Domitian shrugged. "It's certainly not as strategic." He closed the book and set it on a nearby table. The conversation seemed to have progressed far enough that he doubted further quotes from Greek philosophers would be necessary or useful to keep it going. "There are two extremes in the spectrum of human behavior, and most people operate at some point between them. There are people who are ruled by emotion; they act on feelings as soon as they experience them. And there are people who rule their emotions, who use them like tools to achieve an end. If resentment is a weapon —" Here Domitian lowered his voice just slightly, to make it more difficult for someone else to overhear if any servants were in the nearby hallway. "— then in order to use it to its greatest effect, one must know in advance exactly when and how one intends to wound with it."

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Bree made this!

Camilla thought she was tracking this, but she had never thought about human behavior this way — although from what Domitian was saying, she also had always allowed herself to be ruled by emotion. And maybe — or, likely — it was to her detriment. Oh, things with Fitz had worked out — but she was going to have to be careful, if she was going to make it through the heat of this scandal, to avoid letting her emotions get the better of her again.

This was not what she had intended to learn today. But it was more interesting. Voice lowered to mirror Domitian's, Camilla said, "And if one wants to learn how to better rule their emotions — and their resentment — what would you recommend?"

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set by bee

Domitian blinked at her question, mildly surprised by this turn of the conversation. Perhaps he ought to have felt encouraged by the notion that Camilla was trying to practice more self-regulation in the future, but — well. He knew his sister, because he paid attention, but one never really knew another person, if they were playing their cards right. One only knew how they presented themselves. Despite what the world thought of Camilla or Bellona or even Lavinia, Domitian had always thought — perhaps hoped — they were more cunning than they let on, and that their movements were calculated just as carefully as his were. Even when he'd been talking to Camilla in the lavatory onboard the Santa Antonina, he had never considered that she had gotten into this predicament by mistake. He'd thought she'd miscalculated, perhaps, because she didn't understand the risks and the cost, but he had always assumed she had calculated.

"Become an animagus," he answered, quite honestly. It certainly couldn't have been the only path to emotional self-regulation, but it was the one that had been most expedient for him.

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Bree made this!

Camilla couldn't help it; she frowned at the comment. "I rather thought the window had passed there," she said. She had gotten a NEWT in Transfiguration — obviously, Ama Zabini was her mother — but she had always been afraid of the animagus transformation. And now she was older, older than (she was fairly certain) all her family had been when they managed it. What if she couldn't do it?

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set by bee

Dom merely shrugged in response. There were people who achieved animagus transformations at any age, so it wasn't as though it was really off the table. Perhaps what she actually meant was that the window had closed after their parents' divorce, since she wouldn't have their mother's guiding hand to lead the way, but he didn't want to comment on that.

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Bree made this!

She had expected Domitian to stop talking eventually; he was prone to things like that. Camilla exhaled. "Well," she said, "I suppose I ought to head home, hm?" She wasn't sure that she had accomplished what she'd meant to — but she had learned something. Whether or not she knew what to do with what she'd learned remained to be seen.

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set by bee