"Well. Thank heaven for small miracles." He sounds quite bored, but he always sounds quite bored. It's an affectation that, after centuries of practice, he no longer has to affect.

"Your fondness for train wrecks will be your undoing, my friend. There are those of us who cannot help but be caught up in the explosion because we do not have the privilege of viewing it as an outsider." And Cesare is an outsider, to an extent. He hasn't been in London for decades, hasn't seen Millicent's mismanagement of the Nest in the last half century. He's gotten away from all of it and has been gallivanting around the Americas instead. Joscelin resents him for that, a little bit. Not like he'd ever mention it, of course.

"I hated Millicent. It's no secret that I wished her dead, and I wish I had been the one to do it. And yet, I find this change of regime troubling. At least under Millicent, we had stability. I have no love for the wolves, but we cannot afford to be openly at war with them, nor can we risk our relationship with Sylvia Redbright and Circle Daybreak. This beautiful, bright explosion of yours may be our undoing."