“Too many sharp corners.” Carefully, he straightens, now watching Gideon with a wary eye. “There’s a joke here about how you’ve further compromised the Sixth House’s genetic diversity, but honestly, I’m too tired to come up with it.”

Palamedes takes off his glasses and wipes away some of the salt water with a dry corner of his sleeve. Her question only puzzles him further. “Look, if this is about…before, I am sorry about that.” He swallows, struggling not to let himself return to that room and the beautiful wildness in Cytherea’s eyes, and the shock of bright-white explosion. “It was an…unkind thing to do, but there just wasn’t any time. You see that, don’t you?"