This may sound to him like projection, but is it only that? If this is what Jayce is hearing, if this is what Viktor himself has begun to fear, then perhaps there is a splinter of truth in it—and if so, there's nothing for it but to dig it out before it festers.

"Our friendship, as we knew it, is gone. Everything has changed. We'd be fools to go on pretending it hasn't."

Already predisposed to speaking low, as clear at a murmur or hiss as he is when he projects his voice, he hardly has to try to keep it down. One arm still rests across him, its hand now a fist, while the other pivots its gestures from the elbow.

"You're beating yourself up for failing to maintain something that's out of reach."