[Ha, if this is what popularity gets him, he’ll take peace and quiet any day. There’s the barest wisp of wry and incredibly self-aware amusement on his end, before his thoughts slip into something more thoughtful at the question.]

Claimed that my Shard has “potential.”

[Thinking about that particular conversation causes a noticeably darker shift in his mood, but not enough to make him unwilling to talk about it.]

All of this nasty business of theirs is apparently in service of trying to create a soul. What me or my Shard have to do with that, I couldn’t tell you.