"You're welcome." Lan Wangji pets Magnus' hair again, just once, careful, and then draws his hand back once more. He will not forgive himself if he harms Magnus inadvertently. "I could not ask Claudius to confront his tormentor, and so I searched for him. You already know how I walked the mansion for the duration of a night until I came across Luo Binghe." It was not so long ago that he has forgotten his own weariness. One night without sleep is not enough to tire his body, but a night of fear that his new friend might die at the casual inclination of an emperor sufficed.

"I demanded Claudius' release from pain. Luo Binghe laughed at me and insisted that he has no empathy. Only then did he tell me that he had already released Claudius." Lan Wangji was disinclined to believe him; only when he found Claudius and Crowley, and when he scoured Claudius' meridians for himself, did he take a full breath again. "Months later, I learned that he had done so not because he discovered his empathy after all, but because the young mistress Nina convinced him to."