"I told you, I saw clearly." But his eyes followed Alain's knife pointing at the mask. He supposed he had to explain. "This is a device that lifts the limits on whatever unusual abilities we might have, but at a cost. You see the effects before you."

He was aware these could very well be his last moments, but he kept the cold sort of calm he'd been trained to have in danger. Losing his own life did not scare him so much as failing to make a difference here.

"The way I saw... it is hard to explain. I see with my other eyes, what is beneath. Not the way things seem to my other senses, but the way things are. You wish to save them, so I saw you as an ally. Our methods differ, but our goal is the same... And when you've killed off half your allies, what then? Where will those children go? Safety is an illusion as well. You cannot protect them if you are blind."