[ it's more than he's ever before spoken on the subject, with anyone — even xichen-ge, who knew it all. but perhaps that was the reason; they were both too close to what had happened. every time they stood to speak, the ghosts of their brothers stood by them, unseen but very much felt, two shadows they could never banish.

it's easier, to speak of it all to someone to whom jin guangyao had been — nothing. ]

You didn't, [ comes his answer, somewhat relieved to be changing subjects, if only slightly. ]

I first thought it might be the massacre of Lotus Pier, but we'd have lost the war then [ said with absolute nonchalance, like it's an obvious conclusion to make, ] so it couldn't be... so I always assumed it was either what happened to the Dafan Wen, or Lady Jiang.