With that, I agree. [one day, xichen hopes to wake up from this nightmare and to find the regret he wishes to change wiped away. he hopes that is the true reality of this bargain.

he offers newt a soft, sad smile then as he looks up at him.] Logic dictates that it was bound to happen but having stood in his shoes it... I know there would have been no true mercy in softening the blow, but I still wish I had. [though now, a few days past it, he can admit there was nothing more he could have done to temper the inevitability of it all.]