He sits up, which draws his hand away, though that's not entirely deliberate. He takes a very long drink, almost draining his glass.

"I keep thinking," he says, after a moment to let the burn of the whiskey subside, "had I chosen differently, things between Arthur and I would have been different. Whatever flaws there were in Camelot's foundation would not have been absent, but I would not have worsened them. It would not have gone on for years. It would not have created a situation where anyone who already had a grievance also had real cause to act. A king can't let a traitor live for decades in his own house, without a word. I can understand how... I can understand why it ended as it did."