A what? [ His fake innocent surprise is not very convincing and certainly not very innocent. ] No. Unless— [ He taps his chin with the flat of the knife's blade. This is neither safe nor sanitary. But everything's going in a pot. It will be fine. ] That would explain that time he tried to kill me.

[ Not her point, probably. Alistair wraps up the performance with an unprompted slump, as if running out of energy to maintain his own personality, and returns to slicing through onions. It isn't the neatest work, but they do wind up approximately in fourths. ]

It's not my favorite thing about him, [ he admits, rawer honesty than normal in apology for the clowning, ] but he's a good man, so yes. Good friend to an assassin. Why?