[There had been a period of time, after Liem returned to Citadel life but before he'd had the opportunity to learn the statuses of his fellows, that Liem has worried about the others he'd met in Venera who seemed reluctant to do the Regent's bidding—or who were even against it entirely. He couldn't deny the guilty relief he'd felt when he learned that Meteion wasn't here any longer, that she hadn't undergone the same torment he had in order to bring him back into the fold—or the equally guilty relief that Matt had done what was asked of him despite his misgivings.

But although he shuddered to think what Barnaby had experienced during his own reeducation, there was a part of him that was glad someone else had failed as he had, and suffered as he suffered. It was a small and ugly part of him, one he didn't like looking at. When Minegishi mentions Barnaby, he looks away, out across the courtyard.

What was he thinking? His actions of only a few weeks ago now seem impossibly foolish, the actions of a naive child thinking only of himself. Ever since being released from the dungeons, he's been astounded at just how badly his judgement had been clouded back then, and how closed his mind had been to the truth that people had been showing him ever since he set foot on Horos.]

I suppose I was thinking that I knew better than the Regent did.

[What other reason would he have to so disdain their orders? His anger had made him not only blind, but arrogant as well.]

About who deserved to live, and who needed to die.