[Blade grimaces slightly.] ... Better that you don't try to imagine. There's a reason I went mad.

[He calms down a little, and squeezes right back.]

That statue was just the Preceptors saving face, then. [The statue he had, after all, spent an inordinate amount of time gazing at...]

If the little lady had been raised as their puppet as they intended, or if you had stayed beneath their thumbs, perhaps they would have succeeded. But they did not.

[His eyes narrow.] ... I think, on some level, I wanted vengeance against those Preceptors, too. It's... fuzzy.

[So he's at the limits of his knowledge. Still... After a minute, he pulls away from the railing so he can take Dan Heng into his arms for a hug. He doesn't want either of them to fall too deeply into the past. He nuzzles behind Dan Heng's ear and leaves a kiss there.]

It wouldn't have taken much. Plant an idea here, a hint there, and Dan Feng and Yingxing would have made their own path to destruction.

[He settles his hand on the small of Dan Heng's back.]

But that is the past. What do we want to do moving forward?

... She is family.