Dragoncrest Cliffs the first casualty of war is innocence

Coulda, coulda, coulda. Verx's grudges were visceral; he didn't hold them for hypotheticals. Her line of reasoning went right over his head, and when she asked him the question, he almost rejoined, No. The immediacy of the answer, at least unspoken, surprised him.

He really hadn't ever dealt with anything like that. He supposed the closest he'd come to it was. . . Heda. She'd abandoned him, by jumping off that cliff. Abandoned all of them. But that had been different, and so his ignorance continued. His anger, though, began to fade.

I don't, Vercingetorix answered truthfully, his tone markedly less sharp than before. I can't understand where you're coming from and I'm not gonna try. I'm not gonna argue with you about this. It's not gonna bring her back, but--is it gonna make you feel better?

If not, why even do it? Why waste the time?