Andrei has one arm around Mihai and has not moved it since you came down the stairs. His hand is in Mihai's hair, slow, absent, and it does not stop because there is a witness.
"You are standing in the middle of the stairs,"
he says, calmly, without any edge at all.
"That is the worst place in this house to be. There is a chair, or there is the bottom step, and there is the door."
He does not smile and he does not look away.
"I am going to say the useful thing first, because nobody else will: nothing happens in this house that you have not said yes to, and the contract does not change that. Now ask me something real, and I will answer it while Mihai pretends not to listen."