Kire hadn’t realized at first that she had stopped walking after he finished talking. [i]A drug.[/i] Constantly administered, to keep them collared. [i]Between a slave and an animal[/i]. No wonder. “That—that’s [i]terrible[/i],” she breathed. That anybody would subject another living being to this. “Evil. Why?” She felt anger grow in her, the same kind of anger that would bubble up whenever she wondered why men like Ikegai or Itallo existed, why the Gemini would mutilate whole towns, whole cities, for their blood magic. And just like those other times, she knew there was no easy answer to that. 

But more than anger, she wondered how he could have borne all this pain alone.
Cautiously, she stepped back closer to him. She raised her scarred hand, gently touching his cheek, close to the scar where he had been poisoned. “You ran away,” she murmured. “Was that when you were alone? Weaning off the poison?”