Symbolic. And less terrible than anything else I thought of.

[Paul says it flatly from behind his hand, his head still bowed. When he drops it and looks up, he only looks tired, and still sorry. There's another chair, probably one that Palamedes' 'others' sat in, once, and Paul drags it in Palamedes' direction instead of speaking further. He sits down, arranging himself with his hands flat on his thighs and his back straight.]

I'm glad you have that, at least. [His revenge, that is. Paul had been wondering. And that explains more of Palamedes, Paul thinks, although he's finding the necromancer to have depths and facets he wouldn't have predicted.] The point of these is to hurt us, have you realized that yet? It took me a while. They say it's meant to bring us together, they don't say what the mechanism is. But it makes sense, doesn't it? Surviving shared hardship is a bonding agent, so -

[He gestures: all this. His voice has been nothing but quiet and tense, not a whisper, but not intended to be easy to overhear. Now it rises again, and he looks directly at Palamedes, and lets his face and voice be unguarded in their sincerity:]

But you helped me when I had nothing, and I'm in your debt. That was real. And no, there is nothing I can do for you here, I know that. How could I? You've barely met me.

So I'm sorry, that this is how I know. If I ever did, it should have been from you. And I should have said that at the start.