Panic began to creep in. What was he letting Osmund know right now?
A part of him wanted to sever the connection immediately. Abort the whole thing.
But then the analytical part of his mind kicked in. He focused on what he was still feeling from Osmund — that surprise, repeating over and over like a loop. It was drowning out everything else.
That's deliberate, Finn realized.
He's using the surprise as a shield. Letting it be so prominent that it obscures the other emotions.
Finn could do the same.
He needed something natural, something he genuinely felt and that was prominent enough to overshadow everything else. Something that wouldn't reveal what he really wanted to hide.
My distrust.
Finn let it flood forward. His deep, bone-level distrust of Osmund. His wariness. His certainty that the short man was playing a longer game than he'd revealed. He thought about it intensely, repeatedly, letting it color every aspect of his emotional state during the handshake.
