Maybe it was the wine, or the sad fact of how normalized this was for him, but Lucanis needed a moment to understand how any of this was not what Davrin expected of Illario.

"Ah. ... Caterina has... opinions about sentimentality for things."

He explained carefully as he approached the enclosure, looking around it to see if he could spot where the Seheron Taipan was hiding before rooting around blindly and risking startling her. He was in luck, she smelled him, and still recognized him. That made his heart lurch a little bit to see her puppy-like face peek cautiously out of a patch of greenery, tongue tasting the air.

"Anything he values is hidden - or elsewhere. Ah, there you are my beautiful girl. I missed you."

The snake enclosure could not fit under the floorboards, however. She was also Lucanis', and a practical thing rather than pure sentimentality -- even if it was obvious the way he spoke to her she was far more than a source of poison for him.

He opened one of the doors on the enclosure to reach a hand in, holding it out patiently for her to approach in her own time. Her scales were the glittering black of gemstones, and she had a slight pudge of a recent meal still visible in her middle. A few more shy tastes of the air and she was approaching the hand to slither around Lucanis' offered wrist.