"Mad at her? She's being entirely reasonable! Given the world, she takes it! I'd do the same! But I think you're being very silly. And we went to a lot of trouble to get and kill this human -"

"And we got the wrong one. And - chasing him down to his very last body - isn't going to leave anyone to kill in front of a crowd. But I wouldn't have done this, if it'd been some random peasant wandering towards the circle - and you wouldn't have asked me to -"

"You just dig yourself in deeper and deeper and you come back entangled and it scares me, I think you're out of your mind and I think it's going to destroy us all."

"But we're your family, you know, to destroy, if that's what you're doing."

"l'll pay you back for him."

"You always say that."

"I also always do it."

"It's not even about the debt at this point, it's about the - principle - you're not making any tradeoffs, you're jumping at everything and you're trying to absorb everything -"

"If you ask Cecelia if she'll pay for his life I bet you she'll say she will. I don't - get - why - exactly - but that's what I think she'll say if you ask her, and she doesn't even know him -"

He looks at Cecelia. "All right, fine. I'll take that bet."

"I didn't mean you should."

"I won't hurt her. I don't want her. But - I would like to know which things she only wants badly enough to make you pay for them."

"Fine. I bet you his life that she cares that much, with it understood that you had better not actually hurt her at all and that you'll hurt her even if you kiss her, Nelyo -"

"Still not into girls."

He walks over to Catherine.

"Yes?"

"My brother says you want to call this off and take this man home - actually, he said he wants to, but I don't believe him. Do you want that?"

"Yes. Now that he's - it's not the same person."

"I'm tired of hurting my brother. Do you want it enough to pay for it yourself this time?"

She's pretty sure her heart has stopped in her chest, if that's a thing hearts can do for a second or two.

It was at a feast not unlike this one that she watched her sister, a priest, and a seven-year-old girl be sacrificed to the gods. Her sister and the priest had at least done something wrong, from the perspective of their captors. The seven-year-old was because the crowd wanted more blood.

"Yes," she says, very quietly.

He nods. 

He walks over to someone else. Says something. The music changes. 

He hugs her. "I'm sorry."

"Only fair," she says, still very quietly.

"He won't hurt you. We - bet on it. I told him you cared about it that much and he offered a bet. For the em - for the not-emperor. I don't -

- let's go to our room -"

 - she lets out a breath she didn't realize she was holding and then nods and follows him.