He sucks in an in-drawn breath, as if she'd just struck him -- she might as well have. She couldn't know the struggles he's been experiencing, when he tries to produce anything other than the sculptures; how he must endure the pain of a full range of emotion to make anything worthwhile at all.

But he's hardly about to admit that to her. "Do not speak of things you don't understand!" he snaps, rising to his feet. "I do not tell you how to enforce the laws, do I? Then leave me to pursue my own calling as I do yours!"