The brandy does indeed come exactly as ordered; Felix actually can’t tell if it’s the variety he requested, but he’s hoping to benefit from its supposed benefits to speechcraft.

Meantime he’s treated to one hell of a space story. Blood oaths and time travel and the fate of worlds in the balance! He rolls his eyes at the aliens’ nonsensical vendetta, winces when Jim describes the destruction of people’s home planets, and by the end he’s honestly quite wide-eyed. (If he realized spacejumping wasn’t a term for some kind of teleportation, he’d be even more so.)

“Incredible,” he murmurs, because that’s the first response that comes to mind. Maybe he wouldn’t believe it, except Verity obviously likes Jim so habitual lying seems unlikely. “Your tale is safe with me, although… surely it’s not always like that?”

Verity has to know it’s pretty dangerous, anyway. Ships are a risky enough business when they’re just at sea.