Cedric's tone softened too. It was bad to bring this up, he knew, but...well, maybe it would explain what he'd done.

"I'm sorry. I just---in all this, I've been thinking about him. What he did. He said he became a rebel after I died, and I've been wondering."

He folded his hands. "Obviously I'll need a more subtle way to fight, but he'd be doing something about this. Howard and Orc were lucky to be saved. The next ones might not be."

There was also the issue of the ship's other horrid insistence of separating them, but he was getting to that.