[ He gets her with that last sentence. Til then, Nell is just about chomping at the bit to keep arguing, not even just with what he's saying but with a hundred more points she's come up with in the minute since she last spoke. There's some disappointment at having that chance taken away, but some weird pride, too. (She likes to think it's her influence that brings him round to that strategic finish, that her pragmatism has tempered and honed him. More like they've fumbled their way through all of this together and by now he knows what's most likely to move her, but whatever.) ]

A deliberate exception would look better than broken ranks, and there are too many with scruples. [ scruples, like it's a disease ] But it should be just that, an exception, for specific, narrow cases where lives are actually in danger and non-mages can't help. None of this stopping in stages crap, all that does is draw the whole thing out longer and make it easier to tell which of us is most replaceable.