I-...there's a colleague of mine. She despises me, and I can't say she's wrong to. Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri--she was Kayneth's fiancée. A secondborn child and a woman besides--both of which put her firmly at the bottom rung of her bloodline, by the Association's measure. Marrying into a powerful family was--by her unfortunately correct assessment--the only way she could ever be seen as having value. But with Kayneth dead, that's out the window. [And that's my fault, he didn't say. It was. But did he regret it?]

[It had been wrong to selfishly think only of himself that day. To act on impulse, to steal something of value and run as fast as he could, that had been wrong and he had apologized to Sola-Ui for the unforeseen consequences he had caused her.]

[And only for that. Because no matter how wrong it had been, he didn't regret the act itself. Let her hate him, because she was justified. If she wanted to kill him, he'd meet her a dozen times.]

[But he would never regret it.]

She thinks the Grail can get her the prestige she needs to succeed; to surpass her brother and anyone else that would hold her back. No matter what I tried to tell her about how broken it was, she's convinced I'm lying.

So I...went to settle things with her. I wanted--hoped I could find a way to talk her out of this, thought maybe I could figure out something to convince her this was insane. And if not, then...then I was going to kill her.