Tiberius had started to move towards the stairs even before Antigone responded; he had never been much for small talk. Antigone knew she didn't really have a choice. Even if she'd come up with some excuse to delay, it would only have been for a few minutes, and what was a few minutes, compared to the rest of her life? There wasn't any option to undo the Unbreakable Vow--at least, not one that was more than theoretical, and if there was something that Tiberius knew from experience, it was that theoretical magic tended to have a rather high fatality rate.

The study was set up for them already, and Tiberius moved directly to one of the two armchairs that he'd positioned earlier, taking a seat and waiting for his wife to take the opposite one. Then, reaching out for her hand, Tiberius took it almost gently and held their clasped hands up, away from their lap, so that Tatiana would be able to take her position for the spell. Looking over at Antigone, he offered her a smile--not a smirk, for once, but a genuine smile. That would probably confused her.