I would say that's something I miss about Ketterdam, the lack of patriotism as it's fairly laughable in a corrupt little city, but we've got our own share of issues. Slave trading, gang wars, addictions, betrayal at every turn. If it was found out I was Grisha, some of my own comrades would've sold me. Either to the nation that kills my kind, or the nation that forces us into the army fighting their wars until we die. There are no happy endings there either.

[ It's a very bleak thing to say but it is the truth and Jesper, happy-go-lucky as he might be, is very realistic about his situation back home. Even after becoming a kept man of a rich boy, it didn't mean he could be a Grisha. It didn't make the city any less damaged and cruel, nor the world. It's probably why he is watching her die and barely blinking. They're all lost. Some of them were just lost before they ended up in Abraxas.

And some of them have been found here. Jesper's still hiding but not from everyone. He has Julie. She has him. That right there is a good enough reason to stand there beside her, feeling free to be honest but also take her joint and breathe it in. Being high right now seems absolutely the right thing to do. ]

I believe you know what you're talking about with the Singularity, love, you're the only one who does get it. But I don't know if it can protect us from what's coming. We're going to have to protect ourselves.