[He understands better now. Maybe it's just a question of willingness to listen, or maybe that click forces him back from the edge, thinking for a second that he's been hung up on. He doesn't hasten to leap on that with a rebuttal, the way he otherwise might. He listens, quiet.]

I don't hold your faith against you. Not inherently. Only when--

[When you make a double standard of it, when you condemn me for doing what you do, everything Myr's just admitted to on his own, and all but begged forgiveness for besides. There's no call for Vandelin to rub his face in it. Myr deserves far better than that, too.]

When I say I want freedom, I mean I want it for the mages who come after us. I don't want our children to be ripped from their families; I don't want our future generations to grow up and never be allowed to fall in love. I don't want accidents of birth to put us all at the mercy of people who can take away what few scraps of affection and stability we have at a whim.

We shouldn't have had to be the lucky exceptions, Myr. We shouldn't have had to grow up being grateful for that, don't you understand? We shouldn't have had to live in constant fear of being separated. They shouldn't have been able to exploit that the way they did just to make us behave. And if the bureaucracy had been working as it should, it wouldn't even have been an option. We'd be nothing to each other now. I don't want to know who I would have been without you.

[Nell Voss would have liked the person he would be now without Myr's influence. But Van wouldn't.]

We deserve to have families. And I couldn't fight for that from inside a tower.