There's a pause, there, filled with the sort of look someone gives you that implies your curiousity is not only no longer welcome, but bordering on rude, although it's difficult to tell where the line was to be crossed, or if Alistair already crossed it, or if Dorian is just having a terrible day! The past compounding to a point of pressure.

Who can know. The point is, it's only a pause, as he continues on anyway. "His father became something of an expert in how to preserve human life beyond its natural decline when saddled with life-wasting illness. As did I. There are remedies, magics -- not of the blood kind, I should specify -- that can assist someone in living with anything for that long.

"But it was never comfortable for Felix. It was never about his comfort. He endured, more for his father than for himself. It was infuriating to witness."