[ Oh. Confidence is easy to portray when you've lived your life with it, when more recently an air of certainty in your own decisions is all that's got you and others through some of the stickier situations you've found yourself in. But as the truth of it so often is - betrayed by that total failure to recognise what Wrathion had been referring to, blocking it out and latching onto something else entirely - he's terrified. He knows exactly what he's capable of, and to have that power in somebody else's hands...

For a moment it looks as though he might bristle, come back with a retort. Then the wind goes out of his sails and his shoulders sag a little. The concern is fair, and the reality is this: ]

I've heard a frying pan helps. [ Wry, but it's earnest too: he'll put himself out of the running with steeper measures than that if he starts to suspect Rathakku's trying for him again. Failing that... ] And I have an associate who's agreed to handle me if I become a problem.

[ 'Associate'. That's one word for Wanda, found in a pinch. ]

If it happens, I won't make it out of this castle.