Ah. Yes. Right. He sees that blinking, that unhappy look, and he realizes - of course. No, of course she'd be shaken by that. He'd said it so cavalierly, not even thinking of the emotions it might evoke...Damn. He didn't want to make her sad, didn't want to upset her; he'd wanted to make her interested. Excited. Ready to help him as he forged forward. Instead, this.

He meets her eyes and hesitates a moment. He thinks about taking it back, saying that it was a joke indeed. Instead, though, he lifts his chin just a bit, and meets her eyes, and responds firmly. "A fairy tale?" he scoffs. "Hardly. It's Barrayar's fate to be free and independent. These face-painted idiots aren't going to interfere with that - not for long. Not in this Barrayar or any other one of her iterations."