[ his lips quirk up at her words of believing in herself, possibly looking like a smirk with his face but certainly borderline on a smile. maybe she's changed some, but that sounds like the kind of thing the girl he'd met before might say too.

and then she asks the question that he's asked himself about a thousand times since he's been here, maybe even more since he'd taken part in helping to snatch up an orb himself.

his eyes turn slightly away, head shaking slowly. ]

I don't know. Maybe we don't even deserve one. [ it's not spoken cynically, instead muttered almost with a hint of pity. ] Maybe we're unleashing something worse in exchange for something we have no right to change in the first place.

[ because of course he wants to save her, to save quell, to save the envoys. but the mission of the envoys was to end immortality, to put a stop to power. in trying to save them, he'd just be betraying everything they stood for. and no one should have that kind of power.

he lifts his eyes back to her, catching her eyes, his voice with a touch of self-deprecating humor. ] Guess I stopped believing in fairy tales long before you did.