[ It's interesting, McGillis thinks, that Huaisang can imagine it at all. He'd liked to think he's locked every part of that sullen boy away behind smiles and leaderly demeanor, but still he lingers too close to the surface. ]

I don't mind at all.

Carta was a little older than us. She was my father's ward, so though she didn't live with us she spent a lot of time at the Fareed estate. A proper lady on all levels, haughty and prideful. She was the first person to look at me entirely without pity and tell me to hold my head high. Unfortunately, she was also obsessively in love with me. We drifted apart over the way she dealt with it.

Gaelio meanwhile... Sometimes you remind me of him, just by a little. He was bright and purehearted, a real nobleman in every regard. Stubborn when he put his mind to something, but happy to slack off on duties at any other time. He was always by my side, ever since we were children. Maybe we were stuck in each other's gravity.

[ And gravity is a dangerous thing. ]