He wouldn't have told Nekomata either except that she already knows all about it. And even if he doesn't want to say it, he's lucky for that. For having someone there in the nights when he threw himself out of his bedroll in a panic. Someone who knows that Tribune Caelus is not as sound of heart and mind as he pretends.

"These things fade with time," he says. He's said it before, a mantra he holds to - must hold to, given the course of action he's chosen.

"My father is on his way to our family home. I... will need you to cover for me when I return there to meet him."