We can do better. [A hard thing for Ianthe to admit.] Which is why those boundaries are important. And you just gave me one. Thank you.

I thought you understood at Recumita it was just play, the degradation, but now I know that's not the kind of play you like. I won't do it again.

[Letting the braid go, she moved to an idly massage of Alina's nape, flesh fingers gently kneading.]

I get... caught up in my head sometimes and it gets hard to think of anything else. One of the things that makes me a great necromancer but it fucks with my personal life. I think that got the better of me that night.

Alina Starkov, there's no one like you.