She said those words so plainly. Yet even Martine felt the sting of her unintended meaning. How long had all of them searched for a place that could and would make them feel welcome? How long had they gone looking for a thing that could make them whole again? They'd invested time, energy, even love into this place called the Free Cities. None of them were willing to lose that if they had a choice. Not even to help Eithne settle the score. Eragos did not have any reason to think that he wouldn't, couldn't help her in the way that she wanted - but was it right? Was it just? He didn't know. Wasn't sure how to answer.
Agrippa said it plainly. They were in this cell for the duration, outcasts of a sort because they'd disobeyed his orders. Eragos did not know how long that would be true. Despair was settling in his stomach. A lifetime of mistakes, a lifetime of poor decisions, culminating in being expelled from the order that he chose as much as it chose him. All for a street fighter. A street fighter who deserved justice, but not of the variety that they offered here. Not of the kind that required those assembled in this cell to become what they were supposed to be fighting, abandoning all hope and reason in search of something that did not exist.
Eragos wondered if Eithne would understand.
"I won't fight in the circles again," Eragos told her, with more conviction than he should have. "We have the names that we need. We have information that will allow us to act. Agrippa won't like my way any more than he likes yours, but I will at least know that I acted honorably. Even if that is not something that you aspire to, it is something that I aspire to. Delivering justice or revenge or any other goal means nothing if you cannot do what is right."
"Did you just quote the Code at us?" Martine asked, elbows resting on the crossbars, hands dangling inside of the cell that Eragos shared with Eithne. "Did you really just quote the Code at us? I imagine it works on the children, Lord Master Feareborne, but..."
"Show some respect," Cols snapped irritably.
Martine cast a look over his shoulder before he stared back into the cell, his face nothing more than an orange rectangle of light surrounded by dull black steel.
"I'm with you," Martine said simply. "I'll fight for your friend, Eithne, but I've got to be able to hold my head up, or I might as well go back to the army."