment to their words. Greek, probably. Viola thinks she hears a conjugation of the verb "to cook or cause to glow", but she cannot parse it.
The brother talking to her, however, is not amused. Viola gets the distinct impression that this is not because he is smarter or more cautious than his fellows.
"Whazzat? Why you use that?" he gestures at the enchanted quill.
Viola narrows her eyes, giving just a bit of evidence at her annoyance, and then employs the quill again. "I don't talk very well without the tablet--they say it's the fae in me. You want to understand me, don't you?"
[We can shift out of line-by-line dialogue if you'd prefer.]
You can actually watch these words filter into his head, like watching an arrowhead sink to the bottom of a pool of molasses.
Over his shoulder, Viola can see that his brothers are helping with the spit, joining the drum circle, trading stories of grand adventure, and bemoaning the lack of women at the party. She's pretty sure a dozen of the Dewdrop faeries are dancing a harvest dance atop the carcass of the horse, covering it in faerie dust. Her mind has time to wander down several tangents before he speaks.
He shrugs disinterestedly. "Haven't seen him in a long while. When dad found him in bed with Mom, he took the river with him and left. Ma went a bit crazy after that and started killing people, so we locked her in the temple. The tribes around here, they don't even remember us, let alone revere us. It's all Allah This, and Jesus That. We're just trying to scrape by, these days."
[OOC: While that dangling pronoun is driving me nuts, it is sadly quite in character and must remain.]
He shrugs noncommittally. "Not as much as we used to. Folks round here, been worshiping the other guys lately. Not much to do with all this monotheism running around, and the rivers drying up. We mostly tend to the streams and creek-beds we live in, such as we can. And keep Ma from killin' folk."
Viola responds, evenly, "We're moving in here. I can't promise you worshippers, but I can promise there won't be a church in the city, and we do throw good parties--assuming your Ma stays peaceful, of course."
"Oh, no need to worry about Ma. We've got her locked up in one of the upper levels of the temple," he says, nodding in the direction of the building which, even when it still had a roof, was only a single story.
Viola nods, obviously understanding his meaning. She then ventures, "Do you think I might be able to look at some of the rest of the temple? I would be very interested to see it."
]