[ Amos looks at Flat — feels him, through communion — and feels as though he could be looking into a mirror. He's older than Flat, of course; was nowhere near as excitable when he was his age (has never been that excitable). But there's still something distinctly recognizable about him, and a stray thought flits across Amos' mind (and, perhaps, inadvertently to Flat): That's bad. Contextless, but Amos knows what he went through to end up the way he did, and so he thinks that Flat must have gone through something horrific, too.

Which would be bad, because people don't deserve that.

And then he's back on task, because he can follow the way Flat thinks, and so it's easy to hold a conversation with him. ]

Nobody's asking me to do this. It just feels like the right thing to do, to me. Like I should be doing this.

[ A pause. And then, because he thinks he and Flat will understand each other, a continuation. ]

I think it's something Yima wants. So I'll do it.

[ Like she wanted him to kill Cyrus, and now this. Who would he even be to say no? The thought has never so much as crossed his mind. ]