Roland answers him quickly, making sure he could still comfort Inigo with a gentle touch, hair pushed down with routine strokes. These are the moments when his resolute nature come forth, even if he himself is prone to the same darkness which clouds the young man before him.

"If there's anything I've learned in all the time that I've served two kingdoms, my own and Evan's," he says, slowly and deliberately. "It's that people like Reno are the ones who're weak." His head shakes from side to side, hair loosening around his face. Signs of work, signs of struggle spread across a full week of unrest, but in this regard, he would always have something more to give. "They sow anger and fear in others because that's what gives them power - to see someone else break. To feel better about themselves because they've made others miserable."

"And let me tell you something, Inigo." As one story ends, so does another begin, with Roland slowly breaking a part of the embrace if only to hold Inigo's hands one more time, right over left. His gaze, piercing and full of fire. "You get stronger because you've chosen to let people in, to rely on them, to let them stay by your side. The hands that hold us up are the hands that will save us. Will keep us going. They're reminders that you're not alone. That's strength."

Words that are not entirely his own. He borrows a little from Evan, hoping the King's light can shine even here, in the depths of the void. For Inigo. Roland doesn't let go right away, lets it linger and settle. Eventually though, his brows furrow, and he adds something else.

"You want to beat him, right?" Roland looks serious, more so than usual. He grips his hands just a little tighter.