Falco's gifts are great, perhaps so great people consider it worth the cost. Duty doesn't know their situation. Trench is much smaller than the world he lived in before. The saints are not, for good reason, allowed home. That kept the children, the sick children, at a distance. Something known but not seen. Not that his decisions and actions forget that. He's briefly been to the Dominicus system when truly needed. The problems he handled were on a much larger scale–millions or billions. He left the rest to others, for good news for bad.

Whatever their concerns here, they aren't what troubled Falco's home, just as Duty's attentions are kept local. He's glad to be able to concern himself with it.

How much of the decade is left? That's the question Falco draws some line, though Duty isn't sure how much general illness can be concealed. "I will not tell anyone," Duty says, "I would prefer not to lie to anyone else who figures it out themselves, but I can."

If Falco dies and people get mad at Duty, he can handle it. The kid has little enough control over his life.