[So the aim was always to depart with the children, it seems. It might have been assumed, given the size of the vehicle he arrived in and his immediate agreement to Ortus' request, but the vehemence of experience in Johnny's voice is a thing Ortus makes note of.]

I, too, knew a man like this, once.

[He says it quietly, pushing some already loaded baggage further back in the truck bed to make room for more to be added. Thoughts of his father had already been too close to him, of late, as had the unquiet shade of the man himself. His knuckles still itch in their healing.]

I had hoped he was not fashioned in God's image.

[He had known how dangerous the Emperor was. Gideon had taken him into her trust, enlisted him in a shared mission as cavaliers-in-arms, and he had done - not close to enough. Anger coils futilely in his gut. He shoves at a wooden crate and lightly rocks the truck's bed.]

They should not have to suffer under this House an instant longer.