[He watches Kit go, torn and half-ready to reach out and grab his arm by way of apology and make him stay--if only because in his previous experience, when Kit walks away, he doesn't always come back. (Never mind that this is Kit's house. Van might well owe him an apology for that later.)

But Myr isn't done with that siege weapon aimed at his defenses, and they feel all the weaker for that moment there when he'd thought he was safe. He reels, physically, back against the painful chill of the wall. Half of him thinks of hanging up.]

That's what you'd have wanted, is it? You wanted me to come back?

That would have made a great story for them to tell you in your sickbed. 'We caught your traitor cousin trying to sneak back. Don't worry; he can't get to you again. We killed him on sight.'

Or in the best-case scenario, you could eventually have visited me in the dungeons like you do with the magister. You seem to enjoy those talks. Maybe it would have been fun for you.

What good would it have done either of us for me to do anything but keep running?