"I know. It was why I asked him for time to consider it." A beat, as she sips her tea. "Without making this talk depressing, I have been fighting too long to be my own master, and I do not long to be at the beck and call of another again. That he'd ask this of me, who has more reason than most to despise him..."

Her eyes close for a second.

"But. I thought about the barrier."

If it could be shattered sooner, if people could be free, if they could choose to live where they would...she knows she can't do that. But it still feels like letting everyone down.