"I wouldn't want to be in his position, young master." Caelum went down the last of the steps ahead of him, the lamp steady in his hand. "Two years, and no notion any of it passed. A man lies down for a nap and wakes to find the world's moved on without him. There's a cruelty in that most people never stop to think about." A pause, even and mild. "I don't say it to pity him. I say it because it happens to be true."
"No." Trafalgar watched the dark rise up to meet them. "I wouldn't waste pity on a man like him either."
"He's given you no trouble?"
"None a sleeping man can give." Caelum's tone didn't shift. "His body's held. I've kept it fed and turned so it wouldn't waste away on us. Whatever you want out of him, it'll still be in there to be had. I saw to that much."
