Dragoncrest Cliffs he could hardly speak.

um, jadou pauses to think for a long, long moment, lips opening and closing like a fish out of water. matant chacal? me brudda an' me sistah? lafayette ak lucette? none of who he listed was black-coated, per se, but they were certainly dark — darker than maman. jadou himself was darker than maman, even if only by a little bit. who else was—?
and then
VAL?! he shrieks, eyes going wide as he cackles that loud, heinous little-child-cackle. tonton val be our odder maman?! whadda FACK? whaow!
he supposed it made sense, in some way; val was almost always hanging around the den, but so did chacal, and that woman with the yellow eyes who had gone off to — eresta, whatever that was. however, when he looks down at sobeille's feet, he also happens to notice the two milk-white phalanges, of which val also had. that could not be a coincidence!
he felt like a super sleuth, happily parading around in a circle with his tail waving behind him. but then, that begged another question: does maman know?