[L's associations with parents and the things they are supposed to do are fraught. No one's ever really done entirely right by him; he was neglected and abandoned as a child, found and indulged to ruin by a later caretaker, however well-meaning his intentions might have been.

The Emperor withdrawing is painful in the way reversing an entry wound is painful; one might not even feel the blade going in, but they certainly feel it being removed, once the weight of its meaning starts to sink in.

Paul is susceptible to this, too. Paul is a fish in a barrel, for this...]

He'll be alright.

[He affirms, in a voice stronger than he feels or looks.]

Sit. This is the rest, that you proposed, while I use my way to get us out. Paul's clever, and subject to prophecies; my guess is that he knew about the detonation already, and if you know him as well as I do, you also surmised that.

[He picks up another water bottle, for there's no shortage.]

Can you rinse your hair, or shall I do it? The radiation will be strongest right now, and decrease, but the faster you can get it away from your skin and scalp, the better.