She says it's important -- but she won't listen to him when this is something he knows. That endurance isn't just about standing there and taking it; it's being able to do something, anything, to keep them off you, for as long as you can.

It's the one thing he could cling to, after Kinloch: he endured. It might have been luck. Probably a large part of it was. But it took work. It took focus.

Why is he bothering with this if she won't trust his knowledge? With all her talk of how friendship can mend things, and that's what she wants --

Cullen closes his eyes suddenly. Makes himself breathe in with one line --

Though all before me is Shadow --

-- hold with another --

Yet shall the Maker be my guide.

-- and release, with the last.

I shall not be left to wander the drifting roads of the Beyond.

He opens his eyes. The lake hasn't changed. The feeling of something pressing hard against his chest, trying to get out of his skin -- that's a little better.