The blood drained from Dorian's face leaving him pale and ashy. His father had intended something slightly different but the same in effect. An end to his willful decision not to be a proper heir was somewhat more complex than simply whether or not he decided that keeping his proclivities in the bedroom. After all, no one would care he was gay so long as he got married and went through all the expected forms in public. He wouldn't have married Livia even if he were interested in women. Dorian's will to do what was right in the face of his father's disapproval, that was what his father had decided needed to be removed in his continuity.

His jaw clicked shut without saying that. "There were rumors of the two of us and Mother Giselle came upstairs afterward to see where I stood." She had apologized in Halamshiral. "If my influence was... benign." He said the word like something dirty. "Yes, she rushed to me with the letter and went with me and heard the things my father said about me. And she helped me talk to him, not just storm off in a cloud of my own righteous anger. And despite that she was my friend."

Despite seeing that hurt and angry part of himself was what he meant. Seeing the part of him that would cause a public scene for no better reason than his own weakness. Seeing that he could still care about his father even with that hanging between them. For all that Dorian was supremely confident in his magecraft and intelliegence and appearance, he judged himself harshly.

"And so I stood by her when she banished the Wardens. And I stood by her when she drank from the Well. And I stood by her when she left the dwarves to their mysteries. I stood at her side and I am proud to have done so."