Iago turns them so Xel is between him and the arm of the chair. "Carino, no, I can manage those things just fine -- I can boil water now, ne?" In the past year, he's gone from the triumph of being able to do so without instructions to being a quite competent cook, mostly by osmosis. "Your work as a priest is vastly more important, I know that -- I can hire help for the little things if I must."
He gathers the trembling body very close, and listens as he speaks, and thinks with a certain distant depression that Xel can still deceive him utterly -- this rapid change from cheer to misery must have been building since before he came home.
"I shan't let you go," he says quietly, "and as well as I can, I shall defend you from any hand but mine. You shan't lose me. I am still your own."