Claudius laughs, lightly. "Now here is where I best understand Sagramore's perspective. I feel like I'm discovering news pain every day, and they always come when someone tells me I deserved better. Lan Wangji and Galahad do it most often, I think, but you do your share of it, too. I remember when thou didst tell me I was jumping at my brother's shadow ... I still struggle with it, thou know'st. For a very long time I had to believe everything that happened to me was justifiable and excusable, so I wouldn't feel betrayed by anyone who let it happen. I even invent cover stories on instinct, so that no one finds out something painful happened to me, or that it pained me at all when it happened. That also lessens any feelings of betrayal because if no one knows, no one can can be expected to help. I figured this all out when I was a child, but children have terrible logic." Sighing, he says, "Thou wilt say I am talking around the point. The pain is fresh, because I did not let myself think on all the ways it hurt before. Perhaps I'll speak to him when I've thought longer."