wesker lets his eyelids go slack, saving his energy. Blood loss has made talking, even breathing difficult. But he draws in an audible breath as Maul approaches, a small smile hinting at relief and acceptance pulls at the corners of his mouth. He does not even flinch at those claws so close to him.

"Understood. It isn't easy, with someone valued," he says, with a hint that he knows this personally. Dispatching Spencer could have been called a mercy killing, given the old man's condition, but he had done so partly in the heat of the moment, partly after a lifetime of feeling someone pulling on the strings of his life. Cynthia's sacrifice, on the other hand, had hollowed out something in him. "Tell Vira-Lorr, a seer in Cellar Door who's like a sister. Tell Luz Noceda, tell Orpheus the musician, perhaps he will sing an ode for me. Tell the Blood Ministers of the Lumenarium that one of their journeymen strayed too close to something greater." A hitch in his breathing. "Tell Ariadne... she won't be looking into my my library any time soon, however..."