He thought about it through the evening.
Not the Ampelos question — that was clearer now, something that could be built on. He thought about Paris.
He sat in his office with the lamp low and worked through what he knew about his brother with the same systematic attention he brought to supply inventories and fleet specifications.
Paris's actual strengths:
He was charming in a way that was not performance — or not only performance. When he was genuinely interested in someone, the interest was real, and people felt it. He made people feel seen. He made people feel that the thing they had done or the thing they wanted was worth wanting.
He was fast. Not in the combat sense — in the social sense. He read rooms quickly, identified what was needed, and provided it before being asked. This was the skill Lysander had watched Ampelos use deliberately over decades, the same skill Paris had naturally and used without thinking.
