Jin stopped halfway up the stairs.
"Cruel," he repeated.
His voice carried up the narrow stairwell, flat and steady. Above him, past the last turn of the stairs, he could see a thin strip of warm yellow light spilling out from under a door.
"Your people kill each other over card games," he said. "I watched your enforcer put a man through a wall for cheating, and the whole room laughed. I've seen what this place does to people." He started climbing again, one step at a time, the katana held low at his side. "And you took a kid who'd been hurt her whole life and made her think a prison was a family. Don't talk to me about cruel."
For a moment there was nothing. Then a soft sound drifted down the stairs. It took him a second to realize it was laughter. Quiet, tired, almost fond.
"Isn't that exactly what you just did?" the voice asked. "You sat her down, told her what she needed to hear, and when she finally trusted you, you threw her away."
Jin's jaw tightened.
