[ decorations and pets serve to make their owners happy, alhaitham thinks. kaveh, as he is right now, can make nobody happy. it is also not kaveh's place to do so. kaveh puts away a third skewer. his tongue is the sharp whip of a lashing snake. alhaitham flips a page in his book. ]

Are you used to others putting your dreams and plans ahead of your own? [ is what alhaitham asks. ] Do you expect it from those around you?

[ and how many of those people, he doesn't say, putting kaveh's dreams and plans ahead of themselves, died for it? ]