[It’s probably telling that Liem’s only immediate reaction to D’s proposed murder deal is thoughtful consideration. He understands why the man would bring it up, and he doesn’t disagree; he doesn’t wish for innocents to be harmed because of what he is, and he is more than willing to believe that the same is true for D as well.

A year ago, he wouldn’t have thought such a future could happen for him, at least here in Kenos. With his father gone, vanished with the world he’d left behind, there was no real risk of him being made into what he was. Now, though, he isn’t so confident. Kenos has enforced its own strange trajectory on him, one he doesn’t know how to arrest.]

Are you suggesting that, if I rejected your deal, you would stay your hand if I were to start hunting people?

[This seems unlikely to Liem, given the man’s rather pointed interest in what had happened between him and the others he’d fought with in the greenhouse. That incident is my business, he had said.]

Or are you just seeking someone to be accountable to? I’m not sure I could kill you, Dee.

[Not alone, anyway.]