"Our jailers are the same who raised the dead," He said bluntly, seeing that pale stipe of flesh. Teasing him. He shoved it out of mind, though he did lean in so that he only really had to speak in a low rumbling murmur.

"The responsibility I feel towards them extends only to their deaths." He let out a hard breath. "I simply--" He cut off, breathing hard as he tried to push himself away from the man again. He was still frustrated, still unwilling to really thinking about what was frustrating him.

"I did my duty," he replied a little crisply. "It isn't inadequacy, Mingyu. It is necessary. Does it not bother you? Seeing the way the people here are cowed under the will of deathless masters?"