I did not soften it. There was no version of this conversation that benefited from softening, and Darius was not a man who appreciated the kind of consideration that came wrapped in careful framing. He appreciated the truth in its plainest available form, which was the form I gave it to him.
I sat across the desk from him and told him everything Cassian had said in the garden. The title review. The manufactured grounds. The succession ambiguity. The offer. Every word, in order, without editorializing or adjusting the emotional register to make it easier to receive.
