[Part of him wants to say, if you don't come back I will tear your home apart brick by brick when I leave. But grandiose threats are for supervillains. If Zane finds a place that suits him better - and he might, because he is splendid, because he could make himself welcome anywhere now that he is less sharply twisted inside himself - the Emperor will simply do it, and spare Zane the pain of knowing.]

I love you.

[He curls over Zane, kisses him upside-down and contorted.]

I know what it feels like. To walk away from everyone you love and everything you know because it's what you have to do. When I left Ebran the first time -

I'd been working toward it for years. It was the life I wanted. I was still terrified.