"I was," I say, absently rotating my right shoulder a little.

"An old enemy saw an opportunity to make a very... public statement." If I hadn't been in the condition I was at the time, if I hadn't been surrounded by people, I could have dodged it, could have taken Crossbones down myself, but that doesn't matter because that's not what happened. No matter how many times I run the scenario over in my head, the result will still be the same for the world I left behind, and I'll still be here.