( ...they should know right from wrong, says Luffy, of trained, educated and veteran politicians. Ah, but his face is too fresh, too plagued by candour. He need not sip the poison of Lan Wangji's bitter-most truths.

And so, soft-nodded, daring — a lie by any other name, an omission — he concedes: ) Righteousness may prove their friend.

( A distant one, of minimal and new acquaintance. A passing, barely tolerated and brokered relationship. Perhaps if truth walked one math and a senator another, they would not spit upon each other's faces at a crossing. Yes. That is so. )

Five requires me in the gardens shortly. ( To walk the perimeters and see what blood wants letting, done. ) I beg a boon of you. If I may.

( As if anyone might stop him. )