It's their price.

[ He doesn't like it, the dependency, the control that's being exerted on them through this whole system. It feels all out of place. ]

Nothing's ever truly free; in the Barrel, we paid in blood and loss. Here, they demand something different, even if it's couched as a blessing.

[ In the Barrel, they paid in more than that. For every single canal rat, it was innocence that went first. Murdered in the light of day. ]

I know. [ The two of them understand their solitary pains more than anyone else, after all. ] I've thought about it.

[ So much. Too much. Sometimes it would follow him from dreams into the waking world, leaving him too warm all over and disoriented. ]