"I think your own patience with yourself will run much thinner, much quicker, than either of ours will," she points out simply enough.

She can't stop the amused grin on her face at the faux incredulity in Jesper's voice. "I think sometimes he forgets we've already chosen him," she answers him, her own tone far more of a betrayal to the already-obvious joke the Zemeni boy was making.

"Can you imagine? Kaz...with a baby?" Inej grins again, looking back over at him. It isn't a cruel thing, nor even a mocking one, she simply can't imagine it, not at this moment.