[There's a flash. A brief one, as quick as a spit in the pan, but no less bright. Putting his tethers at risk wasn't something he even thought to consider. The whole point, the whole reason he's even trying anything at all, is to keep them from a worse end. To give them something to hold onto, slim as the hope may be.]

[The Sin's eye narrows, chasing a shadow on the wall. And maybe, it's all her tricks at the end of it, but he can swear it's close. Close to a face that's also too young in his years. Too young to have seen some of the things he had and to have gone through just as much, only to come out on the other side missing a whole lot more than he started with.]

[Something snaps (a line of a different kind, a tether by a different name), and it's agony. A plea, yelled by the same face, at the moment when he had to make a horrible choice:]

["But I do. No, wait. Don't do this - !"]

[Greed tests his shoulder.] I'll be fine. Always am, kid. [Not the whole truth, but the kindest honesty he can afford.] As for them, what happens? [The unspoken part is said out loud through the Murmur. Its silence, screaming for an answer.]

["You'll be fine, right? You'll all be fine - "]

As for your part, I just need to know what you can do. Leave the rest to me. [It's his final say on the matter. Any concerns about him, any worries - he'll take care of it as he always has. As he always does, burying it so deep, no one will ever have a chance of finding it.]