[It sends chills down his spine, seeing Ronan like that, saying those things like they mean nothing. Like none of it matters. Adam is still trying to digest the knowledge that his Ronan, the real Ronan, is dead. That he didn't know.]

I think you can't do either. Cabeswater would protect me.

[He doesn't really know if that's true, but he says it like it is. The question is whether Cabeswater would recognize this Ronan as - well, as Ronan, as the Greywaren, as a creature it loves and also wants to protect. It might protect Adam even so, but he doesn't know. He's still not skilled at using its power for himself, rather than serving it. But he says it like he's certain, because he has to tell himself he is. He can't show weakness to this thing.]

And you - you're not him. I knew something was wrong, I knew it -

[His voice is rising, edging a tiny step closer to hysteria, and he reins himself in, takes a breath. He's not calm. He's disassociating. But on the outside, it looks the same - distant, cold, maybe a little sullen. He feels like a stranger in his own body.]

Now that I know what you are, you won't be able to trick me.