"Stop--" Bene stumbles back again, flailing to catch his balance and managing, though likely not without drawing the attention of one or two passersby.

He lets Edgard finish, but anger boils in him, manifesting as an indignant sneer: "that's not fucking true and you know it," he snarls, suddenly stepping forward to push past.

"Fuck you, Edgard."

He might admit to lying, eventually: but never doing anything? Days of being at Byerly's beck and call, training in the yard, and biting back every poisonous instinct set in him by twenty years of parental training amounts to nothing?