"I don't know what Magpie said. And if he won't tell you, he certainly won't tell me." Quietly, he warms a cup. "But if it affected Ren deeply, it's not beyond possibility that we could find out.

"The Palace echoes things that people have said to him. I saw—several things that I had said myself. It was..." And he thinks about it, setting the cup on its little saucer. That feeling of having let Ren down, of having done something terribly wrong. "Disheartening," he concludes.

"So, in fact, it's possible we might need Magpie in there after all. Which Ren will fight." And Goro would have to support him. Talk about an enemy coming from inside the house.