[ you are still that boy, he wants to say to him. you would not be here otherwise. you would not have remembered what i was like. it wouldn't have mattered. at least there's something pure about being a beast: its appetites are only directed one way. but not for a human struggling to become someone else. and if there's anything sylvain has learned in his short life, it's that human beings, when faced with a lust for things that they cannot control, are predictable, and unfailingly so.

he sighs. ]

I don't think little of you at all. [ i don't think of you at all, he wants to lie, but he knows even that is a bit too transparent for him. ] I wouldn't have offered negotiations if there weren't any chance you might listen to begin with.

But my men deserve better than the General they have, and I'm not willing to accept such terms.

How about this: they will leave me with you, unarmed, and exit the monastery grounds until the day after. If I don't come back out, they can assume you've done the Empire a service. And all of my past loves.

[ several of his captains look uncomfortable at the offer. one clears their throat audibly, as if in disagreement; sylvain maintains the smile on his face. it's easy enough to wear, anyway. ]