( He takes his time to mull this over, carefully, bit by bit and bite by bite and every word, as far as he can manage. Hardly an easy thing to imagine, perfect strangers taking their pity on a man they've... found in their way. )

...I didn't ask you to. So I'm not paying you back.

( This, first and foremost. Then: ) I assume the tower is the institute. And the spell... that, I wouldn't know. Perhaps you mean our tax legislation. Honest sorcery how any man could lose so much sense and come up with that. And then the other idiots passed it. And now, every tenth coin goes to the citadel coffers.