"It is not foolish and for your honesty, let me be honest in return," Diarmuid meets Lancelot's eyes with a clear and steady gaze. "Even if I do not believe him to be as bad as Reynard, any who do not fear him in some form do not understand how powerful and dangerous a man he is. Even with as much as he...favors me...I fear him. I fear and I respect him. That is what he wants and what he needs. It was what he was raised knowing and what he learned to expect from everyone."

He pauses and looks down into his drink, turning it carefully in his hand, "I won't let my affection blind me. He was a tyrant when he ruled. He did horrible things and often thought of only the things he wanted. Back then, he was so terrible the gods created another to balance him. To humble him. To distract him. It worked too. Then, they took him away and that drove Gilgamesh to madness. It is a madness he fights even now. A fight I am helping him fight."