Cesare nibbles on the inside of his bottom lip. The one time Miquel had stopped Riario's messengers en route to Ostia, to Giuliano della Rovere... It had poured that night, and by the time Miquel got back the rains had washed away most of the blood. Miquel had debriefed, then retreated to his rooms without another word. Cesare found him crying, huddled in a window recess. Next thing he knew, Miquel nearly broke his nose. Fists flying, all that. And so, one of them was a child, what of it? he'd said. The next blow nearly took his ear off. I killed a child for you, Cesare. What kind of monster are you?
"You will have to ask him yourself, Ser Xellos." Cesare blinks slowly. "His natural disposition is one of kindness. If he weren't here, with me, the Virgin would long have taken him under her bejeweled mantle."
After an embarrassed pause, "Where's the difference between dono and kun then? Do you think those are version that act independently, and at odds with each other?" The smile is slow to come, but it comes. "Let's say... my saintly father wished it, I wished it, my father made it possible, and I enacted it."